Unit Review with EQuIP rubrics

Created Feb. 6, 2024 by Lynn Aprill


Title: Using the EQuIP rubric for unit reviewAuthor: Bonduel School District team
Subject(s): English Language Arts
Grade Level(s): 6-12Total Time: 3.5 Days of Supported work

Overview / Description:

In their WISELearn grant application, Bonduel School District wrote, “The teachers at Bonduel Middle/High School will create units to address our deficits in our curriculum and increase student learning for college and career readiness, including creating a new junior level English class. Our first step will be to look at our current curriculum and decide where we have gaps. Although we have worked to align our curriculum to the Common Core standards, we believe there are gaps which have led to lower test scores. We also would like to better align our curriculum in grades 7-12.” In order to meet their grant goals, teachers will be trained in the EQuIP rubric to assess the level of alignment and rigor in existing units. Then teachers will use the rubric to review and revise current units for English 9 and 10, embedding Open Educational Resources which were determined to be high quality instructional materials by EdReports to fill in gaps in the curriculum. In addition, teachers will be reviewing published high quality instructional materials from EdReports as they undergo materials adoption for grades 7, 8 and 11.

Learning goals/objectives:

After completing this activity, teachers will:

  • Develop their abilities to use EQuIP criteria to provide observations about CCSS-aligned instructional materials and make suggestions for improvement
  • Develop a common understanding of the EQuIP quality review process
  • Develop a common understanding of the rating scale and descriptors for the four rubric dimensions and the rating categories and descriptors for overall ratings
  • Develop their abilities to use EQuIP criteria, rating scales and rating descriptors to accurately rate instructional materials
  • Develop an understanding of the Edreports website and how to use the information contained there to choose and review high-quality instructional resources.
  • Use their knowledge of EQuIP criteria to either adopt high quality instructional materials (Grades 7, 8 and 11) or embed high quality open educational lesson plans (Grades 9 and 10) to fill gaps in existing curriculum.

Materials:

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Day 1 - EQuIP Training3 hours
  1. Teachers will either want to have tabs open for each resource above or print paper copies (perhaps of the Unit Plan and the EQuIP Writeable Rubric) before they begin the training.
  2. It’s also advisable that teachers spend time reviewing the Unit Plan before watching the training in order to familiarize themselves with the plan to be reviewed.
  3. Teachers should access and play the EQuIP training video created for the Bonduel ELA team.
  4. After introducing each section of the rubric, the instructor indicates that she will pause the recording for teachers to spend time reviewing the unit plan with regard to the criteria for that section of the rubric. Teachers viewing the training should ALSO pause the recording and review the unit plan, recording their observations in the EQuIP Writeable Rubric for that section before continuing to play the recording to hear the group review the EQuIP rubric scoring and narrative.
Day 2 - EQuIP Rubric Work time3 hours
  1. Before the scheduled work time, teachers should do a preliminary review of the units for Grades 7-10, sorting units into those which teachers wish to review with the EQuIP rubric for possible revision and those which teachers are planning to replace with already aligned units from EngageNY or Odell Education.
  2. On the scheduled work day, teachers will work in building-level teams for ½ day to begin the review and revision process. Each team will use the EQuIP rubric to review one unit plan which they currently use in their classroom.
  3. Between work days 2 and 3, teachers will use the EQuIP rubric to review two other unit plans for gaps in alignment. See below the completed EQuIP rubrics for each 9-10th grade unit:
  1. MS Biography/Autobiography Unit
  2. MS Suspense Unit
  3. MS HIstorical Fiction Unit
  4. HS Argumentative Essay Unit
  5. HS Odyssey Unit
  6. HS Speak Unit
  7. HS Speak Multimodal Essay Unit
  8. HS Romeo and Juliet Unit
  9. HS Book Thief Unit
  10. HS Dystopian Unit
  11. HS Taming of the Shrew Unit
Day 3April 2Full Day
  1. Based on local district needs, teachers will be working on a number of standards alignment projects:
  1. Grades 7 and 8 have been approved for materials adoption for the fall. This team will:
  1. Identify essential criteria for new curricular materials
  2. Complete a preliminary review of high quality instructional materials on the EdReports website to identify three resources for in-depth review
  3. Contact identified publishing companies to present their materials to the 7/8 team, with the intent of selecting materials for purchase for the 2019-20 school year.
  1. Grades 9 and 10 reviewed their current units using the EQuIP rubric. These teams will:
  1. Identify gaps in their current curriculum (Grade 9, Grade 10)
  2. Review high quality Open Educational Resources (EngageNY) which align with their current curriculum
  3. Identify EngageNY lessons and units which can be embedded in their current curricula to increase standards alignment
  1. Grade 11 will have an entirely new course next fall. This team will:
  1. Review the course outline for English 11
  2. Identify essential criteria for new curricular materials for this course
  3. Complete a preliminary review of high quality instructional materials on the EdReports website to identify resources for in-depth review
  4. Contact identified publishing companies to present their materials to the English 11 team, with the intent of selecting materials for purchase for the 2019-20 school year.
  1. Teachers will create a profile in WISELearn and join the Bonduel School District WISELearn group.
Day 4 - WISELearn TrainingMay 13Full Day
  1. Training will be provided on open educational resources and, we’ll review properly uploading resources to the WISELearn platform using the template in Resource Builder.
  2. Teachers will continue working on embedding high quality open educational resources in their curriculum or working with the new high quality educational materials which were selected through the textbook adoption process to create their curriculum for next year.

 Final Deliverable May 24 
1.  Team will upload the EQuIP Rubric Training PD plan into WISELearn.
2.  Grades 9-10 team members will individually create and publish revised unit plans into WISELearn.		  



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