Connecting Standards-Based Curriculum to Instructional Planning

There are two types of standards in the school system. The standard I will be discussing is the content standards. Content standards create a clear outline of the essential knowledge, skills, and understanding that students need to master a given area. Content standards refer to what is taught in specific content areas; examples are mathematics, science, history, reading, etc. Since states and schools are striving to increase the student performance, education professionals include challenging and rigorous content in the development of standards. Benchmarks are tests given in certain content areas to show the progress of the students. Benchmarks help teachers to see where certain students are struggling and it helps students to see what they are expected to learn by a certain point.
When developing instructions for students you need to know some of their characteristics first. The main characteristics you would need to know are background knowledge/experience, learning styles, academic strengths, academic improvement areas, responsiveness to instruction/correction, social and interpersonal behaviors, their interests, talents, home language, cultural community, and any religious factors. It is important to know these characteristics because a teacher can make a number of curricular and instructional decisions that can make or break the student's performance.
Adapting instruction is important. The first reason is to help accommodate to the student's disability. Accommodations can include services or support related to a student's disability. This accommodation will help the student fully access the subject matter and accurately demonstrate the knowledge without altering the standard or expectation of the assignment. An example would be using audiovisual supplements in a lecture to help with a student with auditory processing difficulties. Another reason it is important is because some students may need modifications. Modifications include services or support related student's disability. In this case the services and supports do alter the standard expectation or assignment. An example would be a teacher shortening an assignment because of the time needed to complete the assignment.
Three components of a good assessment are to provide relevant evidence, measure the skills, knowledge, or abilities the teacher holds important and be teacher-friendly.
Three stages of the instructional cycle are intended instructional outcomes, planning, and assessment. Effective teachers begin the instructional cycle by identifying the content standards and benchmarks that the lesson or unit will address. Then, the content standards are changed to reachable learning outcomes. Next, is the Planning stage, teachers should plan effective teaching strategies and instructional activities. Last, is the assessment stage, this is when the teachers actually implement their planned assessments to determine whether the students have met the intended learning outcomes.