Curriculum Overview

Curriculum Team Work

KTD – Curriculum Development

K = What I KNOW I Know

T = What I THINK I Know

D = What I know I DON’T Know

KTD – Curriculum Development

Iowa Core

Big Idea/Enduring Understanding

Mission Statement

Course Purpose

Grade Level Benchmark

Component

Goal for the Year

Identify current reality based on IA Core Alignment

Write a Mission Statement, Course Purposes, Grade Level Benchmarks and Components

Begin work on Writing Common Summative Assessments

Goal/Outcomes for Today

Discuss the process for our work to understand expectations and work for the year

Determine Subject Mission Statement

Define our current reality (what we teach)

Determine Course Purposes

Begin to Write Grade Level Benchmarks and Components

Curriculum

Teaching And

Learning

Instruction Assessment

Year 1 – alignment to ICCWrite Grade Level

Benchmarks and Components for each grade/course

Alignment in Curriculum Maps

Year 3 – Aligning assessments with our curriculum. Writing common summative

assessmentsContinue Training on Assessment OF and

FOR Learning

Embedded in Year 2 and Year 3

Assessment Training – Use of Assessment FOR

Learning

Importance of CurriculumSecond biggest impact on learning is from what is taught. (Shanahan)

Explicit curriculum is important in ensuring that teaching occurs.

Explicit curriculum prevents excessive overlaps across grade levels.

Curriculum needs to be organized.

An explicit curriculum makes differentiated instruction possible.

Curriculum Framework – ICC and OCSD

Big Ideas/GLB: Declarative statements of enduring understandings for all students at all grade/course levels. Grade Level Benchmarks (Essential Questions)

Concepts: Describe what students should know, key knowledge, as a result of instruction, specific to grade level. Components (Concepts and Skills)

Competencies: Describe what students should be able to do, key skills, as a result of this instruction, specific to grade level. Components (Skills)

Big Ideas – GLB or Essential Questions

Hierarchy of OCSD CurriculumThe Grade Level Benchmarks and Components drive instruction = they provide the roadmap to what the teacher needs to teach. Currently these are reflected in the Essential Question and the Content and the Skills.

But…. They all do not meet the requirements of “Big Ideas”

Bigger Ideas…..How do we help students “master” this content?What do we do if they don’t?

Steps in the Process Step 1: Define Current Reality

Step 2: Analyze the Iowa Core Curriculum

Step 3: Align current reality with ICC – eliminate any gaps and/or overlaps

Step 4: Develop a Subject Mission Statement

Step 5: Develop Grade Level/Course Purposes

Step 6 and 7: Write Grade Level Benchmarks and Components

Step 8: Develop way to validate or monitor implementation of curriculum

ICC and the “Big Ideas”

What does the Iowa Core Curriculum look like?

Do we teach the big ideas described in the ICC? What’s our current reality?

What if we don’t teach something in the Iowa Core Curriculum now?

Do we have any gaps or overlaps in our curriculum right now after aligning to the ICC?

Current Reality – Step 1

As a grade band, list what you are currently teaching at your grade level/course

Look at the essential question/content/skills and identify the “Big Ideas” your grade level or course teaches.

Mission Statement – Step 2Answer the questions:

Why do we have a Science curriculum and what we want students to know and be able to do?

Why does this area exist in our curriculum?

Is:Student focused (Students will be able to…)MeasurableDescriptive about curricular area

Mission Statement

We inspire people of all ages and cultures to enjoy science and technology, in order to better understand ourselves and our world.

to develop a desire to learn as much about the world and its inhabitants as possible, and to grow as thinking, aware, concerned human beings

Grade Level/Course Purpose – Step 3

Answers the questionsWhat will students in the 4th grade know and be able

to do?

What will be different from the emphasis in another grade? What will the focus be in this grade/course?

Is:Student focused (Students will be able to…)MeasurableDescriptive about grade level/course

Course Purpose

4th Grade Example

Students will explore a variety of topics and verify hypotheses using simple experiments.

Writing Grade Level Benchmarks – Step 4

Must:Be student focused “The student will….

Be measurable

Begin with a verb which determines level of thinking and indicate method of summative assessment

Be from Bloom’s top 4 levels of Bloom’s taxonomy

Be indicative of the main skill/concept – the essential question or purpose of the unit of study

Writing Components – Step 5

Must:Be student focused “The student will….

Begin with a verb which determines level of thinking and indicate method of formative assessment

Be measurable

Be from Bloom’s any levels of Bloom’s taxonomy – scaffolding of skills and concepts should take place

Provide direction for instruction toward success of the Grade Level Benchmark

Big Ideas/GLB are…Reflect Higher Order Thinking - Rigorous

They require “uncoverage.” or “investigation” or “evaluation” These abstract concepts stimulate higher-level thinking. They are more than just facts. They come from the top 4 levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. They have a greater potential for engaging students. The verb provides clues as to the assessment

Student Centered

They reflect what the student will know or be able to do as result, not what the teacher will do

Timeless

The concept transcends individual examples and/or activities. They have enduring value beyond the classroom. They will be relevant to any time teaching and do not reflect specifics – reflect skills such as problem solving

Measurable

They can be measured to determine success.

Essential Concepts or Skills

They are the heart of the discipline. They are worthy of the time it will take to study them at some depth

(www.movingbeyondthepage.com and Understanding by Design. Wiggins & McTighe. ASCD. 1998.)

Big Ideas/GLB Are Not…

Topics (Apples, Winter, Shakespeare, Maps, Fractions)

Facts (2x4=8, red and yellow make orange, the capital of Illinois is Springfield)

Skills (multiplying, painting, memorizing, rhyming)

Assignments (research paper, collage, speech, book report)

Textbook Units (Unit 1, The World At War, Rational Numbers)

Science Example

Apples

Better Choices:

Students will describe different species of plants and animals and different classify them by observable characteristics

Students will demonstrate understanding that plants and animals have life cycles including being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying.

Students will illustrate that organisms have basic needs.

Students will consider a variety of ways humans change environments in ways that can be either beneficial or detrimental to themselves or other organisms.

(ICC/Life Science/K-2)

Developing big ideas/GLB helps students“Understand rather than memorize

Retain ideas and facts longer because they are more meaningful

Make connections between subjects and facets of a single subject

Relate ideas to their own lives, and

Build networks of meaning for effectively dealing with future knowledge.”

(from How to Differentiate in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, 2nd Edition; C.A. Tomlinson; ASCD; 2001)

Grade Level Benchmarks

Describes the “essential” things ALL students in this grade level or course MUST KNOW or BE ABLE TO DO in Social Studies/World Language

GLB's are units of instruction that make connections between separate concepts or skills

Year-long course = 7-12GLB's

Trimester = 3-6 GLB's

Grade Level Benchmarks

Each GLB requires high level of student thinking as well as dynamic student involvement in their learning

Written with verbs from top 4 level of Bloom's Taxonomy – application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation

Each GLB written directs assessments

Formative and Summative

GLB's

Criteria:A positive statement about what the students will doVerbs describing specific, measurable actions Includes an end result – what the student will be able

to do

High levels of achievement – Bloom's top 4 levels of thinking

GLB's - ExampleWhat is wrong with these examples?

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to describe a cell.

Introduce the vocabulary words

Students will understand the scientific method

– Students will read the textbook chapter about conducting an experiment

Components• Statements of concepts or skills that describe

what students must know or do in order to perform the GLB.

• Can be written from all levels of Bloom's Taxonomy

• Content or skills scaffold as the GLB is taught

• 3-8 per GLB

Components - Continued• Simple and Complex skills

• Must have students being active, not passive learners

• Teachers become more facilitative instead of only providing information that students memorize

Components - Continued• Which are simple and which are complex?

–Students will list the steps in the scientific method.

–Students will conduct research to determine and discuss the scientist who had the greatest impact on the world today.

–Students will classify the elements.

–Students will explain in their own words the meaning of photosynthesis.

–Students will design and carry out an experiment to demonstrate their understanding of a scientific concept.

Grade Level Benchmarks• How do you go about identifying GLB's?

– What are the “essential” skills/topics?

– What is the relevance of the topic/skills?

– What might students “do” with the information they learn?

– What skills will be involved?

– Are several topics related – if yes, group together

– Those connected skills/topics make up a GLB•Quiz time!

Grade Level Benchmark

– Answer the following questions to make sure it meets all GLB requirements

– DOES IT....?• Uses a positive statement and tells what the student will do• Uses a specific measurable action verb• Contains an end result• Requires high levels of thinking• Requires dynamic student involvement• Make connections – topics, skills and applications related• Directs the summative assessment

Grade Level Benchmarks– How do we write the GLB?

• Group topics/skills together – Don't force groupings

• Visualize the grouping – what will students be able to do when they participate in the learning?

• What will students know or be able to do?• Check the criteria to be sure all topics are present• Are all the components – skills and topics – identified

and included in the GLB?• Remember to make all statements specific and

measurable• Components tend to scaffold content or skills