Create a Spec Sheet

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KNOWING YOUR “WHO”

Create a Spec Sheet

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Content and Substance

What subjects, content, or skills will students need to master and at what level? Why is it important that they know these things?

Create a concise sentence that gives a clear picture of what student achievement will look like for this content.

Engagement Assessment

Picture of Success

Achievement Assessment

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Product Focus

What kinds of products, performances, or exhibitions might students create that would call upon them to work on and with the content (vocabulary, concepts, skills, and processes) suggested by the standard? From among these products, performances, or exhibitions, which are most likely to be inherently compelling to most students? How might I link this product, performance, or exhibition to something of value to students?

Organization of Knowledge

Where is the knowledge located?

What resources, strategies, and materials might I use to make the concepts and skills understandable? What media and presentation formats would appeal to this particular group of students? How might all students access this knowledge? How might I use an interdisciplinary approach in the work?

Clear and Compelling Product Standards

How will I make clear the standards by which students’ products, performances, or exhibitions will be judged? How might I help students see relevance and meaning in the standards that are being used to assess their work? How might I involve students in assessing their own work?

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Protection from Adverse Consequences for Initial Failures

How will students be provided feedback throughout this unit of work and not just upon final assessment? If the product is something students need to learn to produce, even though the act of doing so is initially

threatening and off-putting, what are some things I need to consider to reduce the threat value for this particular group? What will I do if students are not at the standard I expect? How will I provide a safe environment so students will take risks?

Affiliation

What are some ways that I could structure interdependence in the work? What structures and norms are needed when students work together?

When students are given work that requires them to work with others, what might I do so each student finds

meaning in the work?

Affirmation

How might I provide opportunities for students’ work to be valued by others?

What are some ways that students’ products might be shared or used by others outside the classroom?

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Choice

How might I provide students choice in accessing information? What are some ways that students might participate in decisions regarding the processes used to assess performance and/or determine standards by which their performance will be assessed? How might students have choice in the products they create?

Novelty and Variety

How might I provide for a wide range of strategies to help students learn the content? What various formats and modes of presentation will be most appealing? Is there a way for me to vary the setting for instruction, or must it all occur in the classroom?

Authenticity

How might the work students are being asked to produce be linked to results about which they care? What might I do so students feel more ownership for the quality of the results? How do I design the work in such a way that students have a positive stake in, and care about, the success of other students?