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      CHAPTER 1

      Providing and Communicating Clear Learning Goals

      When teachers design and communicate learning goals well, students benefit. They not only know what they are supposed to be learning but also know where they stand relative to that targeted content. Additionally, within The New Art and Science of Teaching, teachers should communicate clear learning goals so that students understand the progression of knowledge teachers expect them to master and where they are along that progression.

      The elements within this first teacher action of providing and communicating clear learning goals include the following.

      • Element 1: Providing scales and rubrics

      • Element 2: Tracking student progress

      • Element 3: Celebrating success

      Think of these three elements as a linked set: scales and rubrics are essential for students to track their progress, and tracking progress is necessary for celebrating success.

Element 1: Providing Scales and Rubrics

      Scales and rubrics provide the tools for students to understand the progression of knowledge and expectations as the focus for learning.

      For element 1 of the model, we selected the following specific strategies to address in this chapter. We list additional strategies for element 1 in figure A.1 in appendix A, on page 156.

      • Clearly articulating and creating scales and rubrics for learning goals

      • Using teacher-created targets and scales and implementing routines for using them

      It is important to note that simply employing a strategy does not ensure the desired effect on students. We recommend that teachers use the scale in figure 1.1 (page 12) to rate their current level of effectiveness with the specific strategies for providing scales and rubrics.

       Figure 1.1: Self-rating scale for element 1—Providing scales and rubrics.

       Clearly Articulating and Creating Scales or Rubrics for Learning Goals

      A proficiency scale articulates a progression of knowledge or skills and reflects a continuum of learning goals (also referred to as learning targets). It includes five levels of proficiency ranging from 0.0 to 4.0 as indicated in the samples for generating narratives for grades 8 and 2 in figures 1.2 and 1.3. Level 3.0 represents at-grade-level work. A score of 2.0 shows foundational skills, and a score of 4.0 reflects the achievement of more complex learning goals. Teachers clarify learning goals using a proficiency scale to identify what students will come to know or be able to do within a unit of study. They explicitly teach items on a scale. However, not all students need instruction for every item on all levels, so teachers preassess and formatively assess students to determine instructional moves they might take that meet the needs of individuals and groups of students.

      In order for students to compose any piece of writing, they need to learn general writing skills aside from the characteristics of a specific genre, such as determining task, purpose, and audience; revision (figure 1.4, page 14); editing; and even generating sentences (figure 1.5, page 15) along with spelling skills for primary and elementary students. Therefore, combining several proficiency scales forms the overall focus for any comprehensive writing assignment. Visit marzanoresearch.com/the-critical-concepts to request a free download for examples of other proficiency scales in the document titled The Critical Concepts (Simms, 2017). Teachers can compare the provided proficiency scales in this chapter (and others they access on their own) to their standards document. When doing so, they can delete or add line items—particularly from the 2.0 level—to pertain to their teaching situation.

      Source: Simms, 2016.

       Figure 1.2: Sample proficiency scale for generating narratives (grade 8).

      Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

       Figure 1.3: Sample proficiency scale for generating narratives (grade 2).

      Source: Simms, 2016.

      Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

      Source: Simms, 2016.

       Figure 1.4: Sample proficiency scale for revision (grade 8).

      Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

       Figure 1.5: Sample proficiency scale for generating sentences (grade 2).

      Source: Simms, 2016.

      Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

      When creating writing units in which students move through the steps of the writing process to produce a comprehensive product, teachers can design analytic rubrics to score students’ work. They can base these rubrics on proficiency scales that align to a particular writing genre, providing teachers and students—when they learn how to use them—with concrete information about students’ performance on specific skills. Furthermore, this type of rubric is descriptive rather than evaluative, functioning as an instructional tool to explain students’ levels of performance. Analytic rubrics can boost student achievement by describing at what level students

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