“What do you actually want students to learn?” This question has stuck with me through all manner of initiatives and reforms. We let so much, educational jargon and minutiae cloud our path to what we want our students to learn. A single lesson might address a myriad of arts standards, and it might even reinforce a variety of Common Core Literacy or Speaking & Listening standards. But what do you really want your students to learn? That is what you are assessing. Those are the standards you want to focus on. Those are the standards to which you want to align everything else you do in your classroom. And it doesn’t need to be a very long list.