Discussion W2
High-Quality High-Quality
Curriculum
Curriculum
HOW TO
OR
DESIGN
REVISE
ADOPT CURRICULUM ALIGNED TO
STUDENT SUCCESS
ANGELA DI MICHELE LALOR
LA LO
R
ENSURING ENSURING
E N
S U
R IN
G H
igh-Q uality C
u rricu
lu m
HOW TO DESIGN, REVISE, OR ADOPT CURRICULUM ALIGNED TO STUDENT SUCCESS
We know that curriculum is the core of the classroom experience, but what makes a quality curriculum? How can educators be sure that what they teach is strongly aligned
to the specific standards that their district or school has adopted? What kinds of lessons, learning experiences, and assessments are most effective, and how should they be
embedded within the curriculum? You’ll find the answers to these and many other questions in this definitive, step-by-step guide to curriculum design and evaluation.
Drawing from her work with teachers and administrators to facilitate curriculum development, Angela Di Michele Lalor offers targeted advice and real-life examples from elementary and
secondary units of study across a variety of content areas and standards, as well as field-tested rubrics, protocols, and other tools. She provides criteria for evaluating each component
of a curriculum and end-of-chapter checklists to help you ensure that the criteria are met.
Relevant to anyone who is creating or revising curriculum, or evaluating options among published alternatives, Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum is a comprehensive
and accessible roadmap to developing a solid foundation for teaching and learning—and better results in the classroom.
Education
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High-Quality Curriculum
ENSURING
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High-Quality Curriculum
HOW TO
OR
DESIGN
REVISE
ADOPT
CURRICULUM ALIGNED TO
STUDENT SUCCESS
ENSURING
Alexandria, Virginia USA
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To my children, William, Catherine, and Joseph,
so that they learn anything is possible, and to my
mother, Jessie Di Michele, who taught me that it is.
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Acknowledgments .................................................................................. viii
Introduction: The “Big Picture” of Curriculum ................................... 1
Consideration 1: Organizing Centers .....................................................9
Consideration 2: Alignment to Standards .......................................... 24
Consideration 3: Standards Placement and Emphasis ................... 46
Consideration 4: Assessment Types and Purposes .......................... 66
Consideration 5: Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments .................................................................................. 84
Consideration 6: Instruction ................................................................111
Consideration 7: Resources That Support Instruction ..................136
Consideration 8: Success with Your Curriculum .............................155
Epilogue ....................................................................................................173
Appendix A ...............................................................................................176
Appendix B .............................................................................................. 184
References ...............................................................................................202
Index ........................................................................................................205
About the Author ................................................................................... 210
Related ASCD Resources ..................................................................... 212
High-Quality Curriculum
ENSURING
HOW TO DESIGN, REVISE, OR ADOPT CURRICULUM
ALIGNED TO STUDENT SUCCESS
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Acknowledgments
This book would not be complete without acknowledging the many peo- ple who have inspired and supported me.
The consultants at Learner-Centered Initiatives have been unwav- ering in their support, not only in being part of the process but also in their belief that I had something worthy to say. I have learned so much from Giselle Martin-Kniep, Joanne Picone-Zocchia, Diane Cunningham, and Jennifer Borgioli.
It is from the school administrators, teachers, and coaches with whom I have worked during the last 20 years that I have learned about good, quality teaching and what it means to make a diff erence in the lives of stu- dents. I thank those who let me include their work in this book and all those whom I have worked with and learned from along the way.
I would like to acknowledge my personal cheerleader and lifelong friend Kathleen Wallace. I would also like to share my appreciation for the continuing support of my parents, Mike and Jessie Di Michele, and I would especially like to thank my husband, Bill, and my children, William, Catherine, and Joseph, who may not have always known what I was doing on the computer but gave me the space to do it.
vii i
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11
INTRODUCTION
The “Big Picture”
of Curriculum
“The 2nd grade teachers have common planning time once a
month where they map out what they will be teaching.”
“The curriculum writing team will be meeting on Thursdays
after school.”
“Please submit a list of recommendations for read-aloud books
that support the social studies curriculum.”
“The school board has approved the adoption of a new
reading program.”
These quotes capture the many and diverse ways that schools approach curriculum. Designing, adopting, or revising curriculum can be viewed as an exciting opportunity or a daunting task. An educator’s perspective is based on each individual’s prior experiences working with curriculum as well as that person’s personal view as to what constitutes quality. When individuals are then put into groups to adopt or design a curriculum, as is often the case, it becomes very diffi cult for them to do so. Often the result is an unwieldy and unmanageable curriculum, the purchase of a program that does not quite match up with what a district needs or values, or some variation in between.
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2 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
My experiences facilitating professional development programs related to curriculum led me to see a need for a book devoted to curriculum that readers would be able to use to guide the curriculum design process and evaluate curriculum in a meaningful and manageable way. Most books about curriculum are devoted to the design and examination of individ- ual units of study that sit within the curriculum. What makes this book diff erent is that it examines the “big picture” of curriculum—what needs to be considered when all the units are put together. By examining the big picture, educators can determine the curriculum’s strengths and weak- nesses, and they can decide where to focus attention in its design and revision or where to supplement when adopting a published curriculum. And there will be a need for evaluation and revision, because the state- ment “curriculum is a living document” is amply true. In fact, considering a curriculum “done” is really an indicator that it is time to revisit the cur- riculum again.
Layers of Curriculum
To begin the process of evaluating and designing curriculum, we fi rst must defi ne what we mean by curriculum. Traditionally, curriculum is thought of as the what in teaching—what students learn in school. It sounds simple enough, but what students learn is multilayered and can be interpreted as many things, including content, skills and strategies, processes, books and resources, and dispositions and habits of mind. To clarify the what, it is helpful to look at the diff erent layers of curriculum (Martin-Kniep, 1999):
• Formal curriculum describes what students need to know, be able to do, and value.
• Operational curriculum translates formal curriculum into a plan for instruction.
• Taught curriculum is what is delivered in the classroom. • Assessed curriculum is what is evaluated through formal measures. • Learned curriculum is what students walk away understanding
as a result of their learning experiences.
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Introduction: The "Big Picture" of Curriculum 3
Formal Curriculum
When we hear the word curriculum, typically what we picture is the formal curriculum. Formal curriculum describes what students need to know, be able to do, and be like through statements in the form of national and local standards, content-specifi c understandings and prac- tices, district- or teacher-generated outcomes and objectives, and other types of learning targets. Standards have diff erent focuses but generally fall into three categories: process, content, and disposition. Process stan- dards focus on skills and strategies, content standards identify either content-specifi c skills and practices or subject-specifi c information, and dispositional standards address ways of thinking or habits of mind.
Although standards have been used to guide classroom practice for many years, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have brought renewed attention to the standards-based design process and cause to revisit curriculum. The CCSS in English language arts (ELA) and literacy are an example of process standards. They lay out what students should be able to do at each grade level and are scaff olded from one grade level to the next, with each grade level building on the skills and processes from the previous grade level. They do not, however, prescribe the content that needs to be taught.
Content information can be gathered from other formal curriculum documents. For example, in New York State, social studies teachers use the CCLS (New York State’s version of the CCSS) to guide reading and writing processes but use the state Social Studies Framework (New York State K–12 Social Studies Framework, n.d.) for guidelines regarding social studies content and practices specifi c to the discipline. The Next Genera- tion Science Standards (NGSS, 2013) are content standards that articulate content, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts.
Cognitive processes, social and work habits, and thinking demands or dispositions can also serve as formal curriculum because they describe what students should be like or express what is valued in learning. Often these cognitive processes or ways of thinking are not articulated through standards but rather through formal descriptions, scales, or progressions
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4 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
such as Bloom’s taxonomy, habits of mind (Costa & Kallick, 2000), and executive function skills. In this book, categorical descriptions such as these are referenced as standards.
Regardless of focus, formal curriculum describes what the learner needs to know, be able to do, and value. The key word here is learner. It is the responsibility of the school and teachers to ensure that students have the opportunity to learn and demonstrate the content, skills, processes, and dispositions embedded within the standards, and this responsibility, in turn, generates the need for an operational curriculum.
Operational Curriculum
Standards lay out priorities and serve as the driving force behind the curriculum, answering the question Why do we have to teach that? How- ever, by themselves standards cannot be used in the classroom; they must be made operational. The operational curriculum brings together diff er- ent types of standards, content, texts, and resources. It identifi es ways to assess student learning and provides appropriate learning experiences that can be used during instruction.
There has been a great deal of confusion about the formal curricu- lum and the operational curriculum. Formal curriculum does not dictate specifi cs such as the texts students will read or the type of animal to be studied when learning about habitats. Those specifi cs are identifi ed in the operational curriculum, and in a quality curriculum, they should refl ect the values and priorities of the community the curriculum serves. Stan- dards are designed to ensure that all students have the same skills and use the same processes, whereas curriculum identifi es what content and resources they will be using to do so.
Taught, Assessed, and Learned Curriculum
Through the operational curriculum, teachers make decisions about what occurs in the classroom and implement the taught curriculum. Many factors aff ect this decision-making process, including time, inter- est, and makeup of the student body. Given that no teacher and group of
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Introduction: The "Big Picture" of Curriculum 5
students are ever the same from one classroom to the next, the taught cur- riculum will not be exactly the same in every classroom. It is unreasonable to assume that all teachers of the same grade level will be teaching exactly the same thing, the same way, on the same day. A quality curriculum will provide the information that teachers require to make purposeful deci- sions to meet student needs and provide the appropriate pathway for meeting the expectations outlined in the operational curriculum without dictating a one-way-suits-all approach.
Through the assessed curriculum, teachers are able to determine what the students have and have not learned, identify areas of strengths and needs, and make decisions about next steps in instruction. Once again, choices are made as to what is assessed. A quality curriculum includes assessments that closely align to the standards and big ideas found in each unit. A quality curriculum will also include diff erent types of assessments so teachers can accurately determine the learned curriculum—what stu- dents know and understand as a result of instruction—and how well stu- dent understanding aligns with the formal curriculum.
With so many layers in the curriculum, it is easy to see how standards can get “lost in translation.” Students do not always leave the classroom understanding the skills, processes, and content that have been identifi ed in the formal curriculum. Although many factors aff ect learning, one that we do have control over is the use of the formal curriculum to create a pur- posefully aligned, engaging, and meaningful curriculum for our students.
How This Book Is Organized
This book is organized in fi ve sections similar to the steps in a standards- based design process used to create curriculum: organizational structure, standards, assessment, instruction, and format. The chapters in each section focus on a specifi c consideration for the creation and examina- tion of curriculum. They provide a detailed look at what you need to con- sider when you are examining or designing quality curriculum, and they include many examples and illustrations from diff erent schools, content
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6 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
areas, and grade levels. (In addition, Appendix B walks you through an annotated 6th grade math unit to demonstrate how the attributes of qual- ity curriculum apply to mathematics.) Within each chapter are tools and activities to help you further understand the attributes of a quality curric- ulum and, more important, to help you evaluate or plan your own curricu- lum and give you feedback as to what areas warrant further investigation. Each chapter ends with a summary, a brief recap of the tools and activities presented in the chapter, and a checklist that you can use during the eval- uation or design process.
Organizational Structure of Curriculum
Consideration 1—Organizing Centers. The fi rst area to consider when designing or evaluating curriculum is the organizing center. A unit’s orga- nizing center is communicated through its title, essential question, and big idea. A quality curriculum will organize units of study around centers that are worthy of the time and energy set aside for their pursuit and that refl ect the overall intent and purpose of the curriculum. This chapter examines the various components that make up the organizing center for a unit and provides a simple tool and guiding questions that will help you to examine or plan the organizing centers for your curriculum.
Standards
Consideration 2—Alignment to Standards. As many teachers reconsider their curriculum because of the adoption of new standards, it is worthwhile to fi rst examine the curriculum to determine how well the assessments and learning experiences align to the standards. Too often a curriculum lists standards in a way that denotes equal importance, and the curriculum user or writer accepts that tasks align to the standards in equal measure. This chapter focuses on the importance of examining how standards are communicated within a curriculum and provides activities that will help you determine the degree of alignment between tasks and standards.
Consideration 3—Standards Placement and Emphasis. Another con- sideration when examining standards is how they are placed within the
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Introduction: The "Big Picture" of Curriculum 7
curriculum; order does matter. When determining placement and empha- sis, it is important to consider factors such as the overall intent of the standards, grade-level focus standards, gradual release of responsibility, and developmentally appropriate practice. This chapter explores each of the factors in detail and provides you with a choice of standards- analysis tools that are helpful in evaluating the placement of standards within the curriculum or when planning for design.
Assessment
Consideration 4—Assessment Types and Purposes. Teachers use four types of assessments to determine what students know, are able to do, and value. The types are information recall, demonstration, product assess- ment, and process assessment. A quality curriculum includes diff erent types of assessments that are congruent with the standards for the unit. Teachers use these various assessments at diff erent moments to ascertain what students know and are able to do. A quality curriculum will therefore include diagnostic assessments as well as assessments used for formative and summative purposes. This chapter explores the role of diff erent types of assessments and the purposes they serve within a curriculum.
Consideration 5—Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments. A quality curriculum will include assessments that produce as well as mea- sure learning. This chapter presents criteria for high-quality curriculum- embedded performance assessments that serve this purpose. These assessments measure the most important learning for the unit, are con- gruent with and strongly align to standards, have an authentic audience and purpose, and include diagnostic and formative assessment moments.
Instruction
Consideration 6—Instruction. Learning experiences and lessons are two ways to communicate what should be taught daily. Either structure should include information about what students will do, why they will do it, and what the teacher will have as evidence of student learning. These lessons and learning experiences should be strongly aligned to the standards for
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8 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
that unit. A quality curriculum includes learning experiences or lessons that address content, process, and dispositions. This chapter provides strategies for ensuring the use of diff erent types of lessons and learning experiences and includes information to guide instruction.
Consideration 7—Resources That Support Instruction. Resources include texts, technology, and materials that support instruction. The guiding prin- ciple behind the selection of these materials is how they will serve the pur- pose of the learning experience. This chapter off ers guiding questions to assist you in the selection of resources to support the curriculum.
Format
Consideration 8—Success with Your Curriculum. This chapter reiter- ates the information provided throughout the book and off ers three fi nal thoughts for successfully implementing and using your curriculum. A quality curriculum is easily accessible to teachers and other educators who use it, is supported by professional development, and is connected to student work. Included in this chapter are examples, guiding questions, and student work protocols to help you successfully implement your curriculum.
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9
1
CONSIDERATION 1
Organizing Centers
Which unit within each of the following example sets captures your attention?
Example Set 1
A. The Grapes of Wrath and the Great Depression: Students read
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and write a report on the
Great Depression.
B. Literature or Life? In this unit students study the essential ques-
tion What’s more real—literature or life? They read several poems,
short stories, and a full-length novel to analyze the connection
between the time period in which the works were written and the
events of the time. Students use their understanding of this con-
nection to write their own review and analysis of a contemporary
novel and how it refl ects the lifestyle and values of today.
Example Set 2
A. Goods and Services: Students learn the difference between
businesses in their community that sell goods and those that
provide services. Based on what they have learned, they sort
pictures of different businesses into the two categories.
B. The Business of Business: What do you do? Students under-
stand that businesses provide different types of goods and
services. They explore different types of businesses by analyzing
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10 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
those in their own local community and conducting additional
research on the goods and services provided by businesses
online. Students prepare and conduct an interview with a local
businessperson about the goods or services that individual
provides for the community. Students use their understanding
of goods and services and information they learned from their
interview to write a proposal suggesting an idea for a new store
or website that would provide a good or a service that their age
group or family would fi nd appealing.
Example Set 3
A. Habit of Mind 12—Wonderment and Awe: In this unit students
study the habit of mind “wonderment and awe” (Costa & Kallick,
2000). They learn what this habit of mind means and fi nd exam-
ples of how it exists in the world around them and in themselves.
B. Wonderment and Awe: How do you see the world? In this unit,
students explore the habit of mind “wonderment and awe” and
how it affects the way people see the world. They fi nd examples
and nonexamples of how wonderment and awe affect a person’s
views of text, art, music, and the natural world. Students end the
unit by selecting a visual art form and using it to show how they
see the world with wonderment and awe.
Sometimes fi rst impressions do matter, and the way in which a cur- riculum fi rst communicates what it values is through its organizing cen- ter. An organizing center is the central idea upon which a unit of study is built. It can be a topic, a theme, a concept, an issue, a problem, a process, or a phenomenon (Martin-Kniep, 2000). An organizing center is commu- nicated through a unit’s title, essential question, and big idea. A quality curriculum will organize units of study around centers that are worthy of the time and energy set aside for their pursuit and that refl ect the overall intent and purpose of the curriculum.
So the question becomes, What is the best way to organize the curric- ulum? If you review the examples just provided, you can see the impact that decision has on the curriculum.
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Organizing Centers 11
In the fi rst example set, the same unit is organized around a text and a related topic, and then a simple question. The fi rst organizational struc- ture, Unit A of the set, limits the scope of the unit to a particular text (The Grapes of Wrath) and topic (the Great Depression). More than likely, stu- dents will be led through an in-depth analysis of the text with references to their research on the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The unit has not been intentionally designed to make the leap from The Grapes of Wrath to other texts and time periods and to the larger question posed in Unit B: What’s more real—literature or life?
In Unit B, students have the opportunity to examine the connection between literature and life, contemplating the role of fi ctional accounts in understanding real events and time periods. Although The Grapes of Wrath can still be a central text, teachers will likely want to consider additional works from other time periods, including To Kill a Mocking- bird, by Harper Lee; The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald; and The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger. Each text allows students to exam- ine how literature refl ects real life and prepares them for an analysis of a contemporary work.
The units described in the second example set are from a fi nancial lit- eracy curriculum for elementary students. Unit A approaches the curric- ulum in a direct manner. The organizing center is the topic students will be studying: goods and services. In Unit A, students learn to distinguish between businesses that sell goods and those that provide services. Unit B identifi es the context for the examination of goods and services by iden- tifying the bigger idea of businesses. It personalizes the unit through the essential question What do you do?—a common question posed by adults among their peers. Although both units may have students engaging in similar activities, such as examining the types of goods and services pro- vided in the community, only Unit B requires that students apply their understanding in a new and novel way.
In the third example set, the units come from a curriculum developed around the habits of mind articulated by Costa and Kallick (2000). Unit A is structured to present “wonderment and awe” as one in a series. Unit
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12 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
B links the habit to an essential question, showing how wonderment and awe can aff ect the student and moving the unit from abstract to practical. The essential question lends itself to exploration across media and con- tent, bringing in literature, art, music, and science.
In each example set, Unit B
• Moves away from a topic to a bigger idea, concept, or essential question.
• Can be explored from diff erent perspectives, across content, place, or time.
• Is relevant and meaningful because it results in the application to something bigger than school.
• Requires higher levels of thinking by asking students to analyze, evaluate, and create.
Organizing Centers in the Content Areas
The same principle of organizing centers applies to content areas. Let’s look at a social studies unit to see the impact of three diff erent organizing centers on the same unit of study. Typically social studies units are orga- nized around topics such as the American Revolution. Students know that in such a unit they will learn about the war. Instruction will focus on the events that led to the war, the major battles, and the ultimate results. The unit stays within the context of that event, in that time, in that place.
Let’s see what happens when the organizing center moves from topic to concept and the unit explores rebellions and revolutions. Now the unit lends itself to the exploration of other events. With this organizing cen- ter, the students fi rst take a look at the American Revolution and then examine other events in American history that fall under the heading Rebellions and Revolutions. These events could include the Whiskey Rebellion, Shays Rebellion, the War of 1812, Nat Turner’s rebellion, and John Brown’s raid, to name a few.
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Organizing Centers 13
A third approach to teaching these topics is to examine the same events through an organizing center of an essential question: Rebellion or revolution? This example diff ers slightly from the other two. Rather than focusing solely on the events, this essential question requires students to evaluate the events taught in the unit of study through diff erent points of view. For example, in their examination of the American Revolution, stu- dents might examine how the British and the Loyalists viewed the events leading to the war and the war itself as acts of rebellion against the British king and parliament. At the same time, the Sons of Liberty, the patriots, and eventually the Continental Congress felt they had legitimate cause to sever ties with Great Britain and form their own country, hence the nam- ing of the American Revolution. Similar studies of point of view and cause and eff ect are examined as they relate to each of the subsequent events, asking students to determine the legitimacy of the name given to the event and the way it is presented in history books—and, more important, establishing a set of criteria with which to examine rebellion and revolu- tion in the world today.
Essential Questions
The unit title communicates the focus and importance of the unit, but it does not stand alone in identifying the organizing center. The organizing center is further explained by the unit’s essential question.
Which of the following two groups of questions are essential? How do they diff er from each other?
Group A
• What makes a story last?
• How do you measure success?
• What is more constant than change?
• Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?
• Are all leaders great?
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14 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Group B
• How do folktales and fables share a lesson or moral?
• How do you describe the characters in the story?
• What is erosion?
• How do poems incorporate similes and metaphors?
• What were the contributions of the American presidents?
The questions in Group A would be considered essential questions because they are large, global questions that can be explored and con- templated, elicit multiple perspectives, and do not require one correct answer. In Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins’s book on essential questions, these questions would be considered “overarching” essential questions (McTighe & Wiggins, 2013).
In a quality unit of study, the essential question provides the context and direction for the unit. It poses the focus of exploration as it relates to the unit title and in some cases serves as the title itself. If the essential question changed, the unit would go in a diff erent direction, as seen in the social studies example just presented.
The essential questions in Group A are diff erent from the questions in Group B, which are guiding questions. Although still important for artic- ulating what students will examine in a unit of study, guiding questions are answerable and do not communicate the organizing center of the unit. Guiding questions identify the important skills, content, and dispositions of the unit and are used to create the classroom learning activities.
The Central or Big Idea
The central or big idea is a statement that identifi es the most important learning of the unit in a clear and concise manner. Often it articulates a generalization related to the essential question and serves as the connec- tor between the essential question and the unit title, as seen in the follow- ing examples:
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Organizing Centers 15
Example 1
Unit Title: Civilizations: Old and New
Essential Question: What makes a civilization classical?
Big Idea: Students understand that classical civilizations share
common characteristics and have left unique contributions that
still affect us today.
Example 2
Unit Title: Homes for Everyone and Everything
Essential Question: Why is a home important?
Big Idea: Students understand that home is an important concept
to all living species and that environmental challenges can affect
a living species’ ability to survive and thrive in its home.
The big idea communicates the overall outcome for the unit. Without it, the curriculum user would need to examine all of the curriculum com- ponents to determine the desired results, often resulting in multiple users having diff erent interpretations. With clear articulation of the big idea, all users understand the importance of the unit—a consequence that is par- ticularly valuable when it comes time for assessment, because the perfor- mance task is designed to measure the most important learning for the unit.
Implications for Evaluating, Creating, or Revising Curriculum
Although it may seem like the organizing center plays a minor role in the overall curriculum design and evaluation process, examining or deter- mining the organizing center is an important fi rst step. Keeping in mind that this book is about the “big picture” of curriculum, it is important to look beyond the fi rst unit of study or the unit of study you are currently working on and examine or identify all the organizing centers for the cur- riculum to determine if they convey the message you want to send about what you value in curriculum.
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16 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
An example from my work in P.S. 11 in New York City illustrates how examining and revising the organizing center can aff ect the overall curric- ulum. The principal, Dr. Joan Kong, invited me to work with the school’s coach, Angela Miuta, and a group of teachers—Hande Williams, Teresa Ranieri, Thalia Jackson-Cole, Elvira Gonzalez, and Laura Magnotta—to assist them in using the New York State Common Core Learning Stan- dards to design their own curriculum. The group engaged in a recursive process of design and revision based on implementation, and after sev- eral years of doing so they had to choose a textbook for English language arts. Because textbooks do not serve as curriculum, the group sat down to evaluate the new series and determine what needed to be done to make it their own. The following examples from the 4th grade curriculum illus- trate what they found.
Unit 1: Animal Structure—How does an animal’s structure help it
to live? Students read informational texts about animals to com-
pare, gather, and synthesize ideas. After doing so, they create
an infographic on an animal by describing the animal’s physical
characteristics, its habitat, and special adaptations.
Unit 2: Regions of the United States—How are the regions of the
United States unique? Students read informational texts about
the unique regions of the United States. Students write an opin-
ion sharing reasons as to why one of the regions would be the
best place to live.
Unit 3: Earth—How has the Earth’s surface changed? Students
read informational texts to develop an understanding of how
the Earth’s surface has changed. After doing so, students write
a comparative essay that examines the effects of change to the
Earth’s surface as explained in a paired myth passage.
Unit 4: America’s Economy—How does the economy work? Students read literary texts to determine how different characters
have worked to overcome challenges in meeting their needs.
Students use this information to write a narrative in which a char-
acter meets a need.
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Organizing Centers 17
Examining the organizing centers for each unit sent clear messages about the overall organizing center for the curriculum:
• The curriculum was organized by topics related to content areas. • The organizing center for each unit was communicated through
a title and an answerable guiding question. • The curriculum separated the study of fi ction and nonfi ction
text by units. • The culminating tasks for each unit were designed with the
teacher as the sole audience for student work.
The school, however, was looking for a curriculum that integrated English language arts with content in a meaningful way, included units that allowed for the examination of fi ction and nonfi ction simultaneously, and provided the opportunity for students to engage in authentic and mean- ingful tasks. Given that the school did not have a choice in resources, the teachers set out to make the curriculum their own and planned a curricu- lum using what they had learned about the organizing centers. The result was the following:
Unit 1: Survival—What does it take to survive? Students under-
stand that survival is a recurring theme in literature and in life.
Students read survival stories to identify and explain traits of
characters who have survived physical challenges and other
obstacles. They read informational texts about how animals
adapt and survive in their different habitats. Students choose an
animal to research and create an infographic for younger stu-
dents explaining the survival instincts of the animals.
Unit 2: Regions—Does where you live matter? Students read
informational text about the different regions of the United States
and fi ctional stories set in these different regions. After reading
the stories, they determine the impact the setting had on the
story. Students choose one of the regions and create a resource
that could be used by individuals who are deciding whether they
should move to that region.
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18 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Unit 3: Natural Phenomena—What really happens? Students
understand that over time both traditional stories and science
have been used to explain how natural phenomena occur.
Students read myths, folktales, and fables to learn how these tra-
ditional stories have been used to explain natural phenomena in
different times and places. They read nonfi ction texts that explain
the science behind these occurrences. As a result of this unit, stu-
dents write an introduction to a myth, folktale, or fable found in
the school library in which they explain the connection between
the science and the story.
Unit 4: Innovative Solutions—What does it take to be innovative?
Students understand that innovative ideas often lead to creative
solutions to personal, economic, and other types of problems.
In this unit, students read fi ction and nonfi ction texts, including
stories, editorials, and news articles, that provide examples of
how people have used innovative solutions to solve problems.
Together the class creates a defi nition of what it means to
be innovative. The students identify problems that they have
encountered in their own lives and choose one as the basis for
writing a proposal that identifi es an innovative solution that they
can carry out as a class to solve the problem.
The result of the school’s work was a curriculum that refl ected the criteria the teachers had established and that communicated what they valued. The lesson to be learned from this school is that there are steps you can take in the early stages of choosing or evaluating a curriculum, as well as when planning to design your own, that result in a curriculum that refl ects what you value for your students.
Figure 1.1 is a tool that you can use for evaluation and planning. The chart contains space for six units of study and can be modifi ed to refl ect the number of units in the curriculum you are evaluating. Typically a year’s curriculum can include six units, each approximately six weeks long. However, the length of a unit should be based on what students will learn and do, so all units may not require the same amount of time.
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Organizing Centers 19
Once you have identifi ed the information called for in Figure 1.1, you can use it to answer the following questions and evaluate the organizing centers for the curriculum:
• What are the recurring organizing centers used for each unit of study—topic, theme, concept, issue, problem, process, or phenomenon?
• How are the organizing centers articulated within the curriculum—title only; title and essential question; or title, essential question, and big idea?
• How do the organizing centers align to the values and focuses of the school as articulated through one or more of the following: the school’s mission and vision statement, the process and content stan- dards, the learning processes, and the dispositions and habits of mind that are used to guide instruction?
• How do the organizing centers support student learning by cre- ating appeal and then engaging students in meaningful, purposeful, and authentic experiences?
If the organizing center is narrow in focus, is articulated only through the title, and does not allow for in-depth analysis or refl ect the values and
Figure 1.1
EVALUATING ORGANIZING CENTERS
Titles
(List unit titles here.)
Unit Description
(Identify any essential questions
and big ideas; describe what students
will learn or do during the unit.)
Unit 1:
Unit 2:
Unit 3:
Unit 4:
Unit 5:
Unit 6:
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20 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
focuses of the school, it is an early indicator that this may not be the cur- riculum for you or that your existing curriculum needs revising. If you are designing your own curriculum, it is important to consider these ques- tions before you begin.
Choosing the “Right” Organizing Centers
There is no one “right” organizing center for all schools. Answering the questions just listed will help you identify the right organizing centers for your curriculum. The most important of those questions is How do the organizing centers align to the values and focuses of the school? School val- ues and focuses are communicated in many ways, including through the
• School’s mission and vision statement. • Process and content standards that have been adopted by the
state or local school board. • Learning processes that have been the focus of school, grade-
level, or department collegial circles and professional development. • Dispositions and habits of mind used by the school to guide
student metacognition.
Figure 1.2 includes several examples to illustrate the connection between school values and focuses and the organizing center for the curriculum.
Summary: Organizing Centers
An organizing center is the central idea upon which a unit of study is built. It is communicated through a unit’s title, essential question, and big idea. Quality organizing centers are built around themes, concepts, issues, problems, processes, or phenomena. They align to the values of the school as articulated through one or more of the following: the school’s mission and vision statement, the process and content standards, the learning processes, and the dispositions and habits of mind that are used to guide instruction. A quality curriculum will organize units of study around
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Organizing Centers 21
Figure 1.2
CONNECTING SCHOOL VALUES AND FOCUSES WITH ORGANIZING CENTERS
School Values and Focuses as Articulated Through . . .
Related Organizing Center
Explanation
Example 1: Mission State-
ment—We believe that students
should learn in a safe, sup-
portive, and student-centered
environment. We are commit-
ted to meeting the needs of
all students, helping them to
achieve academic excellence,
and preparing them for a global
society.
Schooling for All:
Does everyone
deserve an edu-
cation? Students
understand that not
all children receive
an education and
how the lack of
education affects
the lives of those
who don’t.
This school’s mission statement
articulates the following goals for
its students:
• Safe, student-centered learn- ing environment that meets the need of all learners
• Academic excellence
• Preparation for a global society
The related organizing center
connects to the school’s mission
statement because it provides
students with the opportunity to
learn about education in other
communities.
Example 2: Social Studies
Themes—The National Council
for the Social Studies identifi es
the following themes:
• Culture
• Time, Continuity, and Change
• People, Places, and the Environment
• Individual Development and Identity
• Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
• Power, Authority, and Governance
• Production, Distribution, and Consumption
• Science, Technology, and Society
• Global Connections
• Civic Ideals and Practices
Science, Technol-
ogy, and Society:
Should science be
controlled? Stu-
dents learn about
the complexity of
government regu-
lation of scientifi c
research because
of religious,
ethical, and moral
issues.
The conceptually based social
studies themes can easily be used
as titles and narrowed in focus
to specifi c grade-level content
through the essential question
and big idea. The concept of
Science, Technology, and Society
can be used as the unit title but
is made more specifi c through the
essential question and big idea.
(continues)
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22 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
School Values and Focuses as Articulated Through . . .
Related Organizing Center
Explanation
Example 3: Common Core State
Standards:
• RI.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including fi gurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refi nes the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defi nes faction in Federalist No. 10).
• RI.11-12.5 Analyze and eval- uate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argu- ment, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.
• RI.11-12.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasive- ness, or beauty of the text.
The Power of
Words: Can we
make a difference
with what we say?
Students explore
how authors have
used language
and structure to
communicate
strong messages
that have changed
how people think
about the world
around them.
Analysis of the Common Core
State Standards for reading
informational text in 11th and
12th grade in comparison with
those in 9th and 10th grade
indicates that the following skills
should be emphasized:
• Analyze how an author uses and refi nes the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text.
• Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the structure an author uses in her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points that are clear, convincing, and engaging.
• Analyze how style and con- tent contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
The organizing center for the
sample unit focuses on these
skills by emphasizing the impact
of language and structure on
a text.
Figure 1.2
CONNECTING SCHOOL VALUES AND FOCUSES WITH ORGANIZING CENTERS (continued)
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Organizing Centers 23
centers that are worthy of the time and energy set aside for their pursuit and that refl ect the overall intent and purpose of the curriculum.
Tools and Activities for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
• Evaluating Organizing Centers. This tool (Figure 1.1) can be used either to identify organizing centers for a curriculum that is cur- rently being designed or to evaluate the organizing centers in an existing curriculum. Using it to plan or evaluate the curriculum will ensure that the curriculum is on the right track and refl ects the values of the school.
Checklist for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
The organizing center is articulated through the title, essential question, and big idea.
The organizing center for each unit of study is a theme, a concept, an issue, a problem, a process, or a phenomenon.
The organizing center aligns to the values of the school as articu- lated through one or more of the following: the school’s mission and vision statement, the process and content standards, the learning processes, and the dispositions and habits of mind that are used to guide instruction.
The organizing center supports student learning by creating appeal and will result in students engaging in meaningful, pur- poseful, and authentic experiences.
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24
2
CONSIDERATION 2
Alignment to Standards
Students sit in small groups reading diff erent versions of the story Stone Soup. At one table students are examining the 1947 version of Stone Soup by Marcia Brown. In this story, three hungry soldiers enter a village look- ing for something to eat. The villagers hide their food until the soldiers slowly convince them to share it as they create a soup from stones. At another table, students are examining the later version by Jon J. Muth, which tells the story of three monks in China who face a similar situation when passing through a small village. Simultaneously, students at the remaining tables work with other versions of the same tale. Regardless of the version, all the students are identifying and discussing key details of the text as those details unfold, and the lesson they learned as a result, in preparation for a class discussion on the central message of the story.
Why are the students doing this? Their teacher has designed a learning experience to align to the Common Core standard for 3rd grade: RL.3.2 Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cul- tures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text. Is the task, however, truly aligned to the standard?
After determining whether the curriculum is structured using orga- nizing centers that refl ect school values or focuses (the topic of Chapter 1), the next step in evaluating or creating a curriculum is to ensure that it
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Alignment to Standards 25
is strongly aligned to the standards the district uses to communicate its values and focuses and to guide instruction. In the classroom described here, if the students were simply asked to identify the main characters in the story, we could easily say that the task was not aligned to the standard. In most cases, examples and nonexamples of alignment are readily distin- guishable from each other, making it easy to spot a curriculum that is not aligned. However, the evaluation of alignment is often not about whether a task is aligned or not but rather to what degree. In this case the question is, to what degree did the students’ examination of the text align to the standard related to recounting key details from stories to determine the central message of the story? The answer is that the learning experience is strongly aligned to the standard. Students are completing work using the skills embedded in the standard. The focus of this chapter is to explore alignment and how to evaluate or create a curriculum that is strongly aligned to standards.
Degrees of Alignment
When examining a task that sits inside a learning experience or an assess- ment for degree of alignment, I suggest using a scale of weak, moderate, and strong. Weak alignment is evident when a task addresses only part of a standard or the underlying skills subsumed by the standard. For exam- ple, consider the following Common Core standard for 7th grade:
RL.7.5 Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s form or structure
(e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.
An example of a weakly aligned task would be one in which the students are asked to identify the pattern for the sonnet “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. One could argue that knowing that a sonnet is a 14-line poem divided into two sections—an 8-line stanza (octave) rhyming ABBAABBA, and a 6-line stanza (sestet) rhyming CDCDCD or CDEEDE—is helpful in identifying one. However,
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26 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
the task certainly does not get to the heart of the standard, which is to analyze how structure contributes to meaning. It may serve as a stepping stone to arriving at the standard, but as a task by itself it does not accom- plish its goal.
Consider a task in which students are asked to write the message of the sonnet in one sentence. In this case, the task moves closer to the standard because students are analyzing the poem for its meaning. The teacher who designed the task considered structure, in that a sonnet focuses on one thought or idea, hence the request that students write a sentence. However, the task only moderately aligns to the standard because the students are not asked to make the connection between the structure of a sonnet and its meaning. The teacher has done that for them. The task may be used as a learning experience to reinforce the idea that a sonnet focuses on one idea, but again, left as an isolated task it cannot be consid- ered strongly aligned to the standard.
In a strongly aligned task, students are asked to examine several son- nets for their structure and uncover what distinguishes a sonnet from other types of poems. Their examination of the sonnets leads to the under- standing that a sonnet is a 14-line poem that focuses on a single thought or sentiment, and sonnets vary in that some are structured in two stanzas versus one and they may have diff erent rhyming patterns. Students use their criteria to then analyze “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” They work in groups to discuss how the structure aff ects the poem’s message. Students consolidate their thinking in a written response that analyzes the impact of the structure on the meaning of the poem. In this example, the task is strongly aligned; it is diffi cult to separate the task from the standard itself.
The following scale can be used to determine the degree of alignment between a task and a standard:
Strong Alignment: The task clearly aligns to the standard; the
task and the standard are almost one and the same; the task
addresses all parts and honors the intent of the standard.
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Alignment to Standards 27
Moderate Alignment: The task addresses the standard; the stan-
dard is part of the task but is not the primary focus.
Weak Alignment: The task touches on the standard; the standard
may occur but is not guaranteed to be part of the task.
A helpful activity, one that is useful in unpacking the scale and under- standing alignment, is to rate the alignment of diff erent tasks to a selected standard. Use the preceding scale to rate the degree of alignment between each task in Figure 2.1 and the following standard:
RI.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information
presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually,
quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address
a question or solve a problem.
The fi rst example in Figure 2.1, watching a video explaining the his- tory of fi lm, is weakly aligned to the standard; students are only viewing one source, without a specifi c purpose. The second example is a strongly
Figure 2.1
DEGREE OF ALIGNMENT
Task Description Degree of Alignment
Students watch a video explaining the history of fi lm.
Students read, watch, and analyze information and
data to identify reasons for Latino immigration,
challenges immigrants face, and immigrants’ quality
of life after arrival in the United States. They critique
the origin of their sources to determine their reliability.
Students use this information to write the introduction
to a student-selected collection of memoirs, short sto-
ries, and poetry that illustrates the life of immigrants
and answers the question Can history be told through
a story?
Students use nonfi ction text, videos, and quantitative
data as part of their research to complete a paper on
an event recounted in a historical novel of their choice.
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28 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
aligned task. Here students are reading, watching, and analyzing data, indicating the use of diverse media and formats—text, video, and charts and graphs. They evaluate the credibility of their sources as a means of determining the accuracy of their information. Students then use the information to answer the question Can history be told through a story? The last example is moderately aligned to the standard. It focuses on using a variety of sources, but it is unclear as to whether students are respond- ing to a specifi c question or problem.
The goal is to ensure that the curriculum contains strongly aligned tasks. If we rely on the use of weakly aligned or moderately aligned tasks, students may not have the opportunity to engage in meaningful, relevant, and cognitively demanding tasks required by the school or district stan- dards. A recent study by the Education Trust illustrates this situation. The study found that only 4 in 10 assignments (38 percent) were aligned with a grade-appropriate Common Core standard. As a result, students were often given short, less challenging tasks with a great deal of support that undermined the intention of the standards and lessened the required thinking (Brookins, Santelises, & Dabrowski, 2015). All students should have the opportunity to engage in cognitively demanding texts with scaf- folds and supports dependent on need. A curriculum designed with this belief in mind allows teachers to make instructional decisions based on the needs of the students they are teaching. A quality curriculum designed with high-quality, strongly aligned tasks takes the fi rst step in ensuring that this happens.
A task that is strongly aligned to a standard meets the following criteria:
1. The standard and the task are diffi cult to separate from each other.
2. The task requires students to fully engage in activities that align to all the skills embedded within the standard, usually requiring multiple steps.
3. The task refl ects the intent of the standard.
Examine the standards and corresponding tasks in Figure 2.2. As you read through the tasks in Column 2, underline the part of the task description
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Alignment to Standards 29
Figure 2.2
TASK ALIGNMENT
Standard Task
Disposition of Practice: Commitment to
Refl ection
• Willingness to devote time and energy to think about decisions, learning, and work in ways that promote thoughtful- ness (Martin-Kniep, 2008).
Students investigate different ways in which
young people can “make a difference.” They
fi nd examples of community service, fundrais-
ers, and organizations that have been led by
young people and have made a difference in
the lives of others. Students write a summary
of each example they fi nd and record their
thoughts, questions, and connections. They
work in small groups to determine a way they
can make a difference. Students implement
their plan and collect data during implemen-
tation, altering their plan as necessary. Stu-
dents write a refl ection on their experience
and modify their plan in order to implement it
again in the future.
• Students make connections by relating ideas within the content or among content areas and select or devise one approach among many alternatives on how a situation can be solved (Webb’s Depth of Knowledge; Webb et al., 2005).
Students pursue the questi on How healthy
is the United States? by documenting their
own nutrition and exercise habits over a
six-week period using a health-journal app.
After documenting their own health, they
conduct research that pursues questions such
as these:
• What are the nutritional and exercise hab- its of Americans in different age groups?
• Are all the research fi ndings regarding American health habits the same? How do they compare?
• How does society refl ect these health habits?
• How do American health habits affect other areas of American life, such as economics and government?
Students use their own experience to analyze
the current state of American health. They
write an evaluation of their own health in light
of their fi ndings, and prepare an action plan
for pursuing a healthy life.
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30 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
that refl ects the standard in Column 1. By underlining the task in the exam- ples, you can determine if the task meets the criteria for strong alignment.
In the fi rst example, the multistep process of fi nding examples of community service, fundraisers, and organizations; writing a summary and recording thoughts, ideas, and questions; and creating, implement- ing, revising, and refl ecting on a plan is evidence of the willingness to devote time and energy to thinking about decisions, learning, and work in ways that promote thoughtfulness. The alignment can therefore be considered strong.
In the second example, students document their own nutrition and exercise habits, conduct research, analyze the current state of American health, write an evaluation of their own health, and prepare an action plan for pursuing a healthy life. The task seamlessly intertwines health content with literacy skills, and it provides students with a personalized problem that could be solved in multiple ways, once again showing that when the task and standard are the same, alignment is strong.
Once you can recognize the degree of alignment between a task and a standard, it becomes possible to revise a task so it strongly aligns to a standard. Returning to Figure 2.1, we can revise the weakly aligned task (students watch a video explaining the history of fi lm) to make it strong by expanding on the resources and focusing the research on a specifi c question. Now instead of watching a video explaining the history of fi lm, students read and analyze multimedia resources, articles, and commen- taries on the role of fi lm in society, and they examine data regarding fi lm development and usage. They consider the origin of the materials, not- ing the authors and website creators to determine the credibility of their sources. Students use this information to create a multimedia presenta- tion in which they analyze a fi lm of their choice and answer the question Does fi lm form or follow the norms and values of a society?
We can also revise the moderately aligned task from Figure 2.1 for stronger alignment by adding a question to guide the reading of the diff er- ent sources. In the original task, students are using nonfi ction text, vid- eos, and quantitative data to complete a paper on an event recounted in
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Alignment to Standards 31
a historical novel of their choice. By adding the question Does literature refl ect life? the research and the resulting paper have a specifi c purpose.
Content-Area Alignment
The same criteria apply to alignment in the content areas. However, align- ment in the content areas often includes alignment to standards with dif- ferent focuses. For example, consider the following task. Students read three articles to learn about diff erent explanations of climate change, how it is caused, and the resulting impact of climate change on biodiversity. Students are asked to engage in this task in order to understand content identifi ed in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and apply lit- eracy skills to access the content, including those identifi ed in Common Core standard RST.9-10.6:
Analyze the author’s purpose in providing an explanation,
describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text,
defi ning the question the author seeks to address.
The task strongly aligns to the reading standard because it requires stu- dents to analyze the author’s explanation of climate change. However, when we examine the task for alignment to the science standard, we see that it is actually weakly aligned.
The Next Generation Science Standards contain information about performance, science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. For the sake of this example, let’s work with one of the NGSS’s performance expectations and a corresponding core idea related to the topic of Interdependent Relationships in the Ecosystem.
HS-LS4-6
Create or revise a simulation to test a solution to mitigate
adverse impacts of human activity on biodiversity. [Clarifi cation
Statement: Emphasis is on designing solutions for a proposed
problem related to threatened or endangered species, or to
genetic variation of organisms for multiple species.]
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32 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans
Humans depend on the living world for the resources and other
benefi ts provided by biodiversity. But human activity is also
having adverse impacts on biodiversity through overpopulation,
overexploitation, habitat destruction, pollution, introduction of
invasive species, and climate change. . . . Thus sustaining bio-
diversity so that ecosystem functioning and productivity are
maintained is essential to supporting and enhancing life on
Earth. Sustaining biodiversity also aids humanity by preserving
landscapes of recreational or inspirational value.
Exploring the diff erent views on climate change is only one part of the core idea LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans, which is why the task is weakly aligned. To strongly align to the core idea, students would also need to examine
• Speciation and extinction. • Adverse impacts of human behavior, including overpopulation,
overexploitation, habitat destruction, pollution, introduction of invasive species, and climate change.
• Biological extinction, because many species are unable to sur- vive in changed environments and die out.
• The eff ects of biological extinction. • The importance of sustaining biodiversity. • Ways to sustain biodiversity.
One of the challenges related to strong alignment to content stan- dards is making sure that all of the content included in the standard is also included in the curriculum, which may require more than one task. Addressing only one aspect of the content does not constitute alignment. For strong alignment to occur, the curriculum must include all the con- tent in the standards.
By itself, the science core idea does not communicate how the students will acquire the information. This is why content standards are paired with literacy standards, as shown in the original example. Students are
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Alignment to Standards 33
learning about climate change through reading. Their next learning expe- rience may include a task that has them listening to a multimedia presen- tation to learn about the eff ects of biological distinction.
Alignment becomes even more complex as more standards are added. In this extension of the example, the core idea is presented with a perfor- mance expectation. Now for strong alignment to occur, students would need to formulate and test a possible solution for addressing the negative human impact on biodiversity. This undertaking could include
• Choosing an area of focus. • Creating or revising a simulation that includes mathematical
and computational thinking. • Developing or evaluating a solution, taking into consideration
cost, safety, reliability, and social, cultural, and environmental impacts. • Using physical models and computers. • Using empirical evidence to diff erentiate between cause and
correlation and to make claims about specifi c causes and eff ects.
Now the original reading task serves a small role in a big picture. Regardless of scope, however, the concept of alignment remains the same. In the content areas, it means examining alignment in terms of content to be taught, content-specifi ed skills such as the performance expectation, and the role of literacy in accessing and communicating the content.
Implications for Evaluating, Creating, or Revising Curriculum
Understanding that alignment occurs by degree rather than extremes is important to ensuring that students have opportunities to truly learn and practice the skills embedded in the standards. When evaluating curricu- lum, one way to check for strong alignment is to choose sample tasks from various units and determine the degree of alignment between the task and the standard identifi ed using the scale of weak, moderate, and strong, as previously described. The tasks you choose to evaluate should represent
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34 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
those found in daily lessons, extended activities, and assessments. The chart in Figure 2.3 is a helpful tool for gathering and evaluating this infor- mation. An example at the top of the chart illustrates the process.
You can add additional rows to the chart based on the number of tasks you are examining. It is advantageous to analyze multiple tasks of diff erent lengths and purposes. Determining the degree of alignment is particularly important when examining published curriculum and instructional materials. A report from the Brown Center on Education
Figure 2.3
DETERMINING ALIGNMENT IN A CURRICULUM
Task Description Standard Degree of Alignment
Notes for Revision
Students read several
documents related to the
events that occurred in
Birmingham, Alabama, in
1963, including Dr. Martin
Luther King’s “Letter from
Birmingham Jail” and
a reprinted newspaper
article from the New York
Times in 1963. As they
read the texts, they work
with different-colored
highlighters to show how
the texts address the
event in a similar fashion
and any disconnect among
the texts.
RI.9-10.9 Analyze
seminal U.S. docu-
ments of historical
and literary signifi -
cance (e.g., Wash-
ington’s Farewell
Address, the Gettys-
burg Address, Roos-
evelt’s Four Freedoms
speech, King’s “Letter
from Birmingham
Jail”), including how
they address related
themes and concepts.
Moderate • Include an additional reading such as “Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall.
• Provide opportu- nity for discussion on the ways the texts describe the same event, the reasons for the differences in their descriptions, and the impact on student under- standing of the events of Birming- ham as a result of reading the different accounts.
Task 1:
Task 2:
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Alignment to Standards 35
Policy at Brookings included this observation about publishing compa- nies’ initial responses to the Common Core State Standards: “Publishers of instructional materials are lining up to declare the alignment of their materials with the Common Core standards using the most superfi cial of defi nitions” (Chingos & Whitehurst, 2012, p. 1). Although publishers have made some improvements, those have not been enough; nor have they been consistent. Some companies have simply done a better job than others of aligning their materials, and with such inconsistencies, checking the degree of alignment is important.
Addressed, Taught, and Assessed: Three Ways to Look at Standards
When examining curriculum, we are looking for tasks that are strongly aligned to the standards. What will help or hamper this determination is the way in which the curriculum communicates information about the standards and their value or emphasis.
We can view standards in diff erent ways: those that are addressed, those that are taught, and those that are taught and assessed. Standards that are addressed are those that are touched upon but not necessarily the primary focus of a unit within a curriculum. Standards that are taught are those that involve students engaging in activities that practice the skills embedded within the standards. Standards that are taught and assessed are the standards that are the focus of instruction and are evaluated during the unit of study.
Let’s examine a 4th grade unit to determine the diff erence between standards that are addressed and those that are taught and assessed. In this unit, students are examining the essential question Is there more than one way to tell a story? They are reading collections of texts that are connected by theme and that include stories from cultures other than the United States, nonfi ction text, and dramas and stories that have been made into fi lms. As they read, they take note of how the texts approach similar themes, and the similarities and diff erences between texts and
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36 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
their visual presentations. As a result of their examination, students write a proposal for a new movie based on a book of their choice.
The Common Core reading literature standards for this unit include the following:
RL.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining
what the text says explicitly and when drawing infer-
ences from the text.
RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from
details in the text; summarize the text.
RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story
or drama, drawing on specifi c details in the text (e.g., a
character’s thoughts, words, or actions).
RL.4.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and
prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems
(e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of
characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage direc-
tions) when writing or speaking about a text.
RL.4.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which
different stories are narrated, including the difference
between fi rst- and third-person narrations.
RL.4.7 Make connections between the text of a story or drama
and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying
where each version refl ects specifi c descriptions and
directions in the text.
RL.4.9 Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes
and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and pat-
terns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and
traditional literature from different cultures.
At fi rst glance, it is easy to see why these standards were chosen; it is possible for students to use the skills that are embedded in all of these standards. However, potential does not mean the task is aligned, nor that the standard should be listed as a unit outcome. The question goes back to
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Alignment to Standards 37
alignment and to what degree the tasks within the unit align to the stan- dards. Based on this understanding, some of these standards are really just being addressed in the unit. The students are using the skills, but those skills are not the central focus of the unit. Further examination will reveal which standards are being addressed and which are being taught and assessed.
Throughout the unit, students read a variety of diff erent text and fi lm collections that may include the following:
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, the fi lm of the same title, and Toys! Amazing Stories Behind Some Great Inventions by Don Wulff son
• The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, the fi lm of the same title, a nonfi ction text on protecting the environment, and a folktale
• The poem “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” by Roald Dahl, a picture book of Little Red Riding Hood, and Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young
Students complete various activities and participate in discussions about the texts and fi lms, referring to details and examples that support their thinking. These activities allow students to identify and examine com- mon themes within the collections of texts, and to examine the unique structures of the diff erent types of texts. They also provide students with the opportunity to generate criteria to use when comparing texts and their fi lm versions.
At diff erent points in the unit, students complete written responses in which they summarize the text and respond to the following questions, using specifi c evidence from the text:
• What is the theme of the story? How do the details in the text reveal the theme?
• How is the text structured? How does the structure aff ect the story? • In what ways does the fi lm refl ect the descriptions and direc-
tions in the text?
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38 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• How do the text and the fi lm diff er? How do these diff erences aff ect the story?
• How do the texts and fi lms treat the same theme?
Given what we know about strong alignment, we can identify the stan- dards that are taught and assessed when the task directions and the stan- dards are placed next to each other, as in Figure 2.4. The standards that strongly align with the tasks—meaning the tasks and standard are diffi - cult to separate from each other, and the intent of the standard remains intact—fall into either the category of “taught” or “taught and assessed.” What is the diff erence? When a standard is taught, the task occurs during instruction. We see this in the 4th grade unit when students complete activities and participate in discussions. Students have the opportunity to practice the skills embedded in the standard with teacher guidance and feedback. When standards are taught and assessed, this still occurs, but there is also an assessment opportunity that allows the teacher to check and monitor student understanding. The reader-response journals serve this purpose in the 4th grade example.
Figure 2.4 shows which tasks and standards are aligned and also reveals that two of the standards identifi ed are not aligned to a specifi c task in the unit:
• RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specifi c details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).
• RL.4.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which diff erent stories are narrated, including the diff erence between fi rst- and third-person narrations.
Some may argue that students will need to describe the characters, set- ting, and events of the story when they use key details from the text to identify the theme. It is also possible for students to compare and contrast the point of view from which diff erent stories are narrated by examining point of view in the diff erent collections of stories. However, although these things may occur, the unit has not been designed with the explicit intent to allow students to practice these skills and the teacher to assess
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Alignment to Standards 39
Figure 2.4
ANALYZING TASKS
Standard Tasks
RL.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text
when explaining what the text says explicitly
and when drawing inferences from the text.
Students complete activities, participate in
discussions, and respond to questions using
details, examples, and evidence from text.
RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama,
or poem from details in the text; summarize
the text.
Students identify common themes.
Students summarize the text.
Reader Response: What is the theme of the
story? How do the details in the text reveal
the theme?
RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting,
or event in a story or drama, drawing on
specifi c details in the text (e.g., a character’s
thoughts, words, or actions).
RL.4.5 Explain major differences between
poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the
structural elements of poems (e.g., verse,
rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of
characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue,
stage directions) when writing or speaking
about a text.
Students examine the unique structure of the
different type of texts.
Reader Response: How is the text structured?
How does the structure affect the story?
RL.4.6 Compare and contrast the point
of view from which different stories are
narrated, including the difference between
fi rst- and third-person narrations.
RL.4.7 Make connections between the text
of a story or drama and a visual or oral
presentation of the text, identifying where
each version refl ects specifi c descriptions
and directions in the text.
Students identify criteria to use when com-
paring text and fi lm.
Reader Response: In what ways does the
fi lm refl ect the descriptions and directions in
the text? How does it differ? How do these
differences affect the story?
RL.4.9 Compare and contrast the treatment
of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition
of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g.,
the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional
literature from different cultures.
Students identify and examine common
themes within the collections of texts.
Reader Response: How do the texts in the
collection treat the same theme?
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40 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
them. We can consider these standards to be addressed only. The teacher may ask students to draw upon these skills or the skills may inadvertently occur, but they are not explicitly at the center of instruction and assess- ment in this unit.
Why is it important to distinguish between standards that are addressed, taught, and taught and assessed? Why not just include all the standards? One reason is practicality. The 4th grade example just presented describes in depth the reading literature portion of the unit. Students are also reading informational texts, writing, and speaking and listening within the unit. Including all standards from all areas would create a massive and unmanageable unit that could potentially go on for several months, therefore defeating the intent of organizing curriculum into units.
The other reason is focus. Educational researchers such as Rick Stig- gins, W. James Popham, Robert Marzano, and Susan Brookhart have repeatedly discussed the impact of clear learning targets on students (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001; Moss & Brookhart, 2012; Popham, 1999; Stiggins, 1997). Prioritizing the standards within units will help teachers to identify learning targets, share those targets with their stu- dents, and develop and use appropriate learning activities. Students will be aware of what they need to know and be able to do, have plenty of opportunities to practice the skills within the standards, and receive appropriate feedback and guidance from their teachers.
Prioritizing a set of standards in one unit is not done at the expense of other standards. When standards are carefully organized throughout the year, students will have the opportunity to practice the skills related to all standards, which is the focus of Chapter 3.
Taught and Assessed Standards in the Content Areas
The same concept of taught and assessed standards applies to the content areas as well. The diff erence, however, will depend on the specifi city of the
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Alignment to Standards 41
content-area standards or content understandings. In many cases, these standards or content understandings are vague and open to interpretation.
For example, consider the following content understandings from across the United States. According to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies, the student is expected to understand “the domestic and international impact of U.S. participation in World War II. The student is expected to identify reasons for U.S. involvement in World War II, including Italian, German, and Japanese dictatorships and their aggression, especially the attack on Pearl Harbor” (Texas Education Agency, 2010). In California, students are expected to “analyze Ameri- ca’s participation in World War II. They examine the origins of American involvement in the war, with an emphasis on the events that precipitated the attack on Pearl Harbor” (California Academic Content Standards Commission [CACSC], 2000). In New York State, the following concep- tual understandings describe what students need to know:
11.10 The United States participated in World War II as part of
an Allied force to prevent military conquests by Ger-
many, Italy, and Japan. United States policies during and
immediately after World War II had a signifi cant impact
on American political, economic, and social life.
11.10.a Multiple factors contributed to a rise in authoritarian
forms of government and ideologies such as fascism,
communism, and socialism after World War I.
11.10.b The United States and the international community did
not respond with force to aggressive German and Japa-
nese actions that violated international treaties agreed to
following World War I.
11.10.c In the 1930s, public opinion slowly moved toward
supporting a more active United States involvement in
world affairs.
11.10.d United States involvement moved from a policy of neu-
trality at the beginning of World War II and evolved into
a pro-Allied position, culminating in direct and active
United States involvement. (New York State, 2013)
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42 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Each of these documents provides information about what students should know about the United States entry into World War II, but none of them—regardless of the length of the description—off er specifi cs as to exactly what needs to be taught, what students need to be able to do with that knowledge, or how they can demonstrate that knowledge.
For the concept of taught and assessed to apply to these content stan- dards, teachers fi rst have to identify the “nonnegotiable.” What exactly will students need to know, for example, about German, Italian, and Japa- nese aggression before the start of World War II? What should they know about the attack on Pearl Harbor? I have sat through many conversations in which teachers have discussed what they teach and what they do not teach in a unit of study, and there is rarely unanimous agreement. It is through these conversations, however, that teachers unpack the curric- ulum documents and identify the specifi cs about what needs to be taught and assessed.
Additional Implications for Evaluating, Creating, or Revising Curriculum
Certain indicators show that all the standards identifi ed within the unit have been given equal weight. One is when all or most of the standards have been listed in a unit, as in the 4th grade example. Possibility does not indicate alignment. There need to be suffi cient and focused practice and assessment opportunities within the unit for a standard to be considered taught and assessed. Including all standards in one unit does not allow for the necessary time to practice the embedded skills. Even with the identi- fi cation of taught and assessed standards, standards will need to be revis- ited throughout the year to provide opportunities for reinforcement and attainment.
A second indication that careful thought has not been given to the iden- tifi cation of standards is when the standards identifi ed in the overview or introduction to the unit are not the same as those identifi ed in individual lessons. This mismatch suggests that the standards being taught are not
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Alignment to Standards 43
necessarily those being assessed. Unfortunately, I have found this to be a common problem with textbooks and other learning materials.
So the following question arises: What do you do if you are working with a curriculum in which it is diffi cult to determine the focus standards? The task then becomes to prioritize the standards by clearly identifying and labeling those that are taught and assessed, and distinguishing them from those that are addressed. For existing or published curriculums, this may mean reviewing existing tasks to determine which standards are truly being taught and assessed. Although this eff ort may take some time, it is time well spent. Without such distinction, the unit will not be cohe- sive, and it will be very diffi cult to ensure that all users of the curriculum will understand the focus of instruction and assessment.
An additional strategy for ensuring that the standards identifi ed are those that are taught and assessed is to actually code the standard into the document and create a unit blueprint. For example, if the original 4th grade document were coded with the standards, it would look like this:
Throughout the unit, students read a variety of different text and
fi lm collections [RL.4.5, RL.4.9]. They complete different activities
and participate in discussions about the texts and fi lms, refer-
ring to details and examples that support their thinking [RL.4.1].
These activities allow students to identify and examine common
themes [RL.4.2, RL.4.9] within the collections of texts, and exam-
ine the unique structures of the different types of texts, including
folktales, stories, nonfi ction, drama, and poems [RL.4.5]. They
also provide students with the opportunity to identify criteria to
use when comparing texts and their fi lm versions [RL.4.7].
At different points in the unit, students complete written
responses in which they summarize the text [RL.4.2] and respond
to the following questions, using specifi c evidence from the
text [RL.4.1]:
• What is the theme of the story? How do the details in the
text reveal the theme? [RL.4.2]
• How is the text structured? How does the structure affect the
story? [RL.4.5]
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44 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• In what ways does the fi lm refl ect the descriptions and direc-
tions in the text? [RL.4.7]
• How do the text and the fi lm differ? How do these differences
affect the story? [RL.4.7]
• How do the texts or fi lms treat the same theme? [RL.4.9]
A benefi t to coding the standards as the unit is created is that it ensures that the tasks within the unit are strongly aligned and can be taught and assessed. Teachers can make decisions about the type of texts, activities, and assessments as they draft the unit. The process also reveals areas where alignment between a task and a standard is weak so that that area can be revised and made stronger, or when a standard selected for a unit early in the design process no longer makes sense and should be removed from the unit.
Summary: Alignment to Standards
Two critical areas to examine when evaluating or designing curriculum for standards alignment are (1) degree of alignment and (2) communi- cation of standards that are taught and assessed. Although curriculum documents may claim alignment, the degree to which the curriculum is aligned may vary. Tasks can be weakly, moderately, or strongly aligned to standards. A quality curriculum will ensure strong alignment, meaning the tasks and standard are diffi cult to distinguish from each other and the intent of the standard remains intact.
Listing a standard in a unit of study is not enough to claim that it is suffi ciently emphasized throughout the unit. Standards that are addressed, taught, and taught and assessed may all be included in one unit. A high-quality curriculum document will communicate the diff er- ence between these standards or include only those that are taught and assessed, allowing teachers to make purposeful decisions about what to teach and how to teach it and to share learning targets with their students. Students should be given the opportunity to practice the skills embedded in the standards and receive guidance and feedback from their teachers before being assessed.
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Alignment to Standards 45
Understanding degree of alignment can help educators identify those tasks in need of revision and revise them to increase the degree of align- ment between the task and the standards. In addition, it can help them to analyze the standards to reveal those that are taught and assessed, as well as those that are simply addressed. The coding of standards will ensure both alignment and the inclusion of standards that are taught and assessed in a unit of study.
Tools and Activities for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
• Degree of Alignment—This activity is helpful in establishing a common understanding of the degree of alignment between tasks and standards (see Figure 2.1 for an example). With this understanding, edu- cators can evaluate tasks in an existing curriculum to determine their degree of alignment and, when necessary, revise them so they strongly align to the standards. Educators can also use this understanding to design strongly aligned tasks.
• Analyzing Tasks for Strong Alignment—This activity allows educators to see the connection between what students are asked to do and the standard itself (see Figure 2.2 for an example). It is helpful in clarifying the criteria for a strongly aligned task.
• Determining Alignment in a Curriculum—A chart like the one in Figure 2.3 can be used for sampling tasks within a curriculum to ensure that they are strongly aligned and revise those that are not.
• Coding Standards—Coding of standards into tasks ensures strong alignment and identifi es weakly or moderately aligned tasks in need of revision (see example on pp. 43–44).
Checklist for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
The tasks are strongly aligned to the standards. It is diffi cult to distinguish between the task and the standard, all skills identifi ed in the standard are included in the task, and the task honors the intent of the standard.
The standards that are taught and assessed are clearly identifi ed and distinguished from those that are addressed.
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46
3
CONSIDERATION 3
Standards Placement
and Emphasis
In Chapter 2 we explored the degree of alignment between standards and tasks, and the need to focus a unit of study on a set of specifi c standards that are taught and assessed within that unit. An individual task is one of many that lie inside a larger unit of study, and a unit is only part of a big- ger curriculum made up of several more units. In evaluating or creating a curriculum, it is important not only to examine the alignment of tasks to standards within a unit, but also to examine the placement and sequenc- ing of standards over the entire curriculum.
Let’s look at the 7th grade example from Chapter 2 to illustrate the nesting of tasks within units, and units within a yearly curriculum. The 7th graders examined several sonnets to determine how they diff ered from other types of poetry and then focused specifi cally on the sonnet “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” to examine how the structure of a sonnet aff ects the poem’s message. This task strongly aligns to one stan- dard and is one of many tasks that students will complete as they engage in a unit of study called The Power of Language. In this unit, students will examine not only poetry but also speeches, plays, and editorials in order to determine how the author’s use of language and structure aff ects his or her ability to tell a story, convey a message, or create an argument. As
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Standards Placement and Emphasis 47
a result of their study and additional research on a topic of their choice, students will select an appropriate format in which to convey their own message, thoughts, or argument.
Although the task focuses on one standard, the unit focuses on a spe- cifi c set of standards that will be taught and assessed within the unit. Those standards that are not taught and assessed in the Power of Lan- guage unit will be emphasized in other units. The Power of Language is only one piece of a puzzle, and like each piece of a puzzle, it needs to be assembled into a cohesive whole.
A quality curriculum will purposefully emphasize and place standards within specifi c units. As you examine an existing curriculum or design your own, it is important to make sure that all standards are taught and assessed, and to understand why specifi c standards fi t inside each unit and how units build from one to another.
Standards Analysis: Determining Emphasis and Placement
One of the most unique places where I have worked is the Fire Island School District in New York. Fire Island is a small district located on the barrier beach of Long Island. Each year I have worked with the district’s superintendent, Loretta Ferraro, to design a professional development program that examined best practices in instruction and assessment and was tailored to meet the needs of the school. When New York State adopted the Common Core Learning Standards, teachers in the district— Gabrielle Donovan, Shannon Picinich, Karen McNulty, and Jeanene Crawson—began to create and align their units of study. As they worked on their curriculum, they incorporated the practices we explored and explicitly aligned student tasks to the standards.
In the revision stage of the work, the teachers used a standards- analysis document to examine the placement and emphasis of standards within the curriculum. There are diff erent versions of the standards-analysis
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48 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
document. The two models presented here reference the Common Core State Standards but can be adapted to any set of standards.
The standards-analysis document shown in Figure 3.1, developed by Learner-Centered Initiatives consultant Dr. Liz Locatelli, allows the user to read and see the relationship between the units of study and the specifi c standards that are taught and assessed in that unit. Each standard is fully written out, and columns provide space for noting where the standard has been included in the units of study. This standards-analysis document is especially helpful when planning a curriculum or documenting the place- ment of standards as the curriculum is being developed.
The standards-analysis document in Figure 3.2 (see p. 50) shows the same relationships but condenses the data. Users simply put the unit numbers in the spaces related to the appropriate standard. This docu- ment is particularly useful for analyzing a curriculum to make revisions, or it can be used as a quick reference tool when designing units of study.
In Fire Island we worked with the second document because we wanted to gather and analyze data from existing units of study. Figure 3.3 (see p. 51) represents what we found as a result of identifying the location of standards taught and assessed in the 5th and 6th grade curriculum.
At fi rst glance, the chart looks like a random collection of numbers, but careful analysis is quite revealing. We used the following questions to guide us through the analysis process:
• What standards are emphasized? Why? • Where are there gaps or standards that are underemphasized? Why? • What additional questions do the data generate? • What revisions need to be made to create a balanced and spi-
raled curriculum?
Here is what we discovered: certain standards were identifi ed as taught and assessed in every unit or almost every unit. Discussion with the 5th and 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Gabrielle Donovan, revealed that this was not done intentionally but did refl ect what she reinforced with her
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Standards Placement and Emphasis 49
Figure 3.1
STANDARDS-ANALYSIS DOCUMENT 1
Reading Literature Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Unit 6
RL.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when
explaining what the text says explicitly and when
drawing inferences from the text.
RL.5.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama,
or poem from details in the text, including
how characters in a story or drama respond to
challenges or how the speaker in a poem refl ects
upon a topic; summarize the text.
RL.5.3 Compare and contrast two or more char-
acters, settings, or events in a story or drama,
drawing on specifi c details in the text (e.g., how
characters interact).
RL.5.4 Determine the meaning of words and
phrases as they are used in a text, including fi gu-
rative language such as metaphors and similes.
RL.5.5 Explain how a series of chapters, scenes,
or stanzas fi ts together to provide the overall
structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.
RL.5.6 Describe how a narrator’s or speak-
er’s point of view infl uences how events are
described.
RL.5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia
elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or
beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia
presentation of fi ction, folktale, myth, poem).
(RL.5.8 not applicable to literature)
RL.5.9 Compare and contrast stories in the same
genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on
their approaches to similar themes and topics.
Source: © 2013 by Learner-Centered Initiatives. Used with permission.
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50 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
students in class. For example, Mrs. Donovan emphasized the fi rst stan- dard in reading literature and reading information:
RL.6.1 and RI.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of
what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
Mrs. Donovan shared with her students the importance of backing up their statements with evidence from the text and had taught them strat- egies for doing so. As a result, they were expected to use textual evidence during discussions and when writing.
Other standards identifi ed as being emphasized, such as Writing Stan- dard 2, were not refl ective of actual practice:
Figure 3.2
STANDARDS-ANALYSIS DOCUMENT 2
Standard Reading Literature
Reading Information
Writing Speaking and
Listening
Language
1
2
3
4
5
6
7 X X
8 X X X
9 X X
10 X X
Source: © 2012 by Learner-Centered Initiatives. Used with permission.
Numbers represent the grade-level standard. The maximum number
of standards found in a given strand of the CCSS is 10. Not all strands
have 10 standards. An X indicates that the standard does not exist.
Strand
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Standards Placement and Emphasis 51
W.6.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic
and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the
selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
a. Introduce a topic; organize ideas, concepts, and
information, using strategies such as defi nition,
classifi cation, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect;
include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g.,
charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding
comprehension.
Figure 3.3
COMPLETED STANDARDS-ANALYSIS DOCUMENT
Standard Reading Literature
Reading Information
Writing Speaking and
Listening
Language
1 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 1, 2, 6 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 1, 2
2 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 1, 2, 3, 5 2
3 1, 2, 3 1, 2, 6 2, 3 1, 2, 5
4 1, 2, 3, 5 1, 2 1, 2, 3 1, 3, 5 1
5 5 2, 6 2, 5 1, 3, 5
6 5, 6 1 1 1, 3, 5
7 3, 5 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 1, 2, 3, 6 X X
8 X 2, 4, 6 1, 2, 3, 6 X X
9 2, 3, 5 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 1, 2, 3, 6 X X
10 1, 2, 3 X X
11 1, 3, 5 X 3, 5 X X
Note:
• X indicates that there is no standard with that number.
• A blank space means the standard could not be found in a unit of study.
• New York State has 11 English language arts standards.
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52 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
b. Develop the topic with relevant facts, defi nitions,
concrete details, quotations, or other information and
examples.
c. Use appropriate transitions to clarify the relationships
among ideas and concepts.
d. Use precise language and domain-specifi c vocabulary
to inform about or explain the topic.
e. Establish and maintain a formal style.
f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows
from the information or explanation presented.
Mrs. Donovan shared that although students were often asked to write short informational pieces, those were mostly responses to text and not fully developed pieces that incorporated all the components of Standard 2. The standard was not taught and assessed as it was being represented in the standards-analysis document, and it needed to be removed from some of the units in order to accurately represent classroom practice.
Examination of the standards-analysis document revealed gaps and standards that were underemphasized. Some of the gaps were eas- ily explained—for example, Standard 10 for reading literature and information:
RL.6.10 and RI.6.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend
literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity
band profi ciently, with scaffolding as needed
at the high end of the range.
Mrs. Donovan’s students read diff erent texts for diff erent purposes on a daily basis, and because it was common practice, she had not included the standard in the units.
However, this was not the case with all of the standards that were iden- tifi ed as underemphasized. Closer examination revealed that some of the
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Standards Placement and Emphasis 53
standards that had been included in only one or two units needed to be taught and assessed more consistently. For example, Mrs. Donovan rec- ognized the importance of Standard 5:
RL.6.5 Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or
stanza fi ts into the overall structure of a text and contrib-
utes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.
Structure had not been explicitly targeted in the previous set of standards used by New York State, so this standard would require a more intentional change in practice.
After they had examined the standards-analysis document, several questions emerged for the Fire Island teachers about the placement and emphasis of standards in curriculum. These included the following:
• Is it necessary for all standards to be taught and assessed? • Can certain standards be emphasized in all units? If so, how; or
should those standards be included in the listing of the standards? • How should standards be placed over the course of the year? • What revisions need to be made to create a balanced and spi-
raled curriculum?
These questions are important to all curriculum, so we will examine them not only as they relate to the examples from the Fire Island School Dis- trict but also in terms of their implications for other grade levels and con- tent areas.
Is it necessary for all standards to be taught and assessed? The answer to this question is simple: yes. The standards you adopt or create articulate what you value. Picking and choosing standards based on preference does not honor the overall intent of the standards. Working with only some of the standards would make it quite easy to disregard the ones that you don’t like, that are diffi cult to teach, or that fall outside your comfort zone. The result could be a curriculum that does not provide students with the opportunity to engage in rigorous tasks and, in the absence of ensuring
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54 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
that all standards have been included, would decrease the likelihood that students have engaged in learning activities that serve as foundations for subsequent years.
As discussed in Chapter 2, the standards identifi ed in a unit of study should be those that are taught and assessed in the unit of study. By the end of the year, all standards should be taught and assessed, and ide- ally more than once so students have ample opportunity to practice and obtain the skills embedded in the standards.
Can certain standards be emphasized in all units? If so, how; or should those standards be included in the listing of the standards? Once again the answer to this question is yes, it is possible that certain standards can be emphasized in all units, particularly if the selected standard represents the intent behind the standards as a whole. However, this does not mean that the standard is equally emphasized in all units, nor that it should be listed in all units. Let’s take a look at two diff erent sets of standards to illustrate this.
Mrs. Donovan’s rationale for the choice of Standard 1 validated the inclusion of that standard in all units. It was also supported by the intent of the Common Core State Standards, which was to shift practice in six areas (EngageNY, n.d.):
1. Balance of Informational and Literary Texts: Students read a variety of informational and literary texts that are complementary to one another.
2. Knowledge Across Disciplines: Students read and write as an integral part of learning in the content areas.
3. Staircase of Complexity: Students read increasingly complex text.
4. Textual Evidence: Students use specifi c evidence from the text when making an argument or sharing information.
5. Writing from Sources: Students write for diff erent purposes: to argue, inform, or share.
6. Vocabulary: Students learn and incorporate academic and domain-specifi c vocabulary.
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Standards Placement and Emphasis 55
Because Standard 1 asks students to cite the text, it clearly supports the shift “Textual Evidence,” so it made sense to include it in all units. But what did this mean for other standards? Mrs. Donovan had decided not to include Standard 10 in all units even though she asked students to read a variety of texts. This standard supports the shift “Staircase of Complex- ity.” Why wouldn’t the same thinking apply to this standard?
Clearly, there is no one right answer; both points make sense. However, the key behind all decisions regarding curriculum design is consistency, and this was surely not consistent practice. After some discussion, this is what was decided: The standard would be listed as taught and assessed when specifi c strategies for achieving the standard would be taught to the students. When the standard was not listed, students would still be expected to use the skills embedded in the standard.
Another example of choosing standards based on intent can be seen in the Next Generation Science Standards. Again, these standards represent conceptual shifts in practice, as explained in Appendix A of the Next Gen- eration Science Standards (NGSS, n.d.) and paraphrased here:
1. Interconnected Nature of Science in the Real World: Science incorporates science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas.
2. Performance Expectations: The standards identify what stu- dents need to be able to do but not necessarily the specifi cs of what they need to know.
3. Coherent Building of Science Concepts: There is a progression of knowledge that occurs over several years that leads to an overall understanding of science concepts by the end of high school. Each grade- level band builds off the previous band.
4. Deeper Understanding and Application of Content: The focus is on big ideas, not isolated facts.
5. Integration of Science and Engineering: Engineering and tech- nology are given the same attention as scientifi c inquiry and used to help students apply science to their everyday lives.
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56 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
6. College, Career, and Citizenship: Science is an integral part of daily life, and science knowledge will prepare students for making sense of their world.
7. Connection to the Common Core State Standards: There are many overlaps between the CCSS and the NGSS, showing the integral nature of the disciplines: science, English language arts, mathematics, and technology.
Honoring the shifts in science means ensuring that each unit incorpo- rates standards representing science and engineering practices, crosscut- ting concepts, and core ideas, as well as the appropriate English language arts and literacy standards, and the standards for mathematics. The fol- lowing high school example illustrates this practice.
Students choose a form of wave technology such as solar cells convert- ing light into energy, medical imaging, or computer technology. They con- duct research on how the wave technology works, who uses it and why, how it improves the quality of life, and how it is an improvement over past technology. Students create a display for a school-sponsored technology fair in which they share their research with the community and promote the use of current technology. Students include a model and a visual dia- gram showing how the technology works and a brochure for visitors to take with them.
In this unit of study, the following performance indicator (along with its related science and engineering practice, disciplinary core idea, and crosscutting concepts) is taught and assessed:
HS-PS4-5 Communicate technical information about how
some technological devices use the principles of
wave behavior and wave interactions with matter
to transmit and capture information and energy.
In addition, the following Common Core standards for science are also assessed:
RST.11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of infor-
mation presented in diverse formats and media
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Standards Placement and Emphasis 57
(e.g., quantitative data, video, multimedia) in
order to address a question or solve a problem.
WHST.11-12.2 Write informative/explanatory texts, including the
narration of historical events, scientifi c proce-
dures/experiments, or technical processes.
By including these standards, the unit is illustrating the science shift in practice “Connection to Common Core State Standards” in English language arts. An integral relationship connects the standards in English language arts and science, therefore honoring the intent of the standards.
How should standards be placed over the course of the year? For the teachers on Fire Island, this question arose as a result of the other two: if all standards should be taught and assessed and strategically placed within units of study, how do you know where they should be placed? This time, however, the answer was not so simple. Certain factors that should be considered in the placement of the standards through the cur- riculum include developmentally appropriate practice, gradual release of responsibility, grade-level focus skills, and outside forces such as state and national tests.
Developmentally appropriate practice. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that when we are discussing standards, we are talking about children, and developmental factors should be considered when determining or evaluating the placement of standards within a curriculum. For example, writing in kindergarten does not necessarily begin with print. Students progress from using marks, to drawing and using random letters, to using letters that represent sounds and words, to eventually using conventional print—and not necessarily in that order and at the same pace. Many kin- dergarten teachers agree that the best way for students to learn how to write is to begin by writing about themselves. Therefore, it would make sense that the fi rst unit in a kindergarten classroom would include the standards for narrative writing and that these standards would be revis- ited later in the year when students have more experience as writers.
This idea also applies to what we understand about students as learn- ers. Middle school students are undergoing great changes in their ability
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58 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
to think. Brain research has shown that they are moving from concrete to abstract thinking and to the beginnings of metacognition. They are devel- oping skills in deductive reasoning, problem solving, and generalizing, which are manifested in such behaviors as maintaining strong, intense interests; preferring to interact with peers; and engaging in active learn- ing (Lorain, 2015). With this in mind, it makes sense to include speaking and listening standards to teach students how to positively interact and learn from one another right from the beginning of the year.
Gradual release of responsibility. Standards are written in terms of what students should know and be able to do by the end of the year. For students to have ample opportunity to practice and then achieve the skills embedded in the standards, the standards should be consistently revis- ited throughout the year. The caution here is to make sure that the same standards are not always clustered together or that standards are not front- or back-loaded into the curriculum. In the Fire Island standards- analysis document (Figure 3.3), for example, Standard 6 for reading liter- ature could be found only in Units 5 and 6, the last units of the year. This standard includes valuable skills:
RL.6.6 Explain how an author develops the point of view of the
narrator or speaker in a text.
There could be several explanations for why the standard was placed at the end of the year. Explaining how point of view infl uences how events are described and how the author develops point of view are much more diffi cult skills than simply identifying point of view. The teacher may not have realized that the standard went beyond identifying point of view, or he or she may have felt the students were not ready to apply their under- standing of point of view. Regardless of whether the placement was pur- poseful or not, waiting until the end of the year is not advantageous to the students; they certainly will not have enough practice with a complex skill.
It is important to note here that each discipline presents subtle dif- ferences in its approach to standards. It is possible, then, that certain content-specifi c standards may be included in the curriculum only once
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Standards Placement and Emphasis 59
if they are specifi c to a concept or topic. However, all standards from the content area should be taught and assessed by the end of the year, and those that transcend content should be strategically placed so students have opportunities to practice the embedded skills.
Grade-level focus skills. Careful analysis of standards documents will reveal if there are skills that should be emphasized in a curriculum for a particular grade level. The Common Core State Standards are a good example of this. The CCSS were written “backward” from the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standard to kindergarten so that the skills are scaff olded and students will be college- and career-ready upon gradu- ation. By comparing a grade-level standard with the standards from the previous and following grade levels, you can identify emphasized grade- level skills, as seen in the 2nd grade example in Figure 3.4.
Students in 2nd grade are expected to be able to answer who, what, where, when, why, and how questions. Although they may have already done so in kindergarten and 1st grade and will continue to do so through- out their educational career, the CCSS has identifi ed this as a focus for instruction in 2nd grade. It is the only grade level in which this particu- lar skill has been explicitly identifi ed. Figure 3.4 illustrates this emphasis through its coding:
• Bold, italicized print identifi es language in the standard that is new to a grade level when it is compared to the previous grade level. This indicates the introduction of a new skill.
Figure 3.4
SCAFFOLDED STANDARDS
1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade
RL.1.1 Ask and answer
questions about key details
in a text.
RL.2.1 Ask and answer
such questions as who,
what, where, when, why,
and how to demonstrate
understanding of key details
in a text.
RL.3.1 Ask and answer
questions to demonstrate
understanding of a text,
referring explicitly to the
text as the basis for the
answers.
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60 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• Underlined print indicates language in the standard that is no longer part of the standard in the following grade level. This means that the skill is a necessary foundation for the following grade level.
• Print that is bold, italicized, and underlined indicates a skill that is specifi c to a grade level, as shown in the 2nd grade example.
The process of comparing grade-level standards to those that precede and follow is a valuable activity for teachers to engage in before designing or evaluating curriculum. It allows them to see the role of the grade-level curriculum in the big picture of curriculum. Understanding the skills that are introduced, reinforced, or mastered also provides insight into the placement of standards, as well as the type of instructional strategies that should be used for teaching them.
Other standards and content documents will convey information regarding learning progressions in a similar fashion. For example, Figure 3.5 is an excerpt from Appendix F of the Next Generation Science Stan- dards, showing progressions of Science Practice 3: Planning and Carrying Out Investigations.
Once again, the coding of the standards (through boldface, italics, and underlining) reveals skills that are the focus of instruction because they are unique to a grade-level band. In this science example, the change in empha- sis at each grade-level band is on the type of data collected and analyzed. The curriculum should therefore emphasize the diff erent types of data as students engage in scientifi c investigations at the diff erent band levels.
Outside forces, such as state and national tests. Another consid- eration in the placement of standards is the timing of state or national tests. If one of the goals of the curriculum is to avoid ongoing test prep or the dreaded test-prep unit, it is important to make sure that the standards that tend to be the focus of the standardized assessments are embedded in the curriculum before the actual exam. For example, the New York State ELA exam emphasizes a form of argumentative and informational writing; therefore, the corresponding writing standards should be the focus of instruction before the tests are administered so that students are
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Standards Placement and Emphasis 61
Figure 3.5
EXCERPTS FROM SCIENCE STANDARDS FOR PLANNING AND CARRYING OUT INVESTIGATIONS
Grades K–2 Grades 3–5 Grades 6–8 Grades 9–12
Planning and carrying
out investigations
to answer questions
or test solutions to
problems in K–2
builds on prior
experiences and
progresses to simple
investigations, based
on fair tests, which
provide data to
support explanations
or design solutions.
• With guidance, plan and conduct an investigation in collaboration with peers (for K).
• Plan and conduct an investigation collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evi- dence to answer a question.
Planning and carrying
out investigations
to answer questions
or test solutions
to problems in
3–5 builds on K–2
experiences and
progresses to include
investigations that
control variables
and provide
evidence to support
explanations or
design solutions.
• Plan and conduct an investigation collaboratively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence, using fair tests in which vari- ables are con- trolled and the number of trials considered.
Planning and carrying
out investigations in
6–8 builds on K–5
experiences and
progresses to include
investigations that
use multiple vari-
ables and provide
evidence to support
explanations or
solutions.
• Plan an investiga- tion individually and collabora- tively, and in the design: identify independent and depen- dent variables and controls, what tools are needed to do the gathering, how measure- ments will be recorded, and how many data are needed to support a claim.
Planning and carrying
out investigations
in 9–12 builds on
K–8 experiences and
progresses to include
investigations that
provide evidence for
and test concep-
tual, mathemati-
cal, physical, and
empirical models.
• Plan an investi- gation or test a design individu- ally and collabora- tively to produce data to serve as the basis for evidence as part of building and revising models, supporting explanations for phenomena, or testing solutions to problems. Consider possi- ble confounding variables or effects and evaluate the investigation’s design to ensure variables are controlled.
Source: Next Generation Science Standards, Appendix F. Boldface, italics, and underlining do not appear in original.
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62 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
prepared, but in a more natural way that is embedded in the curriculum rather than separate from it.
Putting It All Together
After exploring the answers to the three questions just discussed as they pertained to the Fire Island School District, it was time to answer the remaining analysis question: What revisions need to be made to cre- ate a balanced and spiraled curriculum? It was evident that all standards needed to be identifi ed in the units where they were taught and assessed, placement of standards needed to support the shifts in practice and the big picture of curriculum, and standards needed strategic placement to ensure opportunities for review and attainment.
As a result of the standards analysis, Fire Island revised the placement of the standards in the curriculum, as shown in Figure 3.6. The revised standards-analysis document shows the following changes:
• All of the standards are taught and assessed throughout the year. • Standards are placed in the curriculum strategically so that
those that support the intent of the standards—in this case, the shifts in practice—are introduced early on and revisited throughout the year. For example, Standard 4 is included in the curriculum in Unit 1 for both reading literature and reading information:
RL.6.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as
they are used in a text, including fi gurative and
connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a
specifi c word choice on meaning and tone.
RI.6.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as
they are used in a text, including fi gurative, conno-
tative, and technical meanings.
The CCSS emphasizes students’ acquisition and integration of vocabu- lary into their expressive language. To accomplish this, students need to be taught very specifi c strategies. Including this standard in the fi rst unit is one way to ensure that students have the time to practice and apply the
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Standards Placement and Emphasis 63
skills for learning and using new vocabulary throughout the year. The strategies they have been taught are revisited, and additional strategies are taught to the students in subsequent units.
• Standards that lay the foundation for other standards are included in the fi rst unit. For example, the skills embedded in Reading Information Standard 2 include determining “a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details,” and providing “a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.” These skills serve as the foundation for reading and analyzing informational text and therefore were included in Unit 1.
• All standards are revisited throughout the year. Conscious eff ort was made to ensure that there was no back- or front-loading
Figure 3.6
REVISED STANDARDS-ANALYSIS DOCUMENT
Standard Reading Literature
Reading Information
Writing Speaking and
Listening
Language
a. b. c. d. e.
1 1, 3, 4 1, 3, 4 2, 4 1, 2, 3,
4, 5
1, 3 3, 6 2, 5 2, 5 1, 3
2 2, 3, 5 1, 2, 5 1, 5 1, 2, 5 1, 4 2, 4 2, 4 1, 3 1, 3,
5
3 1, 2, 4 2, 4, 6 3, 6 4, 6 2, 3 3, 5 X X X
4 1, 3 1, 3 1, 3, 5 1, 4, 6 1, 4 2, 4 1, 3 X X
5 2, 3, 5 2, 3, 5 1, 3, 5 1, 3, 6 1, 3 2, 3 2, 4 X X
6 2, 4, 6 1, 4 1, 3, 6 1, 3, 6 2, 3
7 3, 5 1, 2, 5 1, 2, 4, 6 X X
8 X 4, 6 4, 5 X X
9 2, 3, 6 3, 5 3 X X
10 1 1 1 X X
11 1, 3, 5 X 3, 5 X X
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64 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
of standards, and that the same standards were not always clustered together. Revisiting standards throughout the year provides an oppor- tunity for students to practice the skills embedded in the standards and become profi cient in using them independently.
Fire Island’s story is actually quite typical of what happens in many schools. The situation is not so much that educators are reluctant to examine or determine the placement of standards as that placement and emphasis of standards are not a conscious and deliberate part of the pro- cess of curriculum evaluation or design. In Fire Island, the placement of standards occurred as individual units were developed and was often based on the topics and strategies under examination during professional development. In cases in which a district purchases a text or series as the curriculum, it may assume that the placement of standards has been care- fully planned. The lesson to be learned from the Fire Island experience is that placement and emphasis of standards should be a conscious part of the curriculum design and evaluation process.
Summary: Standards Placement and Emphasis
There are many factors to consider when examining or deciding the place- ment and emphasis of standards within a curriculum. Some of the most important are the following:
• Although a unit may address many standards, only those that are being emphasized—meaning those that will guide the specifi c skills that will be taught and then assessed—should be listed. By the end of the year, all standards should be taught and assessed within the curriculum, ide- ally providing students with multiple opportunities to practice the skills embedded in the standards.
• Placement of standards throughout the year should be infl u- enced by factors such as the overall intent of the standards, grade-level focus standards, gradual release of responsibility, and developmentally appropriate practice.
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Standards Placement and Emphasis 65
Tools and Activities for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
• Standards-Analysis Documents (Figures 3.1 and 3.2)—Two standards-analysis tools are available to help you both plan and ana- lyze the placement of standards within the curriculum. Once you have collected the data, you can review these documents using the guiding questions provided in this chapter to determine if the placement and emphasis of standards refl ect the overall intent of the standards, grade- level focus standards, gradual release of responsibility, and developmen- tally appropriate practice.
• Determining Focus Standards—This activity consists of coding (with boldface, italics, and underlining) standards to determine grade-level or grade-band emphasis. When teachers engage in this pro- cess, they not only determine what skills to emphasize but also become more familiar with cross-grade-level connections in the curriculum.
Checklist for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
All standards are taught and assessed within the curriculum, pro- viding students with multiple opportunities to practice the skills embedded in the standards.
Standards placement refl ects the overall intent of the stan- dard by placing standards with foundational skills early in the school year.
Standards placement refl ects grade-level or grade-band focus as revealed through the careful analysis of standards in learning progressions.
Standards placement provides ample opportunity for students to practice complex skills.
Standards placement refl ects developmentally appropriate practice.
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66
4
CONSIDERATION 4
Assessment Types
and Purposes
In an “Assessment Manifesto” published in 2008, Rick Stiggins had this to say about assessments:
If assessments are to support improvements in student learning,
their results must inform students how to do better the next time.
This will require communication of results that transmit suffi cient
understandable detail to guide the learner’s actions. In such con-
texts, single scores or grades will not suffi ce.
Further, to support learning, assessments must evolve from
being isolated occasional events attached to the end of teaching
to becoming an ongoing series of interrelated events that reveal
changes in student learning over time. Such evidence will reveal
to the learner and the teacher not only current achievement
status, but also improvements in the student’s capabilities—a
powerful booster of confi dence and motivation.
Finally, to support learning, assessments must move beyond
merely informing the instructional decisions of teachers and
school leaders to informing decisions made by students, too.
In the future, balanced assessment systems will need to be
designed to serve diverse purposes by meeting the information
needs of all decision makers. Historically, they have not done
this. (2008, p. 3)
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Assessment Types and Purposes 67
Stiggins’s vision for assessment is one that I would hope all schools would want—assessments that support learning. However, as Stiggins also notes, this is not the case in all schools. Many schools view assess- ments as isolated events that students have no control over and that are used to generate a score and to separate those who are successful from those who are not. There is much more to assessment than that.
Understanding the roles of diff erent types of assessments and the purposes they serve is the fi rst step to developing or evaluating quality assessments in a curriculum. The second step is to develop or ensure the inclusion of high-quality, curriculum-embedded performance assess- ments—that is, assessments that produce, support, and then measure student learning (the focus of Chapter 5).
Types of Assessment
Assessment is defi ned as the strategic collection of evidence of student learning throughout the learning process (Martin-Kniep, 2006). Assess- ment does not automatically mean “test,” although many people make that immediate association when hearing the word. Unfortunately, when standardized state tests became the norm in the mid-’90s, they were intro- duced as assessments, and the term assessment became equated with the word test. In actuality, tests are really one type of assessment. They fall under the category of information-recall assessments. Information- recall assessments include test formats such as multiple choice, true-false, matching columns, and short answers that require students to identify or provide the correct answer as deemed by the test creator.
Other types of assessments used in the classroom are product assess- ments, demonstrations or performance assessments, and process assess- ments. Product assessments result in the creation of a tangible product. They range from the very informal, such as sticky notes used to capture student thinking as they read, to formal research papers or essays. Demon- strations, sometimes called performance assessments, require students to
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68 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
do something and include behaviors observable by the teacher. Examples include informal small-group discussions, formal classroom debates, and individual and group presentations. A process assessment comes in the form of a product or demonstration but focuses on metacognition, asking students to refl ect on their thinking and processes. A process assessment includes students’ self-refl ections, in which they answer questions such as What did you fi nd easy or diffi cult about this assessment? and What would you do diff erently? This type also includes process journals in which stu- dents document steps in their research, as well as “Dear Reader” letters in which students explain the choice of work included in their portfolios and what it demonstrates about them as learners.
Combining Assessment Types
In some cases an assessment may include diff erent types. For example, a test might contain information recall and a product—in other words, multiple-choice questions and an essay. A demonstration may include a product—for example, a presentation explaining a model.
It is also possible that a performance assessment such as a lab experi- ment might occur under testing conditions, and a short-answer test might be completed in small groups with access to resources. So another fac- tor in considering the type of assessment is the conditions under which the assessment is implemented—on-demand or curriculum embedded. On-demand tasks are those that are separate from the curriculum. They require students to stop what they are doing in order to complete the assessment. Curriculum-embedded assessments are those that are inte- grated into daily instruction; they produce, as well as measure, learning (and they are explored in detail in Chapter 5).
When to Use Diff erent Types of Assessments
Teachers recognize the diff erent types of assessments in their practice, so the question is not whether they exist but rather when they should be used. The answer is, it depends on what you are assessing. Diff erent types
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Assessment Types and Purposes 69
of standards will require diff erent types of assessments. Let’s look at an example to illustrate this point: the Pennsylvania Learning Standard for Early Childhood: AL.1 PK.C, Engage in complex play sequences with two or more children. This standard can only be assessed by watching a child engaging in play with other children. Besides the likelihood that most 3- and 4-year-olds are not able to read and write, asking students to draw or write about how to play with others, or read a story about children play- ing and then discuss it, is not the same as actually engaging in play them- selves, as delineated in the standard. The assessment must be congruent with the standard it is intended to measure.
Now, read each of the standards in Figure 4.1 (see p. 70), and for each one place a checkmark in the column identifying the assessment that you feel can best determine student understanding. You can choose more than one type of assessment for each standard, but each assessment cho- sen must answer the question Will this assessment generate reliable evi- dence of student learning?
What do you notice about the relationship between the standard and the types of assessments used to determine student understanding? You may have noticed some of the points included in the following discussion.
First, many standards can be assessed by more than one type of assess- ment. This is particularly true of reading standards and content-specifi c standards. For example, RH.9-10.9, the fi rst standard in Figure 4.1, asks students to compare and contrast how primary and secondary sources treat the same topic. An information-recall assessment might ask stu- dents to read a brief explanation of the role of Martin Luther in the Prot- estant Reformation and then an excerpt from his “95 Theses” and identify the statement that best explains the similarity or diff erence between the two passages. A product assessment could have students write an analysis of Martin Luther’s role in the Reformation by comparing and contrasting primary source materials against secondary syntheses. A demonstration might have students debate his role and the role of others in the Refor- mation using both primary and secondary sources, and discuss the use of
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70 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Figure 4.1
CONGRUENCE IN ASSESSMENT
Standard Type(s) of Assessment Needed
Recall Product Demon- stration
Process
RH.9–10.9 Compare and contrast
treatments of the same topic in several
primary and secondary sources.
PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes
and Everyday Life—The energy released
[from] food was once energy from the
sun that was captured by plants in the
chemical process that forms plant mat-
ter (from air and water). (5-PS3-1)
SL.6.5 Include multimedia components
(e.g., graphics, images, music, sound)
and visual displays in presentations to
clarify information.
ELD Standard 2: English language
learners communicate information,
ideas, and concepts necessary for
academic success in the content area of
Language Arts.
Grade 4 Level 3—Developing: Catego-
rize passages based on narrative points
of view from illustrated text using word/
phrase banks with a partner. (WIDA)
Disposition of Practice—Commitment
to Refl ection: values time to think, ask
questions, consider actions, evaluate
activities and work, set goals, and
plan future actions stemming from
those goals.
Source: © 2012 by Learner-Centered Initiatives. Used with permission.
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Assessment Types and Purposes 71
the sources as evidence given the time, place, and conditions under which they were written.
Content-specifi c standards or understandings can also often be assessed in more than one way. The second example in Figure 4.1, the NGSS discipline core idea PS3.D: Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life, can be assessed by information recall, product, and demonstration. An information-recall assessment would ask questions about the steps in the process; a product assessment would call for students to illustrate and explain the process; and in a demonstration, students would explain the process using a model or an illustration.
When a standard can be assessed using more than one type of assess- ment, it is worthwhile to do so. The use of multiple measures provides the teacher with more detailed information about what the student knows and is able to do, and under what conditions. For example, a student may have little diffi culty conducting and explaining the results of a lab exper- iment to his classmates. However, he may have diffi culty writing about it, raising questions for the teacher about whether the student’s ability to articulate his understanding in writing or his level of understanding is interfering with his ability to respond.
Second, standards specifi c to a modality or that describe a specifi c action can only be assessed one way. This was true of the early child- hood standard mentioned earlier and is also true of Speaking Standard 6.5, the third example in Figure 4.1. Both of these standards can only be measured using one type of assessment: demonstration. In the case of the speaking standard, students must give a presentation using multime- dia tools in order for the teacher to determine if they are able to use the skills included in the standard. Although other assessments might be able to measure related understandings—for example, an information-recall assessment might provide students with a scenario about a presentation and ask them to choose the most appropriate multimedia component—it would not truly be assessing students’ ability to actually give a presenta- tion using multimedia tools.
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72 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
The WIDA English Language Development (ELD) standard, the fourth example in Figure 4.1, is another one that can be assessed using one type of assessment. At fi rst, it may seem that the best form of assess- ment of this standard is demonstration—a teacher observing students categorizing passages. Closer reading of the standard, however, indi- cates that it should be assessed using an information-recall assessment. Although students are working together, the focus of the standard is on categorizing information using a word bank, and not the process used to do so.
The last example, the dispositional standard, illustrates the need for a process assessment. The only way to discover what students are think- ing is to provide them with the opportunity to share their thinking with you. You can ask students to evaluate the results of an information- recall assessment, taking note of any trends in the questions they got wrong and the reasons why they got these questions wrong, in order to set goals for improvement. They may also keep a journal documenting their decision-making process while conducting research, writing a paper, or preparing for a formal presentation. The purpose of these process assess- ments is to provide students with time to think, ask questions, consider actions, evaluate activities and work, set goals, and plan future actions stemming from those goals. The assessments help teachers identify needs, surface misconceptions, and make instructional decisions to sup- port students.
Examining assessments to determine if they are congruent with the standards they intend to measure provides information about whether the curriculum includes appropriate and varied measures of student learning. Although congruence is important, there needs to be a match between what you are assessing and the way it is being assessed; congru- ence does not necessarily ensure strong alignment. As explained in Chap- ter 2, strong alignment occurs when the task and the standard are diffi cult to distinguish from each other and the intent of the standard remains intact. The assessments will also need to be evaluated to determine the degree of alignment to the standards.
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Assessment Types and Purposes 73
Assessment Purposes
In addition to being aware of the types of assessments, the purpose of those assessments should be considered when examining or creating cur- riculum. Assessments have three purposes: diagnostic, formative, and summative. Usually these assessment purposes are associated with tim- ing, but more important than timing is how the information is being used.
Diagnostic Assessment
Diagnostic assessment can be used to identify what students know and are able to do, to uncover misconceptions students have, and as a baseline for determining growth. It is used at the beginning of a learning cycle— meaning the beginning of a school year, a unit, a learning experience, or a lesson; and diagnostic assessment activities range in formality, depend- ing on how the teacher plans to use the information. For example, if a 1st grade teacher wants to determine what students know about frogs, stu- dents can contribute factual information during a classroom discussion in which the teacher records their responses. This is an informal way for the teacher to determine what students know, as well as to identify any misconceptions they may have about frogs. However, if the teacher wants to also know how well her students communicate in writing, she would need to ask them to respond in writing and then examine their work to determine what they know about frogs as well as their strengths and needs as writers.
If the same 1st grade teacher wants to know about students’ strengths and weaknesses as readers and then measure their growth as readers throughout the year, she would need a much more formal diagnostic demonstration assessment, such as a running record. She would use the assessment at the beginning of the year as a baseline diagnostic, at key points during the year to monitor student learning, and at the end of the year to determine growth.
Another example that illustrates the use of diagnostic assessment as a baseline at the high school level is student responses to a document-based
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74 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
question (DBQ). In an American history class, students might read and analyze primary and secondary sources related to colonial foundations, and then write a response to the question What factors infl uenced colo- nial variations in economics, social hierarchy, and labor structure? During the school year, students would engage in many learning experiences, working with primary and secondary sources, and would have other opportunities to respond to DBQs. At the end of the year, students would again use primary and secondary sources to respond to the question What is the place of the United States today in a globalized and intercon- nected world?
To determine growth, the assessment tasks must be parallel in both their skills and the conditions under which they are completed. Content may or may not be the same, depending on standards the assessment is intended to measure. The examples just described require the students to use the same skills at the beginning and end of the year, but the content changes because the focus of the assessments is on how students apply skills and not the specifi c content itself.
Formative Assessment
In both the 1st grade classroom and the American history classroom, the diagnostic assessment was followed by additional activities used by the teacher to monitor student understanding. These checks for under- standing are formative in nature because they have been strategically planned by the teacher as opportunities for students to share their under- standing with the teacher, and for the teacher to respond accordingly. The process varies in terms of the type and formality of the tasks involved, but they are all low-stakes, learning-focused activities that serve a variety of interwoven purposes:
• Check for content understanding to determine what informa- tion students have learned.
• Check for skill understanding to determine if students can apply the skills they have been taught.
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Assessment Types and Purposes 75
• Prepare for a summative assessment through research and building background knowledge.
• Provide opportunities for teacher feedback, peer assessment, self-assessment, and revision.
• Determine next steps for instruction based on student need.
To illustrate the role of formative assessment, read the assessment description in Figure 4.2 (see p. 76). Following the directions provided, underline the formative assessment opportunities and identify the pur- pose. The fi rst one has been completed for you as an example.
There are three formative assessment opportunities in the descrip- tion. The fi rst consists of writing summaries of newspaper articles, which are used to determine student understanding and decide on necessary next steps for instruction. Based on reading the student work, the teacher may choose to address the students’ ability to summarize and their under- standing of the content in the articles in either small groups or as a class.
The second formative assessment opportunity is the journal. Students use the journal to document their research. They meet with other stu- dents or the teacher for feedback on the accuracy of their information, and they have the opportunity to ask clarifying questions about their own work. Conferencing allows the teacher to address the individual needs of the students. It may also surface additional information about stu- dent understanding. After meeting with all the students, the teacher may notice trends in their needs and decide to address these areas in subse- quent classroom lessons.
The last formative assessment opportunity is the draft of the letter. The teacher provides students with descriptive feedback addressing both the content of the information and how they communicated that infor- mation in their letter. This is the last student-teacher interaction before the letter is sent to the student’s parents. The revised letter serves as the summative assessment.
Formative assessment serves a vital role in supporting and producing learning. It acts as an ongoing conversation between the teacher and the
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76 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Figure 4.2
THE ROLE OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
Directions:
1. In the following description of assessment, underline the formative assessment opportunity—that is, the product or performance assessment that the teacher has planned to enable students to share their understanding and the teacher to respond accordingly.
2. For each assessment opportunity, choose one or more of the following purposes:
• Check for content understanding to determine what information students have learned.
• Check for skill understanding to determine if students can apply the skills they have been taught.
• Prepare for a summative assessment through research and building background knowledge.
• Provide opportunities for teacher feedback, peer assessment, self-assessment, and revision.
• Determine next steps for instruction based on student need.
The fi rst formative assessment opportunity has been underlined in the assessment description. Its purposes are identifi ed at the bottom of the fi gure.
Assessment Description
Students read several newspaper articles about the current state of the economy in the United States compared with the economies of countries in Europe and Asia. They write and submit a summary of each article to the teacher so she can monitor their understanding of economic conditions in different regions and provide explicit instruction in areas where students need additional information and clarifi cation.
Students identify an item they would like to purchase. They determine the cost of the item given the current exchange rate between U.S. dollars, the euro, and a currency in Asia. Students then research the product using different websites. They determine the fi nal price of the item on each website, including tax and shipping cost. They also determine the cost of the product including tax if it was purchased at a local store. Students document their research in a journal and conference with the teacher and other students to check the accu- racy of their information.
Students use the information they have gathered to draft a letter to their parents explain- ing the best place to purchase the item and why. After receiving descriptive feedback on their letter from the teacher, they revise it and send it to their parents.
Purpose of the Formative Assessment Activity
Assessment Opportunity 1: Written Summary
1. Check for skill understanding—summary.
2. Check for content understanding—economics.
3. Determine next steps in instruction.
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Assessment Types and Purposes 77
student through a feedback loop. It begins with feedback to the teacher from the students about what they have and have not learned, and con- tinues with feedback from the teacher to the students about individual strengths and weaknesses, and what actions they can take to move forward.
As shown in the examples, formative assessment provides students with feedback in many ways: descriptive feedback from the teacher, peer conferencing, small-group discussions, rubrics, and checklists; and although all these methods of providing feedback are important, the most powerful is descriptive feedback. Descriptive feedback from the teacher provides detailed information to the students on their strengths and needs, as well as next steps for improving their work.
Summative Assessment
Summative assessment is the fi nal assessment that provides the teacher and the students with information about what has been learned. Summative assessment tends to be high-stakes and used for evaluative and grading and reporting purposes. Although the letter in the example from Figure 4.2 may not seem like a high-stakes assessment because it is being sent to the students’ parents, the letter also enables the teacher to determine what students learned about economics and their ability to communicate information. The teacher will use it for grading and report- ing purposes. A quality summative assessment, such as this one, will include a rubric or checklist that communicates expectations and that the teacher will use to evaluate the written piece.
As shown in this example, a formative assessment can become a summative assessment—the draft became the fi nal piece. The written newspaper article summaries are another opportunity for a summative assessment. The teacher could provide students with feedback to revise their summaries and submit them for a grade. The revised summaries would serve as the fi nal assessment for that learning experience within the unit. This change in the use of assessments within the unit illustrates the importance of understanding the purpose of the assessment as the deter- mining factor in identifying it as diagnostic, formative, or summative.
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78 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Implications for Evaluating, Creating, or Revising Curriculum
The terms used to describe assessment types and purposes have been used in education for some time. I have found that whenever education terms become prevalent, there is an assumption that all educators under- stand their meaning. Although this is true to a point, most likely teachers have very diff erent understandings of these terms. Therefore, before eval- uating or creating the assessments within a curriculum, it is important to establish a collective understanding of the diff erent types of assessments and the purposes they serve. Once that has been accomplished, it is pos- sible to evaluate the current assessments and determine which assess- ments to keep, eliminate, and revise.
An effi cient way to evaluate assessments is to create a simple list in which you identify the type and purpose of each. Consolidating the assess- ments into a one-page document, as in Figure 4.3, makes analysis simple, through the use of a series of guiding questions. The fi rst set of guiding questions focuses on the types of assessments. Here the questions have been applied to the high school global studies example in Figure 4.3.
1. What types of assessments are used to determine student understanding? This course uses primarily two types of assessments: information recall and product. In only one case can students choose demonstration as an option.
2. Is there an overreliance on one type, and are any types of assess- ments missing? To determine if there is an overreliance, we fi rst need to consider why one type would be preferred over another. In this case, tests are used as an assessment in every unit. Given that this is a social studies curriculum, we can assume that teachers are using the unit test to determine what content students have learned. Although an information- recall assessment may be appropriate and is certainly very common in the classroom, in some cases this is the only type of assess- ment used, and students do not have any other way of sharing what they know with the teacher. In the units that include some products as
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Assessment Types and Purposes 79
Figure 4.3
GLOBAL STUDIES ASSESSMENTS
Assessment Description Type* Purpose** Standards
Unit 1: Early
Man and
the Birth of
Civilization
• Unit test
• Essay: Where did civilization begin?
IR
PD
S 9.1a–d
9.4b
Unit 2:
Ancient
Western
Civilization
• Unit test IR S 9.1a, b, d
9.2a, b
9.3a
9.4b, e
Unit 3:
Ancient
Eastern
Civilization
• Unit test
• Essay: How did the Silk Road contribute to cultural diffusion?
IR
PD
S 9.1c, d
9.2b
9.3b
9.4b, c
Unit 4:
Middle Ages
• Unit test
• Project: Students choose one of the following:
° Create a cause-and-effect chart
showing the reasons why feudalism
developed and its consequences.
° Role-play the various ranks in the
hierarchy of feudal society and
church society.
° Find examples of various types of art
and architecture of the Middle Ages
and explain how each refl ects the
cultural values of the time period.
° Read and summarize a primary
source text and a secondary source
text that illustrate the abusive power
and corruption in society and the
church during the Middle Ages.
° Identify and rank the reasons why
people joined the Crusades.
IR
PD
D
S 9.4e
9.5c, d, f, g
9.6a, d
(continues)
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80 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
assessments, the products are in the form of essays. The only variation is the project in which students can choose from fi ve options, including a demonstration. There are no process assessments. Based on these observations, we can conclude that the global studies course does not include a wide variety of ways to determine what students know and are able to do, and provides no opportunity for students to share their think- ing processes.
3. Are the types of assessments used congruent with the standards they intend to measure? Social studies content standards are identifi ed for each unit, and as stated previously, information-recall and product assessments are congruent forms for measuring content. What seem to be missing are any process types of standards, raising a question as to whether standards are missing from the curriculum or certain standards are deemed not important enough to include.
Assessment Description Type* Purpose** Standards
Unit 5:
East Asia
• Unit test IR S 9.3a–c
9.4b, d
9.5a, b, d
9.6a
Unit 6:
Early Mod-
ern Europe
• Unit test
• DBQ: What was the impact of the European Renaissance?
IR
PD
S 9.4b–d
9.6b–d
Unit 7:
Age of Glo-
balization
• Unit test
• DBQ: Did the Age of Exploration change the world for the better?
IR
PD
S 9.2b
9.3a
9.4d
9.5d
9.7a, c, d, f
9.8c, d
*Types: IR = Information Recall; PD = Product; D = Demonstration; PR = Process
**Purpose: D = Diagnostic; F = Formative; S = Summative
Figure 4.3
GLOBAL STUDIES ASSESSMENTS (continued)
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Assessment Types and Purposes 81
4. Are multiple measures used when more than one type of assess- ment can be used to measure the same learning target? Multiple measures are used in some units; however, the products are primarily essays, and they focus on very discrete learning within the curriculum.
With a better understanding of the types of assessments included in the curriculum, the next step is to examine the purposes they serve. The following questions can be used for this analysis:
1. What assessment purposes are identifi ed in the curriculum? The curriculum lists only summative assessments.
2. How is diagnostic assessment used? There is no indication of diagnostic assessment.
3. How is formative assessment used? Are there opportunities for students to receive feedback from their teachers? No formative activities are identifi ed.
4. Are summative assessments designed to produce as well as mea- sure learning? Without the use of related diagnostic and formative assessment activities that involve feedback to the students on how they are progressing toward the standards, the summative assessments can- not be used to produce learning. The sole objective of the assessments in this curriculum is to measure what students learned.
The analysis of this curriculum reveals that it relies greatly on tests and a limited number of product assessments, all focused on measur- ing student learning. Assessment within a quality curriculum focuses on assessment for learning. This curriculum would greatly benefi t from the incorporation of curriculum-embedded assessments, the focus of the next chapter.
Summary: Assessment Types and Purposes
Teachers use four types of assessments to determine what students know, are able to do, and value. These types are information recall, demonstra- tion, product, and process assessments. A quality curriculum will include
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82 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
diff erent types of assessments that are congruent with the standards for the unit. Multiple assessments are used when more than one type of assessment can be used to measure student learning, providing the teacher with multiple sources for determining what students know and are able to do.
Assessments serve three purposes; diagnostic, formative, and summa- tive. Usually these assessment purposes are associated with timing, but more important than timing is how the information is being used. Diag- nostic assessment determines what students know and are able to do, and identifi es student misconceptions. It is used to determine the start- ing point for instruction and as a baseline for determining growth. For- mative assessment serves as a check for understanding. It occurs while learning is still taking place and provides teachers with opportunities to give students descriptive feedback and to modify instruction based on student need. Summative assessment is used to determine what students have learned and is the fi nal assessment in a learning cycle. Information recall, product, demonstration, and process assessments can all be used for these diff erent purposes.
Tools and Activities for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
• Congruence in Assessment Activity. This activity (see exam- ple in Figure 4.1) is used for establishing the relationship between the diff erent types of assessments that can be used to measure diff erent standards. It illustrates how some standards can be measured by only one type of assessment, whereas others can and should be measured by all types of assessments.
• Purpose of Formative Assessment Activity. This activity (see example in Figure 4.2) is used to establish the role of formative assessment in the learning cycle. First, identify the tangible assess- ment—what the teacher will collect or observe—and then how the teach- ers will use the assessment to produce learning.
• Assessment-Analysis Chart and Questions. This simple chart (see example in Figure 4.3) is used to collect information about the
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Assessment Types and Purposes 83
types and purposes of the assessments that exist within the curriculum so decisions can be made as to what assessments should be kept, revised or designed, and integrated into the curriculum itself. The guiding ques- tions in this chapter can be used to analyze the collected data.
Checklist for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
Multiple and varied types of assessments are used to ascer- tain what students know and are able to do. These assessments include information recall, product assessments, demonstra- tions, and process assessments.
The type of assessment used to measure student learning is con- gruent with the standards being measured.
Multiple measures are used to determine what students know and are able to do, and to identify their strengths and weaknesses as learners.
The purpose of the assessment as diagnostic, formative, or sum- mative is clearly identifi ed and shared with the students.
Diagnostic assessment identifi es what students know, as well as their misconceptions. It is used as a starting point for instruction and as a baseline for measuring growth.
Formative assessment is used to monitor student learning. It provides teachers with information in a way that is accessible and can be used to make instructional decisions.
Formative assessment gives teachers opportunities to provide students with feedback while it still can be used. Descriptive for- mative assessment can greatly aff ect student achievement.
Summative assessment is used to measure student learning.
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84
5
CONSIDERATION 5
Curriculum-Embedded
Performance Assessments
Read through each of the following example sets. As you read, take note of what Assessments A and B have in common with each other and how they diff er.
Example Set 1
Assessment A: Students read myths from a variety of cultures.
For each myth, they complete a reader’s response in which they
• Summarize the story describing the characters, plot, and setting.
• Explain how the story helped people understand the unknown.
• Compare and contrast how two myths have similar themes,
topics, and patterns of events.
The teacher reads the responses to determine students’ under-
standing of the myths. She creates small groups for instruction
based on her review and identifi es students to meet with during
individual conferences.
Students read nonfi ction texts that describe the science
behind one of the stories. They summarize each text and describe
what really happens and why. The teacher reads the student sum-
maries and identifi es areas where the students need additional
information and clarifi cation. She addresses these areas during
subsequent science lessons.
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 85
Students write an introduction to a myth of their choice in
which they
• Summarize the myth and what it was trying to explain.
• Make connections between the myth and science.
• Explain the science behind the myth.
• Use scientifi c language.
Students submit their introductions to the teacher for feed-
back. They revise the introductions and include them in a collec-
tion of myths to be housed in the school and classroom library.
Assessment B: Students read a myth and an article that both
provide explanations for why mosquitos buzz. Students write an
essay in which they describe how the explanations are similar
and different. Students use specifi c examples from the myth and
the article to support their answers.
In their essays, students
• Describe what the myth says about why mosquitos buzz.
• Describe what the article says about why mosquitos buzz.
• Compare and contrast the two explanations.
• Include details from both the myth and the article to support
their answer.
Example Set 2
Assessment A: Students identify the different ways in which
people convey their identity, and how their actions, words, and
online presence make up a “personal brand.” Students choose
a current media fi gure and analyze that individual’s personal
brand and how it conveys this person in either a positive or a
negative way.
Students analyze the state of their own personal brand,
and create and implement a plan for further developing it so it
refl ects what they want to convey to others about their identity.
In their analysis students examine
• How they currently convey their personal brand in person,
on paper, and online.
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86 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• What it conveys about them in terms of strengths, values,
and passions.
• Whether their personal brand accurately refl ects who they are.
In their plan, students identify changes that they can make to
improve their personal brand and the steps necessary for making
those changes. Students then implement and refl ect on the changes
they make so their personal brand better refl ects who they are.
Assessment B: Students write an essay in which they discuss the
power of a personal brand. In their essay, they
• Introduce and defi ne the term personal brand.
• Organize their ideas and information.
• Develop their essay by including relevant facts, defi nitions,
details, and examples.
• Use varied transitions and sentence structures to create
cohesion and clarify the relationships among complex ideas
and concepts.
• Use precise language and domain-specifi c vocabulary.
• Convey a knowledgeable stance.
• Provide a concluding statement or section that supports the
information or explanation provided.
The most obvious commonality in both examples is that the content is the same in Assessments A and B. It is also apparent in both examples that students are required to use similar skills. In the fi rst example set, stu- dents are asked to both read and write about myths. In the second exam- ple set they also write, although what they are writing about is slightly diff erent. In Assessment A, students are writing to analyze their own per- sonal brand and create a plan for improving upon it, whereas in Assess- ment B, they are writing about the impact of a personal brand. Both serve as summative assessments used to determine student understanding.
At the surface level, there doesn’t appear to be much diff erence between the two, but the diff erences between them illustrate how assessments can be events whose sole purpose is to measure learning or ones that produce
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 87
as well as measure learning. Both of the A assessments take place over time and require students to make choices about their learning, resulting in a more meaningful and rigorous learning experience. The assessments include diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment activities. The students and teacher interact as the students complete diff erent parts of the assessments. The teacher adjusts instruction based on student need, and the students receive feedback and make revisions before completing the summative assessments.
The B assessments, by contrast, are assignments or events. They are limited to a specifi c text, topic, or writing genre identifi ed by the teacher with little or no student choice. These assessments serve as summative assessments with no opportunity for teacher instruction or feedback to the students. The purpose of these assessments is to measure learning.
Both assessments—A and B—have a place in the curriculum. Teach- ers want to know what students have independently learned as a result of instruction. However, a curriculum that relies solely on self-contained assessments is in danger of focusing exclusively on the outcome rather than the learning process itself and does little to involve the student.
A quality curriculum includes curriculum-embedded assessments that refl ect the belief that assessment is learning. A curriculum in which assessment is learning is one that
• Begins as students become aware of the goals of instruction and the criteria for performance.
• Involves goal setting, monitoring progress, and refl ecting on results.
• Implies student ownership and responsibility for moving thinking forward (metacognition).
• Occurs throughout the learning process. (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Wiliam, 2011)
Assessments that produce as well as measure learning are the focus of this chapter.
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88 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Features of Quality Performance Assessments
Performance assessments are those that require students to demonstrate achievement by producing an extended written or spoken answer, by engaging in group or individual activities, or by creating a specifi c product (Nitko, 2001; Stiggins, 1997). They are also referred to as performance- based assessments and, more recently, performance tasks.
Both of the assessments in each set introduced at the beginning of this chapter could be considered performance tasks. They both serve as summative assessments but diff er in the conditions under which they are completed. The A assessments are embedded in the curriculum. The task is the fi nal culminating piece, but the entire performance assessment takes place over time and includes diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment elements. The fi nal performance task relies on successful implementation of the formative measures. As discussed in Chapter 4, the diagnostic measure is designed to begin the assessment process by provid- ing the teacher with information about what the students know and their misconceptions. It can also serve as a baseline for growth when explicitly aligned with the same set of standards as the summative assessment.
The B assessments are on-demand performance tasks. They are implemented in a given time and place. Because they are separate events, they do not rely on other assessment opportunities in the same way as a curriculum- embedded performance assessment.
A quality curriculum-embedded performance task
• Measures the most important learning of the unit as articulated through the organizing center—the unit title, essential question, and big idea—which was discussed in Chapter 1.
• Includes tasks that are congruent with and strongly align to the standards. This means (1) the task includes diff erent modalities that refl ect the standards being measured, and it meets the criteria for strong alignment; (2) the task and standards are diffi cult to separate from each
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 89
other; (3) the task requires students to fully engage in activities that align to all the skills embedded within the standard; and (4) the task honors the intent of the standards.
• Has an authentic audience and purpose. Quality performance tasks have an authentic audience and purpose that go beyond the teacher and classroom. They are designed to help students interact with the real world.
• Provides opportunity for teacher feedback and student revision. Quality performance tasks include diagnostic and formative assessment activities that provide information that the teacher can use to adjust instruction and opportunities for teachers to give students feedback that they can use to revise their work.
• Includes specifi c criteria for student performance. The task out- lines the criteria that will be used for evaluation, and it has correspond- ing rubrics and checklists that can be used for instruction and feedback purposes as well as evaluation.
In the following sections, we examine each of these features in greater detail.
Measuring the Most Important Learning
In Chapter 1, I discussed in great depth the concept of quality organiz- ing centers and how they are articulated through the unit title, the essen- tial question, and the big idea. The purpose of the organizing center is to identify the most important learning for the unit, so it makes sense that the performance task would measure this learning. Consider the follow- ing organizing center:
Unit Title: So We All Can Eat
Essential Question: What does it take for the people of the world
to feed themselves?
Big Idea: Students understand that not all people can feed them-
selves and that even small yet deliberate steps can be taken to
end world hunger.
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90 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
A performance task designed to measure this learning would include stu- dent investigations of conditions that prevent people from feeding them- selves and actions that they could take to address these circumstances.
Congruence and Strong Alignment to the Standards
Congruence is the match between the standards and a task; alignment is the degree to which the task meets the standard. In Chapter 4, I explored congruence in relation to determining the type of assessment to use. An assessment designed to measure reading, writing, and listening stan- dards would need to include those modalities. In Chapter 2, I discussed the importance of alignment throughout the curriculum and provided several activities for ensuring alignment. These activities included Deter- mining Alignment in a Curriculum (see Figure 2.3) and Coding Standards (see example on pp. 43–44). A quality performance task must be both con- gruent and strongly aligned to the standards that have been identifi ed in the unit of study.
Authentic Audience and Purpose
Although the goal of education is to prepare students for their lives after school, much of what students are asked to do is contrived and restricted to the classroom. A quality curriculum will include perfor- mance tasks that allow students to interact with the real world—that is, with real audiences and purposes.
Changing the audience and purpose greatly aff ects the task by making it more engaging and meaningful to the students, and by increasing the amount of thinking it requires. Let’s see how this is so by returning to the example sets at the beginning of this chapter. In Example Set 1, the audi- ence for Assessment A is the larger school community. The introductions to the myths are being included in books that will circulate to teachers and students within the school system. In Example Set 2, the real audi- ence for Assessment A consists of the students themselves and the world that they interact with through social media. Students explore their per- sonal brand and what it communicates as they prepare to enter college or
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 91
begin jobs where others will view and use these sources to make decisions that aff ect the students’ future.
In both cases, it is easy to see how writing for a real audience and pur- pose would be more engaging and meaningful to the students. Someone other than the teacher will see the work, so there is more cause to care about the completed product; it will last longer than the amount of time it takes to read or view it. The tasks also require higher levels of thinking because students need to plan, research, draft, and revise, and in doing so they use such thinking skills as synthesizing, analyzing, evaluating, and creating—all skills that fall in the upper levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.
The rubric created by Learner-Centered Initiatives in Figure 5.1 (see p. 92) is a tool that you can use to evaluate the level of authenticity in per- formance tasks. Notice that the descriptors include not only the purpose and audience but also the degree to which students will interact with oth- ers. In most real-world situations, people do not work in complete isola- tion. Rather, they interact and collaborate, receiving and giving feedback to complete a task. In addition to describing the levels of authenticity, the rubric also provides an example of a science task at each level.
Opportunity for Teacher Feedback and Student Revision
A quality curriculum will ensure that the diagnostic and forma- tive assessment opportunities are clearly identifi ed, as shown in the following example:
Diagnostic assessment opportunity: Students create a list of
questions they have about how plants grow.
Formative assessment opportunity: Students examine a variety
of stories and nonfi ction texts that describe how plants grow.
Together the class creates an illustrated fl ip chart that asks and
answers their questions about how plants grow.
Formative assessment opportunity: Students plant seeds and
document the seeds’ growth in a plant journal. Students add new
information to their illustrated fl ip chart based on the observa-
tions of their plants.
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92 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Figure 5.1
AUTHENTICITY RUBRIC
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
The task is contrived
and divorced from
plausible or realistic
problems/tasks and
audiences beyond the
teacher.
Students work inde-
pendently through
most, if not all,
phases.
The task involves
students in plausible
problems/tasks with
the class or teacher
as the audience;
possible audiences
outside the class-
room have not been
identifi ed.
Students have oppor-
tunities to confer
with others.
The task involves
students in plausible
or realistic problems/
tasks with possible
audiences beyond the
classroom that have
been identifi ed for
the students.
Students work
independently at
times and coopera-
tively at other times
to research or give
feedback.
The task requires
that students engage
in real problems,
operating as people
do outside school,
and that they demon-
strate and share
learning with others
who can benefi t; or
the students fi nd the
task benefi cial for
themselves.
Students work
collaboratively and
interdependently
through different
phases of the work to
deepen each other’s
learning.
Example:
Students respond to
the essay question
How has human
behavior affected the
Earth’s biomes?
Example:
Students research
and present to the
class information
about how one of
the Earth’s biomes
has been affected
by human behavior
and what they can do
about it.
Example:
Students inde-
pendently write a
letter, essay, or blog
post in which they
voice their opinion
about how human
behavior has affected
a particular biome
and suggest a course
of action that would
assist or benefi t the
biome. Students work
in groups to get and
give peer feedback,
do research, and
share evidence to
support one another’s
claims.
Example:
Students write a
proposal in which
they voice their opin-
ion about how human
behavior has affected
a particular biome
and suggest a course
of action that would
assist or benefi t the
biome. Students
share their proposals
with experts in the
fi eld and request
feedback on their
proposed plans.
After reviewing the
feedback, the class
determines which
plan to carry out.
Source: © 2010 by Learner-Centered Initiatives. Adapted with permission.
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 93
Performance task: Students plan and create a gardening book to
give with the plant as a gift for Mother’s Day. In the gardening
book, students include
• A cover that identifi es themselves as an author and illustrator.
• A table of contents identifying the information contained in
the book.
• Information on how a seed becomes a plant.
• Information on what a plant needs to grow and how to care
for this particular plant.
• Illustrations that show how a plant grows.
Clearly labeling the diagnostic and formative assessment activities assists teachers in identifying the opportunities for students to share what they are learning through a product or performance. However, sim- ple identifi cation does not ensure that diagnostic and formative assess- ment activities are used as they were intended. It is also helpful to provide guidance on how these assessment activities can be used. The chart in Fig- ure 5.2 (see p. 94) illustrates the relationship between formative assess- ment activities, the opportunities students have to share what they have learned, and the way in which the teacher responds to the information.
Specifi c Criteria for Student Performance
Another way to ensure that the curriculum includes assessments that are used to both produce and measure learning is to check that evalua- tion tools such as rubrics and checklists are designed to support learning. Many of the rubrics used in the classroom are the same as or similar to those used to evaluate high-stakes assessments. The problem with using these rubrics is they were not designed as instructional tools; they were designed to be used by thousands of teachers to evaluate thousands of assessments. As a result, they are often vague and provide little concrete guidance for students.
Another concern is that there are often too many rubrics, and so students never get to internalize and personalize the criteria. A quality
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94 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
curriculum includes rubrics for the most important processes or prod- ucts. For example, a science curriculum would best be supported with a scientifi c-inquiry or lab rubric, social studies with a document-analysis rubric, and English language arts with a literary-analysis rubric. All sub- jects would benefi t from rubrics to guide writing and refl ection.
In addition to reoccurring processes in the classroom, a curriculum benefi ts from task-specifi c rubrics for long-term, high-stakes assessments like the performance tasks described in this chapter. For example, the science proposal would benefi t from a task-specifi c rubric that students could reference as they worked together to craft their proposal and pro- vide their classmates with feedback. However, if a generic rubric exists,
Figure 5.2
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT/FEEDBACK CYCLE
Formative Assessment Opportunities
What opportunities has the teacher created for formative assessments?
Feedback
How does the teacher provide feedback or opportunities for peer feedback and self-refl ection?
Formative Assessment Activity 1: Students
examine a variety of stories and nonfi c-
tion texts that describe how plants grow.
Together the class creates an illustrated fl ip
chart that asks and answers their questions
about how plants grow.
Formative Assessment Activity 2: Students
plant seeds and document the seeds’ growth
in a plant journal, explaining how the plant
grows, what helps it to grow, and how they
take care of it.
Formative Assessment Activity 3: Students
plan and draft a gardening book.
Performance Task: Students create a garden-
ing book to give with the plant as a gift for
Mother’s Day.
The teacher takes note of who shares
information to include on the class chart and
the accuracy of the information shared to
determine areas in need of clarifi cation or
further instruction.
The teacher reads the student journals to
determine individual students’ levels of
understanding.
The teacher provides individual feedback to
the students as they draft their books.
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 95
as may be the case with a narrative-writing rubric in an English language arts classroom, the teacher may choose to support it with a checklist spe- cifi c to the task.
In either of these cases, what is most important is that a quality curric- ulum will include rubrics and checklists that are strongly aligned to the same standards that were used to design the unit of study and are included in the assessment blueprint. For example, Figure 5.3 (see pp. 96–97) is a teacher version of a rubric for 2nd graders. It is based on a unit of study designed by the 2nd grade curriculum writers team from the North Rock- land School District in New York, which included Amaris Scalia and Dawn Whelan. The original standards appear in the left-hand column to ensure that the rubric descriptors refl ect the expectations for the students. Carefully aligning the rubric with the standards used in the design of the assessment ensures the validity of the assessment as a means for measur- ing learning.
In addition to being aligned to the original standards, a rubric must meet the following criteria to have an impact on instruction:
• Descriptors are written in terms of what is evident rather than what is missing. Often rubrics are fi lled with language describing what students cannot do, and unfortunately these descriptions appear in the lower levels of the rubric, targeting students who are struggling the most. Focusing on what is missing does not provide students with the guid- ance they need to improve their work. Focusing on what is evident helps students to fi nd themselves on the rubric and provides information on what they need to do to move from one level to the next. In the 2nd grade rubric in Figure 5.3, the descriptor I end the piece with my facts could be written as I have no conclusion. The statement I end the piece with my facts describes what is evident in the student work. The student could then read across the levels to determine what he needs to do to improve his work. The next step would be to restate his opinion. The step after that would be to write a conclusion that restates his opinion and explains what he needs to do to become healthier in the future. The purpose of the rubric then is to provide direction for student work rather than simply to judge.
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96 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
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re -
fo re
, s in
ce , f
or e
xa m
pl e)
to
c on
ne ct
m y
op in
io n
an d
re as
on s.
• M
y en
di ng
d es
cr ib
es a
sp
ec ifi
c go
al I
ha ve
f or
st
ay in
g he
al th
y in
t he
fu
tu re
a nd
h ow
I m
ig ht
be
a bl
e to
r ea
ch m
y go
al .
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 97
Se nt
en ce
s an
d W
or ds
L. 2.
1 D
em on
st ra
te c
om -
m an
d of
t he
c on
ve nt
io ns
of
s ta
nd ar
d En
gl is
h gr
am m
ar a
nd u
sa ge
w he
n w
ri ti
ng o
r sp
ea ki
ng .
e. U
se a
dj ec
ti ve
s an
d ad
ve rb
s, a
nd c
ho os
e be
tw ee
n th
em d
ep en
di ng
on
w ha
t is
t o
be m
od ifi
ed .
f. P
ro du
ce , e
xp an
d, a
nd
re ar
ra ng
e co
m pl
et e
si m
pl e
an d
co m
po un
d se
nt en
ce s
(e .g
., Th
e bo
y w
at ch
ed
th e
m ov
ie ; T
he li
tt le
b oy
w
at ch
ed t
he m
ov ie
; T he
ac
ti on
m ov
ie w
as w
at ch
ed
by t
he li
tt le
b oy
).
• I
h av
e in
co m
pl et
e an
d co
m pl
et e
se nt
en ce
s.
• A
ll of
m y
se nt
en ce
s st
ar t
th e
sa m
e w
ay .
• M
y w
or ds
a re
s im
pl e.
• I
h av
e si
m pl
e an
d co
m -
pl et
e se
nt en
ce s.
• M
os t
of m
y se
nt en
ce s
st ar
t th
e sa
m e
w ay
, b ut
I a
ls o
tr ie
d a
ne w
w ay
.
• M
y w
or ds
a re
s im
pl e
an d
so m
e ar
e re
la te
d to
he
al th
.
• I
h av
e co
m pl
et e
se nt
en ce
s. S
om e
of m
y se
nt en
ce s
ar e
sh or
t an
d so
m e
ar e
lo ng
.
• M
y se
nt en
ce s
ha ve
di
ff er
en t
be gi
nn in
gs .
• I
h av
e so
m e
he al
th
w or
ds a
nd d
es cr
ib in
g w
or ds
(a dj
ec ti
ve s
an d
ad ve
rb s)
.
• I
h av
e co
m pl
et e
se nt
en ce
s. S
om e
of m
y se
nt en
ce s
ar e
sh or
t,
so m
e ar
e lo
ng , a
nd
so m
e ar
e qu
es ti
on s.
• M
y se
nt en
ce s
ha ve
di
ff er
en t
be gi
nn in
gs a
nd
ar e
pu t
to ge
th er
s o
m y
pi ec
e is
e as
y to
r ea
d.
• I
h av
e he
al th
t er
m s
an d
de sc
ri bi
ng w
or ds
(a
dj ec
ti ve
s an
d ad
ve rb
s)
to m
ak e
m y
w ri
ti ng
in
te re
st in
g.
Ru le
s of
W rit
in g
L. 2.
2 D
em on
st ra
te c
om -
m an
d of
t he
c on
ve nt
io ns
of
s ta
nd ar
d En
gl is
h ca
p- it
al iz
at io
n, p
un ct
ua ti
on ,
an d
sp el
lin g
w he
n w
ri ti
ng .
• I
u se
a c
ap it
al le
tt er
a t
th e
be gi
nn in
g of
e ve
ry
se nt
en ce
a nd
f or
“ I.”
• I
u se
s om
e co
rr ec
t sp
el l-
in g
an d
so m
e in
ve nt
iv e
sp el
lin g.
• I
h av
e pe
ri od
s at
t he
e nd
of
m y
lin es
.
• I
u se
a c
ap it
al le
tt er
a t
th e
be gi
nn in
g of
e ve
ry
se nt
en ce
, f or
“ I,”
a nd
f or
th
e na
m es
o f
pe op
le .
• M
y sp
el lin
g is
m os
tl y
co rr
ec t.
• I
h av
e a
pe ri
od a
t th
e en
d of
e ve
ry s
en te
nc e.
• I
u se
a c
ap it
al le
tt er
a t
th e
be gi
nn in
g of
e ve
ry
se nt
en ce
, f or
“ I,”
a nd
fo
r th
e na
m es
o f
pe op
le ,
pl ac
es , a
nd b
oo ks
.
• M
y sp
el lin
g is
m os
tl y
co rr
ec t,
e ve
n fo
r ne
w
w or
ds !
• I
c or
re ct
ly u
se e
nd m
ar ks
( .
, !
?) .
• I
u se
a c
ap it
al le
tt er
a t
th e
be gi
nn in
g of
e ve
ry
se nt
en ce
, f or
“ I,”
f or
t he
na
m es
o f
pe op
le a
nd
pl ac
es , a
nd f
or t
it le
s of
bo
ok s
an d
pe op
le .
• M
y sp
el lin
g is
c or
re ct
, ev
en f
or t
he v
er y
ha rd
w
or ds
.
• I
c or
re ct
ly u
se e
nd m
ar ks
(.
, ! ?
) a nd
q uo
ta ti
on
m ar
ks .
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98 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• Descriptors avoid subjective, value-laden, quantitative language. Another common error in rubrics is that they are fi lled with subjective, value-laden language such as some, most, consistently, good, and accurate. These words, once again, do not provide students with enough informa- tion to improve their work. They are left wondering about such things as how to consistently use reasons and facts to support an opinion. In addition to value-laden language, rubrics are also fi lled with numbers. The descriptor in the Healthy Me rubric, I give reasons to support my opinion, is often found on rubrics as I give three reasons to support my opinion. The problem with numbers is that everyone in the class might be able to give three reasons, but those reasons would not be of the same quality; yet, according to the rubric, the students would all be demon- strating the same understanding. Numbers can often be helpful when, for example, students feel uncertain about deciding how many reasons to include; but numbers are best found on checklists or provided as a range, such as “3–5 reasons.”
• The rubric is written in language that is accessible to students and refl ective of classroom practice. A rubric that can be used as an instruc- tional tool is written in a language that students understand. The grade level of the students and the language used in the classroom should be con- sidered when evaluating or creating a rubric that students will reference throughout the unit as they work on completing the performance task.
Implications for Content Areas
Teachers, particularly in high school content areas with end-of-the-year state exams, are often concerned that there is no time, and therefore no place, for curriculum-embedded performance tasks. Although including a lengthy performance task in every unit may not be possible, the criteria for a quality curriculum-embedded performance task will help content- area teachers to determine where to best place such tasks. Let’s look at a social studies unit with the following organizing center:
Unit Title: Movement and Interactions
Essential Question: Should the movement and interactions of
people be limited or encouraged?
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 99
Big Idea: Students understand that the exchange of goods and
the migration of peoples have resulted in cultural diffusion with
positive and negative impacts on the original culture that affect
residents’ reactions to new immigrants.
Cultural diff usion is an important and reoccurring theme in a global studies classroom. Many historical examples can provide students with insight into the ongoing and often controversial debate around immigra- tion. Had the organizing center been limited to a specifi c event or time— for example, the examination of the Silk Road presented in Chapter 4—it would not have warranted the need for an in-depth study. Here, however, the historical signifi cance, the possibility of diverse viewpoints, and the availability of many venues for voicing opinions support the inclusion of a task such as this one in the curriculum:
Performance Task: Students explore past cultures for evidence
of cultural diffusion to prepare for an in-class debate on the
negative and positive impact of cultural diffusion on the original
culture. Students use their understanding from this debate to
analyze the current debate over immigration and its impact. They
analyze articles, websites, and other media representing different
points of view for legitimacy and accuracy of information pre-
sented. Students express their thoughts in relation to the current
political debate using one of the venues they explored during
their analysis—for example, writing a letter to a political candi-
date, composing a newspaper editorial, submitting a blog post,
showing support for an organization.
Implications for Evaluating, Creating, or Revising Curriculum
You can use the criteria described in this chapter during the design pro- cess to ensure the creation of a high-quality, curriculum-embedded per- formance assessment. You can also use the criteria to evaluate and then guide the revision process for existing performance tasks. The tool in
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100 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Figure 5.4 will help you to evaluate the assessments in your curriculum and decide where to focus your eff orts in their revision or where it is nec- essary to design new ones.
To illustrate the tool’s use, let’s examine a performance task from a unit that was part of the 12th grade curriculum in the North Rockland School District and was written by Nori Negron. The tool summarizes the
Figure 5.4
PERFORMANCE TASK EVALUATION TOOL
Scale of 1–5 1 = not at all; 5 = exemplary
Unit Title and Assessment Description
D oe
s th
e ta
sk m
ea su
re t
he m
os t
im po
rt an
t le
ar ni
ng o
f th
e un
it ?
Is t
he a
ss es
sm en
t co
ng ru
en t
w it
h an
d st
ro ng
ly a
lig ne
d to
t he
st
an da
rd s?
D oe
s th
e as
se ss
m en
t ha
ve a
n au
th en
ti c
au di
en ce
a nd
p ur
po se
?
D oe
s th
e ta
sk in
co rp
or at
e di
ag no
s- ti
c an
d fo
rm at
iv e
as se
ss m
en t?
D o
th e
as se
ss m
en ts
h av
e ru
br ic
s an
d ch
ec kl
is ts
t ha
t ca
n be
u se
d fo
r bo
th in
st ru
ct io
n an
d ev
al ua
ti on
?
Revise or
Replace
Research a modern-day
issue and write a story
or a play in the style of
the horror/gothic genre,
to discuss an issue of
concern in modern-day
society.
3 3 1 2 1 Revise
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 101
analysis. Here is an explanation of the analysis, followed by resulting revi- sions based on the review of the performance task.
How well does the task measure the most important learning of the unit as articulated through the organizing center? The organizing center for the unit is the following:
Unit 4: Fear Factors
Essential Question: What are we afraid of?
Big Idea: Students understand that literature has been used to
explore universal social issues that transcend time and place,
and create fear in society.
Performance Task: Students research a modern-day issue and
write a story or a play, in the style of the horror/gothic genre, to
discuss an issue of concern in modern-day society.
There is a match between the performance task and the organizing center in that students will show their understanding of how literature explores societal issues by writing their own story or play exploring a current societal issue. Where the task falls short is in not necessarily addressing the concept of universal issues that transcend time and place. One way to ensure that this understanding is fully explored is to include it as a guiding question for reading, research, or discussion—for example, In what ways has this issue existed during diff erent times and in diff erent societies?
Is the assessment congruent with and strongly aligned to the standards? The following standards were identifi ed as those that would be taught and assessed in this unit of study:
CCLS: English Language Arts 6–12, Grades 11 –12, Reading:
Literature
RL.12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text, including determining
where the text leaves matters uncertain.
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102 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
RL.12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a
text and analyze their development over the course of
the text, including how they interact and build on one
another to produce a complex account; provide an
objective summary of the text.
RL.12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding
how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama
(e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered,
how the characters are introduced and developed).
RL.12.6 Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view
requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text
from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony,
or understatement).
CCLS: English Language Arts 6–12, Grades 11–12, Writing
W.12.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experi-
ences or events using effective technique, well-chosen
details, and well-structured event sequences.
a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a prob-
lem, situation, or observation and its signifi cance,
establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and
introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a
smooth progression of experiences or events.
b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing,
description, refl ection, and multiple plot lines, to
develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
c. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that
they build on one another to create a coherent whole
and build toward a particular tone and outcome (e.g.,
a sense of mystery, suspense, growth, or resolution).
d. Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and
sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the
experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and refl ects
on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over
the course of the narrative.
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.
Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 103
First, let’s examine these standards in terms of congruence with the task. The standards represent the modalities of reading and writing. The task requires students to write, and although writing can be used to assess reading, the writing task does not require students to specifi cally respond to what they have read. To be congruent, the task would need to include specifi c information about what students were reading, why, and how they would share their understanding of the text. The following revision addresses congruence with the reading standards:
Revision 1: Students read and respond to a novel, novel excerpts,
short stories, and movies that illustrate the use of the horror
or gothic genre to explore social issues in different times and
places. Students research a modern-day issue and write a story
or play in the style of the horror/gothic genre to discuss an issue
of concern in modern-day society.
The task and standards also lack congruence in that there are no stan- dards to guide the research component of the task. Additional standards will need to be added for this purpose. A possible standard that could sup- port research is W.12.7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
Once the task is congruent with the standards, it is time to determine how well it aligns to the identifi ed standards. As suggested in Chapter 2, one way to determine alignment is to code the standards into the task. Because the purpose of this review is to identify areas in need of revision, the term potentially has been included in the coding process to indicate where revision would be needed in order to strongly align to a standard.
Students read and respond to a novel, novel excerpts, short
stories, and movies that illustrate the use of the horror or gothic
genre to explore social issues in different times and places
(potentially RL.12.1, RL.12.2, RL.12.3, RL.12.6). Students research
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104 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
a modern- day issue (potentially W.12.7) and write a story or play
in the style of the horror/gothic genre to discuss an issue of con-
cern in modern-day society (W.12.3).
As you can see, although alignment is evident, it certainly would not be considered strong alignment. The description of the task as written might be suffi cient as an overview but does not include the detail necessary for ensuring strong alignment; too much is simply left to chance. Although the skills embedded in the standards may occur, they also may not. Here is one way to revise the task for stronger alignment:
Revision 2: Students read and respond to a novel, novel excerpts,
short stories, and movies that illustrate the use of the horror
or gothic genre to explore social issues in different times and
places. For each, they
• Provide a summary of the text (RL.12.2).
• Identify and examine how the text refl ects the society of
the time and place in which it is set; identify and examine
the social issue explored in the text; analyze how the social
issue is developed over the text and refl ects the fears of
the society given the time and place in which it was written
(RL.12.2).
• Analyze the author’s choices regarding the development and
relationship of story elements in conveying the relevance
of the social issue given the time and place in which it was
written (RL.12.3).
• Analyze how the author uses satire, sarcasm, irony, under-
statement, or other literary technique to convey his point of
view regarding the social issue (RL.2.6).
Students research a modern-day social issue using a variety
of sources (W.12.7) in order to plan and write a story or play
(W.12.3) in the style of the horror/gothic genre. In their story or
play, students
• Set out the issue of concern and its signifi cance (W.12.3a).
• Establish one or multiple point(s) of view (W.12.3a).
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 105
• Introduce a narrator and/or characters (W.12.3a).
• Use narrative techniques to develop experiences, events,
and/or characters illustrating the issue and its impact
(W.12.3b).
• Use a variety of techniques to sequence and create a
smooth progression of events and build toward a particular
outcome (W.12.3a, W.12.3c).
• Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory
language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences,
events, setting, and/or characters (W.12.3d).
• Provide a conclusion that refl ects on what is experienced,
observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative
(W.12.3e).
With the task fully described and the standards coded into the task, it is much easier to see and ensure alignment. In addition, the criteria that will be used for evaluation have been built into the assessment and can easily be developed into a checklist or rubric.
The full description also serves as an assessment blueprint. Most edu- cators are familiar with test blueprints, but developing assessment blue- prints has not received the same emphasis. The assessment blueprint illustrates the relationship between the performance task and the stan- dards. By demonstrating alignment, the assessment blueprint supports the performance task as a valid and legitimate means for determining what students know and are able to do.
Does the assessment have an authentic audience and purpose? Using the rubric to assess the level of authenticity of the task in Figure 5.4, we fi nd that even with the revisions made so far, it can only be categorized as a Level 2 for this criterion. Asking students to write a story or play in the style of the horror/gothic genre is plausible in that there are people who do so in the real world; but as written, the description of the performance task has not identifi ed the potential audience, and the task is confi ned to the classroom. By answering the question Who would want to read these
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106 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
stories? the task could be set in a real-world situation. Consider the fol- lowing possibility:
With the success of The Walking Dead, AMC is considering pro-
posals for a new series in the horror/gothic genre. Write a treat-
ment or spec that you would propose as the basis for the new
show. Include a pitch in which you explain how your treatment
or spec refl ects the key elements of horror/gothic classics and a
social issue of the past or our society today.
This example refl ects a task that is plausible but not necessarily real, because AMC may or may not choose to read student submissions. A real audience who would benefi t from the students’ work is the high school drama club, whose members might be willing to choose and perform one of the plays, or a print or online literary magazine that specializes in the publication of young adult work. By setting the task in a real context, such as submitting student specs and treatment to AMC, the task moves to a Level 3. By changing the audience to one that is actually real and would benefi t from the work, such as the drama club, the task moves to a Level 4 on the rubric.
How does the task incorporate diagnostic and formative assessment? Now if we return to the last revision made to the high school task, we can see that the formative assessment opportunities have already been built into the task. Clarity in terms of the use of the formative assessment activ- ities and the integration of a diagnostic will lead to the fi nal revision:
Revision 3
Diagnostic: Students participate in a class discussion about
the different social issues facing society, whether these issues
existed in the past, and how literature both current and classi-
cal has refl ected these issues. Students then write an individual
response to these questions.
Formative Assessment Activity 1: Students read and respond to
a novel, novel excerpts, short stories, and movies that illustrate
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 107
the use of the horror or gothic genre to explore social issues in
different times and places. For each, they
• Provide a summary of the text (RL.12.2).
• Identify and examine how the text refl ects the society of
the time and place in which it is set; identify and examine
the social issue explored in the text; analyze how the social
issue is developed over the text and refl ects the fears of
the society given the time and place in which it was written
(RL.12.2).
• Analyze the author’s choices regarding the development and
relationship of story elements in conveying the relevance
of the social issue given the time and place in which it was
written (RL.12.3).
• Analyze how the author uses satire, sarcasm, irony, under-
statement, or other literary technique to convey his or her
point of view regarding the social issue (RL.12.6).
The teacher uses this information to monitor student understand-
ing and adjusts instruction and conferences with students in small
groups or independently based on their understanding of the texts.
Formative Assessment Activity 2: Students research a modern-
day social issue using a variety of sources (W.12.7). They meet
in small groups to share information and clarify any misunder-
standings. The teacher reads the students’ research and provides
them with questions for clarifi cation and elaboration.
Formative Assessment Activity 3: Students plan and draft a treat-
ment or spec (W.12.3) that they would propose for performance
by the school drama club or inclusion in the school’s literary
magazine.
Formative Assessment Activity 4: Students write a pitch letter in
which they explain how their story/play refl ects the key elements
of horror/gothic classics and a social issue of the past or pres-
ent. Students work in small groups to receive feedback on their
pitch letters.
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108 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Performance Task: Students submit the fi nal version of their treat-
ment or spec (W.12.3) along with their pitch letter, in which they
• Set out the issue of concern and its signifi cance (W.12.3a).
• Establish one or multiple point(s) of view (W.12.3a).
• Introduce a narrator and/or characters (W.12.3a).
• Use narrative techniques to develop experiences, events,
and/or characters illustrating the issue and its impact
(W.12.3b).
• Use a variety of techniques to sequence and create a
smooth progression of events and build toward a particular
outcome (W.12.3a, W.12.3c).
• Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and senso-
ry language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences,
events, setting, and/or characters (W.12.3d).
• Provide a conclusion that refl ects on what is experienced,
observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative
(W.12.3e).
Clearly identifying the diff erent assessment activities and how they can be used changes the assessment from one whose sole purpose is to measure learning to one that is used to both produce and measure learn- ing. Learning takes place through the interactions of the students and the teacher. The students inform the teacher of their level of understand- ing through key moments in the learning process, and the teacher is able to respond to their needs, changing instruction and providing them with feedback.
Do the assessments have rubrics and checklists that can be used for both instruction and evaluation? To guide instruction and reliably assess the fi nished product, a rubric would need to be developed following the guidelines presented earlier in this chapter. The fi rst steps have already been taken, because the criteria have already been laid out in the assess- ment description.
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Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments 109
Once curriculum-embedded assessments are in place within the cur- riculum, it is possible to take a look at quality instruction that will be needed to support them. This topic is the focus of Chapter 6.
Summary: Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments
Assessments can be used to produce as well as measure learning if they are embedded in the curriculum and not events separate from the classroom.
Quality performance tasks measure the most important learning for the unit as articulated through the organizing center. They are congruent and strongly aligned to the standards identifi ed in the unit and included in the performance assessment blueprint. They have an authentic audi- ence and purpose. Performance tasks include diagnostic and formative assessment activities that provide teachers with information to adjust instruction to meet student needs, and provide students with opportu- nities to receive descriptive feedback from their teachers. Performance tasks include rubrics and checklists that can be used as instructional as well as evaluative tools.
Tools and Activities for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
• Performance Task Criteria—You can use the fi ve criteria for performance tasks included in this chapter to either evaluate or design new tasks that produce as well as measure learning.
• Authenticity Rubric (Figure 5.1)—This rubric can help you to determine the level of authenticity of a performance task, and it can provide guidance on how to increase the authenticity.
• Performance Task Evaluation Tool (Figure 5.4)—This easy- to-use chart for evaluating the assessments in the curriculum uses a scale of 1 through 5 to answer questions related to the criteria for perfor- mance tasks. Based on your answers, you can decide which performance tasks need to be revised or replaced.
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110 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Checklist for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
A quality curriculum includes performance tasks that
Produce as well as measure learning. Are embedded in the curriculum. Measure the most important learning as articulated in the orga-
nizing center. Are congruent and strongly aligned to the standards used in the
design of the unit and included in the performance task assess- ment blueprint.
Are connected to diagnostic and formative measures. Include rubrics and checklists that can be used for instructional
and evaluative purposes.
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111
6
CONSIDERATION 6
Instruction
Imagine walking down a school hallway and visiting several classrooms. Here is what you see:
In the fi rst classroom, the students sit at their desks in the dim light. The teacher stands in front of the classroom with an image of the pre- amble to the Constitution projected on the screen behind her. She reads it aloud to the students and stops periodically to ask them to share defi - nitions of the words in the preamble. As they do, she paraphrases their defi nitions to create a new version of the preamble. At the end of class, students copy the revised version into their notebooks. The next day stu- dents learn about the articles of the Constitution.
In the next classroom, students are working in small groups. Each group has a copy of the preamble to the Constitution and has been assigned one of the words in the preamble. The students have access to a variety of texts and online resources. They use these resources to defi ne and illustrate the word they have been given. In addition, the students create a sentence and fi nd an antonym and a synonym for the word. As the students are working, the teacher is circulating among them, stopping to answer questions. At the end of class, the students create a classroom word wall that they will reference as they further explore these words and fi nd examples of what the terms mean in the United States today.
In the last classroom, small groups of students are working with defi - nitions of the words in the preamble to the Constitution. Each group is
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112 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
creating a chart in which they provide an example and a nonexample of the words. The teacher visits each group as they work to provide students with feedback. At the end of class, the groups post and view the charts. As they view the charts, they use checkmarks to indicate agreement or understanding of the example or nonexample, and a question mark to indicate disagreement or confusion. After class, the teacher will view stu- dent responses to determine which words need further exploration and examples before proceeding with a study of how the meanings of these words have changed over time, and their meaning in today’s society.
In which classroom would you like to be a student? Most likely you would prefer the second or third classroom, where students are up and about, and engaged in very purposeful learning. These classrooms embody principles of teaching for understanding: students are engaged in mean- ing making with the goal of applying their knowledge to their lives, and the teacher is serving as the facilitator of this learning (McTighe & Seif, 2014). These classrooms also incorporate aspects of quality instruction for social studies, in which students engage in disciplined inquiry to con- struct knowledge of facts, vocabulary, concepts, and theories specifi c to the domain and use them to develop and express an in-depth understand- ing (Scheurman & Newmann, 1998). These classrooms blend these prin- ciples with an understanding of best practices in vocabulary instruction. Students are engaging with high-quality words with the intent of inter- nalizing them so they become part of the students’ expressive vocabulary (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002).
How did these teachers decide on their lessons for the day? Although it is evident that they were all teaching lessons related to the preamble, why weren’t they teaching the same way? Why was the fi rst teacher’s classroom so diff erent from the third teacher’s classroom? These are all good questions, and in this chapter we answer them by focusing on how a quality curriculum addresses instruction. First, we examine what infor- mation teachers need in order to make informed decisions about class- room instruction, and then we look at the types of lessons that should be included in a curriculum.
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Instruction 113
Addressing Daily Instruction
When I work with teachers to design or revise curriculum, they often want to start by describing their lessons. This is understandable, given that their primary responsibility is to work with students on a daily basis, which means having something for the students to do. It may take some time, but the teachers eventually realize the value of having standards identifi ed and assessments in place before describing instruction.
Not knowing the outcome fi rst would be like driving a car without a specifi c destination—you would start off in one direction and make stops along the way, but eventually you would be forced to end somewhere, whether intentionally or not. Although this might work for some, most people have only a limited amount of time and resources, making such a trip unreasonable. In schools, the biggest commodity is time. There just isn’t enough time for this random approach to work, so making sure the standards and assessments are in place, as described so far in this book, is the fi rst step in generating quality learning experiences. Teachers know where their students need to be, and that knowledge sets the context and rationale for the lessons they will use in their classrooms.
A quality curriculum contains information for daily lessons that describes what students will do, why they will do it, and what evidence the teacher will have of student learning. To illustrate this, read the examples in Figure 6.1 (see p. 114) and for each identify what the students will do, why, and how the teacher will know, in the appropriate column. You may not be able to answer all questions for each example.
All of the tasks in Figure 6.1 were designed with the same standard in mind—RST. 6-8.1: Cite specifi c textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts. They diff er in that each description commu- nicates the same task with varying degrees of information and varying degrees of alignment, as discussed in Chapter 2.
The fi rst description is a simple restatement of what students need to be able to do: identify the details in the text. It does not provide the teacher with information about how the students will do this and what evidence
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114 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Figure 6.1
IDENTIFYING WHAT, WHY, AND HOW
Description What? Why? How?
Example 1: Students identify important details in the article “Disruptions: Minecraft, an Obsession and an Educational Tool,” by Nick Bilton.
Example 2
Minilesson:
• The teacher identifi es the learning target for the day: identi- fying important information that supports a claim.
• The teacher introduces the article “Disruptions: Minecraft, an Obsession and an Educational Tool,” by Nick Bilton, and writes a sentence that she feels best describes the point the author is trying to make.
• The teacher reads the fi rst paragraph of the article aloud to the class.
• She uses a T-chart on the interactive whiteboard to write down the important details, explanations or descriptions, and her thinking as to why the information is important.
• After writing down the important information, the teacher decides if the detail, explanation, or description supports her original claim. If it does, she places a checkmark next to it. If it does not, she either revises her original thinking or puts an X next to the information on the T-chart.
• Several students add to the teacher’s T-chart, using informa- tion from the next paragraph of the article.
• The teacher reminds the students of their learning target before they begin work.
Practice: Students read and complete a T-chart using the remainder of the article with a partner. As the students work, the teacher answers student questions and monitors their progress.
Share: At the end of class, the students share one detail with the class, and the teacher records the details on the interactive whiteboard. The teacher collects the T-charts from the students to determine how well they were able to identify key details, and the next steps for instruction.
Example 3
Students
• Read the article “Disruptions: Minecraft, an Obsession and an Educational Tool,” by Nick Bilton, and write a statement that identifi es the author’s claim.
• Use a T-chart to record important details and explain why those details are important.
• Use a checkmark to confi rm which details in their chart are important in supporting the author’s claim.
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Instruction 115
there will be of student learning. As a result, there is no alignment to the standard because there is no embedded task.
By contrast, the second example is very descriptive. It identifi es what the students will do—create a T-chart identifying important informa- tion; why they will do it—in order to identify important information from a text that can be used to support a claim; and what the teacher will have as evidence of student learning—T-charts. In addition, it explains what the teacher will do: read, model, demonstrate, provide feedback, and collect student work. This description can be considered a lesson plan because it contains information about both teacher and student actions. The lesson moderately aligns to the standard because although the students deeply engage with the process of identifying important details that support the author’s claim, the claim (analysis) was identi- fi ed by the teacher.
The last example is a series of learning experiences. They serve as the basis of lessons but are not lessons themselves because they do not describe teacher actions but instead focus on the student. Each learning experience describes what the students will do: read and write a state- ment identifying the author’s claim, record important details from the text and explain their importance, and use a checkmark to confi rm the details that support the claim. There is also information about why the students engage in these activities: identify an author’s claim and distin- guish important from unimportant details that support an author’s claim. Each learning experience includes evidence of learning: the statement and the T-chart. Individually the learning experiences only moderately align to the standard because they focus on discrete skills. Collectively, however, the learning experiences are strongly aligned.
Each of these approaches to communicating instruction has advan- tages and disadvantages. Some teachers may feel that the learning target, as shown in Example 1, is all they need to design a classroom lesson. But in a curriculum, these vague statements leave too much open to inter- pretation, and for teachers new to a grade level or new to teaching, they simply do not off er enough support. These short statements are more
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116 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
appropriate for a section of the curriculum labeled “teaching points” or “learning targets.”
Descriptive lessons such as the one in Example 2 can serve a purpose within a curriculum because they provide specifi c directions as to what should happen during the lesson, give structure to individual tasks, and illustrate the relationship between the teacher and student as part of the learning process. However, these types of lessons can also be prescrip- tive and cumbersome, including so much detail that they provide actual scripts of what the teacher and students will say. Sometimes teachers and administrators alike interpret lessons as nonnegotiable, meaning they must be implemented as written in the sequence set by the curriculum document—a practice that contradicts diff erentiated instruction, which is built on the premise that content, products, or processes can be pur- posefully adjusted to meet students’ needs, interests, and learning styles (Tomlinson, 2014). Fully scripted lessons can also result in a lengthy and unwieldy document if the curriculum is printed on paper, making it diffi - cult for teachers to fi nd the most pertinent information and, ultimately, less likely that it will be used.
There is, of course, a place for such lessons, particularly if they are developed by the teachers using the curriculum. If designed to include instructional practices that support student understanding and refl ect school and classroom values, these in-depth lessons can serve as excel- lent models for how to implement curriculum in a meaningful way. If the curriculum is housed electronically (a topic discussed in Chapter 8), links can be created from the primary curriculum document to these detailed lessons, or a separate resource document can be created to accompany a paper document.
The learning experiences in Example 3 focus on student actions. By doing so, they support the intent of standards as learning standards rather than teaching standards because they avoid emphasizing the teacher as the center of learning. Each learning experience includes information about why the student is completing the task, thus identifying the learning
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Instruction 117
goal along with the activity. Including the goal in the learning experience allows the teacher to see the connection between what the students are going to learn and what they are going to do. A learning target theory of action calls for teachers to design the right target for the day’s lesson and to use it along with their students to aim for and assess student under- standing (Brookhart & Moss, 2014). Embedding learning targets in the learning experience makes the sharing of these goals with students much easier. Learning experiences also include evidence of student learning— what the teacher will observe or collect. This evidence serves as part of the formative assessment process to monitor student understanding, allowing the teacher to adjust instruction based on students’ needs, as discussed in Chapter 4.
The benefi t of addressing instruction through a series of learning experiences is that besides being clear and concise, they allow teacher fl exibility in that they can be used in many diff erent ways. For example, in primary grades, a learning experience such as “Students use the page bor- ders of Jan Brett’s Hedgie’s Surprise to ask questions about what will hap- pen next in the story” can be completed during a large-group discussion, in student partnerships at a learning center, or independently in a note- book. The teacher can also determine how to best support the students. The teacher may choose to model how to ask and answer questions before students begin their work, or she may choose to work with small groups of students on specifi c strategies for helping them to ask questions.
The caution here is that learning experiences address learning goals, which are often not standards but rather subsets of standards. As a result, by themselves they do not always strongly align to the standards and need to be used in conjunction with each other for strong alignment to occur. They may need to be grouped, as in Example 3, to show a complete task that aligns to the standards.
Another caution is that learning experiences do not provide a structure for instruction. They could be interpreted literally, which might eliminate instructional practices that support learning, such as teacher modeling
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118 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
or students working with a partner or in a small group. To address this, teachers will need opportunities through professional learning commu- nities and professional development to examine instructional practices and use learning experiences to codevelop and share lessons, diff erenti- ate instruction, and sequence learning experiences (a topic discussed in Chapter 8).
Both lessons and learning experiences have their advantages and disadvantages. When evaluating curriculum or determining how to best address instruction within your curriculum, it is important to ensure that either the lesson or the learning experience clearly describes what students will do, why they will do it, and the evidence the teacher has of student learning; and to determine how strongly the lessons or learning experiences align to the standards of the unit.
Types of Learning Experiences
The types of learning experiences included in a curriculum are driven by the types of standards in the unit. In the introduction to this book, I dis- cussed three types of standards: content, process, and disposition. Given the diff erent types of standards, a curriculum needs diff erent types of learning experiences, generally categorized under similar terms.
Content Learning Experiences
Content learning experiences focus on the what. They primarily align to discipline-specifi c standards, focusing on content or conceptual under- standings. For example, the following is a content standard and related performance indicator from the American Psychological Association’s National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula:
Biological Bases of Behavior Content Standard 1: Structure
and function of the nervous system in human and non-human
animals
1.2 Students are able to identify the parts of the neuron and
describe the basic process of neural transmission.
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Instruction 119
The standard and the performance indicator clearly identify what the student needs to know but not how the student will learn the parts of the neuron and how they work. The learning experience provides ideas on how this might be accomplished, as shown in the following example:
Students
• Create and label a model of a neuron from materials such as
clay, Styrofoam, beads, and pipe cleaners, using a different
color to represent each part.
• Use their models to demonstrate and explain how neurons
communicate with each other.
Both of these learning experiences communicate what the students will do—create a model and use the models to illustrate how neurons com- municate; why the students will complete these activities—to identify the parts of the neuron and how they work; and the evidence the teacher will have of student learning—the models and the demonstration. The learning experiences are thus designed around principles for teaching for understanding—the students are constructing their own learning. With- out examples of learning experiences, standards such as the one refer- enced here could easily lead to a teacher-centered lesson with the teacher using a diagram to point out the parts of a neuron and explaining how they work while the students sit passively watching or copying the information into a notebook.
Process Learning Experiences
Process learning experiences focus on the how. They align to process standards that describe how the students will engage with the content (for example, by synthesizing, analyzing, comprehending); follow steps in a procedure such as a lab experiment or a design protocol; or communicate what they have learned (for example, through speaking or writing). The following are two examples of how learning experiences focus on process.
The fi rst example comes from Thomas C. Giordano Middle School 45 in the Bronx in New York City. A group of teachers—Dalainy Amador,
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120 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Christina Capuano, Kiera Fox, Shawn Rawlins, and Ramonita Torres— worked with school principal Annamaria Giordano Perrotta and the administrative team—Steven Bennett, Celestine Calpin, Joan Ingram, and Filomena Mannan—to explore student discourse, participation, and engagement. Their eff orts led them to design the rubric shown in Figure 6.2 (see pp. 121–123), which aligns with speaking and listening standards, and research on discourse, participation, and engagement.
The goal was to design a tool that students could use to guide their engagement in academic discourse. Once the tool was designed, however, the group discussed the fact that its success would depend on student understanding of the rubric itself, and so the fi rst step would be to teach the students the expectations contained in the rubric. Here is the fi rst set of learning experiences developed by this team:
Students
• Read the rubric and use the following text marks to code their
understanding of the rubric.
+ This makes sense to me; I know what to do.
? I have a specifi c question about this.
- This is not clear; I’m not sure what this means.
• Discuss the following questions to establish student understand-
ing of the vocabulary and information contained in the rubric:
– What parts of the rubric made sense to you? What parts
clearly explain what you need to do to participate and
engage in discourse in the classroom?
– What specifi c questions do you have about the rubric?
– What parts are unclear?
• View a video of students working together and use the rubric to assess the group’s ability to engage in discourse.
• Role-play different levels of expectations found on the rubric to
clarify language and meaning.
• Participate in a group discussion to apply the expectations found
at Level 3, and self-assess their efforts by completing the rubric.
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Instruction 121
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122 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
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or I
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t pa
rt ic
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e at
a ll.
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rt o
ff f
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of t
he p
ro to
co l
or s
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tu re
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s fo
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pr ot
oc ol
o r
st ru
ct ur
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c an
p ar
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th e
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m ay
on
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as io
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te rn
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ee n
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g on
a nd
of
f ta
sk , d
om in
at e
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r sh
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ay , b
ut I
am a
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a
re di
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en d
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pl et
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sk .
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f ol
lo w
t he
s te
ps o
f a
pr ot
oc ol
o r
st ru
ct ur
e to
p ar
ti ci
pa te
in t
he
di sc
us si
on . I
m ay
a sk
qu
es ti
on s
w he
n I n
ee d
cl ar
ifi ca
ti on
.
• I
d em
on st
ra te
t ha
t I
am r
es po
ns ib
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or m
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ha vi
or b
y pa
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- in
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t he
d is
cu ss
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ay o
n ta
sk , c
oo pe
ra te
w
it h
m y
pa rt
ne r
or
gr ou
p, a
nd a
m r
es pe
ct -
fu l o
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’ i de
as a
nd
fe el
in gs
.
• I
f ol
lo w
t he
p ro
to co
l o r
st ru
ct ur
e an
d de
m on
- st
ra te
le ad
er sh
ip b
y as
ki ng
o th
er s
qu es
ti on
s an
d en
co ur
ag in
g ev
er y-
on e
to f
ul fi l
l t he
ir r
ol es
.
• I
a m
r es
po ns
ib le
f or
m
y ow
n be
ha vi
or in
th
e di
sc us
si on
b y
us in
g ap
pr op
ri at
e ey
e co
nt ac
t, a
de qu
at e
vo lu
m e,
a nd
c le
ar
pr on
un ci
at io
n. I
re di
re ct
m
y gr
ou p
m em
be rs
an
d/ or
m ai
nt ai
n th
e fo
cu s
of t
he g
ro up
. I a
m r
es pe
ct fu
l a nd
co
ns id
er at
e of
o th
er s’
id
ea s
an d
fe el
in gs
.
Fi g
u re
6 .2
R U
B R
IC F
O R
D IS
C O
U R
S E
, P
A R
T IC
IP A
T IO
N , A
N D
E N
G A
G E
M E
N T (D
P E ) (
co n
tin u
e d
)
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 122EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 122 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
Instruction 123
En ga
ge m
en t:
• D
em on
st ra
te s
ac ti
ve in
te r-
es t,
c on
ce rn
, o r
fe el
in g
• I
d on
’t c
ar e
w ha
t ot
he rs
th
in k
an d
ho w
m y
la ck
of
in te
re st
w ill
a ff
ec t
th em
; I d
on ’t
d o
w ha
t ne
ed s
to b
e ac
co m
- pl
is he
d.
• I
t is
e as
y fo
r ot
he rs
to
fi gu
re o
ut t
ha t
I am
d is
in te
re st
ed a
s se
en t
hr ou
gh m
y bo
dy
la ng
ua ge
a nd
a ct
io ns
.
• I
d ri
ft in
a nd
o ut
o f
th e
di sc
us si
on , p
ar ti
ci pa
t- in
g in
t he
p ar
ts t
ha t
I fi n
d in
te re
st in
g, o
r I d
o w
ha t
ha s
to g
et d
on e.
• I
c om
pl et
e th
e ta
sk o
r ha
ve a
c on
ve rs
at io
n on
ly w
he n
it ’s
n ec
es -
sa ry
, e ve
n th
ou gh
it is
ea
sy t
o se
e I a
m n
ot
re al
ly in
te re
st ed
in t
he
co nt
en t.
• I
a m
p re
se nt
a nd
fo
cu se
d, a
s se
en
th ro
ug h
m y
bo dy
la n-
gu ag
e an
d ey
e co
nt ac
t.
I a m
in vo
lv ed
in w
ha t
I a m
d oi
ng b
y sa
yi ng
, sh
ow in
g, a
nd w
or ki
ng
w it
h ot
he rs
.
• I
fi nd
v al
ue in
t he
c on
- ve
rs at
io n
an d
in w
ha t
ot he
rs s
ha re
, a nd
I am
op
en t
o ne
w t
ho ug
ht s
an d
id ea
s.
• I
a m
m ot
iv at
ed t
o sh
ar e;
I lis
te n
to a
nd
pr ov
id e
fe ed
ba ck
in
m y
in te
ra ct
io ns
w it
h th
e ot
he r
m em
be rs
o f
th e
gr ou
p.
• I
u nd
er st
an d
an d
ap pr
e- ci
at e
th e
va lu
e an
d le
ar ni
ng t
ha t
re su
lt s
fr om
s ha
ri ng
a nd
w or
k- in
g w
it h
ot he
rs .
S ou
rc e:
F ro
m M
S 4
5 D
is co
ur se
, P ar
ti ci
pa ti
on , a
nd E
ng ag
em en
t R
ub ri
c an
d Le
ss on
b y
D al
ai ny
A m
ad or
, C hr
is ti
na C
ap ua
no , K
ie ra
F ox
, S ha
w n
R aw
lin s,
R am
on it
a To
rr es
, A nn
am ar
ia
G io
rd an
o Pe
rr ot
ta , S
te ve
n B
en ne
tt , C
el es
ti ne
C al
pi n,
J oa
n In
gr am
, a nd
F ilo
m en
a M
an na
n. U
se d
w it
h pe
rm is
si on
.
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124 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
As you can see through the coding (boldface, italics, and underlining), each learning experience identifi es what the students will do, why the students will do it, and the evidence of learning. What is missing from the learning experiences is the content. The content would depend on which class conducts the introductory lessons. The focus, however, remains the same: how do you engage in academic discourse?
The second example combines process with content. Elementary stu- dents are introduced to electrical and magnetic forces by participating in learning experiences aligned to the ISTE standard for Research and Information Fluency: students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
Students
• Use a search tool (key word, sidebar, hyperlink) to locate
information on electrical or magnetic interactions. They share
the strategy with a student who used a different search tool
for research.
• Use a bookmarking program to identify 3–5 resources that
could possibly contain useful information and digital tools
explaining how magnetic or electrical interactions work.
• Revisit their resources and use a highlighting tool to identify
important information that answers who, what, where, why,
and when questions about either electrical or magnetic inter-
actions. Students eliminate any of the resources that are not
helpful in answering the questions.
• Summarize the information they have learned by sharing it
with a partner. They create a written summary after participat-
ing in the peer sharing session.
The primary focus of this series of learning experiences is on learn- ing how to use research tools. The secondary focus is on the information itself. As students use the research tools, they are also developing back- ground knowledge on electrical and magnetic interactions that will come in handy as they proceed with the unit. After learning how to use these research tools, student will participate in other learning experiences that
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 124EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 124 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
Instruction 125
focus on the design of an experiment for testing their understanding of how either electrical or magnetic forces work. During the next series of learning experiences, the primary and secondary focuses will change. The primary focus will be on developing student understanding of how elec- trical and magnetic interactions occur, with students using their research skills to support their learning.
Dispositional Learning Experiences
Dispositional or metacognitive learning experiences focus on student thinking. The term metacognition simply means “thinking about think- ing.” Just as students need to be taught content and skills, students also need time to develop their ability to refl ect and think about their thinking. Let’s examine this idea by looking at the following example of a series of learning experiences that address metacognition.
Students
• Examine samples of student refl ections in response to the
following prompts and use sticky notes to tag those that best
explained what the student was thinking.
– What did you learn that was new today?
– What helped you to learn today?
– What did you struggle with?
– What are some things you can do or the teacher can do to
help you in the areas you struggled with?
• Reread the student samples that were tagged and write on the sticky note what made it easy to read and understand what the
student was thinking.
• Contribute criteria to a class checklist identifying characteristics
of quality refl ection.
• Answer the same questions after participating in a series of
lessons, and self-assess their refl ection using the class check-
list. Students improve their refl ection by revising it based on
their self-assessment.
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126 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
The focus of these learning experiences is on the quality of the think- ing and not on what the students are thinking about, although the answers to these refl ective prompts will provide teachers with great insight into student understanding and misconceptions. Previous learning experi- ences may have focused on establishing the rationale for metacognition, and future learning experiences can assist students in using their abil- ity to refl ect as they set and monitor goals—all of which can contribute to improving learning. Also notice that the learning experiences are not grade-specifi c. All students, regardless of their age, can be taught to share and refl ect on their thinking. The degree and sophistication of their think- ing and the language used to describe it might change, but the ability to refl ect exists and can be tapped at any age.
The following example illustrates the connection between metacogni- tion and process by integrating the two into the same series of learning experiences. In this example, students are writing a marketing proposal for the school’s yearly fundraiser.
Students
• Are introduced to a warm and cool feedback protocol by read- ing examples of both in response to a draft proposal written by
a former student. After reading the proposal and feedback, they
check off those points that they agree with.
• Read a draft proposal written by another student and write down their own warm and cool feedback. Students compare their feedback points with those of a partner to determine how
their feedback could affect the writing.
• Watch a small group give feedback to one of its members using the warm and cool feedback strategy, and discuss the
quality of the feedback and how it could affect the proposal.
• Participate in small-group warm and cool feedback using their
own piece of writing so they can further revise and edit their
own proposals.
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Instruction 127
Peer Review Process for Warm and Cool Feedback
(Note: The following steps outline how to conduct peer review for warm and cool
feedback, a process originally developed by Blythe, Allen, and Powell [1999].)
1. Each presenter shares his or her work for 3–5 minutes while members of the
group listen and take notes.
2. Each member of the group shares one piece of warm feedback.
3. The same procedure is followed for cool feedback.
4. The presenter can take notes while the sharing is occurring but cannot
respond to questions or comments.
5. The group should go through at least one full round of warm feedback
before shifting to cool feedback. Two or more rounds of cool feedback are
recommended.
6. Members can pass if they have nothing new to say. They can also agree with,
ditto, add to, or build on something that someone else has said or give feed-
back that is completely different.
Warm feedback
• Endorses or values without praising.
• Is nonjudgmental and specifi c to the work.
• Provides the perspectives/points of view and beliefs of the reviewers.
• Focuses on importance, relevance, connections, usefulness, applicability, and
possibilities.
Examples:
“You can also address ______ with ______.”
“This could also be combined with ______.”
“This might allow other readers to understand ______.”
“If you included ______, you could also ______.”
Cool feedback
• Includes no negative judgments.
• Focuses on questions and confusions.
• Helps uncover the perspective/point of view and beliefs of the author.
• Elicits clarifi cation by promoting thinking.
Examples:
“I wonder if you might . . .”
“I don’t understand . . .”
“Why did you . . .?”
“Could ______ have a negative effect on ______?”
“I’m struggling to see how this . . .”
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128 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
As you can see, the focus in this set of learning experiences is twofold. It is intended to both develop students’ ability to be refl ective about others’ and their own work, and at the same time engage in the writing process.
Implications for Evaluating, Creating, and Revising Curriculum
When evaluating or creating curriculum, it is important to ensure that
• The learning experiences or lessons communicate what stu- dents will do, why, and the evidence the teacher will have of student learning.
• Lessons or clusters of learning experiences strongly align to the standards.
• Diff erent types of lessons—content, process, and disposition— have been included.
The following two examples illustrate what learning experiences would look like if they were designed to address these criteria. The fi rst example, shown in Figure 6.3, is an excerpt from the Fire Island, New York, curric- ulum. Here are the related unit standards:
RI.3.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate under-
standing of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the
basis for the answers.
RI.3.4 Determine the meaning of general academic and
domain-specifi c words and phrases in a text relevant to
a grade 3 topic or subject area. [emphasis in original]
RI.3.6 Distinguish their own point of view from that of the
author of a text.
W.3.1 Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a
point of view with reasons.
W.3.5 With guidance and support from peers and adults,
develop and strengthen writing as needed by plan-
ning, revising, and editing.
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Instruction 129
Figure 6.3
TYPES OF LEARNING EXPERIENCES—ELEMENTARY EXAMPLE
Learning Experiences Type
Students refer to the texts they have been reading to create a list of problems facing the Brazilian rain forest. RI.3.1
Process/ Content
Students
• Defi ne the terms politics, economics, and ecology using information from the texts they have been reading about the rain forest.
• Check and clarify their defi nitions using the online dictionary wordcentral.com; make revisions to their defi nitions.
• Provide examples that illustrate each word.
• Classify problems in the rain forest as political, economic, or ecological. RI.3.4
Process/ Content
Students
• Create a list of questions that they have about problems facing the rain forest.
• Find and read a nonfi ction article to answer their questions.
• Meet in small groups to discuss and answer any remaining questions.
• Use additional nonfi ction text to clarify any contradictions or clarifi cations, and add to their answers. RI.3.1
Process/ Content
Students
• Write their point of view about the problems facing the rain forests and what can be done about them, and create a list of details to support their point of view.
• Read “All About the Rain Forest: Saving the World’s Rain Forests,” by Karen Fanning (2011), and write down the author’s point of view and list the details the author uses to support her point of view.
• Create a “hat” chart to compare the author’s point of view and use of supporting details with their own. RI.3.6
Process/ Content
Students
• Examine language used by authors when sharing their opinion by revisiting the nonfi ction articles they read to create a list of “strong” words that the authors used when sharing their opinion. RL.3.4
Process
Students
• Revisit their written point of view and list of reasons to write a draft of their opinion piece on how to take care of the rain forest. W.3.1, W.3.5
Process
Students
• Share their writing with a partner and use a checklist to give each other verbal feedback on their written pieces.
• Complete a written refl ection on whether the advice offered by their partner was helpful and how they might use it.
• Make revisions to their pieces based on partner feedback. W.3.5
Process/ Disposi- tions
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130 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
The second example, shown in Figure 6.4, is an excerpt from a high school unit of study on homeostasis. (The same criteria apply regard- less of content or grade level.) Here are the unit standards for the second example:
RST.9-10.7 Translate quantitative or technical information
expressed in words in a text into visual form (e.g., a
table or chart) and translate information expressed
visually or mathematically (e.g., in an equation)
into words.
5.3b Feedback mechanisms have evolved that maintain
homeostasis. Examples include the changes in heart
rate or respiratory rate in response to increased
activity in muscle cells, the maintenance of blood
sugar levels by insulin from the pancreas, and the
changes in openings in the leaves of plants by guard
cells to regulate water loss and gas exchange.
In Figures 6.3 and 6.4, you can easily see by the coding that the learn- ing experiences describe what the students will do, why, and the evidence the teacher has of student learning, and they ensure that the tasks are strongly aligned to a standard. The examples also include content, pro- cess, and metacognitive learning experiences, as evidenced by the labels in the second column. We should note here that if content, process, and dispositional standards have been carefully identifi ed and arranged throughout the year, before the design of the assessments and learning experiences, and if steps have been taken to ensure alignment to these standards, these diff erent types of lessons will naturally be part of the curriculum. This process of coding and labeling can then easily be copied when teachers are working to design curriculum and can be completed unit by unit as units are designed.
The process becomes slightly more diffi cult when evaluating a published or existing curriculum, primarily because the format is usually full lesson plans, often with more lessons than can actually be taught. Working in one
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 130EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 130 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
Instruction 131
district to integrate a reading series into the curriculum, we faced the chal- lenge of too many lessons, many of which were not strongly aligned and all written in very elaborate lesson plan formats. The team used the chart in Fig- ure 6.5 (see p. 132) to analyze and select lessons to include in the curriculum.
We began with the unit description and then identifi ed the standards that were taught and assessed, along with key words that identifi ed the main idea of the standard. From there we identifi ed the lessons that were moderately or strongly aligned to the standards for the unit and that focused on the student as the learner.
Figure 6.4
TYPES OF LEARNING EXPERIENCES—SECONDARY EXAMPLE
Learning Experiences Type
Students
• Find and list examples of internal (genetic) and external (nutrition, physical activity, mental health, environmental exposure) factors that infl uence homeostasis; identify and label those that can be controlled and those that cannot. 5.3b
Content
• Conduct and write a lab report of an experiment that examines the body’s response (breathing rate and pulse) to changes in physical activity. 5.3b
Process/Content
• View examples of feedback loops and explanations that illustrate the relationship between external factors and homeostasis; in small groups discuss how the written information has been translated into feedback loops. 5.3b, RST.9-10.7
Process/Content
• Create a class defi nition of negative and positive feedback based on their examination of the samples and explanations. They color-code the positive and negative feedback in each of the examples. 5.3b, RST.9-10.7
Process/Content
• Complete a written response in which they refl ect on how the use of a feedback loop affected their understanding of homeostasis and include remaining questions. 5.3b, RST.9-10.7
Disposition/
Process
• Work in groups to draw a diagram that shows the feedback loop examined during their experiment; color-code the negative and positive feedback within the system. 5.3b, RST.9-10.7
Process/Content
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132 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
The following shows how information from the original analysis was reworked. The name of the main text appears fi rst as the organizer for the related learning experiences. The learning experiences then include applicable resources from the reading program, including text, lessons, and materials (and, if applicable, the page numbers where they can be found—for example, “T93” stands for “Teacher’s Edition, page 93”); a description of what students will do, why, and how; and standard code to ensure alignment.
“Hurricanes,” by Seymour Simon
Students
• Read the nonfi ction text taking note of how the author uses pictures, diagrams, and text to explain why hurricanes occur
Figure 6.5
LESSON-ANALYSIS CHART
Unit Description Standards Lessons
Unit 3: Nature’s Impact
Who’s really in control? Stu-
dents understand how their
world is affected by nature.
They analyze different texts
and how they convey infor-
mation about the impact of
nature on humans. At the
end of the unit, they write
an essay persuading people
to be prepared.
RL.4.1 (use evidence, make
inferences)
RL.4.3 (describe character,
setting, event using details)
RI.4.1 (use evidence, make
inferences)
RI.4.3 (explain events, proce-
dure using details)
RI.4.6 (compare/contrast
fi rst- and secondhand
account)
SL.4.3 (identify reasons and
evidence)
W.4.1 (opinion writing)
Earth Science Lesson Topic:
“Hurricanes”
• Analyze the text
• Explain scientifi c ideas
• Use photos as primary
sources
First- and secondhand
accounts of Katrina T39
• Compare accounts T193
• Use graphic features T262
Note: T indicates Teacher’s Edition.
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Instruction 133
and how they affect people. They participate in a small-group
discussion, with each member sharing something he or she
learned from the text.
• Reread the text and record the different ways in which hurri- canes affect people on a two-columned chart. RI.4.3
“Recovering from Katrina”
Students
• Read the newspaper account of Katrina and record informa- tion that confi rms information from the nonfi ction text in the
second column of the two-column chart.
• Use their chart to discuss how the explanations were similar to
and different from each other. T93, RI.4.6
Once the teachers completed their analysis of the reading program, they focused on examining how they could include content, process, and dis- positional learning experiences, and design new ones where the learning experiences fell short.
The process just described serves as an example of how to integrate new programs, meet state mandates, or integrate the best of past practice in a meaningful and purposeful way. The same intent is also evident in the previously described science learning experiences. The experiment in which students examine the relationship among breathing rate, pulse, and physical activity is one that is required by New York State for students who will take the state exam for the Living Environment course.
With the knowledge of how to address instruction in the curriculum, we can now turn to the materials and resources that support instruction— the focus of Chapter 7.
Summary: Instruction
Learning experiences and lessons are two ways in which to communi- cate what should be taught on a daily basis. Both of these structures have strengths and weaknesses that should be acknowledged and addressed so
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134 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
they are appropriately used as the basis of instruction. Either structure should include information about what students will do, why they will do it, and what the teacher will have as evidence of student learning. These lessons and learning experiences should be strongly aligned to the stan- dards for that unit.
Curriculum includes learning experiences or lessons that address content, process, and dispositions. Content learning experiences focus on what students are learning, process learning experiences focus on the how, and learning experiences that address dispositions focus on the how and the why.
Tools and Activities for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
• Identifying What, Why, and How—This activity (see the examples in Figure 6.1) serves two purposes. It can be used to distinguish between the two formats in which instruction is communicated (lessons and learning experiences), and it can also be used to help teachers to identify what students will do, why they will do it, and the evidence they will have of student learning within lessons and learning experiences.
• Coding and Labeling Learning Experiences and Lessons— The codes used in this chapter to identify what the students will do, why the student will do it, and the evidence of learning (boldface, ital- ics, and underlining) can be used in the design of curriculum or when identifying lessons or learning experiences. The process helps to ensure that this information is clearly conveyed to the teachers using the curriculum. Part of the coding process includes the identifi cation of the standard aligned with the lesson or cluster of learning experiences. The labeling of lessons and learning experiences with “Content,” “Process,” and “Dispositions” can also be done during the design or revision process to ensure that units include these diff erent types of lessons.
• Lesson-Analysis Chart—This simple chart (see the example in Figure 6.5) can be used during the revision process to identify quality lessons to include in the new curriculum. It helps to focus the identifi - cation of lessons based on the purpose they will serve in the revised unit of study.
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Instruction 135
Checklist for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
The learning experiences or lessons are written so they describe what the students will do, why they will do it, and what the teacher will have as evidence of student learning.
The learning experiences or lessons are strongly aligned to the standards for the unit of study in which they appear.
The learning experiences and lessons address content, process, and dispositions.
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7
CONSIDERATION 7
Resources That
Support Instruction
“The Harry Potter unit,” “the DNA lab,” “the Twitter project,” “the I Have a Dream activity”—teachers have often referred to units or other chunks of curriculum through the names of the resources they use, illustrating the excitement they have for sharing their favorite books, technology, and materials with their students. The passion teachers have for these resources shows how much they truly care about what they teach. Their enthusiasm transfers to their students and creates an energy of learning in the classroom.
Although we would like to believe these feelings occur solely because of the resource itself, that is probably not the only reason why students feel more engaged. It is more likely because of what the teachers ask stu- dents to do with the resource. Creating that match between what students do and the resources they use is the focus of this chapter. In a quality cur- riculum, learning experiences integrate quality texts, technology, and other materials in engaging yet purposeful ways.
Texts
Students read text for many reasons, including to
• Examine organizational structure. • Determine the author’s purpose.
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• Examine word choice and meaning. • Evaluate an argument. • Determine relationships between ideas. • Gather information. • Challenge their own thinking. • Practice reading skills. • Explore diff erent genres, styles, authors, and cultures.
Each reason may require a diff erent type of text, so it is possible for stu- dents to be reading multiple texts at the same time but for diff erent pur- poses. Often the reasons are clearly established in the standards chosen for the unit. Let’s look at some examples that illustrate how standards indicate purpose and how the purpose infl uences the choice of text and how it is used in a learning experience.
Example 1
Standard: RI.2.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend
informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and
technical texts, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band profi -
ciently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Type of Text: Complex text as determined by
• Qualitative measures such as level of meaning, structure, lan-
guage, and knowledge demand.
• Quantitative measures such as Lexile scores that determine
such factors as number of words and sentence length.
• The match between reader and task based on factors such as
cognitive capabilities, reading skills, motivation and engage-
ment, prior knowledge and experience, and content and themes.
Learning Experiences: Students
• Preview From Seed to Plant, by Gail Gibbons, by placing small sticky notes next to the title, headings, and subheadings.
• Turn the heading or subheading of each section into a question
and write it on the sticky note to guide the reading of the text.
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138 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• Underline/highlight information in order to answer the ques-
tion created from the heading/subheading.
Example 2
Standard: RL.11–12.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concern-
ing how to structure specifi c parts of a text (e.g., the choice of
where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or
tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning
as well as its aesthetic impact.
Type of Text: Text selected needs to have a unique structure,
such as an unusual beginning or ending or a comedic or tragic
resolution.
Learning Experiences: Students read We Are All Completely
Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler. As they read, they
• Track their thinking (reactions, understanding of characters and
events, shifts in thinking) as the story unfolds, on sticky notes
or in a journal.
• Share their reactions to the author’s choice to start the book in
the middle of the story, and the impact that decision had on the
story itself, in small-group discussions.
Example 3
Standard: W.7.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear
reasons and relevant evidence.
Type of Text: Text that illustrates an argument and how a claim is
supported by reasons and evidence.
Learning Experiences: Students read the book George Bellows:
Painter with a Punch, by Robert Burleigh. The students
• Read and discuss the story to develop an appreciation of
George Bellows and his artwork.
• Identify the characteristics of the text that identify it as an
argument and contribute to a class list, focusing on the inclu-
sion and evaluation of an opposing point of view.
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• Reread the text, and use different-colored sticky strips to iden-
tify the different points of view.
• Use their strips to write sentences showing the connection
between opposing viewpoints (e.g., Some people think _____,
but _____).
Example 4
Standard: Colorado Career and Technical Education (CTE), Archi-
tecture and Construction Cluster, Design and Pre-Construction
Pathway
DPCP 01. Technical Skills:
Use the technical knowledge and skills required to pursue the
targeted careers for all pathways in the career cluster, including
knowledge of design, operation, and maintenance of technologi-
cal systems critical to the career cluster.
DPCP.01.01 Read, interpret, and use technical drawings, docu-
ments, and specifi cations to plan a project.
DPCP.01.01a Interpret drawings in project plans.
Type of Text: Floor plans of a wide range of quality
Learning Experiences: Students work in small groups to interpret
a fl oor plan that they fi nd on the Internet. They
• Identify the key elements of a fl oor plan by creating a list of
what they notice about the plan.
• Share their list to construct a class checklist of a quality plan.
• Use the checklist to write an evaluation of the plan, identifying
how it incorporates the criteria and how it could be improved.
In each of the examples, the characteristics of the text were identifi ed from the standard and then the text was chosen because it exhibited those characteristics. Specifi cally,
• From Seed to Plant was selected because it exhibits the attributes of text complexity.
• We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: A Novel, by Karen Joy Fowler, was selected because of its unusual structure.
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140 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• George Bellows: Painter with a Punch, by Robert Burleigh, was selected because it presents an argument.
• Floor plans were selected because they include specifi cations for planning a project.
Although these choices seem straightforward, we can learn a lot about choice of text through these examples, including how to address common misconceptions that often infl uence and limit the texts teachers use in their classrooms.
In the 2nd grade example, teachers chose the text From Seed to Plant, by Gail Gibbons, because it met the criteria for text complexity. The adoption of the Common Core State Standards or similar standards has led to some confusion as to what “text complexity” actually means and when students should read complex text. Unfortunately, text complexity has often been translated to mean a Lexile or other qualitative score. As shown in the description of the characteristics of the text, text complexity also includes qualitative features and meeting the demands of the reader and the task. In addition to the Lexile level, From Seed to Plant includes text features that students can use as a strategy for understanding the text. The text therefore meets not just one of the criteria for text complexity but also the other two because it has structural characteristics that can be used to meet the demands of the task. Many quality texts have been pushed aside because they are not of the “correct” Lexile score. Yet these texts, because of qualitative measures or how they are being used, may actually be com- plex text and more worthwhile to read.
In some cases concern over text complexity has also incorrectly led to the use of complex texts instead of varied levels of text, even though we know that students improve as readers when they have plenty of oppor- tunities to read text at their own level. Before asking students to read From Seeds to Plant, teachers could have them practice the reading strat- egy of using text features to comprehend nonfi ction texts with a text at their reading level. Once students had plenty of practice with text at their
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reading level, they then could apply their reading strategies to more diffi - cult texts.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was chosen because of its unique structure: it begins in the middle. However, many other con- temporary as well as classical works of literature also have an unusual beginning or ending, or a comedic or tragic resolution that would meet this criterion; examples include Defending Jacob by William Landay, My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth. With such diverse choices, a text cannot be chosen based solely on structure. In this case, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves sits in a unit with the following organizing center:
Unit Title: Humanity
Essential Question: What does it mean to be human?
Big Idea: Students understand that the parameters of what it
means to be human are not defi ned by all in the same way.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is serving two purposes: it meets the criterion of unusual structure, and it explores the ethical debate of ani- mal rights in a unique way. In many units, teachers choose a text because it can serve two purposes. It can be read for enjoyment and still be analyzed for the author’s use of language; it can be read to learn specifi c content and still be used to analyze the author’s use of evidence in making a claim.
This concept of two purposes is particularly important in content areas where teachers feel there simply isn’t enough time to cover the content and read an outside text. For example, using a chapter from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot in a high school sci- ence class allows students the opportunity to use their scientifi c knowl- edge of cells as they read about and engage in the bioethical debate about cell ownership. In a high school social studies classroom, students can read an excerpt from The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and compare it to other secondary and primary sources that capture the times
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142 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
and experiences of African Americans who moved north and west during the Great Migration from the South.
In addition to illustrating how a specifi c text can be used, a quality curriculum also recommends alternative texts that will allow students to arrive at the end goal. For example, although George Bellows: Painter with a Punch is a good model for argumentative writing, a number of alter- natives can serve as mentor text. These texts should be included in the curriculum so that teachers have quality options that they can choose from when thinking about the interests, needs, and learning styles of their students.
This idea of choice is in direct opposition to a common practice that asserts that all students in a given grade level or classroom should read the same text. Although this approach is helpful at times, many new oppor- tunities emerge when students read diff erent texts for the same purpose or reread a text in a diff erent class or grade level for a new purpose. For example, teachers could use George Bellows: Painter with a Punch in any class—not only an ELA class—where students are writing arguments. An art teacher could also use it for examining George Bellows’s artistic style or as a model for writing critiques. Confi ning a book to a specifi c grade level or class limits its use; rereading for diff erent purposes promotes greater comprehension. Clearly identifying texts within the curriculum resources will promote this practice of multiple readings for diff erent purposes by allowing all stakeholders access to information regarding what students are reading and why.
There are also times when it is best to describe the type of text but allow for a wide variety of quality, as seen in the learning experiences for architectural design. Here the goal was for students to access and evaluate fl oor plans for quality. In the real world, architects are not always handed a quality plan but rather need to know what to look for and what questions to ask in order to ultimately create a design plan. Although it would be advantageous to the students to have an exemplar to refer to while design- ing their own fl oor plan, the exemplar should not be their only model or necessarily the fi rst plan they look at.
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Technology
Examine these three standards and try to determine the grade level and content area to which they apply:
1. Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information.
2. Students integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
3. Students read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning.
These standards come from diff erent documents; the fi rst is an ISTE stan- dard, the second is a Common Core State Anchor Standard, and the third is from the American Association of School Librarians (AASL). Although each addresses the use of technology in slightly diff erent ways, they all require that students use text, visual, media, and digital resources. These standards refl ect the fact that, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center (Anderson, 2015; Perrin & Duggan, 2015), 87 percent of adult Amer- icans use the Internet, 68 percent of Americans own smartphones, 45 per- cent own tablets, and 73 percent own a laptop or desktop computer, making it diffi cult to ignore the need to address technology in the curriculum.
I use the term technology here in the broadest sense of the word, to include the devices—computers, tablets, smartphones—that students use to access information, collaborate, and share what they have learned. Lap- top computers and tablets are increasingly common, and schools vary in their policies regarding cell phone use and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) measures. The goal here is not to debate the merits and disadvantages of the devices or the related policies but rather to focus on what to include in the curriculum that will make the use of technology benefi cial to students.
The general guiding principle around technology in the curriculum is to focus on how technology is a medium for learning rather than an end in itself (Pahomov, 2014). With that in mind, let’s look at examples that
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144 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
illustrate the most common purposes that technology serves in the class- room: accessing information, collaborating and interacting, and present- ing and publishing.
Accessing Information
We live in a world where we have immediate access to large amounts of information via the Internet, so the question in the classroom is not whether we should use the Internet to access information but rather how much information to include in the curriculum; in other words, do we tell students where to fi nd information or do we let them fi nd it on their own? The answer lies in how involved students are in the process of getting the information. The less involved they are, the more information needs to be included in the curriculum. The more involved they are, the less informa- tion needs to be included. Let’s look at two examples to see exactly what this means.
Example 1
Students examine how speakers convey powerful messages by
• Watching the video Be the Punchline (Bass, Powers, & Michael
Jr., 2014) and working in small groups to complete a graphic
organizer identifying the message, details, and structure used
by Michael Jr. to make his point.
• Watching Sam Berns’s My Philosophy for a Happy Life and identifying his message, the details he uses to convey his mes-
sage, and the structure used to support his point on the same
graphic organizer.
• Analyzing their graphic organizer to create criteria for effective
ways speakers use details and structure to make a point.
In this example, the students have a passive role in accessing infor- mation. The media have been preselected so the students can focus on analyzing the examples. Although students can fi nd their own examples, it would be best for them to do so after establishing criteria for how speak- ers use details and structure to make a point.
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Resources That Support Instruction 145
The purpose for including these specifi c presentations is to identify examples of presentations and speeches students can view in order to analyze how a speaker uses structure and details to convey a message. Certainly other presentations and speeches could be used, and some teachers may opt to select their own; but—like some students—not all teachers will know how or where to look. Including this information in the learning experience gives teachers a starting point and gives students models to examine. In cases such as this one, including a specifi c website is particularly helpful in learning experiences in which students are being introduced to an idea or concept, practicing a specifi c skill, or evaluating an example.
Students are most involved in accessing information when conducting research on a topic of their choice. When students are choosing a topic, it is not feasible to off er all of the possible sources of information. What will be helpful to students are learning experiences that teach them to analyze the credibility of the sources they are examining, as well as learning expe- riences that show them how to use tools to organize, retrieve, and anno- tate their sources. Example 2 illustrates learning experiences focused on the process of collecting and organizing materials. In this case, students are collecting resources they will use for individual performance tasks that explore leadership.
Example 2
Students
• Explore the online tool Diigo by watching an introductory video and browsing the site, taking note of what is easy to use
and what is diffi cult; they work in small groups to address the
areas that were diffi cult.
• Read 2–3 articles from an open collection of resources they are
interested in; identify the relationship between the articles and
the tags used to organize the articles.
• Contribute to a class list of tags that could be used in identify-
ing articles about leadership.
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146 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• Research and subscribe to RSS feeds or SmartBriefs that have
the potential to include articles on leadership.
• Identify and tag articles to include in the class Diigo library.
Collaborating and Interacting
Another important role of technology in the classroom is that it allows students to collaborate and interact with each other, the teacher, and the general public in many diff erent ways. In general, the choice of platform will depend on such factors as how many students will work together and the role the teacher will play in the interaction. The curriculum will need to identify appropriate platforms for interaction while the teacher identi- fi es the collaborative groups or pairs and actively participates in feedback or discussions with her students, as shown in the following examples.
Example 1: Students use Storybird to create and illustrate origi-
nal narratives.
In this example, Storybird is a specifi c platform that students can use to write and illustrate narratives. The decision to include this specifi c resource in the curriculum was based on several factors—namely, Storybird
• Is conducive to narrative writing because of its booklike structure. • Includes a wide range of pictures that students can select from
to refl ect the storyline of their narrative. • Can be confi gured as a closed network, allowing students to
work together and receive feedback from their peers and teacher. • Can be used for both process (the writing of the story) and publi-
cation (sharing the fi nished product).
Example 2: Students work in peer-editing groups using Google
Drive to provide each other with feedback.
In this case, Google Drive is included as the tool of choice primarily because the school district has purchased Chromebooks that operate using Google programs. However, in addition to its availability, Google
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Drive is a simple tool for the students and teacher to use for collaborating, documenting, and saving changes to work on a closed network.
In both of these examples, the tools are chosen based on their avail- ability, ease of use, and appropriateness for the task. When students use collaborative or interactive tools for their own research, the description of a tool should be more open-ended, as in this example:
Example 3: Students use an online tool such as SurveyMonkey
or Twitter to conduct qualitative research for their inquiry project
around the question Is technology always good?
In this case, the curriculum provides suggestions, but students are not limited to those choices. Students are expected to choose the interactive tool that they will use based on what they want to accomplish. They will need to set up their own network to collaborate with other members of their group and invite the teacher to participate or provide feedback.
These three examples illustrate only a small fraction of the technol- ogy that is available to facilitate student interaction. The possibilities are endless and continually changing, allowing students to survey, record, play, and create in new and exciting ways. To prevent getting lost in the myriad of choices and creating tasks that focus on the novelty of the tool, it is necessary to ask, How is this tool or platform going to make the pro- cess more streamlined and make it easier for the students and teacher to work together?
Presenting and Publishing
Like tools for collaboration, publication tools are numerous. In some cases, the collaboration tool is the same one that will be used for publica- tion. The Storybird example is one such case; once the students complete their book, they can use Storybird to publish it for others to see.
Not all tools, however, will lead directly to publication. One platform may be needed for collaborating and a second for sharing the fi nished product. In these cases, the curriculum will either need to identify a tool for publication or leave it to student choice. Once again, the purpose will
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148 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
determine when a task should contain a specifi c tool or when the choice should be left open-ended. Let’s look at two examples to determine what should be considered when making this decision.
Example 1: Students choose one of the global issues featured on
the United Nations website, http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/.
After conducting research on the issue as a whole and focusing
on a case study of how the issue affects a specifi c community,
students write and submit a proposal for an awareness cam-
paign. The class chooses one of the proposals and carries out the
plan using the appropriate media and technology to reach their
target audience.
In this performance assessment, the use of technology and appropri- ate tools is contingent on many factors. Limiting student choice would change the entire assessment. In this case, students would benefi t from a series of learning experiences that feature the analysis of diff erent media used for awareness campaigns, and the tools available for creating them.
Example 2: Students create a LinkedIn page to establish an
online professional presence.
In this task, the tool for publication is identifi ed. Although other social media sites can be used for business networking, LinkedIn is the largest in the world. If the intention of the teacher is to provide graduating seniors with the opportunity to learn how LinkedIn works, it does not make sense for the choice of tool to be open-ended or for a diff erent tool to be used. If the task were diff erent—for example, create an online portfolio showcas- ing your accomplishments over the last four years—students could deter- mine the specifi c platform to use. They could use video, photography, and graphics on a variety of diff erent platforms, depending on the message and materials they wished to share.
Selecting technology for a curriculum should be done with full under- standing of the terms of agreement, including matters related to security, privacy, and ownership. For example, Twitter requires an e-mail address, and LinkedIn has an age limit. Although both are public forums, they can
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Resources That Support Instruction 149
be limited to select viewers. Research into diff erent tools should be done before inclusion in the curriculum, so teachers can use the tool with con- fi dence that it complies with school regulations and are clear about what steps need to be taken so students can use the tool safely.
Materials
This fi nal category includes graphic organizers, models and exemplars, student checklists, primary sources, common templates, protocols, and other materials that support the learning experiences for the unit. The number of potential materials could be overwhelming and result in an unwieldy document if not properly managed, so the policy of “less is more” should defi nitely be applied when determining what to include. Here are some questions to consider when selecting or evaluating resources:
• Is the resource an integral part of a learning experience? If a learning experience refers to a specifi c protocol, organizer, photograph, or other resource, the resource should be included in the curriculum. For example, consider this learning experience:
Students examine the painting Harvest Time by Grandma Moses
and describe life in a rural community.
Because this learning experience references a specifi c painting, the paint- ing should be readily available for teachers to use with their students. If the learning experience simply referenced the artwork of Grandma Moses—for example, “Students examine the paintings of Grandma Moses and describe life in a rural community”—it would be suffi cient to include a website where the paintings could be found.
• Does this resource include a process that will be repeated in subsequent units? Processes that are likely to be repeated throughout the year as a regular routine include discussion protocols, procedures for lab experiments, steps for analyzing primary sources, and checklists for group work. In such cases, the guidelines and other supporting tools, such as rubrics, checklists, and refl ection sheets, should be included in the unit where the process is introduced and then, depending on
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150 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
frequency of use, in subsequent units. For example, in this learning expe- rience, students are introduced to a discussion protocol:
Students participate in a Socratic seminar in which they discuss
the essential question What is more constant than change?
If students engage in a Socratic seminar on a regular basis, in every unit, it is suffi cient to include the protocol once. If the seminar occurs sporad- ically, it would be benefi cial to include the protocol whenever it is used. In either case, because a specifi c protocol has been identifi ed, it would be helpful to have the steps outlined in an easily accessible document.
• Does this tool support school values? Throughout this book, I have discussed ways to align curriculum to standards that refl ect the dis- trict’s or school’s values. If a particular resource exemplifi es these values, it should be consistently referenced and used throughout the curricu- lum. For example, if a district has decided to focus on fostering student thinking, they may be working with Thinking Maps (Hyerle, 2009). Thinking Maps consist of eight visual tools that are used for diff erent cognitive functions. A teacher may choose to use a frame of reference circle map so that students can identify what they know about the causes of the Civil War, what has infl uenced their understanding, and the ques- tions they have. The frame of reference circle map has been specifi cally chosen for this diagnostic task so the teacher can determine not only what students know, but also how reliable that information is, based on where it came from. Because fostering student thinking is a districtwide focus, the frame of reference circle map will appear in multiple curricula and will be used throughout the year; however, it should still appear in the curriculum the fi rst time it is used, for easy accessibility.
Although purpose underlies the selection of texts, technology, and materials, it is important to also demonstrate cultural competency when selecting these resources. Cultural competency is the ability of a system to work eff ectively in cross-cultural situations (Goode & Dunne, 2004). As it relates to the choice of resources, cultural competency means being culturally aware of the students you work with and ensuring that the resources are representative of who they are or will expose them to cultures diff erent from their own. A culturally aware curriculum will
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Resources That Support Instruction 151
include resources that address, in an unbiased way, the religions, races, and cultural practices of the students, as well as those who are diff erent from them.
Implications for Evaluating, Creating, and Revising Curriculum
A wealth of resources is available to teachers through the Internet and through programs purchased for schools, so whether evaluating a curric- ulum to determine if it should be purchased or revised or creating a new curriculum, the challenge is not only what should be included but also how to limit what is included.
The common theme throughout this chapter for determining what to include is purpose: what purpose will the text, technology, or resource serve in the curriculum? The identifi cation of appropriate resources can occur simultaneously as learning experiences are being evaluated or cre- ated, as described in Chapter 6.
A quality curriculum includes learning experiences that identify what the students will do, why they will do it, and the evidence of student learning. The purpose for choosing a particular resource is identifi ed in the descrip- tion of why students will complete a task, making it simple to identify the necessary resources at the same time. Consider the following examples:
Example 1: Students examine photographs from the New York
Times photo essay Poverty’s Palette and write a description of
what life was like in the South during the Great Depression.
In this example, the images provide background information on what life was like in the South during the Great Depression. The pictures have a very specifi c purpose and should be easily accessible to the teachers who wish to use them; therefore, they should be included in the curriculum.
Example 2: Students read the article “Alabama Pardons 3 ‘Scotts-
boro Boys’ After 80 Years” by Alan Blinder (2013) and use key
details from the article to write a summary of the events that
occurred and their implications for today.
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152 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
In this learning experience, the purpose of the account is twofold: to pro- vide information to students and to have students use key details to write a summary. The article selected needs to meet these criteria. A primary source document that focuses on reaction to the trial’s outcome could not be used for these purposes. Although it may be appropriate for the next learning experience, a narrative account of someone’s feelings might not be the best for determining what happened at the trial and its implica- tions 80 years later.
Example 3: Students complete a double-bubble map to compare
the Scottsboro trial with the trial of Tom Robinson in To Kill a
Mockingbird.
In this example, the double-bubble map is used for comparison. This Thinking Map is included as part of the learning experience because it is structured to be used for mirrored analysis. Although a Venn diagram might be an alternative for some and can certainly be used for mirror anal- ysis, it is a tool better suited for math and science. Because the double- bubble map is specifi cally identifi ed in the learning experience and has a specifi c purpose, it would need to be included as a resource.
Using purpose to determine what should be included in the curriculum will help simplify the process of choosing resources. It may also reveal a resource better suited for another purpose within the curriculum. It is conceivable that teachers might use a portion of a classroom textbook or anthology in a way other than the one prescribed by the publisher.
In addition to determining what to incorporate in the curriculum, it is just as important to identify a way to limit and manage the resources included. This eff ort becomes particularly challenging when the curric- ulum is being implemented, for this is when teachers will adjust existing resources and fi nd additional resources that they wish to include. It is important to have a system in place for managing these resources. One suggestion is to put in place a vetting process for reviewing resources before including them in the curriculum. The system can include a per- son or group responsible for reviewing materials based on an established
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Resources That Support Instruction 153
set of criteria. This process will help to ensure the inclusion of quality materials with distinct purposes and help to eliminate resources that do not fully meet the purposes of the learning experiences or that duplicate existing materials. A second way to manage additional resources is by cre- ating a folder or site on the district’s network where teachers can upload and tag materials that others may use, similar to teacherspayteachers.com or other sharing sites. Because this approach allows for the inclusion of more materials, the folder or site would also need to be managed so that it does not become overwhelming.
Summary: Resources
Texts should be chosen for the curriculum based on the purpose or pur- poses they serve. This could mean that the same text is read for multiple reasons or that students read multiple texts at the same time because the purpose for reading is diff erent. In some cases, it is not necessary to spe- cifi cally identify a text. The curriculum can off er a selection of texts that meet the same criteria or describe criteria so students can select their own.
The guiding principle for determining what technology to include in the curriculum is to focus on the result and not the device itself. In gen- eral, technology is used to access information, to collaborate or interact with others, and to publish or share. The need to identify specifi c websites and platforms depends on the level of student involvement in the task. The more open-ended the task and the more involved the students are in the task—as when students engage in a self-selected, inquiry-based per- formance assessment—the less information needs to be included in the curriculum. Specifi city is necessary when specifi c models, exemplars, websites, and tools are shared to introduce an idea or concept, used to practice a specifi c skill, or evaluated as models.
Materials include tangible products such as graphic organizers, mod- els and exemplars, student checklists, primary sources, common tem- plates, and protocols that are needed to engage in the unit’s learning experiences. As learning experiences clearly communicate why students
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154 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
are completing a specifi c task, materials are selected because students will need them to accomplish the task.
A quality curriculum includes not only a process for the careful selec- tion of quality resources but also a procedure for ensuring access to addi- tional quality resources as the curriculum is being implemented.
Tools and Activities for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
• Example Analysis: Analyzing Standards for Text Features— These examples (beginning on page 137) can be used as models for choosing texts to meet a specifi c purpose. The text purpose and features are fi rst extracted from the standard, and then appropriate texts are identifi ed that address the purpose and features.
• Example Analysis: Technology Integration—This activity involves evaluating sample learning experiences. The fi rst step is to iden- tify the purpose of the learning experiences as described by why students will engage in the task. The second step is to determine how technology is used to achieve the purpose identifi ed in the learning experience.
• Guiding Questions to Analyze Resources—The following three questions can be used to guide the review of resources when con- sidering whether they should be included in the curriculum:
– Is the resource an integral part of a learning experience? – Does this resource include a process that will be repeated in
subsequent units? – Does this tool support school values?
Checklist for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
Texts, technology, and resources have been chosen because they meet a specifi c purpose as set out in the standards and learning experiences for the unit.
Processes are in place for both the selection and limitation of texts, technology, and resources to include in the curriculum.
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155
8
CONSIDERATION 8
Success with Your
Curriculum
Throughout this book I have suggested attributes to consider when examining or creating curriculum and have illustrated these attributes through many examples. In this concluding chapter, I present some fi nal thoughts about what to consider for the successful implementation of your curriculum.
Easy Accessibility
A quality curriculum is easily accessible to teachers and other educators who use it. As you may have noticed, I have not recommended a specifi c format that should be used to house a curriculum. The reason is because there is no generic, one-size-fi ts-all format. What is most important is that the format should work for a variety of diff erent types of users.
Although less of an issue than in the past, the fi rst decision that many districts need to make is whether the curriculum should be paper, web based, or both. There may be economical, logistical, or other reasons that will greatly aff ect the outcome, but in all three cases, I suggest a layered approach, with each layer building upon the next so the curriculum can be used in diff erent ways for diff erent audiences.
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156 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
The fi rst layer of the curriculum should be short, succinct descriptions of the various units. These descriptions can easily be written by combin- ing the essential question and the big idea with a description of what the students read, write, or create within the unit. The following is an example from the curriculum that was created by Amaris Scalia and Dawn Whelan when I worked with the North Rockland School District in New York in designing their curriculum:
Unit 1: A Healthy Me. How healthy am I? Students understand
that learning about exercise, food and nutrition, and healthy
habits will help them evaluate and make decisions about living a
healthy life. In this unit, students use their knowledge of informa-
tional texts to read and identify criteria for what makes people
healthy. They use their criteria to write an evaluation of their
own health and identify a step to become even healthier when
answering the question How healthy am I?
Unit 2: 20 Questions. Why ask questions? In this unit, students
explore how asking questions can help them to understand
the world around them. They learn to use questions as a way
of making sense of different genres, including folktales, poetry
and songs, and biographies and other forms of nonfi ction. As a
result, the students develop questions to interview a person in
their life and write a biography sharing what they learned.
Unit 3: Around the Town. What defi nes a community? Students
learn that people in different communities share common char-
acteristics but have features that make them unique. In this unit,
students read nonfi ction texts about rural, suburban, and urban
communities and a variety of literature set in these communities.
Students create a trifold brochure for new families that identifi es
common characteristics of all communities, and how and where
they can be found locally.
Unit 4: Animal Investigators. Who shares our Earth? In this unit,
students understand that they share the planet with many dif-
ferent kinds of animals. Students learn how text features can be
used to identify important details about different animal groups.
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Success with Your Curriculum 157
They use their understanding to create their own nonfi ction
books about an exotic animal that they will share with kindergar-
ten students preparing for a trip to the zoo.
Unit 5: What’s the Point? What’s the point? Students understand
that authors write for different purposes and that understanding
an author’s purpose will help them interpret the story or informa-
tion presented. In this unit, students explore authors who write to
inform, persuade, or entertain. They will use their knowledge of
author’s purpose to create an ad for a book they want to convince
others to read.
These short descriptions can be shared with parents at back-to-school night or posted on the school’s website. They provide just enough infor- mation so that the reader understands what students are learning about, what they will do, and why. Sometimes these unit descriptions contain a time frame (e.g., weeks 1–6), or they are linked to a curriculum map that identifi es the number of weeks on a calendar. As discussed in Chapter 1, the length of a unit should be based on need and not a predetermined amount of time because units vary in their time requirements.
This overview should be linked to a standards-analysis document, as shown in Chapter 3 (see Figures 3.1 and 3.2). The standards-analysis document is the blueprint for the curriculum; not everyone needs or is interested in the rationale behind the placement of the standards for the curriculum, but the information should be accessible to anyone who wants it. Some parents, particularly those who are educators themselves, want to know the specifi c skills that are being taught and when, so they can better support their child at home. Some teachers will want access to the blueprint so they can see the big picture behind the placement of skills; others will view the blueprint and quite frankly become overwhelmed with the numbers. In any case, it should be available for those who want it.
The second layer of the curriculum is made up of the individual units. In a web-based program, links can connect the descriptions to the units. In a paper document, the fully developed units may follow the overview. Regardless, each unit contains the essential question, big idea, standards,
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158 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
assessments, and learning experiences. Many schools use Understanding by Design or a similar template to house their units of study. For example, Figure 8.1 illustrates what Unit 1 from the 2nd grade curriculum would look like in a standards-based design template. The unit appears in its entirety in Appendix A.
As you can see, the unit incorporates the considerations discussed in this book as they would apply to an individual unit. The specifi cs of how the Healthy Me unit addresses the attributes are described below in rela- tion to the checklists that appear at the end of each chapter.
The organizing center is articulated through the title, A Healthy Me; the essential question, Am I healthy?; and the big idea, Stu- dents understand that learning about exercise, food and nutrition, and healthy habits will help them evaluate and make decisions about living a healthy life.
The organizing center for the unit of study is the idea that people make decisions that aff ect their health.
The organizing center aligns to one of the values of the school: to engage students in integrated units of study that strongly align to the standards.
The organizing center supports student learning by engaging students in the authentic task of evaluating their own health and creating a plan for improving it.
The tasks are strongly aligned to the standards identifi ed in the unit, and all standards that have been identifi ed are taught and assessed in the unit, as evidenced by the coding throughout.
The standards chosen for this fi rst unit refl ect important 2nd grade skills. For example, asking and answering who, what, where, when, why, and how questions is a fundamental skill for 2nd graders.
The assessments used to measure student learning are congru- ent with the standards being measured. For example, students are asked to write an evaluation, which is an appropriate way to measure student writing.
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Success with Your Curriculum 159
Figure 8.1
HEALTHY ME UNIT
Stage 1—Desired Results
Essential Question: Am I healthy? Big Idea: Students understand that learning about exercise, food and nutrition, and healthy habits will help them evaluate and make deci- sions about living a healthy life.
Guiding Questions
Content Questions
• What do humans need to grow and maintain good health? 5.3a
Process Questions
• How can asking and answering questions help me learn about being healthy? R.2.1
• How does making connections help me better understand what I read? RL.2.11
• How do individual paragraphs support the main idea? RI.2.2
• How do I express my opinion in writing? W.2.1
• How can I support my opinion with reasons that come from my experiences and books I have read? W.2.1, W.2.8
Metacognitive Questions
• What did you learn that was helpful in evaluating your own health?
• What were some of the reading strategies you used to help make sense of the stories and informational texts you read?
Standards
Reading Literature
RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demon- strate understanding of key details in a text.
RL.2.11 Make connections between self, text, and the world around them (text, media, social interaction).
Reading Informational Texts
RI.2.2 Identify the main topic of a multiparagraph text as well as the focus of specifi c para- graphs within the text.
Writing
W.2.1 Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
W.2.8 Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.
(continues)
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160 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Stage 1—Desired Results (continued)
Standards (continued)
NYS Elementary Science Core Curriculum
5.3 Describe the factors that help promote good health and growth in humans.
5.3a Humans need a variety of healthy foods, exercise, and rest in order to grow and maintain good health.
5.3b Good health habits include hand washing and personal cleanliness; avoiding harmful substances (including alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs); eating a balanced diet; engaging in regular exercise.
Stage 2—Assessment Evidence
Diagnostic Assessment: Students write a response to the essential question Am I healthy? The teacher examines student responses for understanding of content and ability to state an opinion and support it with reasons. W.2.1
Formative Assessment Opportunity: Students read a variety of articles and nonfi ction text about nutrition, exercise, and healthy habits. As they read, they write the main focus of each paragraph in the margin of the article, and at the end they identify the main topic of the text (RI.2.2). Students use information that they learn to complete a “notes booklet” that answers these questions on individual pages:
• Who are the people who help me stay healthy? RI.2.1
• What do I need to do to stay healthy? RI.2.1
• Where can I practice healthy habits? RI.2.1
• When do I need to practice healthy habits? RI.2.1
• Why is it important to be healthy? RI.2.1
• How can I be healthy? RI.2.1
Teachers will use students’ responses to determine their understanding of main ideas and how well they are able to answer questions using the text. Teachers provide students with feedback on their notes so students can add or revise their information before writing their evaluation.
Performance Task: Students write an opinion piece answering the essential question Am I healthy? In their opinion piece (W.2.1), they
• Explain why they think they’re healthy or not.
• Supply reasons that support their opinion.
• Use information that they learned about nutrition, exercise, and habits. W.2.8
• Use words and phrases and descriptive language related to nutrition, exercise, and healthy habits. RI.2.4, L.2.5
• Use linking words to connect their opinion and reasons.
• Provide a concluding statement in which they set a goal for improving their health.
• Follow conventions for standard grammar and spelling. L.2.1
Students draft, self-assess, and revise, using a student-friendly rubric or checklist (with teacher support as needed). W.2.5
Figure 8.1
HEALTHY ME UNIT (continued)
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Success with Your Curriculum 161
Stage 3—Learning Plan
Learning Activities*
Students
• Complete a T-chart identifying the 5 Ws and H—who, what, where, when, why, and how—after reading books such as Dragon Gets By and Gregory the Terrible Eater. RL.2.1
• Use highlighters to identify what is similar and what is different between the two stories. RL.2.11
• Read several articles on healthy habits— food, exercise, and behaviors. For each article, students record the main topic of each paragraph on a fl ow map to identify the main idea of the article. RI.2.2
• Review articles and information on Kidshealth.org and use text features to determine the most important informa- tion. Students will complete a chart in which they name each article, the text features they examined, and what they learned. RI.2.5
• Read stories that express opinions about foods—e.g., Green Eggs and Ham; they identify the opinion being expressed and reasons used to support the opin- ion by creating a picture and quote for the character expressing the character’s opinion. W.2.1
• Create lists of what they have learned about nutrition, exercise, and healthy behaviors; highlight the information they can use to support their evaluation. W.2.7, W.2.8
• Write down the steps they followed to write their evaluation and participate in a class discussion in which they share, What was easy/diffi cult about writing it?
Suggested Resources
Stories
• Gregory the Terrible Eater (Mitchell Shar- mat, José Aruego, and Ariane Dewey)
• Dragon Gets By (Dav Pilkey)
Informational Text
• Good Enough to Eat: A Kid’s Guide to Food and Nutrition (Lizzy Rockwell)
Suggested Technology Integration
MyPlate (new food pyramid) http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
Kid’s Health http://kidshealth.org/
* The coding in this section (boldface, italics, underlining) indicates what students will do, why they will do it, and the
evidence of learning.
Source: From 2nd Grade Curriculum by Amaris Scalia and Dawn Whelan, North Rockland School District. Reprinted with
permission.
Figure 8.1
HEALTHY ME UNIT (continued)
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162 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
The unit clearly identifi es and appropriately uses diagnostic, for- mative, or summative assessment.
The diagnostic assessment is a response to the essential ques- tion Am I healthy? The teacher examines student responses for understanding of content and for the ability to state an opinion and support it with reasons.
Formative assessment is used to monitor student learning. Assessment activities identify opportunities for teachers to mon- itor student understanding and provide students with descriptive feedback. They include creating the nonfi ction text features book, completing the notes booklet, producing story maps, and writing drafts of the fi nal evaluation.
The performance task, which asks students to write an evaluation of their own health, is an integral part of the unit that produces as well as measures learning. It exemplifi es the criteria for a quality task because it measures the most important learning as articu- lated in the organizing center, is congruent and strongly aligned to the unit standards, and brings together the diagnostic and formative measures.
The performance task also includes a rubric that can be used for instructional and evaluative purposes (this rubric appears in Chapter 5, Figure 5.3). The rubric would be linked to this tem- plate so it is easily available to the teachers.
The learning experiences are written so they describe what the students will do, why they will do it, and what the teacher will have as evidence of student learning. (In this example, that infor- mation has been coded as described in Chapter 6.)
The learning experiences include content lessons addressing healthy habits; process lessons that focus on reading, writing, and vocabulary; and lessons focusing on metacognition, such as asking students to evaluate their own health and refl ect on the writing process.
Texts, technology, and resources have been chosen because they meet a specifi c purpose as set out in the standards and learning experiences for the unit. The learning experiences call for specifi c texts, technology, and resources that are identifi ed in the Sug- gested Resources column.
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Success with Your Curriculum 163
The fi nal layer in the curriculum consists of all of the resources that support the implementation of the unit. The assessment descriptions should be linked to student directions and materials, as well as any rubrics and checklists that will be used to guide the learning process and evaluate the fi nal result. The learning experiences should also link to the materials and resources identifi ed in their description. If a calendar or learning plan has been developed as a guideline for pacing, that should be linked as well.
A quality curriculum will make information and resources readily available to accommodate diff erent users while allowing all users to guide their students to the same outcome. In addition to the grade-level teach- ers, the curriculum is now readily available to all teachers who support students in diff erent capacities so they, too, can make informed deci- sions about their classroom practice. Special-area teachers such as art and music teachers may wish to link their curriculum to the time peri- ods, events, people, literature, and concepts their students are studying in other classes. The physical education teacher may want a better under- standing of the metacognitive strategies used in other classes so he can apply it to his own lessons. The English teacher may want to know what scientifi c concepts might lend themselves to topics that include contro- versial issues. An ESL department may wish to develop a curriculum that directly links to the English language arts curriculum. The special educa- tion teacher may want to know the skills being taught in specifi c units so that she can best support her students in using these skills. The possibili- ties are endless, but at least possible, given easy access to the curriculum.
Quality Professional Development
A quality curriculum is supported by quality professional development. Although the curriculum document should stand on its own, successful implementation requires opportunities for teachers to come together to learn about the thinking behind the curriculum, to make connections to their current practice, and to share their experiences during the imple- mentation process. Here are some examples of what that might look like:
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164 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• A team of teachers come together to write the curriculum. The teachers represent diff erent buildings and grade levels within the district, and they serve as liaisons, sharing information and receiving feedback from their colleagues as the curriculum is being written. Once a solid draft is complete, the curriculum is shared during grade-level meet- ings where teachers explore the rationale behind the curriculum, how it is organized, and how it could be used. This is followed by smaller grade- level sessions during the year, where teachers work with the curriculum, using it to plan and share strategies for instruction.
• A group of teachers evaluate their curriculum using the tools in this book. As a result, they identify an area of weakness, such as stan- dards alignment or lack of assessments that produce as well as measure learning, and pursue an investigation into that area through their profes- sional learning community. Based on their study, they make revisions to the curriculum, implement the revisions, and refl ect on their changes.
• Teachers are examining the role of mindfulness in school. They participate in mindful practices as a community, read and view videos about mindful practices, explore the literature about the benefi ts of mindfulness, and try diff erent strategies with their own students. As they do so, they make connections to their grade-level curriculum and include the practices they learn in their curriculum document.
• A grading and reporting committee has been formed to create a standards-based report card. Teachers examine research about the role of the report card as a tool to communicate information about achieve- ment, growth, and student behavior and work habits. They collect and analyze various report cards used by other districts in reporting on these three areas. After deciding on an appropriate format, they use their curriculum to identify the report card descriptors, ensuring alignment between what they teach, how they assess it, and how they will report out on their students.
• A group of teachers is exploring strategies for diff erentiating instruction to meet the needs of all learners in their classrooms. In determining specifi c strategies, they examine the standards for the unit they will be teaching and the learning experiences that have been designed to address these standards. Based on this information, they identify how they can diff erentiate the content, process, or product yet meet the same goals.
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Success with Your Curriculum 165
The professional development in each of these schools has a diff erent focus and takes place in a diff erent way. However, all of these schools have something in common: the curriculum is an integral part of the process, not separate or an afterthought. By making the curriculum part of the process, teachers will be able to make connections among the many areas they are responsible for and make purposeful decisions about what hap- pens in their classrooms.
Connection to Student Work
A quality curriculum is connected to student work. The fi nal and most important key to ensuring a successful curriculum is analyzing it through the examination of student work. The protocol in Figure 8.2 (see p. 166), developed by Learner-Centered Initiatives, is designed to accomplish two goals: (1) to determine student needs and (2) to make revisions to tasks within a curriculum. This protocol is unique because it does not assume that if students demonstrate an area of weakness, it’s because they did not learn the information or were unable to use a skill. Rather, it raises the following question: Was the area of weakness demonstrated in the student work a result of the task itself or a lack of opportunity to learn and practice the necessary skills or information?
To illustrate its impact, let’s use the protocol with the following exam- ple of student work. The work is the result of a unit in which students examine the role of oral language in communicating the culture of a peo- ple, particularly the Iroquois American Indians. Students write a narra- tive that they will share orally, following the tradition of the Iroquois, at a local Iroquois cultural center.
The fi rst step of the protocol is to read the specifi c directions for the task:
Task Description: Students write a narrative as an Iroquois Ameri-
can Indian. In their piece, the students
• Introduce themselves.
• Explain their role in the Iroquois.
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166 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• Provide details about Iroquois society—for example, what did
the Iroquois eat and why?
• Use the appropriate terms and language for describing
Iroquois life.
• Provide a conclusion that summarizes the Iroquois experience.
The second step is to annotate the student work in relation to the expectations, taking note of what students know and are able to do. Fig- ure 8.3 contains three examples that represent the diversity of what was reviewed and the teacher’s annotation.
The third step, shown in Figure 8.4 (see p. 168), compares what stu- dents can do with the expectations, as delineated in the task description. When the student work is compared to the expectations, it is easy to see that all the students were able to incorporate information about how the Iroquois got their food and to some degree addressed the roles of men and women. What was not consistent was their development of Iroquois
Figure 8.2
PROTOCOL FOR EXAMINING STUDENT WORK
Step 1: What was the purpose of the task? Review the directions and performance criteria
to determine the intent of the task.
Step 2: What did the student(s) do? Read through the student work. In the margin of the
student work, identify what the student knows and is able to do. The student need not have
achieved mastery for the knowledge, skill, strategy, or behavior to be identifi ed.
Step 3: Was there a match between what the student(s) did and the expectations for the
task? Compare what the student knows and is able to do with the intent of the task. If
there is not a match, determine what kind of change needs to be made to the task so that
there is.
Step 4: What kind of support do the students need in order to demonstrate attainment of
the expectations for the task? Determine what type of support the students will need in
order to demonstrate understanding of the standards for the task. Consider how you will
adjust subsequent lessons to assist students in reaching the standards.
Source: © 2011 by Learner-Centered Initiatives. Used with permission.
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Success with Your Curriculum 167
Figure 8.3
STUDENT WORK AND TEACHER ANNOTATION
Student Work What Does the Student Know? What Is the Student Able to Do?
Student 1
I have just fi nished eating. I ate deer, corn, squash, beans, strawberries, sunfl ower seeds, and bread. The Iroquois call corn, beans, and squash “the Three Sisters.” They are called “The Three Sisters” because they came from the body of the Creator, a woman. The sunfl ower seeds came from the sunfl owers grown in the clearing. The bread was made by grinding the seeds into fl our and making bread. The strawberries were picked from the forest just outside the clearing. I along with some of the other boys had to hunt ourselves. Sometimes we are made to hunt for ourselves so that we will have good hunting skills when we reach adulthood. All boys must learn how to hunt because men are the hunters in the tribe. The girls must learn how to farm because the women do the farming in the tribe. Tasks to be done in the village are divided equally between men and women. The men are in charge of the forests and the women are in charge of the clearing. Some of the foods that I enjoy eating that were not at the meal are wild mint, cherries, and plums.
• Writes in fi rst person.
• Uses Iroquois terms: Three Sisters, Creator.
• Describes the food of the Iroquois.
• Describes how the Iroquois got their food.
• Identifi es himself as a boy.
• Describes the role of men and women in Iroquois society.
Student 2
Our main meal for the day is good and I am now fi nished eating. I am going to work in the clearing. The squash, beans, corn, and mushrooms are growing quite well there. I must gather some berries and nuts and fi nd some wild plants. I will store them in a basket I made myself out of deerskin and moosehair. I will fi nish collecting the food in a short time. I must plant some dandelion and more mushrooms in the fi eld. The men have already felled the trees so it will be an easy job. All of the men are out hunting for food and animal skins.
• Identifi es the food Iroquois eat.
• Identifi es where the food comes from.
• Identifi es how the basket is made.
• Identifi es what the men will do.
Student 3
It is morning. The sun has just come up and Shining Sun is mak- ing today’s main meal of corn soup, corncakes, and mushrooms. I, Shining Star, daughter of Shining Sun, am thinking about all I must do before the sun sets this day. There is much work to be done around the longhouse and in the clearing. Silver Stream, my grandmother, will also be working in the clearing, and Sharp Arrow, my grandfather, will be working in the forest with Falling Leaf, my father, and the rest of the men in the Bear Clan.
• Uses names to identify herself and the other characters in the narrative.
• Identifi es the food that the Iroquois eat.
• Provides a setting and time frame for the narrative.
• Identifi es the members of the clan.
• Alludes to the role of men and women.
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168 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Figure 8.4
EXPECTATIONS AND STUDENT WORK
Expectations Student 1 Student 2 Student 3
• Introduce themselves.
• Writes in fi rst person.
• Identifi es himself as a boy.
• Writes in fi rst person.
• Writes in fi rst person.
• Uses names to identify herself and the other characters in the narrative.
• Identifi es the members of the clan.
• Explain their role in the Iroquois.
• Describes the roles of men and women in Iroquois society.
• Identifi es what the men will do.
• Alludes to the roles of men and women.
• Provide details about Iroquois society—for example, what did the Iroquois eat and why?
• Describes the food of the Iroquois.
• Describes how the Iroquois got their food.
• Identifi es the food Iroquois eat.
• Identifi es where the food comes from.
• Identifi es how the basket is made.
• Identifi es the food that the Iroquois eat.
• Use the appro- priate terms and language for describing Iroquois life.
• Uses Iroquois terms: Three Sisters, Creator.
• Provide a conclu- sion that summa- rizes the Iroquois experience.
• Other • Provides a setting and time frame for the narrative.
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Success with Your Curriculum 169
identity and use of Iroquois language, and not evident at all were addi- tional descriptions of elements of culture, oral language style, and a sense of closure.
Because our purpose is examining curriculum, the question to ask is, What can we learn from the student work that we can use to revise the curriculum to improve student performance? Although all three students wrote their stories in fi rst person, only one made her character more relatable by providing a name for herself and the other characters in her story. This is information that would be helpful to all students and should be included in the curriculum, in both the directions and the learning experiences.
This student also set the context for her story by describing the setting. She begins her piece with two brief sentences: “It is morning. The sun has just come up.” Although seemingly inconsequential, this bit of descrip- tion would lend itself to incorporating aspects of oral tradition that were not addressed in the expectations at all but were stated as the focus of the unit. Oral tradition emphasizes imagery—particularly the kind that can be used for creating sound to describe sounds in nature. As the student continued, she could easily have described birds chirping and water fl ow- ing as part of this early-morning scene. If this was the teachers’ expecta- tion, the fact that no student included imagery or sound is an indicator that this information should be included in the expectations and in the learning experiences.
Another expectation that was addressed by only one student was use of appropriate terms and language. Students may have felt they addressed this expectation by including mention of specifi c foods, such as berries, nuts, wild plants, corn soup, and corncakes; but they did not include Iro- quois language or terms. Improved task directions might have included a list of examples or a reference to resources used in class when discuss- ing Iroquois terms. However, a cautionary note on this point is to include a variety of examples. Students interpret the listing of one or two exam- ples to mean that those must be included—as illustrated by the fact that all
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170 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
three students addressed food as their example for the expectation “Pro- vide details about Iroquois society.” Food was the only aspect of Iroquois life that was explicitly identifi ed in the directions. If the teachers were hop- ing for a wide range of examples, they should have suggested other options.
One expectation that was included but not addressed at all asked stu- dents to provide a summary of the Iroquois experience. One of many possible reasons for the omission might have been the clarity of the expectation. It reads more like an expectation for informational writing rather than for a narrative. This expectation would benefi t from a revision that focuses on closure. Students could close their piece by describing the end of an activity or the end of a time of day, or by refl ecting on an event.
With the comparison complete, the teachers could make the follow- ing changes to the expectations so all students have the opportunity to be successful:
Task Description: Students write a narrative following the oral
tradition of the Iroquois American Indians, to be performed at the
Iroquois Cultural Center. In their story, they
• Introduce themselves, following the Iroquois practice for
naming.
• Identify themselves as a child, a man, or a woman, and explain
their role in Iroquois society from this perspective.
• Provide details about one aspect of Iroquois society (e.g., food,
family structure, games, religion).
• Include an aspect of oral language such as imagery, creating
sounds to describe sounds in nature, or rhythm or repetition in
language.
• Use the appropriate terms and language for describing
Iroquois life (e.g., Three Sisters, Creator, creation myth,
matrilineal).
• Bring closure by ending the activity being described, describ-
ing the end of a certain time of day, or refl ecting on an event.
Although these changes won’t guarantee improvement, they certainly will make it more likely that more students will have the chance to succeed.
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Success with Your Curriculum 171
The changes bring greater specifi city to vague language that may have come from translating standards into directions, and they clarify expec- tations for the teachers who designed the task.
Two things that will have a greater impact on student learning, how- ever, are individualized and descriptive feedback to students and learning experiences that address student need. In the fourth step of the proto- col (Figure 8.2), teachers brainstorm ideas for learning experiences that address areas of weakness discovered through the review of student work. The teachers can then include these learning experiences in the curricu- lum. For this particular task, they may want to develop learning experi- ences in which students further explore oral tradition, create an Iroquois vocabulary word wall, and examine mentor texts for descriptive writing— all of which would benefi t students as they work on their next drafts.
In addition to providing feedback on the curriculum, student work that is collected and annotated can provide teachers with illustrations of diff erent levels of performance and help them anticipate areas where stu- dents may need additional support. These examples can also be shared with students as models and exemplars for their own work.
Summary: Success with Your Curriculum
A quality curriculum is easily accessible to teachers and other educators who use it. It contains multiple layers that are linked to each other and provide varying degrees of information. These layers include unit descrip- tions, fully developed units, and supporting documents.
A quality curriculum is supported by quality professional develop- ment. Professional development should directly address the rationale, development, and use of the curriculum. The curriculum should also be included as part of other professional development to ensure a connec- tion among curriculum, instruction and assessment, and related areas.
A quality curriculum is connected to student work. Student work is used to inform the curriculum, illustrate levels of performance, and determine student need.
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172 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Tools and Activities for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
• Curriculum Checklist—This checklist (see example beginning on page 158 of this chapter) can be used to evaluate individual units of study as well as the curriculum as a whole to ensure that the attributes of quality curriculum have been addressed.
• Protocol for Examining Student Work (Figure 8.2)—This protocol serves two purposes. First, it can be used to provide feedback on the curriculum by examining what students can do in relation to the expectations and then revising the expectations so all students have the opportunity to be successful. Second, the protocol can be used to iden- tify areas of student need so learning experiences can be developed to address those needs. These new learning experiences can also be incor- porated into the curriculum.
Checklist for Evaluation, Design, and Revision
The curriculum is organized in layers: unit descriptions, fully developed units of study, and supporting materials.
Professional development supports the understanding and use of the curriculum and is part of other professional development initiatives.
Student work is analyzed to improve the curriculum. Student work is identifi ed and annotated as models and exem-
plars of the curriculum.
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173
Epilogue
Those of you drawn to this book have the commonality of wanting to know what you can do to design, evaluate, or revise curriculum. Although your intended outcome—high-quality curriculum—may be the same, the rea- sons for your inquiry likely vary: new standards, new ideas about assess- ment, changing resources, state mandates, a desire to learn something new or understand curriculum from a diff erent perspective. Whatever the reason, something prompted you to dig deeper into the curriculum design, evaluation, and revision process.
As an avid runner who came into the running scene in my early 40s, I felt a similar desire to learn more about my newly chosen sport. As I ran more consistently, in more races, and at further distances, I realized that simply getting out and running without a training plan or without paying any attention to the food I ate, the amount of water I drank, or the shoes I wore was not going to help me achieve the goals I set for myself.
My realization—that it is necessary to look at individual components, assess their quality, and improve upon them where necessary for overall success—applies to the curriculum evaluation and design process that I have set out in this book. My intention is to provide in-depth descriptions and tools for evaluating the individual parts of the curriculum to enable educators to determine what the curriculum does well and what it could do better, focus their eff orts on the areas of greatest need, and improve the overall quality of the curriculum for student success.
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174 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
As I prepared for my fi rst New York City Marathon in 2014, I followed a carefully laid-out training plan, gave myself plenty of time to break in my sneakers, and experimented with diff erent types and amounts of energy chews to fi nd what worked for me. During the week leading up to the marathon, I ate the right balance of protein and carbohydrates while hydrating myself for the big day. The result was an awesome fi rst mara- thon experience. The individual actions I took created a system (me) that worked well.
Making changes in the individual components—standards, assess- ments, and learning experiences—can have a strong positive eff ect on the curriculum. For example, ensuring that the curriculum-embedded per- formance assessment strongly aligns to the unit standards and organizing center can mean that students are engaged in assessments that produce and measure specifi c and deliberately chosen learning targets. However, if, in the process of aligning the curriculum-embedded performance task to the standards, the curriculum designers determine that one or more of the standards are not being assessed and do not either remove the stan- dard from the unit or revise the performance task, the curriculum has not improved.
When one area of the curriculum is changed, it is vitally important to check how that change aff ects the whole. I learned this lesson the hard way when training for the 2015 New York City Marathon. I got sick three weeks before the marathon and could not run for a week. Instead of recov- ering and returning to the same training plan I had used the previous year, as was suggested in many of the articles I read, I tried to make up the time I had lost by running more. The result was not an awesome experience but, rather, an exhausting one. As I crossed the fi nish line, rather than feeling euphoric, I felt a great desire to lie down. I had failed to think about how the change in plan would aff ect the larger system.
A curriculum is a system made up of individual components. The entry point for the revision or development of curriculum will be based on the evaluation of each part of that system. However, it is important to realize
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Epilogue 175
and accept from the outset that the revision of one component will more than likely lead to the evaluation and revision of another component. For example,
• Revisions to address standards’ emphasis and placement may lead to the examination of assessments to ensure alignment.
• Revisions of assessments may lead to the examination of learn- ing experiences to ensure that they support students.
• Examination of learning experiences may result in revisions to ensure that they address content, process, and dispositions as well as articulate what students will do, why they will do it, and what the teacher will have as evidence of learning.
• Examination of assessments may indicate the need to design curriculum-embedded performance assessments that include diagnostic and formative assessment opportunities.
• Examination of formative assessment opportunities may reveal a need to better identify and describe the formative assessment process.
These are just a few of the connections that you may discover as you evaluate your curriculum. It is a process that takes time if your desired result is a high-quality curriculum that promotes student success.
In addition to providing tools and describing the evaluation and revi- sion process, this book also explains what to consider when designing new curriculum. On occasion, something happens—standards change, new resources are purchased, or district priorities and values shift—that requires us to start from scratch. As I approach my third New York City Marathon, I am recovering from an injury and unexpectedly fi nd myself starting from the beginning. My plan is to use my previous experiences as well as new knowledge and a professional trainer so that my next experi- ence is better than my last. So whether your intention is to evaluate and revise or to design anew, the tools and processes included in this book can be used with your vast and personalized experiences to create a high- quality and meaningful curriculum for your students.
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176
Appendix A
The following unit of study appears in part in Chapter 8 (see Figure 8.1), where it is explained using the attributes of quality curriculum. The full unit is contained here.
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Appendix A 177
HEALTHY ME UNIT
Stage 1—Desired Results
Essential Question: Am I healthy? Big Idea: Students understand that learning
about exercise, food and nutrition, and
healthy habits will help them evaluate and
make decisions about living a healthy life.
Guiding Questions
Content Questions
• What do humans need to grow and maintain good health? 5.3a
• What are healthy habits? 5.3b
Process Questions
• How can asking and answering questions help me learn about being healthy? R.2.1
• How can I recount a story to determine its message? RL.2.2
• How do I describe the structure of the text? RL.2.5
• How does making connections help me better understand what I read? RL.2.11
• How do individual paragraphs support the main idea? RI.2.2
• How can I use what I know to determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text about health? RI.2.4
• How do pictures, diagrams, and text features help me locate important information and clarify what I read? RI.2.5, RI.2.7
• How do I express my opinion in writing? W.2.1
• How can I support my opinion with reasons that come from my experiences and books I have read? W.2.1, W.2.8
• How can working in a group help me do research? W.2.7, W.2.8
• What is the writing process, and how do I use it to strengthen my writing? W.2.5
• How do I share my opinion and ideas in a discussion? SL.2.1
• What can I learn about healthy habits from listening to others or from viewing fi lms and other media? SL.2.2
• How do I communicate effectively to clarify my thoughts and ideas? W.2.1, SL.2.1, L.2.1
• How does the language I use affect how I communicate with others? L.2.5
Metacognitive Questions
• What did you learn that was helpful in evaluating your own health?
• What were some of the reading strategies you used to help make sense of the stories and informational texts you read?
• What steps did you follow to write your evaluation piece? What was easy/diffi cult about writing it?
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178 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Standards
Reading Literature
RL.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demon-
strate understanding of key details in a text.
RL.2.2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine
their central message, lesson, or moral.
RL.2.5 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning intro-
duces the story and the ending concludes the action.
RL.2.11 Make connections between self, text, and the world around them (text, media, social
interaction).
Reading Informational Texts
RI.2.1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demon-
strate understanding of key details in a text.
RI.2.2 Identify the main topic of a multiparagraph text as well as the focus of specifi c para-
graphs within the text.
RI.2.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or
subject area.
RI.2.5 Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries,
indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text effi ciently.
RI.2.7 Explain how specifi c images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute
to and clarify a text.
RI.2.10 By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social
studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2–3 text complexity band profi ciently,
with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Writing
W.2.1 Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about,
state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because,
and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
W.2.5 With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen
writing as needed by revising and editing.
W.2.7 Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., read a number of books on a
single topic to produce a report; record science observations).
W.2.8 Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to
answer a question.
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Appendix A 179
Speaking and Listening
SL.2.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics
and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the fl oor in respectful ways,
listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under
discussion).
b. Build on others’ talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks
of others.
c. Ask for clarifi cation and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts
under discussion.
SL.2.2 Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information pre-
sented orally or through other media.
Language
L.2.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage
when writing or speaking.
c. Use refl exive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves).
d. Form and use the past tense of frequently occurring irregular verbs (e.g., sat, hid, told).
f. Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and compound sentences.
L.2.5 Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
a. Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., describe foods that
are spicy or juicy).
NYS Elementary Science Core Curriculum
5.3 Describe the factors that help promote good health and growth in humans.
5.3a Humans need a variety of healthy foods, exercise, and rest in order to grow and main-
tain good health.
5.3b Good health habits include hand washing and personal cleanliness; avoiding harmful
substances (including alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs); eating a balanced diet; engaging in
regular exercise.
Stage 2—Assessment Evidence
Diagnostic Assessment: Students write a response to the essential question Am I healthy?
The teacher examines student responses for understanding of content and ability to state an
opinion and support it with reasons. W.2.1
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180 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Formative Assessment Opportunity: Students work in small groups (SL.2.1) to create a nonfi ction text features book (W.2.8) about healthy foods, using information from a variety of sources including text and media presentations (SL.2.5). Each page of the book will share information about the major food groups using a text feature (RI.2.5, RI.2.7): captions, bold print, heading, subheadings, glossaries (RI.2.4), indexes, and diagrams. The teacher will use these books to determine student understanding of text features and healthy foods.
Formative Assessment Opportunity: Students read a variety of articles and nonfi ction text about nutrition, exercise, and healthy habits. As they read, they write the main focus of each paragraph in the margin of the article, and at the end they identify the main topic of the text (RI.2.2). Students use information that they learn to complete a “notes booklet” that answers these questions on individual pages:
• Who are the people who help me stay healthy? RI.2.1
• What do I need to do to stay healthy? RI.2.1
• Where can I practice healthy habits? RI.2.1
• When do I need to practice healthy habits? RI.2.1
• Why is it important to be healthy? RI.2.1
• How can I be healthy? RI.2.1
Teachers will use students’ responses to determine their understanding of main ideas and how well they are able to answer questions using the text. Teachers provide students with feedback on their notes so students can add or revise their information before writing their evaluation.
Formative Assessment Opportunity: Students work in small groups to read a fi ctional story in which the character learns about healthy habits. As they read, they use sticky notes to record who, what, where, when, why, and how information (RL.2.1). Students use their sticky notes to recount the story on a story map and identify the central message (RL.2.2, RL.2.5). They compare the information on their sticky notes about healthy habits in their story with the information in their “notes booklet.” On the sticky notes students write the factual information and place a checkmark next to the information confi rmed by their notes (RL.2.11). The teacher monitors students’ understanding of the relationship between fact and fi ction.
Performance Task: Students write an opinion piece answering the essential question Am I healthy? In their opinion piece (W.2.1), they
• Explain why they think they’re healthy or not.
• Supply reasons that support their opinion.
• Use information that they learned about nutrition, exercise, and habits. W.2.8
• Use words and phrases and descriptive language related to nutrition, exercise, and healthy habits. RI.2.4, L.2.5
• Use linking words to connect their opinion and reasons.
• Provide a concluding statement in which they set a goal for improving their health.
• Follow conventions for standard grammar and spelling. L.2.1
Students draft, self-assess, and revise, using a student-friendly rubric or checklist (with teacher support as needed). W.2.5
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Appendix A 181
Stage 3—Learning Plan
Learning Activities*
Students
• Complete a T-chart identifying the 5 Ws and H—who, what, where, when, why, and how—after reading books such as Dragon Gets By and Gregory the Terrible Eater. RL.2.1
• Use highlighters to identify what is similar and what is different between the two stories. RL.2.11
• Read Good Enough to Eat identifying the 5 Ws and H—who, what, where, when, why and how—on a graphic organizer. RI.2.1
• Create a T-chart showing the connection between the information identifi ed in Good Enough to Eat and Gregory the Eater. RL.2.11
• Read Strega Nona and use a story map to identify what happened at the beginning, middle, and end. RL.2.2
• Label the introduction and conclusion on their story map. RL.2.5
• Read The Sweetest Fig and complete a story map that they will use to recount the story with a partner, explaining how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action. RL.2.2, RL.2.5
• Discuss the answer to the question What is the role of “magic food” in both stories to better understand the message of the story? RL.2.1
• Read several articles on healthy habits— food, exercise, and behaviors. For each article, students record the main topic of each paragraph on a fl ow map to identify the main idea of the article. RI.2.2
• Draw a picture and write a sentence for each tier-two word in order to understand its meaning. RI.2.4
• Defi ne and classify words about health and nutrition in order to understand their meaning and relationship to one another. RI.2.4
• Identify different types of text features by completing a text-feature scavenger hunt using sticky notes. RI.2.5, RI.2.7
Suggested Resources
Stories
• Yoko (Rosemary Wells)
• Gregory the Terrible Eater (Mitchell Sharmat,
José Aruego, and Ariane Dewey)
• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Judi
Barrett and Ron Barrett)
• How My Parents Learned to Eat (Ina R.
Friedman and Allen Say)
• Dragon Gets By (Dav Pilkey)
• In the Night Kitchen (Maurice Sendak)
• Dim Sum for Everyone (Grace Lin)
• Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss)
Informational Text
• “Nutrition” (Kids Discover Magazine)
• What Happens to a Hamburger? (Paul Show-
ers and Edward Miller)
• Good Enough to Eat: A Kid’s Guide to Food
and Nutrition (Lizzy Rockwell)
• Healthy Eating series (Susan Martineau and
Hel James)
• Eat Your Vegetables! Drink Your Milk! (Dr.
Alvin Silverstein, Virginia Silverstein, and
Laura Silverstein Nunn)
• The Food Pyramid (Christine Taylor-Butler)
• Physical Fitness (Dr. Alvin Silverstein,
Virginia Silverstein, and Laura Silverstein
Nunn)
• Staying Safe (Dr. Alvin Silverstein, Virginia
Silverstein, and Laura Silverstein Nunn)
• Exercise (Liz Gogerly and Mike Gordon)
• Healthy Habits (Rebecca Weber)
Poems
• “Sick” (Shel Silverstein)
• “The Pizza” (Ogden Nash)
• “Bananas and Cream” (David McCord)
• “Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of
Months” (Maurice Sendak)
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182 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• Use a T-chart to identify the type of text feature and information learned about nutrition, exercise, or healthy behaviors as a result of examining the text feature. RI.2.5, RI.2.7
• Review articles and information on Kidshealth.org and use text features to determine the most important informa- tion. Students will complete a chart in which they name each article, the text features they examined, and what they learned. RI.2.5
• Study diagrams from Kidshealth.org and other websites that explain healthy habits; they write sentences about what they learn from each diagram. RI.2.7
• Read and evaluate labels on cereal boxes and create a list of healthy cereals. RI.2.5
• Create a new healthy cereal and design the box using different text features to show why the cereal is healthy.
• Create their own healthy plate to show their understanding of MyPlate. RI.2.7
• Read and draw a diagram based on the information in What Happens to a Ham- burger? to show their understanding of how the text feature communicates information. RI.2.7
• Record information that shows how they spend time; use a chart to share the information and identify different types of exercise. RI.2.5
• Listen to poems and discuss how the poems convey information about the authors’ opinion on food. W.2.1, SL.2.2
• Watch videos and use criteria for “most important” information to list informa- tion about healthy behaviors such as hand washing. SL.2.2
• Read stories that express opinions about foods—e.g., Green Eggs and Ham; they identify the opinion being expressed and reasons used to support the opinion by creating a picture and quote for the charac- ter expressing the character’s opinion. W.2.1
• Create guidelines for respectfully sharing and listening to opinions. SL.2.1
• Discuss their favorite foods, sharing opinions and reasons. W.2.1, SL.2.1
Stories (Read Aloud)
• Strega Nona (Tomie dePaola)
• Chato’s Kitchen (Gary Soto and Susan Guevara)
• Too Many Tamales (Gary Soto and Ed Martinez)
• Everybody Cooks Rice (Norah Dooley and Peter J. Thornton)
• My Mom Loves Me More Than Sushi (Filomena Gomes and Ashley Spires)
• The Sweetest Fig (Chris Van Allsburg)
Poems (Read Aloud)
• “Turtle Soup” (Lewis Carroll)
• “Eats: Poems” (Arnold Adoff and Susan Russo)
• “Boa Constrictor” (Shel Silverstein)
Songs
• “Dry Bones” (Traditional)
• “I’m Being Swallowed by a Boa Constrictor” (Traditional)
Suggested Technology Integration
MyPlate (new food pyramid) http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
Nutrition Café http://exhibits.pacsci.org/nutrition/ nutrition_cafe.html
Kid’s Health http://kidshealth.org/
Little D’s Expedition Games http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/kids.php
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Appendix A 183
• Participate in a “taste test” of healthy snacks, fruits, and vegetables, sharing verbally their opinions about what tasted best and why. W.2.1
• Have a discussion about healthy habits with a partner in preparation for writing. W.2.1
• Create lists of what they have learned about nutrition, exercise, and healthy behav- iors; highlight the information they can use to support their evaluation. W.2.7, W.2.8
• Revise and edit drafts of their opinion pieces using checklists and teacher feedback. W.2.5
• Tell “exercise” stories using past tense. L.2.1b
• Examine and edit opinion pieces looking to expand and rearrange simple and compound sentences, and then apply their understanding to their own writing. L.2.1c
• Look for refl exive pronouns in their writing; check against criteria for usage and make revisions to their drafts. L.2.1c
• Create a healthy food collage; use descrip- tive words when identifying food. L.2.1c
• Listen to Yoko and discuss the different types of food people eat. 5.3
• Sort foods into the correct food groups. 5.3a
• Search for, cut out, and glue pictures of healthy foods from a supermarket fl yer into a shopping cart to demonstrate understanding of eating healthy. 5.3b
• Examine what is meant by “evaluation” by evaluating the choices made by different characters in the books that they read, labeling a good choice and a bad choice, and giving advice for next time on personal whiteboards.
• Discuss with a partner their own health habits using the same evaluation: good choice, bad choice, and advice.
• Write down the steps they followed to write their evaluation and participate in a class discussion in which they share, What was easy/diffi cult about writing it?
* The coding in this section (boldface, italics, underlining) indicates what students will do, why they will do it, and the
evidence of learning.
Source: From 2nd Grade Curriculum by Amaris Scalia and Dawn Whelan, North Rockland School District. Reprinted with permission.
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184
Appendix B
The examples provided throughout this book illustrate how the attributes of quality curriculum can be addressed in diff erent content areas. In this appendix, a 6th grade math unit is annotated to demonstrate how the attributes of quality curriculum apply to mathematics. The math unit is presented by attribute and explained using the checklist provided at the end of each chapter.
Consideration 1: Organizing Centers
Organizing Center
Unit Title: Relationships in Real-Life Mathematics: Ratios and Proportions
Essential Question: What relationships exist between numbers?
Big Idea: Students use their knowledge of multiplication and division to develop an under-
standing of ratio and rate language. They use this understanding to describe relationships,
connect ratios and fractions, and solve real-world problems.
The organizing center is articulated through the unit title, the essential question, and the big idea. The focus of the organizing center for this unit transcends the content to the underlying conceptual understand- ing of how ratios and proportions are used to represent a relationship between two quantities. Thus, the organizing center for this unit of study is the concept that ratios and proportions are used to demonstrate the
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 184EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 184 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
Appendix B 185
relationship that exists between quantities and can be used to solve real- world problems.
Additional organizing centers for this curriculum include
• Unit 2: Math for Every Day: Operations with Multidigit Numbers and Dividing Fractions. How can you be fl uent in mathemat- ics? Students understand that the fl uent use of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers and fractions will help them to solve problems that they encounter every day.
• Unit 3: Systems: Rational Numbers. Can a number be nega- tive? Students understand that the system of rational numbers includes negative numbers.
• Unit 4: Solve for the Unknown: Expressions and Equa- tions. How can a letter be a number? Students understand that letters can be used to represent numbers in expressions and equations and that what they have learned about letters in math can be used to solve these kinds of problems.
• Unit 5: Formulas: Area, Surface Area, and Volume. Is there a formula for math? Students understand that expressions and equations can be used to solve for unknowns in area, surface area, and volume problems.
• Unit 6: Analyzing Data: Statistics. What do the data say? Stu- dents understand that statistical analysis includes identifying a question that can be answered with data, collecting and representing the data, summarizing the data, and relating the data to the original question.
Each of the units in this curriculum explores concepts that have been identifi ed as critical areas in mathematics according to the Standards for Mathematical Content. These include
• Connecting ratios and rate to whole-number multiplication and division and using concepts of ratios and rate to solve problems.
• Completing understanding of division of fractions and extend- ing the notion of number to the system of rational numbers, which includes negative numbers.
• Writing, interpreting, and using expressions and equations. • Developing understanding of statistical thinking.
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186 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
The organizing centers for this curriculum align to the values of the school: to engage students in real-life applications of mathematics and promote student use of the Standards for Mathematical Practice.
The organizing center supports student learning because it is con- nected to authentic real-world learning. In this unit of study, students are asked to fi nd, explain, and solve a real-world problem of their choice using their understanding of ratios and proportions.
Consideration 2: Alignment to Standards
Content Standards
• 6.RP.1 Understand the concept of a ratio and use ratio language to describe a ratio relationship between two quantities.
• 6.RP.2 Understand the concept of a unit rate a/b associated with a ratio a:b with b ≠ 0, and use rate language in the context of a ratio relationship.
• 6.RP.3 Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems— e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations.
° 6.RP.3a Make tables of equivalent ratios relating quantities with whole-number
measurements, fi nd missing values in the tables, and plot the pairs of values on the
coordinate plane. Use tables to compare ratios.
° 6.RP.3b Solve unit rate problems including those involving unit pricing and constant
speed.
° 6.RP.3c Find a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100; solve problems involving fi nding
the whole, given a part and the percent.
° 6.RP.3d Use ratio reasoning to convert measurement units; manipulate and transform
units appropriately when multiplying or dividing quantities.
Standards for Mathematical Practice
• MP.1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
• MP.2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
• MP.6 Attend to precision.
The tasks are strongly aligned to the standards identifi ed in the unit. Both the content standards and the Standards for Mathematical Practice that have been identifi ed are taught and assessed in the unit, as evidenced by the coding in the assessment descriptions and learning experiences.
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Appendix B 187
Consideration 3: Standards Placement and Emphasis
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Unit 6
Ratios and Proportions Content Standards
6.RP.1 Understand the concept of ratios and use
ratio language to describe a ratio relationship
between two quantities.
X
6.RP.2 Understand the concept of a unit rate a/b
associated with a ratio a:b with b ≠ 0, and use rate
language in the context of a ratio relationship.
X
6.RP.3 Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve
real-world and mathematical problems—e.g.,
by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios,
tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or
equations.
a. Make tables of equivalent ratios relating
quantities with whole-number measure-
ments, fi nd missing values in the tables,
and plot the pairs of values on the coordi-
nate plane. Use tables to compare ratios.
b. Solve unit rate problems including those
involving unit pricing and constant speed.
c. Find a percent of a quantity as a rate per
100; solve problems involving fi nding the
whole, given a part and the percent.
d. Use ratio reasoning to convert measure-
ment units; manipulate and transform units
appropriately when multiplying or dividing
quantities.
X
MP.1 Make sense of problems and persevere in
solving them.
X X X X
MP.2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively. X X X X
MP.6 Attend to precision. X X X
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188 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Note that the Standards for Mathematical Content, like other content- area standards, are designed so that the content is taught and assessed in one particular unit of study. When students revisit content standards, they do so in the context of new and related content. Therefore, the con- tent standards naturally appear in one unit and are not revisited the same way as process standards are.
The Standards for Mathematical Practice, on the other hand, are pro- cess standards. The skills and habits of mind embedded within these standards are intended to be used throughout the year. They should be highlighted in units where students are taught specifi c strategies for addressing these standards. In this unit, students are taught strategies to
• MP.1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. • MP.2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively. • MP.6 Attend to precision.
These standards will be revisited, and the remaining Standards for Mathematical Practice will be highlighted as standards that are taught and assessed in other units.
Standards placement is carefully considered in mathematics, where new knowledge is based on previously learned concepts. A rationale for the placement of units across the year should be developed. In this cur- riculum, Ratios and Proportions was chosen as the fi rst unit because it builds on students’ prior knowledge of multiplication, division, and measurement.
The duration of each unit of study in a mathematics curriculum is based on need. Not all units require the same amount of time. The model unit provided here is designed to last six weeks because the concepts taught are new. Teachers must spend time making explicit connections to what students learned in 4th and 5th grade and to what they will be learn- ing as 6th graders. A subsequent unit on area, surface areas, and volume lasts only four weeks because it extends what was learned in the previous unit about expressions and equations.
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Appendix B 189
Consideration 4: Assessment Types and Purposes
The assessments used to measure student learning are congruent with the standards being measured. This attribute of quality applies in math- ematics as it does in all other content areas. In the sample unit, the stan- dards ask students to
• Describe a ratio relationship using ratio language. • Solve real-world and mathematical problems in which they
make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. • Reason using tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double
number line diagrams, or equations. • Attend to precision when using rate and ratio language and iden-
tifying the solution.
The assessments for the unit are congruent with the standards because they consist of a variety of diff erent types of product assessments in which students can demonstrate these understandings.
This unit includes multiple measures of student understanding. Stu- dents express their understanding of ratios and proportions by complet- ing a multistep problem, fi nding and solving a problem in their own lives, and completing a unit test and a process assessment. The unit clearly identifi es and appropriately uses diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments, focusing on assessment purpose rather than timing.
Diagnostic assessment. The problems included in the diagnostic assessment are designed to uncover student understanding of ratios and proportions as well as any misconceptions about these related concepts. The questions included in the diagnostic assessment are aligned to the foundational skills for the unit, which are taught in 4th and 5th grade.
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190 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Diagnostic Assessment
Students solve a series of multiplicative comparison problems (4.OA.A.2):
• Joseph wants to buy a frame for his new poster. The poster is 12 inches wide and 3 times as long. What size frame does he need?
• Your parents want to put a pool in the backyard. The width of the pool is 20 feet, and the pool is twice as long. Draw and label a diagram of the pool. Find its perimeter and area.
• Pam’s room is 120 square feet. It is 12 feet long. Draw and label a diagram of Pam’s room. What is its perimeter?
Students are given a series of problems in which they apply their understanding of frac-
tions as division (5.NF.B.3):
• Catherine has 15 ounces of cookie dough. She wants to make 6 cookies. How many ounces of cookie dough should she use for each cookie so that they are all the same size?
• Paige wants to share her candy with 5 friends. She has 8 pieces of candy. How many pieces of candy can each friend have?
• William used 6 ounces of cheese on the pasta dinner he made for his friends. He had 4 plates of pasta. How many ounces of cheese did he use on each plate? Use a tape diagram to show your work.
Students are given a series of pictures and asked to describe the relationships they see and
what the relationships have in common (6.RP.1, MP.1):
• A garden with 6 pepper plants and 30 tomato plants
• A calendar showing the month of April (30 days) with 5 days labeled as rain
• The United States fl ag (50 stars, 13 stripes)
Formative assessment. The formative assessment opportunities identify specifi c points in the unit that are advantageous to the forma- tive assessment process, during which the teacher and students engage in ongoing exchange of feedback.
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Appendix B 191
Column 1: Formative
Assessment Opportunities
What opportunities has the teacher created
for formative assessment?
Column 2: Feedback
How does the teacher provide feedback
or opportunities for peer feedback and
self-refl ection?
Formative Assessment Opportunity:
Exit Tickets
• Exit Ticket 1: Evaluating Ratio Statements (Illustrative Mathematics)
The ratio of the number of boys to the
number of girls at school is 4:5. There are
270 students at this school. For each of
the following statements, explain whether
the statement is true or false and why:
a. The number of boys at school is 4/5 the
number of girls.
b. 4/5 of the students in the school are boys.
c. There are exactly 30 more girls than boys.
d. There are exactly 30 boys at the school.
e. 5/9 of the students in the school are
girls. 6.RP.A1
• Exit Ticket 2: Riding at Constant Speed
(Illustrative Mathematics)
Lin rode a bike 20 miles in 150 minutes. If
she rode at a constant speed,
a. How far did she ride in 15 minutes?
b. How long did it take her to ride 6 miles?
c. How fast did she ride in miles per hour?
d. What was her pace in minutes per
mile? 6.RP.2, 6.RP.3
• Exit Ticket 3: Diminishing Return (Insidemathematics.org, 2014)
Maxine and Sammie have lawns that are
the same size. Maxine can mow her lawn
in 24 minutes, and Sammie can mow his
The teacher uses the exit tickets to
• Provide students with individual feedback.
• Determine next steps for instruction.
• Group students to address their needs.
After receiving feedback, students have the
opportunity to redo their problem and are
given new problems to solve in which to
apply the feedback.
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192 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
lawn in 36 minutes. After how many
minutes will Sammie have twice as much
lawn to mow as Maxine? Maxine and
Sammie have to also mow their parking
strips that are the same size. Maxine can
mow her parking strip in 6 minutes, and
Sammie can mow his parking strip in 9
minutes. After how many minutes will
Sammie have twice as much grass to
mow as Maxine? 6.RP.3
Formative Assessment Opportunity:
Process Refl ection
As students complete their exit problems,
they refl ect on the following questions:
• How were you able to make sense of the word problem?
• What steps did you take to solve the problem?
• How did you know they were the right steps?
• What did you do if you ran into trouble?
• How did you make sure your answer was
accurate and precise?
Formative Assessment Opportunity:
Performance Task Submission
Students submit a problem they have
found that could be solved using ratios and
proportion s.
The teacher reads students’ responses to
the process questions. She compares the
students’ perceptions with the work they
completed on the exit tickets. The teacher
uses this information to determine which
strategies should be retaught and whether
new strategies should be introduced.
The teacher reviews students’ submissions
to determine whether students are able to
identify real-world problems that show the
relationship between numbers and could
be solved using ratios and proportions. She
provides students with feedback so that they
may clearly articulate a real-world problem
that can be solved using their understanding
of ratios and proportions.
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Appendix B 193
The fi rst opportunity for formative assessment is the exit tickets. These problems have been identifi ed as formative assessment opportuni- ties because they align to the unit standards in such a way that the teacher can check for student understanding and adjust instruction before pro- ceeding to a more complex understanding of ratios and proportions. These opportunities also begin the feedback process between teacher and students, where the teacher provides descriptive feedback that enables the students to revise their work and apply their understanding to new problems provided by the teacher.
In addition, when students solve multistep, real-world problems such as those found on the exit tickets, they have the opportunity to demon- strate the behaviors of a mathematician that have been explained through the Standards for Mathematical Practice. In this unit, the Standards for Mathematical Practice ask students to
• Be able to understand the problem, choose a method for solving the problem, and then self-correct if the method does not work or stu- dents realize that their solution is incorrect or unreasonable.
• Decontextualize the problem from the real-world situation and then contextualize it to check for reasonableness and ensure the accu- racy of the answer as it relates to the initial situation.
• Attend to precision to ensure that their answers are properly labeled, particularly when the problem involves converting units.
The process refl ection is another formative assessment opportunity that can be used to determine whether the students were aware of the pro- cesses they used for solving the exit ticket problems. The teacher can use the information from the exit tickets and the process refl ection to provide students with individual feedback on their strategies as well as to address common issues and provide additional strategies through class lessons.
The fi nal formative assessment opportunity in this unit prepares stu- dents for the performance task. Students share a real-world problem with the teacher, and the teacher provides feedback on whether the problem they have chosen for the performance task is one that demonstrates the
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 193EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 193 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
194 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
relationship between two numbers and calls for the use of ratios and pro- portions in understanding and solving the problem.
The formative assessment opportunities within this unit provide students with feedback while it still can be used. It is important that the feedback students receive in mathematics does more than simply provide students with the correct answer; it is most eff ective when it identifi es what the student was able to do, provides a question to prompt or deepen student understanding, and provides direction for solving the problem without directly giving students the answer. Descriptive feedback such as this can promote student understanding.
Summative assessment. The summative assessment is built off the formative assessment opportunities and can be used to determine what students have learned.
Summative/Performance Task
Students complete a multistep math task in which they work with a recipe to meet the needs of individuals who come into a bakery. As students complete the task, they are asked to
• Determine the ratio between ingredients. 6.RP.3
• Change the amount of the ingredients based on the order (e.g., double the recipe). 6.RP.3
• Explain ratios between old and new recipes. 6.RP.3.D, MP.6
• Determine costs of ingredients. 6.RP.3
• Determine increases in cost using tables and plotting the values on a coordinate plane. 6.RP.3
• Determine the mileage traveled by different customers. 6.RP.3
• Create equations to represent the problems. MP.2
• Create visual representations of the problems. 6.RP.3
• Explain the process used to solve the problems. MP.1
Performance Task
Students fi nd an example of how ratios are used to solve problems in the real world. They
• Explain the problem to be solved. 6.RP.1
• Create an equation to represent the problem. MP.2
• Create a visual representation of the problem. 6.RP.3
• Explain how ratios were used to solve the problem. 6.RP.3, MP.1
Students will present their problems, solutions, and strategies in small groups. Students will have the opportunity to question one another to learn more about the different strategies presented by their classmates. Once all members of a group have had the opportunity to share, students will be asked to write a refl ection on how mathematics presents itself in real life and how the different strategies and solutions might be helpful when they encounter new problems.
Other Summative Assessment: Ratios and Proportions Unit Test
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Appendix B 195
The summative assessments for the unit are designed to measure student understanding of the big idea: Students use their knowledge of multiplication and division to develop an understanding of ratio and rate language. They use this understanding to describe relationships, connect ratios and fractions, and solve real-world problems. Each summative assess- ment—the on-demand performance task, the curriculum- embedded per- formance task, and the unit test—measures student understanding under diff erent circumstances and therefore provides the teacher with a wealth of information on what the student knows and is able to do.
Consideration 5: Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments
The performance task, which asks students to fi nd an example of how ratios are used to solve problems in the real world, is an integral part of the unit that produces as well as measures learning. It exemplifi es the criteria for a quality task because it measures the most important learn- ing as articulated in the organizing center, is congruent and strongly aligned to the unit standards, and brings together the diagnostic and formative measures.
The performance task also includes a rubric that can be used for instructional and evaluation purposes. The rubric for this performance task focuses on student understanding of ratios and proportions rather than solely on whether the student answer is correct. Its dimensions align to both the content standards for the unit and the Standards for Mathe- matical Practice.
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196 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
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EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 196EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 196 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
Appendix B 197
M P.
1: M
ak es
s en
se o
f
pr ob
le m
s an
d pe
rs ev
er es
in
so lv
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th em
.
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or ga
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nd e
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on t
he p
ro bl
em .
D em
on st
ra te
s pe
rs ev
er -
an ce
a nd
c om
m it
m en
t to
ex ce
lle nc
e by
t ak
in g
ex tr
a
st ep
s to
e ns
ur e
th at
t he
pr ob
le m
is s
ol ve
d co
rr ec
tl y
us in
g ra
ti o
st ra
te gi
es .
S uc
ce ss
fu lly
m ak
es a
p la
n
(e xp
la in
s th
e pr
ob le
m ,
or ga
ni ze
s in
fo rm
at io
n) , c
ar -
ri es
o ut
t he
p la
n (m
on it
or s,
ch an
ge s
pl an
if n
ec es
sa ry
),
an d
us es
a s
tr at
eg y
to
ch ec
k th
e so
lu ti
on .
D em
on st
ra te
s pe
rs ev
er -
an ce
b y
ch ec
ki ng
h is
o r
he r
w or
k to
m ak
e su
re it
is
co rr
ec t
us in
g an
a pp
ro pr
i-
at e
ra ti
o st
ra te
gy .
M ak
es a
p la
n bu
t m
ay
st ru
gg le
w it
h su
cc es
sf ul
ly
ca rr
yi ng
o ut
t he
p la
n to
ar ri
ve a
t a
co rr
ec t
so lu
ti on
;
w or
k re
fl e ct
s at
te m
pt s
at
se lf
-c or
re ct
io n,
w it
h er
ro rs
.
D em
on st
ra te
s pe
rs ev
er -
an ce
b y
co m
pl et
in g
th e
pr ob
le m
u si
ng t
he m
os t
fa m
ili ar
o r
ea si
es t
ra ti
o
st ra
te gy
.
S ol
ve s
th e
pr ob
le m
w it
ho ut
ev id
en ce
o f
a pl
an a
nd
w it
ho ut
a tt
em pt
in g
to
se lf
-c or
re ct
o r
ch ec
k th
e
so lu
ti on
.
C om
pl et
es t
he p
ro bl
em a
s
qu ic
kl y
as p
os si
bl e.
M P.
2: R
ea so
ns a
bs tr
ac tl
y
an d
qu an
ti ta
ti ve
ly .
U se
s th
e co
nt ex
t of
t he
r ea
l
w or
ld t
o m
ak e
se ns
e of
t he
pr ob
le m
, u se
s a
ra ti
o st
ra t-
eg y
to c
re at
e an
e qu
at io
n
fr om
t he
p ro
bl em
, a nd
t he
n
ch ec
ks t
he r
ea so
na bl
en es
s
of h
is o
r he
r an
sw er
w it
hi n
th e
co nt
ex t
of t
he o
ri gi
na l
pr ob
le m
.
Ex pl
ai ns
d ec
on te
xt ua
liz in
g
an d
co nt
ex tu
al iz
in g
th e
pr ob
le m
a s
pa rt
o f
th e
re as
on in
g pr
oc es
se s.
B re
ak s
ap ar
t th
e pr
ob le
m
an d
us es
a r
at io
s tr
at eg
y
as a
w ay
t o
m ak
e se
ns e
of a
nd s
ol ve
t he
p ro
bl em
;
re tu
rn s
to t
he p
ro bl
em t
o
co rr
ec tl
y id
en ti
fy a
nd la
be l
hi s
or h
er s
ol ut
io n.
Fo cu
se s
on t
he r
at io
st ra
te gy
a s
th e
pr im
ar y
w ay
t o
m ak
e se
ns e
of t
he
pr ob
le m
a nd
e xp
la in
h is
o r
he r
re as
on in
g.
Pu lls
t he
n um
be rs
f ro
m t
he
pr ob
le m
a nd
u se
s a
ra ti
o
st ra
te gy
t o
so lv
e it
w it
ho ut
pa yi
ng a
tt en
ti on
t o
th e
or ig
in al
p ro
bl em
.
Ex pl
ai ns
t he
s te
ps o
f th
e
ra ti
o st
ra te
gy a
s hi
s or
h er
re as
on in
g.
U se
s nu
m be
rs f
ro m
t he
pr ob
le m
w it
ho ut
n ot
ic in
g
w he
th er
t he
n um
be rs
a re
th e
co rr
ec t
on es
g iv
en t
he
pr ob
le m
h e
or s
he is
t ry
in g
to s
ol ve
; t he
re m
ay b
e
an a
tt em
pt t
o us
e a
ra ti
o
st ra
te gy
.
R ea
so ni
ng is
s ha
re d
on ly
th ro
ug h
an a
tt em
pt t
o us
e
a ra
ti o
st ra
te gy
; n o
w ri
tt en
ex pl
an at
io n
is p
ro vi
de d.
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 197EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 197 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
198 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
W ow
! G
ot It
! A
lm os
t T he
re St
ill W
or ki
ng
M P.
6: A
tt en
ds t
o pr
ec is
io n.
C or
re ct
ly la
be ls
u ni
ts o
f
m ea
su re
a nd
s ym
bo ls
;
so lu
ti on
s ar
e co
rr ec
t.
C le
ar ly
e xp
la in
s hi
s or
h er
th in
ki ng
t hr
ou gh
ou t
us in
g
pr ec
is e
ra ti
o la
ng ua
ge a
nd
m at
he m
at ic
al t
er m
in ol
og y.
La be
ls u
ni ts
o f
m ea
su re
an d
sy m
bo ls
; s ol
ut io
ns a
re
co rr
ec t.
Ex pl
ai ns
h is
o r
he r
th in
ki ng
us in
g ra
ti o
la ng
ua ge
.
La be
ls t
he m
os t
ob vi
ou s
un it
s of
m ea
su re
a nd
s ym
-
bo ls
; s ol
ut io
n m
ay o
r m
ay
no t
be c
or re
ct .
D es
cr ib
es h
is o
r he
r th
in k-
in g
in g
en er
al t
er m
s.
W ri
te s
an a
ns w
er w
it h
no
ev id
en ce
o f
la be
lin g
un it
s
of m
ea su
re a
nd s
ym bo
ls ;
so lu
ti on
m ay
o r
m ay
n ot
b e
co rr
ec t.
Ex pl
an at
io n
is a
r es
ta te
-
m en
t of
t he
p ro
bl em
; r el
ie s
on t
he m
os t
ba si
c m
at h
te rm
s.
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 198EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 198 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
Appendix B 199
Consideration 6: Instruction
Students
• Review their understanding of multiplicative comparison as a foundation for ratios by completing tasks such as identifying the fraction of shaded blocks or the fraction of cookies on a tray.
• Use multiple forms of ratio language and ratio notation as they read about or watch video clips about ratio relationships and then discuss and model the described relation- ships. (6.RP.A.1)
• Work in small groups to think of, describe, model, and share ratio relationships from their own experience to practice using ratio language to describe ratio relationships. (6.RP.A.1, MP.6)
• Read about or watch video clips about situations that call for establishing an equivalent ratio and then discuss and model the situations. (6.RP.A.1)
• Solve simple problems of fi nding one or more equivalent ratios. (6.RP.A.1)
• Use linking cubes to represent ratio relationships. (6.RP.A.1)
• Solve a problem of the day in which they create ratios for a fl ower shop. (6.RP.A.1)
• Find values of quantities in a ratio when given different scenario cards that include the total desired quantity or when given the difference between the two quantities. For example, if the ratio of boys to girls in the school is 2:3, fi nd the number of girls if there are 200 more girls than boys. (6.RP.A.1)
• Use short descriptions to illustrate ratios using numbers, pictures, and words. For example, if the number of chairs to people in the room is 2:1, show that ratio using numbers, pictures, and words. (6.RP.A.1)
• Create tables when given two ratios to compare. For example, if the ratio of pens to pencils is 2:1, would that be the same ratio as 6:4? (6.RP.A.3.A)
• Create tables to understand that a ratio is the relationship between the amount of one quan- tity and the amount of another. Then use this understanding to solve problems involving mixtures and constant rates. (6.RP.A.3.A, MP.1, MP.2)
• Review their tables in small groups and discuss how the tables refl ect what they know about addition and multiplication. (6.RP.A.3.A)
• Work with unit rate to write and explain the correct mix of paints and understand part-to-part and part-to-whole relationships. (6.RP.A.3.A)
• Work in small groups to create ratio tables and then use them to create double number lines in order to view and solve real-world problems. (6.RP.A.3.A)
• Solve problem sets of real-world problems using double number lines. (6.RP.A.3.A, MP.1, MP.2)
• Represent ratios in ratio tables, equations, and double number line diagrams and then represent those ratios in the coordinate plane in order to view and solve real-world problems. (6.RP.A.3.A, MP.1)
• Take a class walk around the schoolyard; set up a table and draw a graph to determine the relationship between the distance and speed of walkers in their group. (6.RP.A.3.A, MP.1)
• Work in small groups to identify the associated rate when given a ratio in order to understand ratio relationships. (6.RP.A.2)
• Work with a series of real-world scenarios to defi ne and explain the difference between the terms rate, unit rate, and rate unit. Students return to the scenarios and identify the rate, unit rate, and rate unit. (MP.6)
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200 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
• Use representations and diagrams to determine the unit rate within the context of real- world rate problems. (6.RP.A.2, MP.1, MP.2)
• Work through and discuss problem sets that require expressing simple ratios as rates using precise language such as “per,” “for each,” and “for every.” (MP.6)
• Read the book If You Hopped Like a Frog by David M. Schwartz. Then choose one of the scenarios presented in the book and read the corresponding explanation. Students use this information to work in small groups to solve the ratio problem presented. Students present the problem and the method they used to solve the problem during a class gallery walk. (6.RP.A.2, MP.2)
• Solve unit rate problems involving unit pricing, constant speed, and constant rates of work. (6.RP.A.3.B, MP.1, MP.6)
• Convert different-sized standard measurement units to prepare for solving real-world problems with different units. (6.RP.A.3.D)
• Solve real-world problem sets in which they convert units. (6.RP.A.3.D, MP.1, MP.2)
• Plan for a class party by comparing unit rate for items using supermarket fl yers. They will write a recommendation of what to buy and where and why they should buy it. (6.RP.A.3.D)
• Conduct real-world simulations that generate rates related to speed and work. (6.RP.A.3.D)
• Create percent grids to represent percentages. (6.RP.A.3.C)
• Use percent grids to represent real-world scenarios involving percent. (6.RP.A.3.C)
• Write fractions as percents and fi nd a percent of a quantity in real-world contexts. (6.RP.A.3.C)
• Read, interpret, and solve percent problems using tape diagrams and double number line diagrams or combinations of both explaining the relationship between percent and ratio. (6.RP.A.3.C, MP.1)
• Read The Transcontinental Railroad. Students will work in small groups to solve problems that were faced during the building of the railroad and use their understanding of ratio and unit rate to solve those problems. (6.RP.A.3, MP.1, MP.2, MP.6)
• Solve the problem of the month, First Rate, to apply their understanding of ratio and unit rate. (6.RP.A.3, MP.1, MP.2, MP.6)
The learning experiences are written so that they describe what the stu- dents will do, why they will do it, and what the teacher will have as evi- dence of student learning. The learning experiences are strongly aligned to both the content and the practice standards as indicated by the codes that appear at the end of each experience.
The learning experiences address content, process, and dispositions. Often, content learning experiences overlap with process and dispo- sition learning experiences. For example, a lesson where students use
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 200EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 200 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
Appendix B 201
representations and diagrams to determine the unit rate within the con- text of real-world rate problems requires students to make sense of the problem and determine the best approach for solving the problem (pro- cess), to use their understanding of unit rate to solve the problem (con- tent), and then to persevere through the solving of a multistep problem where they may need to self-correct and check their answer (disposition).
Consideration 7: Resources That Support Instruction
Materials resources
• Grade 6 Mathematics Module 1 by EngageNY (2013). Available: https://www.engageny.org/
resource/grade-6-mathematics-module-1
Web resources
• 6RP Evaluating Ratio Statements by Illustrative Mathematics (n.d.). Available: https://www.
illustrativemathematics.org/content-standards/6/RP/A/1/tasks/2091
• Problem of the Month: Diminishing Return by Inside Mathematics (2014). Available: http://
www.insidemathematics.org/assets/problems-of-the-month/diminishing%20return.pdf
Picture books
• If You Hopped Like a Frog by David M. Schwartz (1999). New York: Scholastic.
• The Transcontinental Railroad: Using Proportions to Solve Problems by Therese Shea (2007).
New York: Rosen Publishing Group.
Texts, technology, and resources have been chosen because they meet a specifi c purpose as set out in the standards and learning experiences for the unit. The materials resources and technology resources give teachers choices on the types of problems they can provide for their students. Hav- ing a variety of resources will assist the teacher in diff erentiating instruc- tion for their students, ensuring that all will have access to the content while working with problem sets most appropriate for their needs. The picture books have been integrated into specifi c lessons and should be available to all teachers if they choose to use them.
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 201EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 201 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
202
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205
Index
Note: Page references followed by an italicized f indicate information contained in fi gures.
accessing information, technology for, 144–146
alignment. See under standards Amador, Dalainy, 119 American Psychological Association (APA),
118–119 APA (American Psychological Association),
118–119 assessment. See also performance assess-
ments, curriculum-embedded alignment with standards, 80, 90,
101–105, 158 annotated quality example of types
and purposes of, 189–195 authenticity in, 89, 90–91, 92f checklist for, 83 combining using types of, 68 curriculum-embedded vs. self-con-
tained, 84–87 demonstrations, 67–68, 69–71, 72 diagnostic, 73–74, 162, 189–190 formative, 74–77, 76f, 81, 162, 190–194 implications for curricular evaluation
and creation, 78–81, 79f–80f information-recall assessments, 67,
69, 72 performance assessments, 67–68,
69–71, 72, 162
assessment (continued) process assessments, 67, 68, 72,
193–194 product assessments, 67, 69 purposes of, 73–77, 76f, 81 Stiggins on, 66–67 summary, 81–82 summative, 77, 81, 194–195 tools and activities, 82–83 types of, 67–68, 70f when to use types of, 68–72, 70f
Bennett, Steven, 120 Bloom’s taxonomy, 4 Brookhart, Susan, 40
Calpin, Celestine, 120 Capuano, Christina, 120 CCLS (Common Core Learning Standards),
3, 47 CCSS (Common Core State Standards),
3, 35 checks for understanding. See formative
assessment coding learning experiences, 124, 130, 134 coding standards in curricula, 43–44, 59–60,
59f, 65, 90 collaboration, technology for, 146–147
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 205EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 205 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
206 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS), 3, 47
Common Core State Standards (CCSS), 3, 35 content-area alignment with standards,
31–33 content areas, organizing centers in, 12–13 content learning experiences, 118–119, 162 content understanding. See formative
assessment Crawson, Jeanene, 47 curricula
about developing, 173–175 accessibility, 155–163 assessed curriculum, 2, 5 assessment recommendations, 78–81,
79f–80f checklist for, 172 curriculum-embedded performance
assessments, 99–109, 100f, 162, 195–198
formal curriculum, 2, 3–4 formats for housing, 155 instructional resources recommenda-
tions, 151–153 instruction recommendations, 128–
133, 129f, 131f, 132f layers of, 2–5, 156–163 learned curriculum, 2, 5 as living document, 2 operational curriculum, 2, 4 organizing centers of, 15–20, 18f professional development and, 163–165 quality unit example, 176–183 resources listed in, 163 standards recommendations, 33–35,
34f, 42–44 student work connection, 165–171,
166f, 167f, 168f summary, 171 taught curriculum, 2, 4–5 tools and resources, 172 unit example, 159f–161f units descriptions, in curriculum,
156–157 units fully developed, in curriculum,
157–162
curriculum-embedded performance assess- ment. See performance assessments, curriculum-embedded
demonstrations, 67–68, 69–71, 72. See also performance assessments, curriculum-embedded
developmentally appropriate practice, 57–58 diagnostic assessment, 73–74, 91, 162,
189–190 dispositional learning experiences, 125–127 document-based questions, 73–74 Donovan, Gabrielle, 47, 48–53, 54
engagement, student, 112 essential questions, 13–14, 162 executive function skills, 4 expectations, and student work, 166–170,
168f
feedback, 171 Ferraro, Loretta, 47 Fire Island School District (NY), 47–56,
62–64, 63f, 128, 129f formative assessment, 74–77, 76f, 81, 91, 162,
190–194 Fox, Kiera, 120
Gonzalez, Elvira, 16 Google Drive, 146–147 grade-level focus skills, 59–60, 59f grading. See summative assessment gradual release of responsibility, 58–59
Habits of Mind, 4 Healthy Me Unit quality example, 176–183
information-recall assessments, 67, 69, 72 Ingram, Joan, 120 instruction
annotated quality example of, 199–201 checklist for, 135 coding in curriculum design, 124, 130,
134 content learning experiences, 118–119,
162
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 206EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 206 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
Index 207
instruction (continued) dispositional learning experiences,
125–127 engagement, 111–112 implications for curricular evaluation
and creation, 128–133, 129f, 131f, 132f
learning experiences, 115, 116–118, 199–201
learning targets, 113–115, 116, 117 lesson descriptions, 113–118, 114f process learning experiences, 119–125,
121f–123f, 162 rubric for discourse, participation, and
engagement (DPE), 121f–123f scripted lesson plans, 115, 116 summary, 133–134 tools and activities for, 134
instructional resources annotated quality example of, 201 checklist for, 154 guiding questions, 154 implications for curricular evaluation
and creation, 151–153 listed in curriculum, 163 materials, 149–151 purpose of, and curriculum, 151–153,
154, 162 summary, 153–154 technology, 143–149 text, 136–142 tools and activities, 154
Jackson-Cole, Thalia, 16
Kong, Joan, 16
Learner-Centered Initiatives, 48, 127 learners, focus on, 4 learning experiences. See also instruction
about, 115, 116–118 annotated quality example of, 199–201 coding in curriculum design, 124, 130,
134, 162 content learning experiences, 118–119,
162
learning experiences (continued) dispositional learning experiences,
125–127 elementary example of using, 129f lesson-analysis chart, 132f process learning experiences, 119–125,
121f–123f, 162 rubric for discourse, participation, and
engagement (DPE), 121f–123f secondary example of using, 131f
LinkedIn, 148–149 Locatelli, Liz, 48
Magnotta, Laura, 16 Mannan, Filomena, 120 Marzano, Robert, 40 materials for instructional resources,
149–151 McNulty, Karen, 47 metacognitive learning experiences. See dis-
positional learning experiences Miuta, Angela, 16
National Standards for High School Psychol- ogy Curricula (APA), 118–119
New York State K-12 Social Studies Frame- work, 3
Next Generation Science Standards, 3, 31–32, 55–56, 60, 61f, 71
North Rockland School District (NY), 156
organizing centers of curricula about, 9–12 annotated quality example of,
184–186 central ideas, 14–15 checklist for, 23 connecting school values and focuses
with, 20, 21f–22f content areas, 12–13 essential questions and, 13–14 examples of, 9–12 implications for curricular evaluation
and creation, 15–20, 18f performance assessment alignment
with, 101, 162
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208 Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum
organizing centers of curricula (continued) in quality curricula example, 158 summary, 20–23 tools and activities, 23
Pennsylvania Learning Standard for Early Childhood, 69
performance assessments, curriculum-embedded
about, 67–68, 69–71, 72 annotated quality example of,
195–198 authentic audience and purpose in,
89, 90–91, 92f, 105–106 checklist for, 110 congruence and strong alignment to
standards, 88, 90, 101–105, 162 curriculum-embedded vs. self-con-
tained, 84–87 evaluation tool for, 100–108, 100f features of quality, 88–98 implications for content areas, 98–99 implications for curricular evaluation
and creation, 99–109, 100f incorporating diagnostic and forma-
tive assessment, 106–108 measuring most important learning,
88, 89–90, 101, 162 opportunity for teacher feedback and
student revision, 89, 91–93, 94f specifi c criteria for student perfor-
mance in, 89, 93–98, 96f–97f, 108, 162
summary, 109 tools and activities for, 109
Perrotta, Annamaria Giordano, 120 Picinich, Shannon, 47 Popham, W. James, 40 presenting, technology for, 147–149 process assessments, 67, 68, 72, 193–194 process learning experiences, 119–125,
121f–123f product assessments, 67, 69 professional development, 118, 163–165 publishing, technology for, 147–149
Ranieri, Teresa, 16 Rawlins, Shawn, 120 resources, instructional. See instructional
resources rubric for discourse, participation, and
engagement (DPE), 121f–123f rubrics, in performance assessment, 89,
93–98, 96f–97f, 108
Scalia, Amaris, 156 school values, and organizing centers of cur-
ricula, 20, 21f–22f self-refl ection, student, 68 skill understanding. See formative
assessment standardized testing, 67 standards
about, 46–47 across all units, 54–57 addressed, 35–37 addressed vs. taught vs. taught and
assessed, 35–40, 39f annotated quality example of align-
ment, 186 annotated quality example of place-
ment and emphasis, 187–188 assessment alignment and, 80, 90,
101–105, 158 checklist for, 45 checklist for curricular analysis, 65 coding, in curricula, 43–44, 59–60,
59f content-area alignment with,
31–33 curricular alignment with, 3,
24–25 curricular revisions and, 62–64, 63f degrees of alignment, 25–31, 27f,
29f, 158 developmentally appropriate practice,
57–58 grade-level focus skills, 59–60, 59f,
158 gradual release of responsibility and,
58–59
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Index 209
standards (continued) implications for curricular evaluation
and creation, 33–35, 34f, 42–44 placement and emphasis, in curricula,
48–53, 49f, 50f, 51f prioritization of, 40 sequencing annually, 57–62, 59f, 61f summary of alignment, 44–45 summary of placement and emphasis
on, 64 task alignment to, 25–31, 27f, 29f,
158 taught and assessed, 40–42, 53–54 text choice and purpose of, 137–142,
154 tools and activities, 45, 65
state and national assessments, 60–62 Stiggins, Rick, 40, 66–67 Storybird, 146 student revision, in assessments, 89, 91–93,
94f student work, 165–171, 166f, 167f, 168f summative assessment, 77, 81, 194–195 SurveyMonkey, 147
task alignment to standards, 25–31, 27f, 29f teacher feedback, in assessments, 89, 91–93,
94f
technology, for instructional resources about, 143–144 for accessing information, 144–146 for collaboration and interaction,
146–147 for presenting and publishing, 147–149
textbooks alignment, 35 texts, and standards, 137–142 Thinking Maps, 150, 152 Torres, Ramonita, 120 Twitter, 148–149
units evaluating and planning of, 15–20, 18f example, in curriculum, 159f–161f fully developed, in curriculum,
157–162 Healthy Me Unit quality example,
176–183 quality unit example, 176–183 short descriptions of, in curriculum,
156–157 standards across all, 54–57
Venn diagrams, 152
Whelan, Dawn, 156 Williams, Hande, 16
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 209EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 209 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
210
About the Author
Angela Di Michele Lalor is a senior consultant at Learner-Centered Initiatives (LCI), where her work includes facilitating schoolwide initiatives in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Her
primary focus has been helping districts design high- quality units of study that incorporate meaningful and
engaging learning experiences for students. In addition, she has worked with teachers to design quality assessments; link curriculum, assessment, and grading and reporting practices; diff erentiate instruction to meet the needs of all learners; and examine student work to move student learning forward. Her strengths lie in her ability to help groups of teachers work collaboratively to rethink and refl ect upon their practices.
Angela has presented nationally at the ASCD Annual Conference. She published an article in the November 7, 2013, issue of ASCD Express enti- tled “Thoughtful Selection of Informational Text,” which provides exam- ples of how to use informational text within engaging and meaningful units of study. Her article “Keeping the Destination in Mind,” in the Sep- tember 2012 issue of Educational Leadership, includes practical tips and examples on providing students with eff ective feedback that will move learning forward.
Angela began her career as a 7th grade social studies teacher. She is a certifi ed Fellow at Communities for Learning: Leading Lasting Change.
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 210EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 210 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
About the Author 211
Angela is also an avid runner, having recently completed her second New York City marathon.
Additional information about Angela and her work is available on the LCI website (http://www.lciltd.org) and LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin. com/pub/angela-di-michele-lalor/7b/967/231). She can be reached at angelal@lciltd.org.
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 211EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 211 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
Related ASCD Resources
At the time of publication, the following ASCD resources were available (ASCD stock numbers in parentheses). For up-to-date information about ASCD resources, go to www.ascd.org. This book relates to the engaged, supported, and challenged tenets of ASCD’s Whole Child Initiative; to learn more about this initiative, go to www.ascd.org/wholechild. Search the complete archives of Educational Leadership at www.ascd.org/el.
ASCD EDge® Exchange ideas and connect with other educators on the social networking site ASCD EDge at http://ascdedge.ascd.org.
Print Products Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World by Heidi Hayes Jacobs
(#109008) The Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates, Tools, and Resources for Eff ective
Professional Development by Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Ann Johnson (#109010) Ditch the Daily Lesson Plan: How Do I Plan for Meaningful Student Learning?
(ASCD Arias) by Michael Fisher (#SF116036) Solving 25 Problems in Unit Design: How Do I Refi ne My Units to Enhance Student
Learning? (ASCD Arias) by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins (#SF115046) Upgrade Your Curriculum: Practical Ways to Transform Units and Engage Students
by Janet A. Hale and Michael Fisher (#112014) DVDs Diff erentiated Instruction and Curriculum Mapping: What’s the Fit? DVD by Heidi
Hayes Jacobs and Carol Ann Tomlinson (#611019) Getting Results with Curriculum Mapping DVD with Facilitator’s Guide (#606167)
ASCD PD Online® Courses The Common Core Standards and the Understanding by Design Framework:
English Language Arts (#PD12OC002M) The Common Core Standards and the Understanding by Design Framework: Mathe-
matics (#PD12OC003M)
For more information: send e-mail to member@ascd.org; call 1-800-933-2723 or 703-578-9600, press 2; send a fax to 703-575-5400; or write to Information Services, ASCD, 1703 N. Beauregard St., Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 USA.
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 212EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 212 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
1703 North Beauregard Street Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 USA
If you belong to a Professional Learning Community, you may be looking for a way to get your fellow educators’ minds around a complex topic. Why not delve into a relevant theme issue of Educational Leadership, the journal written by educators for educators.
www.ascd.org/el
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
D O N ’ T M I S S A S I N G L E I S S U E O F A S C D ’ S A W A R D - W I N N I N G M A G A Z I N E ,
Subscribe now, or buy back issues of ASCD’s flagship publication at www.ascd.org/ELbackissues.
Single issues cost $7 (for issues dated September 2006–May 2013) or $8.95 (for issues dated September 2013 and later). Buy 10 or more of the same issue, and you’ll save 10 percent. Buy 50 or more of the same issue, and you’ll save 15 percent. For discounts on purchases of 200 or more copies, contact programteam@ascd.org; 1-800-933-2723, ext. 5773.
To see more details about these and other popular issues of Educational Leadership, visit www.ascd.org/ELarchive.
If you belong Community, your fellow e topic. Why n of Education educators fo
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 216EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 216 10/4/16 2:46 PM10/4/16 2:46 PM
ASCD’s Whole Child approach is an effort to transition from
a focus on narrowly defined academic achievement to one
that promotes the long-term development and success of
all children. Through this approach, ASCD supports educa-
tors, families, community members, and policymakers as they
move from a vision about educating the whole child to
sustainable, collaborative actions.
Place book title here relates to (insert tenet copy here).
For more about the Whole Child approach, visit www.wholechildeducation.org.
HEALTHY Each student enters school healthy and learns about and practices a healthy lifestyle.
SAFE Each student learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and adults.
ENGAGED Each student is actively engaged in learning and is connected to the school and broader community.
SUPPORTED Each student has access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified, caring adults.
CHALLENGED Each student is challenged academically and prepared for success in college or further study and for employment and participation in a global environment.
1
2
3
4
5
WHOLE CHILD
TENETS
Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum: How to Design, Revise,
or Adopt Curriculum Aligned to Student Success relates
to the engaged, supported, and challenged tenets.
EnsuringHighQualityCurr.indd 216 10/3/16 10:20 AM
High-Quality High-Quality
Curriculum
Curriculum
HOW TO
OR
DESIGN
REVISE
ADOPT CURRICULUM ALIGNED TO
STUDENT SUCCESS
ANGELA DI MICHELE LALOR
LA LO
R
ENSURING ENSURING
E N
S U
R IN
G H
igh-Q uality C
u rricu
lu m
HOW TO DESIGN, REVISE, OR ADOPT CURRICULUM ALIGNED TO STUDENT SUCCESS
We know that curriculum is the core of the classroom experience, but what makes a quality curriculum? How can educators be sure that what they teach is strongly aligned
to the specific standards that their district or school has adopted? What kinds of lessons, learning experiences, and assessments are most effective, and how should they be
embedded within the curriculum? You’ll find the answers to these and many other questions in this definitive, step-by-step guide to curriculum design and evaluation.
Drawing from her work with teachers and administrators to facilitate curriculum development, Angela Di Michele Lalor offers targeted advice and real-life examples from elementary and
secondary units of study across a variety of content areas and standards, as well as field-tested rubrics, protocols, and other tools. She provides criteria for evaluating each component
of a curriculum and end-of-chapter checklists to help you ensure that the criteria are met.
Relevant to anyone who is creating or revising curriculum, or evaluating options among published alternatives, Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum is a comprehensive
and accessible roadmap to developing a solid foundation for teaching and learning—and better results in the classroom.
Education
Alexandria, Virginia USA
Browse excerpts from ASCD books:
www.ascd.org/books
- Acknowledgments
- INTRODUCTION: The “Big Picture”of Curriculum
- CONSIDERATION 1: Organizing Centers
- CONSIDERATION 2: Alignment to Standards
- CONSIDERATION 3: Standards Placement and Emphasis
- CONSIDERATION 4: Assessment Types and Purposes
- CONSIDERATION 5: Curriculum-Embedded Performance Assessments
- CONSIDERATION 6: Instruction
- CONSIDERATION 7: Resources That Support Instruction
- CONSIDERATION 8: Success with Your Curriculum
- Epilogue
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- References
- Index
- About the Author
- Related ASCD Resources
- Search this Book
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