Short description:

Featuring the latest research on standards and curriculum design, this valuable resource provides educators with a systematic approach for instructional planning aligned with today's high standards.

Long description:

"The authors have designed a process that respects the teacher's professionalism and works to collaborate with stakeholders in a discussion about standards and possible educational outcomes without becoming mechanical."
-From the Foreword by Fenwick W. English

Create a standards-based instructional plan that works!

In recent years, educational reform has required standards-based instruction and high levels of accountability from schools. To cope with an overcrowded and often overwhelming curriculum, educators need a way to meet the challenge of translating standards into effective teaching and learning. Aligning Standards and Curriculum for Classroom Success provides teachers with the tools and strategies they need to plan instruction that meets state and national standards.

This updated, revised edition includes the latest research about standards and curriculum design, expanded coverage of the development of criterion standards, increased attention to assessment, and new sample instructional plans. It also features:

• A structured dialogue process to help stakeholders reach consensus about what students should learn
• Step-by-step directions for developing criterion standards
• Guidelines for designing instructional plans based on standards
• Strategies for using standards to integrate the curriculum
• Examples of standards-based instructional plans for different content areas, courses, and grade levels
• A framework for ensuring that teachers evaluate students consistently and with continuity throughout a school or district

Providing high-quality instruction and ensuring student achievement in a standards-driven system is a challenge for all educators. This guide offers all the tools needed to successfully align standards to lesson planning.

"This book is a distinct contribution to the field given today?s accountability-heavy educational environment. An understanding of how to work successfully with standards is critical to student and teacher success."

Table of Contents:

Foreword by Fenwick W. English
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
1. Student Achievement Using a Holistic Approach to Standards
What Are Standards?
Best Practices
The Consensus for Standards
Standards-Based Instructional Plan: Language Arts
2. The Need for Dialogue
Communicating Consensus
Stakeholders as Team Members
Steps in the CAST Dialogue Process
Standards-Based Instructional Plan: U.S. History
3. The Language of Expectation
The Need for a Common Language
Criterion Standards and Integrated Authentic Assessment
Constructing the Verb Matrix
Standards-Based Instructional Plan: Mathematics
4. Designing and Using the Standards-Based Curriculum
Writing Criterion Standards
Using Criterion Standards
Standards-Based Instructional Plan: English
5. Instructional Plans Based on Criterion Standards
Components of the Instructional Plans
Standards-Based Instructional Plans
6. Lesson Planning Takes Root
Integrating the Curriculum
The Planned Course Document
Developing the Standards-Based Instructional Plan
Standards-Based Instructional Plan: Learning Support--Language Arts
Resource A: Relevant Web Sites
Resource B: Verb Matrix Survey Material
Bibliography
Index