Recently, the administrative team from East Hampton Schools and representatives from some surrounding districts participated in a full day workshop on the relationship between DOK and content complexity.  The presenter, Erin Quast, is from WebbAlign, working out of the Wisconsin Center for Education Products and Services (WCEPS).  The presentation was excellent, Erin is very knowledgeable and was able to help us begin the process of understanding DOK beyond a means of evaluating assessment items.  

Webbalign defines alignment as “the degree to which expectations, curriculum, and assessments are in agreement and serve in conjunction with one another to guide the system toward students learning what is expected.”  Using DOK to clarify the complexity required to master a standard is where we start.  Then, in this order, we align the instructional outcome, the end of unit assessment, and the activities (content complexity) to the DOK level required by the standard.  This is UbD on steroids.  A functional understanding of “complexity” can guide teacher development of units of study that are focused on the intended learning set by the standards with greater precision.  This understanding and resulting precision should result in a more efficient use of student time.

What was apparent throughout the workshop was that this shift requires changes in our professional practice in the planning and preparation domain, resulting in changes in instruction.  Properly distributing the resource of class time, using the complexity of the standard as a guide, will give students the opportunity to reason, develop a plan, demonstrating the strategic thinking required for a Level 3 standard.  This can result in the interesting/relevant activities using complex/open-ended questions that result in student engagement and student learning.

To achieve this time on task in the classroom we need to spend more professional time on preparation outside the classroom.  The administration must grapple with the problem of creating collaborative planning time within the school day.  Teachers must receive the support to implement this shift in professional practice.