A Sane Person's Guide for Addressing Academic Standards for Writing
The impact of academic standards on students’ ability to write is questionable. Some believe that they impede more than enhance effective writing instruction. However, academic standards are part of our current educational life, thus this podcast I will present some ideas for evaluating and assessing academic standards related to writing and (b) pragmatically documenting students’ mastery of them.
We will start by defining our terms. An academic standard defines what you want students to know or be able to do in a general sense. For example, for 3rdgrade, one of the Minnesota academic standard for writing is:
1. Demonstrate knowledge of oral language, orthography, grammar, and mechanics to express ideas in writing.
Benchmarks in education are the products or performances used to determine if students have met a standard. Benchmarks must be measurable or observable. This means it could be a student product found in a portfolio or a measure of that product using a checklist or rubric. Benchmarks are used to help you meet the standard and to document that the standard is being met. For the standard above, there are three benchmarks:
a. Use correct punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and grammar, authentically in writing.
b. Apply spelling patterns and rules to spell multi-syllabic words, high-frequency words, authentically in writing.
c. Use nouns, verbs, frequently used adjectives and adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and pronouns in simple and compound sentences, authentically in writing.
The standard. The first step in teaching toward an academic standard is to unpack the standard. With each standard, you must ask, “What exactly does it mean and what does it ask for?” As an example, let’s focus on Standard 1 above. What does it mean to “Demonstrate knowledge of oral language, orthography, grammar, and mechanics to express ideas in writing”?
The benchmarks. The second step in teaching toward an academic standard is to unpack the benchmarks. Keep in mind that learning related to benchmarks does not occur in one or two lessons. Most often, you will need to teach, reteach, review, and reinforce the benchmark skill over time using mini-lessons. When it appears that students have mastered the benchmark, you will then design the product or performance to demonstrate and document their mastery.
