Yet, none of my opining matters; standardized testing is our reality. Great teachers find a way to integrate their test prep responsibilities with their goals.
Thankfully, it seems the folks at SBAC are meeting us halfway. On their testing website, they have an intriguing feature called the Digital Library. The Digital Library is a database of teacher created lessons built around the common core standards. Like TeachersPayTeachers, the Digital Library features lessons and materials uploaded by teachers from which we all can benefit…
For free! (Smarter Balanced Log-in required)
So, how do we use the Digital Library? Let me show you.
1. Log-in to Smarter Balanced’s website at smarterbalancedlibrary.org.
2. From the screen above, you have the option of clicking on drop-down menus for Formative Assessment Attributes, Subjects, Grades, and Common Core State Standards. You do not have to select something from each menu to access the digital library. Once you’ve made your selections from the menu, you can click on the Find Resources button.
3. When you select Common Core State Standards, a pop-up window will zoom out on the screen. From this screen, start by selecting your subject matter area. Next, you will be guided through prompts asking you to choose the appropriate grade level, domain/strand, and the specific standard from that strand (you can select multiple standards from each strand). For those of you in the social sciences, or science/technical subjects, you can find literacy lessons as their own domain under English Language Arts.
4. Once you select Find Resources, this page will appear. Voila! Scroll down and you will find tons of uploaded lessons that relate to the standards you have chosen. Resources posted with “distinction” are lessons the SBAC finds particularly appropriate (or most likely from their publishing partners). You even have the option to only look at lessons from this category by clicking in the box labeled “Posted with Distinction Only.”
5. To select a lesson resource, click on the lesson title. A viewing window will appear with lesson information. Underneath, you will find detailed information about the lesson overall, including a summary, assessment, goals, criterias, etc. There are also tabs for you to collaborate with other teachers, read teacher reviews of the lesson, share, flag for future visit, and other related resources.
6. To see more of the resource, click on the View All Materials button. This will open a drop-down menu will all the materials the author has uploaded. As you click on each item, they will appear in the viewing window. If you’d like to download these materials, click on the Download button, and you can add them to your computer’s hard drive. From there you can open and modify the documents as you need to.
7. If you are interested in discussing the resources available here, select the Forums tab. Get involved with a discussion already going, or start one of your own. This is a great feature in the event you are struggling with understanding a lesson idea, or want to bounce ideas off of other teachers who have already used one of these resources.
As you can see, the Digital Library is a pretty powerful resource. That doesn’t mean it isn’t without its limitations. On the English side, there are several lessons that feel unfinished, or materials that are not well explained, which seems odd being that in their Help FAQs, SBAC talks about the review process for submitted resources. Additionally, because many lessons have a multitude of standards attached to them, it isn’t uncommon to keep seeing the same resources over and again, which can be very frustrating.
Despite these peccadillos, you should definitely take the time to peruse the Digital Library. Every teacher, like every student, is quite different, and the lessons that won’t work for one could become an institution for another. There are a lot of gems in this database.
A Viola is a bowed, stringed instrument. Perhaps you meant Voila, or, you're just trying to be funny, which is okay!
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