Do students need to know the standards? Short Answer: No.
Do you need to write the standards on the board each day? Short Answer: No.
Long Answer: Standards are written for teachers, so that we know what needs to be taught by the end of the school year. Just consider it a weird, intricate to do list. Standards are written for teachers, so it’s important that they get converted into student friendly language.
The school that I am in now has teachers convert this into a SWBAT: Students will be able to. I honestly don’t like the SWBAT because it’s pretty vague. Instead, I turn the standards into Learning Targets. Most people would call them, I can statements.
I Can Statements:
I put these statements on the board, and this makes it easy for kids to see, in kid language, what exactly their goal is for the day. I’ve also put these I can statements into their notes sheets and work sheets. In this way, the kids are reminded of the things that they need to learn.
This, along with my lesson codes makes it really easy for kids to know exactly what needs to be learned, and how to find old material.
I also take these I can statements and use them to create a study guide that can help my students for tests. Having a schedule of all the lessons, when they were taught and those learning targets helps my students to know EXACTLY what they need to know for their upcoming tests. No need to make a separate study guide if there is a good template for this document.
So, no, I don’t think students need to know standards. I think it is our job as teachers, to translate standards into something more usable for the kids.
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