Chapter 4: Developing Key Curriculum Products

EQ: Why is the selection of curriculum materials important to unit development?

Scope and Sequence

• Scope usually refers to how expansive a curriculum can be at a given level.

• Sequence generally refers to the order in which content topics, concepts, and skills are placed in the curriculum over a span of years.– Differentiation for gifted learners– Progressive development of learning– Scope– Logical ordering– Developmental appropriateness

Process of Developing a Scope and Sequence

• Select a small group of people to work on the issues

• Start with establishing a framework

• Pilot a coding structure for representation

• Develop drafts of all curricular areas of gifted K-12

• Test the draft document against the reality

• Refine the scope and sequence document

• Continue to monitor the implementation

IEPs for Gifted Students• Attention must be paid to evidence of need

that would include demonstrated ability and define disability in specific areas, tests that would document levels of functioning in key domains, teacher and other educator perceptions about student needs, and observable characteristics of the student.

• Special education tends to focus on weaknesses while gifted focuses on strengths.

• Many times they are useful in assisting social-emotional development.

Implementation of Curriculum through Collaboration

• Coordination through principal for monitoring classroom implementation

• Coordination with parents around extracurricular activities

• Designation of gifted specialists• Small-group facilitator of behavioral and

social components in twice exceptional student profiles

• Annual review and assessment of the plan’s adequacy and benchmarks

Selecting Appropriate Curriculum Materials

• Review and critique texts• Check websites for relevant curriculum materials• Contact state or local consultants for gifted• Procure sample materials• Review and consider curriculum• Contact at least 5 established programs• Use a set of predetermined criteria• Determine what is useable• Check core curriculum state and district standards

Alignment to Content Standards• Recognize many of the standards focus on higher-

level thought process and that task demands for gifted may be developed directly from them.

• Read and interpret individual standards carefully to discern their scope and intent.

• Use the essence of the standards as a rubric for assessing student learning.

• Organize standards according to higher-order skills and then teach across subject areas.

• Accelerate student work in the standards after carefully pretesting within strands and across levels.

• Select materials that address the intent of the standards, not just their content.

Case Study

• Read case study of Steven. Pages 70-74

• Discuss in groups of 4-5 what stood out for you in the study.

• Have you taught “Steven”?

• In what ways would you make changes in your classroom for Steven?

Reflection: Discussion Question

What role does scope and sequence play in your unit

development?

Chapter 4: The Core Curriculum Parallel

EQ: What role does Core Curriculum Parallel play in creating units?

What do you think of when you hear the word core? You have 20 seconds to write all you can

think of. Give one, Get one.

What is “core”?• A unit may focus learning on a specific topic

but that focus would not be an end in and of itself.

• The topic being studied serves as a well-aligned plan for teaching to one that retains alignment while getting at the core knowledge, structure, and purpose of a discipline.

Purpose of Core Curriculum Parallel

• Promotes student understanding of the meaning and structure of a discipline.

• Learning in the same discipline becomes easier and more efficient for students by providing a common framework for thinking

• Promotes student proficiency, skillfulness, independence, and self-efficacy and thus promotes movement toward expertise.

• Helps teachers develop their own frameworks of meaning in the areas they teach.

• Meets the demand of employers and universities for individuals who independently use higher-level thinking processes.

• Addresses issues of equity and opportunity to learn for all students, regardless of their age, economic situation, or intellectual development.

Notes on Core Curriculum Parallel• Major concepts, principles, and skills are revisited

across grade levels to ensure a deeper understanding of the complexities of these facets of knowledge as a child become more intellectually advanced.

• Teachers must ensure that the curriculum…– Stems from key facts, concepts, principles, and skills

essential to a discipline– Is coherent in its organization– Is designed to cause students to consistently use high

levels of critical and creative thinking– Is taught in contexts that are authentic to the discipline

and meaningful to students– Engages students in worthwhile use of the understandings

and skills central to the discipline

Developing a Core Curriculum Unit• Role of Content

– What knowledge, understand, and skills are essential?– Move from mere alignment of content with text material to

guiding students search for meaning in content• Assessment Strategies

– Require special attention to the design of appropriate rubrics and assessment formats

– Learning goals will address core concepts, principles, and skills in a discipline or field of study

– Focus on student growth related to core concepts, principles, and skills

– Care must be taken to ensure that the rubric does not emphasize the quantity or mechanics of the product over the quality of the knowledge.

– Must focus on the framework the unit stresses, for yours, it is core curriculum

Developing a Core Curriculum Unit Cont• Introductory Activities

– Generate excitement and enthusiasm– Provide for pre-assessment of prior, related student knowledge– Orient students to the learning goals (standards)– Provide students an opportunity to share previous experiences with the

topic– Function as a vehicle for helping students focus on the concepts,

principles, and skills– Explain to students the relationship between representative topic they will

study, the larger field of study, and the discipline as a whole.• Teaching Methods

– Indirect teaching = cooperative or collaborative learning, Socratic questioning, discovery learning, concept attainment, inductive teaching, Play-Debrief-Replay, simulations, and problem-solving or problem-based learning

– Direct teaching = lecture, deductive teaching, and coaching– Example: compare/contrast key characteristics and attributes of narrative

poems. Use Socratic questioning to help students clarify comparisons.– Students become lost without careful teacher monitoring, questioning, and

probing.– Teachers must keep students focused on the essential question of the

lesson. The key is stopping along the way and having students draw conclusions and summarize.

Developing a Core Curriculum Unit Cont• Learning Activities

– Provide numerous opportunities for students to think analytically and to draw conclusions inductively and deductively.

– These include graphic organizers, distributed guided practice, etc.

• Grouping Strategies– Students need to be coached and guided as they attempt

to think their way through problems, questions, and investigations

– Teacher’s role many times is one of coach, guide, and facilitator.

– Opportunities for students to work in pairs or small groups facilitate the analytic and reflective dialogue among learners that fosters concept attainment, the development of principles and generalizations, and the acquisition of methodological, cognitive, and inquiry skills.

Developing a Core Curriculum Unit Cont• Resources

– Students use factual information, tables, graphs, maps, raw data, examples, events, and observations to detect patterns and draw inferences rather than simply reading a section of a textbook and paraphrasing an author’s perspective

– Web-based simulations or journal descriptions of simulations other teachers have designed can be equally helpful when designing units.

• Products– Concept maps, hypotheses, theories, expository essays, research

reports, journal reflections, charts, diagrams, and tables can reflect the thinking of student inquiries

– An example, a probability flip of a coin produces a table and conclusion, both are products but can be used as a seamless assessment to measure the extent to which students understand basic concepts and principles.

• Extension Activities– Opportunities to learn additional information, examples, concepts,

principles, skills, and applications not addressed in the basic lessons

Developing a Core Curriculum Unit Cont• Differentiation (AID)

– Students wrestle with abstract and complex ideas, working at high levels of thought, and becoming more independent as thinkers and learners

– Example would be the difference between a young driver with a learner's permit and a NASCAR driver OR someone who dons ice skates and takes the rink for the first time and an Olympic medalist in ice skating

• Lesson and Unit Closure– Each student leaves the lesson with the ability to articulate

what is most important in the lesson and how such conclusions can be reached.

– One example to keep closure part of student engagement would be to use a think-pair-share or a quick write or teacher led discussion.

Learning Focused Unit Planning Connection

• Essential Question• Activator

– Excerpt from book– Music – Art– Anticipation guide

• Vocabulary• Teaching Strategy includes grouping and learning activities as well as

products• Distributed Guided Practice• Differentiation

– Conducting re-teaching sessions– Providing audio for chapter readings– Varying amount of work assigned– Centers– Supplemental materials when teaching

• Summary– 3-2-1– Ticket out the door

Reflection: Discussion Question

How will you determine what is “core” with regard to the curriculum in your classroom

(is it more than the SCOS)?

Peer Review of Units

• Peer review units (Student Learning Map)

• Discussion of unit reviewed

• Questions, reflections, changes, etc.

Preview

• Unit activities due

• Chapter 8 Discussion

• Unit Assessments due November 1