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WHY: The purpose of curriculum renewal is to ensure that students are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and competencies necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing world. This process also addresses gaps or imbalances in content and pedagogy, ensuring inclusivity, engagement, and alignment with educational outcomes.

HOW

Carefully selecting priority and supporting standards that articulate what students must know and be able to do by the end of the course.
Using backwards design to create engaging units that provide instruction, learning activities, and assessment opportunities for students to demonstrate proficiency in the course’s priority standards.
Writing specific, measurable, student-friendly learning targets that describe what students should know or be able to do by the end of a lesson, unit, or project.
Writing essential questions that encourage students to think deeply and critically about important issues.
Providing essential vocabulary for students to successfully engage in learning.

SUCCESS CRITERIA: All units of study in all courses will include carefully chosen standards, clear learning targets, essential questions, key vocabulary, assessments, and proficiency scales measuring students’ proficiency aligned to priority standards.

PRIORITY

STANDARDS

CURRICULUM EVALUATION & REVIEW: UNIT PLANNING

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EVERY UNIT MUST INCLUDE:

Priority standards
Reportable standards
Learning targets
Essential question(s)
Key vocabulary
Assessment
Proficiency scale

PRIORITY

STANDARDS

Use this template to organize your units during Year 3 of the 6-Year Curriculum Evaluation and Renewal Cycle.

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DESIGNING/REDESIGNING UNITS:

UNITS

After identifying your priority and supporting standards, you will begin designing your units, consider using the Backwards Design Model:

1st: Identify desired results (learning objectives and content priorities):

What do I want students to know, understand, and be able to do?
What enduring understandings are desired?
What essential questions will be explored?

2nd: Determined acceptable evidence: How do I assess students to know that they have met the desired outcomes?

3rd: Determine learning activities: How do I plan my instruction and learning activities to help students meet the learning outcomes?

GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR DESIGNING/REDESIGNING UNITS:

Does the unit plan guarantee that the prioritized standards are the focus of instruction and assessment?
Does the unit plan stretch personalized learning to make the Graduate Profile come to life?
Is your unit complete and accessible?

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WHAT ARE PRIORITY STANDARDS?

Priority standards are a carefully selected subset of learning standards which students must know and be able to do by the end of each school year or course.

The priority standard(s) are determined to be of highest priority or most important for students to learn.
Priority standards are used for assessment design.
Priority standards must be assessed using a proficiency scale.

GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR CHOOSING PRIORITY STANDARDS:

Do your priority standards have:

Endurance? (concepts & skills that last over time)
Leverage? (crossover application to other areas)
Readiness? (for the next level)

When appropriate, do priority standards link to external exams? (national, state, etc.)
Do your priority standards align to department value statements, the school/district mission, and/or the Graduate Profile?

PRIORITY

STANDARDS

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WHAT ARE REPORTABLE STANDARDS?

Reportable standards are identified "buckets" of priority standards for the Skyward report card. Each priority standard must appear in one reportable standard “bucket” but not in multiple “buckets”.’

From an instructional planning perspective (designing lessons, assessments, proficiency scales), reportable standards are NEVER to be used.

GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR WRITING REPORTABLE STANDARDS:

Do the reportable standards reflect a logical grouping of priority standards?
Are the reportable standards in parent friendly language?

PRIORITY STANDARDS	REPORTABLE STANDARDS
Written by state or national entities, chosen by staff, & adopted by the PSD School Board. Language cannot be rewritten.	Language is student- and parent-friendly. Created by educators and can be changed without Board approval
Priority standards are assessed using proficiency scales.	Reportable standards are not assessed. Reportable standards are considered when determining term grades in Skyward.

PRIORITY

STANDARDS

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PRIORITY STANDARDS

are the fence posts

deep, anchor standards.

SUPPORTING STANDARDS

are the fence rails that

support and connect priority standards.

SUPPORTING STANDARDS

WHAT ARE SUPPORTING STANDARDS?

Supporting standards support, connect to, or enhance the priority standards. They are taught within the context of the priority standards, but do not receive the same degree of instruction and assessment emphasis as do the priority standards. The supporting standards often become the instructional scaffolds to help students understand and attain the more rigorous and comprehensive priority standards.

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WHAT ARE LEARNING TARGETS?

A learning target is a specific, measurable statement that describes what students should learn or be able to do by the end of a lesson, unit, or project.
Learning targets are written in student-friendly language and may begin with the words "I can".
Targets should clearly communicate both the content and goal of student performance.
Learning Targets guide learning through daily lessons.
Each learning target should be associated with priority standard(s).
Learning Targets should not be agenda items or how a student will

do something. Rather, it is what and why they are learning.

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GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR WRITING LEARNING TARGETS:

Is your learning target directly associated with a priority standard?

Do your targets require students to engage in surface, deep, and transfer learning?

Surface: Students demonstrate skills or comprehend ideas in isolation.
Deep: Students can relate or connect multiple ideas or skills.
Transfer: Students can apply or use ideas and skills in different situations.

Do your targets enable students to demonstrate PSD Graduate Profile Competencies?

Contribute: Actively participate in the enhancement of society
Create: Develop and implement solutions to unique challenges
Compete: Strive to maximize performance by applying acquired information/skills
Connect: Respectfully working with others in meaningful and productive ways
Commit: Internal drive/desire required to overcome obstacles and maximize talents
Care: Ability to manage one’s health and support the well-being of others

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WRITING LEARNING TARGETS: Deconstruct each priority standard into everyday learning targets

Write learning targets in student-friendly language — Guiding questions and sentence stems:

What will I be able to do by the end of this lesson/unit? (“I can…”)
What ideas, subject, topics must I learn and understand to hit this target? (“To be able to…, I must learn/understand that…”)
What will I do to demonstrate that I hit the target and how will I have to do it? (“I will show that I can do this by…”)

Label each learning target:

Phase of learning:

Surface
Deep
Transfer

ONE of the PSD Graduate Profile competencies:

Contribute
Create
Compete
Connect
Commit
Care

LEARNING TARGETS

Try AI to Jump Start Learning Targets

Paste the standard into ChatGPT (or another AI assistant) and prompt it with: “Please generate surface, deep, and transfer learning targets for a [Course name] unit on [Unit name] based on the following priority standards: [List priority standards] and these supporting standards:

[List supporting standards]. Label each of the standards with one of the following

Graduate Profile competencies:

Contribute, Create, Compete,

Connect, Commit, Care.”

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WHAT ARE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS?

An essential question is a broad or topical question that guides a lesson plan

and encourages students to think deeply and inquire into a topic. They are derived

from the most important themes or topics of a unit of study and are designed to:

promote conceptual, higher order thinking (thought-provoking and intellectually engaging; requires support and justification and can’t be answered with simple recall responses).
spark discussion and debate.
encourage students to make connections between what they are learning and

their own experiences.

help students understand what is important and apply their learning to real life.
encourage students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, and justify their answers
stimulate ongoing rethinking of big ideas and assumptions.
call for point toward important, transferable ideas within (and sometimes across) disciplines
connect to the PSD Graduate Profile understood by each student.

ESSENTIAL

QUESTIONS

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WRITING ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

Here’s a great list of ideas.
Write questions that…

are written in a way students can understand.
are arguable/have multiple plausible answers.
raise further questions.
demand evidence and reasoning.
point to big ideas and pressing issues.
are transferable beyond the unit’s context.

Connect to your essential questions to the

PSD Graduate Profile understood by each student.

Assure that your essential questions are truly essential and not topical.
Essential questions are strongest when they appear multiple times in a unit (at the beginning, revisited during different lessons, and on the assessment).
Having essential questions as part of the assessment process is a powerful strategy that will change how teachers develop assessments and think about what they ask students to do.

LEARNING TARGETS

Try AI to Jump Start Learning Targets

Paste the standard into ChatGPT (or another AI assistant) and prompt it with: “Please generate essential questions for a [Course name] unit on [Unit name] based on the following priority standards: [List priority standards]

and these supporting standards:

[List supporting standards].

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WHAT IS KEY VOCABULARY?

Key vocabulary is a set of words that are essential for

understanding, discussing, and demonstrating learning

in each unit.

When choosing key vocabulary…

Consult your priority and supporting standards.
Consult textbooks and other materials.
Consider your students.

Try AI to Jump Start Learning Targets

Paste the standard into ChatGPT (or another AI assistant) and prompt it with: “Please generate key vocabulary for a [Course name] unit on [Unit name] based on the following priority standards: [List priority standards] and these supporting standards: [List supporting standards].

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ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENTS:

Alignment to priority standards as measured by proficiency scales
Flexibility:

Does every student need to demonstrate proficiency on all standards?
Does every student need to demonstrate proficiency in the same way?

Authenticity and relevance:

Can students “cheat” on the assessment?
Why do students care about doing well on the assessment?
Do students have choice in how they demonstrate proficiency?

Delivered in a method that matches intended learning outcomes

Examples:

Knowledge/recall: Selected, short, or extended responses
Reasoning/strategic thinking: Extended response,

performance assessment, observation, conversation

Performance skills: Performance assessment
Application, production: Performance assessment

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KEY 1: CLEAR PURPOSE

Who will use the assessment data?
What will they use the results to do?

KEY 2: CLEAR TARGETS

Alignment to priority standards (proficiency scale)
Alignment to PSD Graduate Profile competencies
Students must understand what they are expected to know & be able to do on an assessment before the assessment.

KEY 3: SOUND DESIGN

Method/Item & Target Match (Choose assessment methods that match intended targets)
Designing Quality Questions (Varied assessment items are clear and produce the intended evidence of learning)
Appropriate Sampling (An appropriate number of items to gather adequate evidence of proficiency)

KEYS TO EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT: Use this template to guide your assessment design.

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KEYS TO EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT:

KEY 4: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Are directions and parameters of assessment clear?
Are levels of proficiency clear?
Are opportunities to demonstrate proficiency clear?

KEY 5: STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

Are students involved in designing assessment?
Are students involved in designing/choosing learning activities?
Are students using proficiency scales to determine their own proficiency and next steps?

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WHAT ARE PROFICIENCY SCALES?

Proficiency scales articulate

learning progressions for each priority standard.

Standards provide the focus.
Scales provide the path.
Language is clear/student-friendly/meaningful,
consistent/fair, strength-based,and descriptive
of an ongoing progression of learning.

The use of proficiency scales communicates a student’s

level of mastery related to a priority standard. It provides

opportunities for self- and peer-assessment as well as formative and summative feedback. Proficiency scales help students set goals. Students understand what they are aiming towards and track their own progress toward mastery.

PROFICIENCY SCALE BEST PRACTICES:

Scales should be written in what a student does, rather than what a student does not demonstrate. Often at levels 1 and 2, the language becomes about what is not evident versus what the student is actually doing. Try to avoid this.
Level 2 is the simple target goal (i.e. the floor of the standard) or surface level learning.
Level 3 is the complete target goal (i.e. the ceiling of the standard) or deep learning.
Level 4 is about consistency & complexity and may include the pursuit of transfer learning.

Try AI to Jump Start Learning Targets

Paste the standard into ChatGPT (or another AI assistant) and prompt it with: “Please generate essential questions for a [Course name] unit on [Unit name] based on the following priority standards: [List priority standards]

and these supporting standards:

[List supporting standards].

Connect, Commit, Care.”

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GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR WRITING PROFICIENCY SCALES:

Do you have a proficiency scale for each Priority Standard?
Does the proficiency scale reflect surface, deep, and transfer levels of learning?
Is the level 4 on your proficiency scale “in the pursuit of transfer” learning?
Do you have a hybrid proficiency scale/rubric for each unit assessment?
Have you created an instrument that you can share with students that clearly describes what performance looks like at varying levels of proficiency in relation to the Priority Standard?
How do you ensure you are measuring the standard?
How will you use the proficiency scale to impact a student’s ability to learn?
How will you provide multiple/diverse opportunities for students to demonstrate evidence of learning?

PSD RESOURCES FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION:

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UNIT PLANNING

WHAT: Curriculum renewal is the process of reviewing, updating, and enhancing the educational

content, teaching methods, and assessment strategies within a course to ensure it remains relevant,

rigorous, and aligned with current educational standards.

WHY: The purpose of curriculum renewal is to ensure that students are equipped with the skills, knowledge, and competencies necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing world. This process also addresses gaps or imbalances in content and pedagogy, ensuring inclusivity, engagement, and alignment with educational outcomes.

HOW

Carefully selecting priority and supporting standards that articulate what students must know and be able to do by the end of the course.
Using backwards design to create engaging units that provide instruction, learning activities, and assessment opportunities for students to demonstrate proficiency in the course’s priority standards.
Writing specific, measurable, student-friendly learning targets that describe what students should know or be able to do by the end of a lesson, unit, or project.
Writing essential questions that encourage students to think deeply and critically about important issues.
Providing essential vocabulary for students to successfully engage in learning.

SUCCESS CRITERIA: All units of study in all courses will include carefully chosen standards, clear learning targets, essential questions, key vocabulary, assessments, and proficiency scales measuring students’ proficiency aligned to priority standards.

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