How Do the State Standards, the K-U-D and Lesson Essential Question All Connect?

Denise Burson
Dec 13, 2010

In standards-based education, teachers are expected to teach a set of state defined content standards to all students. And for the first time in our public school history, the federal government through the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) targets and expects teachers and schools to get all students to proficiency.

In order to *accomplish this goal teachers need "To begin with the end in mind." Stephen R. Covey in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People reminds us, "To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction." If our ultimate goal is to improve student achievement and meet AYP, then a critical goal is to begin with the State Standards and use a K-U-D Organizer to identify the specific information from the State Standards that students need to know, understand and do for mastery to ensure that it directly connects to your unit/lesson for instruction.

The K-U-D Organizer is a tool to assist teachers in analyzing the standards they will be teaching in a given unit. By organizing the standards in the K-U-D Organizer, it helps clarify what is essential, what students should know and be able to do by the end of the unit. Teachers begin by examining their State Standard to select a topic for the unit focus, next cluster together some standards and indicators/objectives that connect under the topic and then analyze the standards to determine what students must know, understand and be able to do.

Develop Lesson Essential Questions from the K-U-D Organizer. Rephrase them into questions that cause students to think and apply their new knowledge and skills. Throughout the use of essential questions, you will be providing a way to both challenge and engage students leading them to think at a higher level. For students, essential questions are a clear statement of expectations - what they will know and be able to do, allowing them to take more responsibility for their learning. The Essential Question of the lesson causes students to dive deeper into the "why" behind their learning and sets the focus of the lesson. It becomes an assessment tool not only for the teacher but for the student.

Many teachers tend to write surface level Essential Questions because they skipped the K-U-D Organizer. Completing a K-U-D Organizer allows you and your team to develop thoughtful and purposeful Lesson Essential Questions based on the true meaning of the standards. Start with the standards and don't skip the K-U-D organizer! The K-U-D Organizer will save you time and is the way to ensure that standards and the Lesson Essential Questions are connected, guides the instruction and leads all students to proficiency.