Common Core Big Idea 3: Standards Must Be UnpackedDecember 5,
2012 | Jay McTighe Editor's note: This is the third post in a
five-part series which takes a look at five big ideas for
implementation of the Common Core State Standards, authored by
Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins As suggested in my previous post,
the first step in translating the Common Core Standards into
engaging and outcome-focused curriculum involves a careful
reading of the documents in order to ensure clarity about the
end results and an understanding of how the pieces fit together.
This idea is not new. Over the years, we have suggested various
ways of unpacking standards in conjunction with our work with
the Understanding by Design framework. When working with the
Common Core, we recommend that educators ‚Äúunpack‚ÄĚ them into
four broad categories -- 1) Long-term Transfer Goals, 2)
Overarching Understandings, 3) Overarching Essential Questions,
and 4) a set of recurring Cornerstone Tasks. The first category,
Transfer Goals, identifies the