Bill edited The Eighty Minute Challenge

Step 1: Identify a Handful of Essential Learning Targets for an Upcoming Unit
(Estimated time commitment: 40 minutes)
Teachers tackling the eighty minute challenge should spend the majority of their time working together to identify a handful of essential learning targets for an upcoming unit. Essential learning targets are those that pass the endurance, leverage and readiness test. That means they are skills that (1). prepare students to succeed in the same content area in future grade levels, (2). translate well and can lead to success in different subject areas and/or (3). will be important to students long after they have left our schools.
Teachers should use tangible evidence -- observations, the experience and expertise of a team's teachers, data from team-based common assessments, data from end of grade exams or districtwide benchmarks, input and feedback collected from community stakeholders -- to identify learning targets that are truly essential. What's more, teams must be ready to leave content from the required curricula OFF of their list of essential learning targets. The simple truth is that teachers are already abandoning content during the course of the school year by stressing some objectives over others. This step in the eighty minute challenge is about making decisions about what to teach together.
Useful Resources:
The Identifying Essential Learning Targets handout is designed to help teachers identify truly essential outcomes for an upcoming unit.
The Deconstructing Learning Targets handout is designed to help teachers identify the critical elements required in order to master complex standards.
The Essential Standard Chart is designed to help learning teams think through how essential standards will be taught and tested.
Step 2: Writing I Can Statements
(Estimated time commitment: 10 minutes)
Once learning teams have identified a set of 5-8 essential learning targets for an upcoming unit, the next step is to rewrite those learning targets in student-friendly language. By rewriting learning targets in student friendly language, teachers can easily communicate learning expectations to the students in their classrooms on a daily basis. Similarly, by rewriting learning targets in student friendly language, teachers can easily communicate learning expectations to other interested stakeholders -- think parents, practitioners in other subject areas, special educators.
To rewrite essential targets in student friendly language, convert them into I Can Statements. I Can Statements start with a statement of the expected learning that defines new and/or unapproachable vocabulary words in age-appropriate language. I Can Statements should also include a task that students can complete to demonstrate mastery of the essential learning target.
Ecosystems Unit Overview Sheet
Revised Ecosystems Unit Overview Sheet
Atoms Unit Overview Sheet
Samples of Elementary Unit Overview Sheets
Kindergarten Learning Cards
Sample of Completed Unit Overview Sheet

from Digitally Speaking
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/The%20Eighty%20Minute%20Challenge