Intersection of Standards and Competencies

Video Transcription

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Hope you're having a wonderful day today. Today we're going to be looking at the intersection of standards and competencies, really where do these two things meet and how can we make that work for us as teachers.

For today's lesson, I've chosen a quote by Benjamin Franklin, which is, "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." And I really love this quote because I think it gets at the heart of what we're trying to do with these standards and competencies, which is really pushing our students to take ownership over the learning that they're doing in each step along the way.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to analyze the alignment between the subject area standards and the technology standards, the path that's being taken to go from subject standard and competencies to the technology standards and then how do we turn all of that into our overall objectives and targets.

So let's go ahead and break down step by step the alignment and the connections, really that intersection between the subject's standards and competencies, the ISTE standards, and then those student outcomes. So first we have our standards. And when we break down those standards, there are really three main elements that we get into. First there are the content standards, what a student should know by the end of the year. Now these content standards, like we said, are broken down by grade level. So they say here is a student in first grade. Here are the expectations that that student meet by the end of their first grade year. These are broad and overarching.

There are what are known as practiced standards. So these are a little less specific to the content and the material and more what students should be practicing, what they should be able to do as they are working to meet those content standards. And finally, there are the ISTE standards. Those are the technology standards. And those are common to all grades. Now when we break down these standards, once we've looked at that, we're going to really focused in on those skills and competencies.

Skills and competencies are a little smaller, a little more discreet and they're really what students can do but broken down into smaller units. They're connected to the objectives of each and every lesson, whereas those standards are really based on the end of the year target, competencies and skills are per unit in smaller units of time. Now both the content standards and the ISTE standards can be used to help develop these different competencies. And then those are easily translatable into the skills that we look at when we start to create those objectives and the specific targets.

So you take both those standards and then the competencies that have come from them. And that's when we create the objectives and the targets for the students. Those are built on the standards and competencies, both for an individual lesson or for a unit. And those really focus in on the content that's being covered in that unit as well as the skills that students need to know as they're working to achieve proficiency within that content.

Now before I move on, I just want to really quickly go back over some of the major differences as we compare standards versus competencies, standards versus objectives, and objectives versus competencies. So when we're looking at standards, standards and competencies are very closely linked. To be a little more general about it, standards are what are used to outline the knowledge and the skills that students really should be able to know by the end of the school year in each specific content area, whereas competencies outline what students should be able to do as they are moving towards and progressing towards that end of the year standard.

So standards are much more broad and competencies tend to be much more specific. When we look at standards versus objectives, again, we see standards as much more broad, although both really address content and skills and what students should know, the standards do so at either the course or the end of the year level whereas the objectives are based on each individual lesson.

Finally, when you look at objectives versus competencies, is because those are both a little more isolated and on a smaller scale or a more specific scale, objectives are going to include things like content and skills whereas competencies are really going to focus in more on those concrete and measurable skills only, much less sort of the overarching or a little more bigger picture things that the objectives would cover. So competencies are the skills that are connected to the knowledge that should be measured and mastered to be able to really focus in on both of those.

So for example, in an English class, perhaps an overarching objective would be that students are able to stand up in front of the class and present a persuasive speech. Right. That's the objective of that unit whereas the competencies would hone in more on those skills. So can I project my voice? Can I form an argument that goes from point A to point B and then bring it around to point C? They're all very similar, but each one is just a little bit different.

So what is it important for teachers to know about these intersections? First and foremost, when creating a lesson or an assessment, it's really important to use those standards, the broken down skills and competencies, as well as the objectives and the targets that come from those, correctly so that you can communicate those objectives to your students. These really take the big broad work of how am I going to get the student to where I need them to be. And it helps to break that down for the teacher so that not only are we able to understand it a little bit more clearly, but we're able to help communicate it and put it into language that our students can best understand.

Also, it really helps for the student to know the objective. Students can then use that objective and those learning targets to help track their own progress as they work towards a greater proficiency within the material. This helps pass the ownership of that education from the teacher over to the student. Finally, it's really important to remember that you are in it for the long haul when we are talking about these standards. Right.

Standards indicate what a student should know by the end of the year. So it's then your job as a teacher to take those standards and set up targets that are specific along the way, that specify what students should know and be able to do throughout each point in the year in order to reach that end goal. These objectives and targets can be identified in the units of study and the lessons that are presented in the classroom. And students should be proficient in each of those individual areas as they move along so that they're able to master that standard by the end of the year.

Now that we've finished the end of today's lesson, you are able to analyze the alignment, really that intersection between the subject area standards and the technology standards. Now I would like to take just a moment for reflection. Now that you've learned about the subject area standards and their alignment with the technology standards, what might be your first step that you take as you begin to implement the intersection of these standards into your teaching plans? Feel free to pause this for just a moment to think about the answer to that question.

To dive a little deeper and learn how to apply this information, be sure to check out the additional resources section associated with this video. That's where you'll find links targeted toward helping you discover more ways to apply this course material. That's all we have for right now. But I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.