Forum Three: Social, political and

historical context – Focusing on

Formulating Essential Questions

!

Essential Questions

• What are current social forces and

educational trends that influence

educational curricula?

• What are the core components of the

curriculum?

• How do we formulate Common Core

aligned essential questions?

Essential Question 1

• What are social forces

and current educational

trends that influence

educational curricula?

Understanding the Common Core State

Standards

March 2012

The Common Core State

Standards Initiative

5

Beginning in the spring of 2009, Governors and state

commissioners of education from 48 states, 2 territories

and the District of Columbia committed to developing a

common core of state K-12 English-language arts (ELA)

and mathematics standards.

The Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI)

was a state-led effort coordinated by the National

Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief

State School Officers (CCSSO).

www.corestandards.org

Key Instructional Shifts in ELA/Literacy

In Reading, the major advances are the shift away from literature-focused standards

to a balance of literature and informational texts to reflect college- and career-ready

expectations. There is also a greater focus on text complexity and at what level

students should be reading.

In Writing, there is a strong emphasis on argument and informative/ explanatory

writing, along with an emphasis on writing about sources or using evidence to inform

an argument.

The Common Core also include Speaking and Listening expectations, including a

focus on formal and informal talk, which can be done through presentations and

group work.

The Language standards put a stress on both general academic and domain-specific

vocabulary.

The Common Core also address reading, writing and literacy across the curriculum,

and include literacy standards for science, social studies and technical subjects.

These standards complement rather than replace content standards in those

subjects, and are the responsibility of teachers in those specific disciplines, making

literacy a shared responsibility across educators. 6

7

Common Core State Standards for

English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and

Technical Subjects

College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards

– Overarching standards for each strand that are further defined by grade-

specific standards

Grade-Level Standards in English Language Arts

– K-8, grade-by-grade

– 9-10 and 11-12 grade bands for high school

– Four strands: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language

Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science,

and Technical Subjects

– Standards are embedded at grades K-5

– Content-specific literacy standards are provided for grades 6-8, 9-10, and

11-12

8

Grade-Level Progression

Essential Question 2

• What are the core

components of

curriculum?

What are the core components

of a curriculum map?• Essential Questions

• Content

• Standards

• Skills/Performance

Objectives

• Assessment

• Activities

• Language

Content

• Content is the essential concepts and topics covered during a month.

• Content is written beginning with a noun.

Content can be designed in

different formats:• Discipline Field: focus on the

knowledge and specific

problem solving tools.

• Interdisciplinary: combination of two or more disciplines to examine a common focus.

• Student Centered: content is focused on investigation of student generated interests derived from their personal interests and needs.

ContentExamples

• Cultural diversity

• Water cycle

• Bridge to Terabithia (?)

• Local Government Systems

• Fire Safety

Skills

• Skills are key abilities and processes students will develop related to specific content.

• Skills are written beginning with a verb.

Skills and Thinking Processes

are displayed on the map:

• Note the difference between broad based thinking processes: analysis, synthesis, decision making, creative, critical, etc… and

• Specific techniques: comparing, contrasting, using sentence variety, etc.

Skills Examples

• Reading a map

• Writing a play

• Analyzing non-fiction text

• Writing persuasive essays

• Matching words and pictures

Assessment

• Assessments are the products or performances that demonstrate student learning.

• Assessments are what the student does (the actual product or performance), not the evaluation tool used to assess the product.

Assessments are the Major

Products and Performances:

• Assessment is a demonstration of learning

• Assessment is observable evidence

• They must be nouns

• Tangible products

• Observable performances

Assessment Examples

• Group presentation

• Brochure

• Research Paper

• Essay exam

• Puppet show

• Debate

Activities

• Key activities that lead to acquisition of knowledge and skills.

• Describe the "how" for the knowledge and skills.

Activities Examples

• Writing persuasive letters to local

government

• Water analysis of local river

• Critique a work of art

• Create a 50 states quilt

Essential Questions

• Focus on a broad topic of study (think “concept-based big ideas”).

• Set direction for curriculum mapping and unit planning.

• Have multiple answers and perspectives. They address “why” or “how”.

• Are the “enduring understandings” or “mental Velcro” that helps ideas stick in students’ minds.

• Create depth rather than breadth.

Essential QuestionsExamples

• Which is more important – water or air?

• What is change?

• What if Shakespeare were a woman?

Sample Curriculum Map template

Essential

Question

Content Language Skills Standards Activities Assessment

September

October

November

Essential Question 3

• How do we formulate

Common Core aligned

essential questions?

Breaking Apart Standards

• Teachers collegially analyze standard

statements’ explicit, and most importantly,

implicit concepts, content, and skills that

will be incorporated into units of study, as

well as considering formative and

summative assessments that accurately

measure the designed planned-learning

curriculum.

Explicit Versus Implicit

expectations • During the process teachers a) agree on the

unspoken (non-stated) implicit learning that

will become a part of scaffolded learning to

ensure students can independently exhibit

the explicit standard statements’

expectations; and b) determine how the non-

stated expectations will be translated and

incorporated explicitly as content and skills

learning within teacher team-designed units

of study.

THE BREAKING APART STANDARDS

PROCEDURAL STEPS - Example

• Compare structures in plants

(e.g., roots, stems, leaves,

flowers) ad animals (e.g.,

muscles, bones, nerves) that

serve different functions in growth

and survival.

THE BREAKING APART STANDARDS

PROCEDURAL STEPS 1

THE BREAKING APART STANDARDS

PROCEDURAL STEPS 2

THE BREAKING APART STANDARDS

PROCEDURAL STEPS 3

Janet A. Hale • www.CurriculumMapping101.com • teachtucson@aol.com • 520-241-8797 21

After a few meetings focused on drafting the series of units, the team recorded the units of study within

the mapping system. Figure 1.5 represents a small portion of the teacher team’s first unit of study. .

Figure 1.5 Growth: Plants Unit of Study

Content Skills

GROWTH: PLANTS

A. Plant Structures:

Roots, Stems, Leaves,

Flowers

A. Identify in writing individual function of each structure: roots–absorb

nutrients, stems–provide support, leaves–synthesize food, flowers–

attract pollinators and produce seeds for reproduction

A. Explain visually and in writing relational functions of each structure

related to growth For the first year of implementation the teachers decided that formative and summative

assessments would be left up to the discretion of each classroom teacher. Therefore, no assessments

would initially be included in the Consensus Map.

For the implementation year the teachers planned to meet periodically to discuss the effectiveness

of the units of study within the map; review student work samples; and share the assessments and

evaluations they individually chose to use. They predicted that revision to the Consensus Map for a

second year of use would most likely include adding common or same assessments focused on their

students’ needs based on the results of state test scores from the newly mandated state science testing.

As a final step they added resources available to all of them including current textbook sections,

materials, and kits to each unit of study.

The teachers still had two science focuses to plan out, physical and earth sciences. They followed

the same process as they used for the life science units.

When all science focuses were drafted in the mapping system, not only for their grade level, but

all the grades K-5, the full faculty conducted an official vertical review focusing on each unit of study’s

unit name (unit name signifier: descriptor) and intra-aligned content, skill statements, and standard

statements.

Since curriculum mapping is an ongoing process, all the teachers realized that their curriculum

design work and soon-to-be put into practice was not “done,” rather just beginning. They appreciated the

fact that they reached a monumental milestone as curriculum designers and deserved to celebrate their

achievements!

Step Four

Once an academic year’s Consensus Maps or Essential Maps have been recorded within a

mapping system, as mentioned in the previous example, vertical review teams need to analyze the

planned-learning curriculum for unintentional gaps, repetitions, or absences both horizontally and

vertically.

During the first year of implementation a design team of any type of planned-learning map needs

to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the agreed-upon learning expectations. Changes to learning

expectations can be made with one stipulation. If changes want to be made within a unit of study before

the actual month the learning lives in the current calendar year, making revisions is acceptable and

appropriate.

If a unit of study’s learning expectations have already passed in real time the information within

the map’s unit may not be adjusted within the current school year’s map. Adjustment notations need to be

recorded either in a separate document or using a notes feature if included in the mapping system. Only

after the curriculum map has been archived for the current school year and rolled over to the next school

year can the desired adjustments can be made. This wait-to-revise protocol ensures accurate evidence of a

course’s planned-learning curriculum’s evolution from year to year.

Essential Questions

• Are arguable-and important to argue about.

• Are at the heart of the subject.

• Recur--and should recur--in professional work, adult life, as well as in the classroom.

• Raise more questions.

• Raise important issues.

• Provide a purpose for learning.

Essential Questions

• Are provocative, enticing, and engagingly framed.

• Are higher-order, in Bloom's sense: they are always matters of analysis, synthesis, and evaluative judgment. You must “go beyond” the information given.

• Answers to essential questions cannot be found. They must be invented.

Essential Questions

• Essential questions often begin with . . – Why?

– Which?

– How?

– What if?

• Why do things happen the way they do?

• How could things be made better?

• Which is best?

• What if this happened?

Essential Questions

• Should require one of the following

thought processes:

– Requires developing a plan or course of

action

OR

– Requires making a decision

An Exercise to Illustrate

Essential Questions

What are the simple tools found in the kitchen?

An Exercise to Illustrate

Essential Questions

What are the simple toolsused to solve problems?

An Exercise to Illustrate

Essential Questions

Fact/Topic Based Questions

What are the simple tools found in the kitchen?

Concept-Based Questions

What are the simple toolsused to solve problems?

Formula for Designing Essential

Questions

How do…

Why do…

__________

Conceptual Noun/Phrase

__________

Relational Verb

__________?

Conceptual Noun/Phrase

Think of the following sentence structure…

EXCERPTS FROM COMMON CORE STANDARDS

MTH (7th Grade): “Solve real-life and mathematical problems using numerical and algebraic expressions and equations.”

ELA-Lit (8th Grade): “Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text…”

HSS (10th Grade): “Students relate the moral and ethical principles in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, in Judaism, and in Christianity to the development of Western political thought. “

SCI (6th Grade): “Plate tectonics accounts for important features of Earth’s surface and major geologic events.”

PE (High School, Course 1): “Combine and apply movement patterns, simple to complex, in aquatic, rhythms/dance, and individual and dual activities.”

REFERENCE

Taba, H., & Spalding, W. B. (1962). Curriculum development: Theory and practice (pp. 1962-1962). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.

Jacobs, H. H. (1997). Mapping the Big Picture. Integrating Curriculum & Assessment K-12. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1250 N. Pitt Street, Alexandria, VA 22314-1453.

Wiggins, G. P., McTighe, J., Kiernan, L. J., & Frost, F. (1998). Understanding by design (pp. 0-87120). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.