Thoughtful Curriculum Writing

What skills do you want me to acquire?What attitudes do you want me to develop?What do you want m

e to know?

What do you want m

e to understand?

A Statement of Purpose

Standards

Knowledge Habits/Attitude

Understanding Skills

Examine your Core Content and Standards. What questions lie at the “heart” of the learning that can guide the “uncovering” of the core ideas?

What broad general concepts does the topic relate to?

What are controversial issues or scholarly questions that the topic relates to?

What perspectives can be used to explore this topic?

What interests the students about this issue? How might this topic be explored creatively?

Essential Questions

Assessment

How do you differentiate curriculum, assessment, and instruction in a Thoughtful Unit of Study?

One SucceedsOne Struggles

What are some of the possible reasons why one student finds success and the other does not?

Kick it up a notch….

• B

• A

• M

ackground Knowledge

bility and skills

otivation

Does your unit connect and build background knowledge?

Does your unit teach the necessary skills to succeed?

Does your unit provide choice, create interest, and address a variety of learning styles and multiple intelligences?

The Results are CLEAR….

• Students who participated in discussion groups that matched their pattern of abilities outperformed students who were mismatched. In other words, when we teach students in a way that fits how they think, they do better in school. Students with creative or practical abilities, who are almost never taught or assessed in a way that matches their pattern of abilities, may be at a disadvantage in course after course, year after year.

Educational Leadership September 2006 Robert J. Sternberg

At the Heart of the Matter

• Assessment and grading practices that were originally born and bred to help some students succeed and allowed others to fall away, must now help all students succeed.

No Child Left Behind

• What comes to mind when you hear the word assessment?

• What is the relationship between assessment and instruction?

• What makes for a fair assessment?

What is assessment, can we agree?

What do the experts say….

“…comprehensive, multifaceted analysis of performance; it must be judgement based and personal.”

Wiggins

…assessment is the process of collecting, synthesizing and interpreting information to aid in decision making.”

Airaisian

Performance assessment fills a need in both our schools and our society; it asks students to think about their unique talents and how those talents can be used in the world that awaits them after school.

Silver

What distinguishes assessment from testing is that assessment elicits information about the skills and potentials of individuals, with the dual goal of providing useful feedback to individuals and useful data to the surrounding community.

Gardner

Assess

The word assess came from the Latin “assidere” meaning “to sit next to.”

Assessment is the process of providing students with work that…1. helps them learn;

2. provides evidence about what they are learning; and

3. creates a setting in which teachers can provide feedback to help students develop proficiencies and learn more deeply.

Five Keys to Effective Classroom Assessment

• Clear Purpose: Provide a clear and understandable vision of the Learning Target.

• Clear Targets: Use examples and models of strong and weak work.

• Sound Assessment Design: Assessment is linked to standards and similar to state assessment models (e.g. multiple choice, open response, on-demand writing, portfolio writing).

• Communication of Results: Offer regular descriptive feedback.

• Student Involvement: Teach students to self assess and set goals. Teach students focused revision. Engage students in self reflection and ask them to keep track of and share their learning.

What ways do you assess?

Depth of KnowledgeLevel 1

Recall

Recall of a fact, information, or procedure.

Level 2

Skill/Concept

Use information or conceptual knowledge, two or more steps.

Level 3

Strategic Thinking

Requires reasoning, developing a plan or a sequence of steps, some complexity, more than one possible answer.

Level 4

Extended Thinking

Requires an investigation, time to think and process multiple conditions of the problem.

What is the relationship between Depth of Knowledge and Learning Styles?

Mastery Interpersonal

Understanding Self Expressive

DOK

Graduated Difficulty/Depth of KnowledgeLevel 1

Recall

Complete the Scavenger Hunt Organizers as you visit http://www.pbs.org/kratts/world/content.html

Make a poster including a table showing five different animals and how they each adapt to changing temperatures and winter weather. Be sure you describe the animal, its climate, and three adaptations to its environment.

Level 2

Skill/Concept

Complete the Scavenger Hunt Organizer as you visit

http://www.pbs.org/kratts/world/content.html

Compare and contrast the physical features and skills of two of the animals you learned about. Explain how each of these features help the animal to adapt and survive. Why is it important for living organisms to be able to adapt to changing environments?

Level 3

Strategic Thinking

Complete the Scavenger Hunt Organizer as you visit

http://www.pbs.org/kratts/world/content.html

Choose one of the animals that you learned about. Suppose the animal was displaced onto a different continent, of your choice. Would it be suited for the new environment? What adaptations would it need to be able to make? How might the environment change the animal? How might the animal change the environment?

Level 4

Extended Thinking

Complete the Scavenger Hunt Organizer as you visit

http://www.pbs.org/kratts/world/content.html

Create a brand new animal with special adaptations, physical features and skills, for its environment. Write an explanation about how the adaptations help the animal to survive changes in its environment.

What’s missing?

People have impact upon the environment and cause change. These changes can have both positive and negative impact upon the animals living within an ecosystem. Animals must be able to adapt to the changes we bring about in their environment.

A. Identify THREE things you do that can have a positive impact upon the animals within your community.

B. Identify THREE things you do that can have a negative impact upon the animals within your community.

C. Write an editorial explaining how the importance of taking care of the animals that live in your community.

Task Description

Eating habits of American children are causing serious health concerns in our society. More children are developing Type II diabetes as a result of poor exercise and eating habits. Research to find what changes in American society might be contributing factors to the rise in Type II Diabetes. Design and a cookbook of after school snacks that would be healthy and low in carbohydrates to share with the class. Present the cookbook ‘Emeril’ Style..BAM! to the class and explain the nutritional value.

Research to find how eating habits of Americans have changed in the past fifty years. Explain how these changes have impacted our society’s health. Design and implement a weekly health and wellness program (e.g. exercise plan, diet, etc.). Explain the benefits of the program so that others will understand the importance of proper diet and exercise.

Many of today’s growing health issues could be avoided through education and awareness building. Select a health issue you are concerned about (e.g. breathing second hand smoke, HIV, etc.) Research your topic and write a persuasive speech, design an informational brochure, or write an editorial on your views regarding the issue .

PHYSICAL EDUCATION & HEALTH

Task Rotation

What does each style want from assessment?

Mastery students want assessment based on clear content and standards you have taught. They don’t want surprises.

Understanding students want assessments that will provoke their thinking and arouse their curiosity. They don’t want to think about their feelings.

Interpersonal students want a real life context in which they can apply what they have learned and an audience to listen to. They don’t want to spend a lot of time debating the fine points.

Self Expressive students want assessments that stimulate their creativity and ask them to create original products that express their individuality. They don’t want to be locked in step by step.

Song and Dance Man

foot bone is connected to ankle bone….

ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone…

leg bone’s connected to the hip bone…

and so on…..

So, what does this have to do with designing curriculum?

You be the Teacher

Here are eight percentage problems.

Six of them are wrong.

Now you get to be the teacher. All the work is shown. Find the errors and correct them. Explain the flaw in thinking that led to the errors.

Create a lesson plan that would help the student correct this flaw in thinking.

Content Standard

Thinking Frame

Context

Product

You be the Teacher

Here are eight percentage problems.

Six of them are wrong.

Now you get to be the teacher. All the work is shown. Find the errors and correct them. Explain the flaw in thinking that led to the errors.

Create a lesson plan that would help the student correct this flaw in thinking.

Solving % problems

Error Analysis

Teaching

lesson

You and your team have been selected to design a public use building that will bring together the three religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity) of the region by combining their traditions.

Submit a model of your building and an explanation of how it will achieve its purpose.

Religions of the Middle East

Design

Life in Jerusalem

Model and Explanation

What do you have when you marry the ideas of Task Rotation and Graduated Difficulty?

4

3

2

1

Mastery Interpersonal

Understanding Self Expressive

Level

Level

Level

Level

Hook

Master Understanding Self Expressive Interpersonal

3 Presenting Information• summarize• explain• elaborate• teach• demonstrate• report• produce• construct

Extrapolating from Data• infer• predict• causal relationship• generalizations• solving• argument of a position• research & theory• clarifying

Creating Original Work• design• create• compose• invent• imagine

Acting on Feelings• decision making• justification• community action• goal setting• taking a stand

2 Organizing Information• compare• classify• chart• label• diagram• sequence

Interpreting Data• generalizations• conclusions• support and refute• explanations, yes but why• causal relationships• analogies

Reorganizing Ideas• hypothesizing• speculating• expressing metaphorical analogies• personal analogies• direct analogies• predicting

Understanding Feelings• empathizing• perspective• reflecting• discussions• personification• journaling

1 Gathering Information• observe• recall• question• rank• collect• define• describe• identify• measure• find

Examining Data• analyze attributes, patterns, main points, components,• compare and contrast• group and label• graphic organizers

Generating Ideas• associations• divergent thinking• brainstorming• webbing• connecting to prior knowledge

Expressing Feelings• prioritizing• preference• likes/dislikes• real world connections• personalizing

Introducing A New Portfolio for Learning Clubs

Therefore, we must….•What do these examples have in common?

•How do students need to think in order to do well in these situations?

•What are some situations in which your students need to think inferentially in your classroom?

Inference

Which of these goals is most important to you and why?

• Identify Essential Information• Develop and Test Hypotheses• Finding and Evaluating Evidence• Developing Powerful Explanations

and Interpretations

Learning from the Students

• Look at the sample of student work on page 11.

• What do you think the teacher may have done to achieve this depth of knowledge?

• What specific skills were evident in the student’s sample?

Phase I: Identify the problem

Phase II: Note Patterns or Relationships

Phase III: Find Evidence

Phase IV: Explain

Phase V: Reflect

A Sample Lesson:Life in Colonial New England

Suppose you stepped into a time machine and wound up in Colonial New England.

What do you suppose ordinary people might be talking about?

What are some words or phrases you might expect to hear?

Phase I: Identify the Problem, Strategy and Resources

Word Listapprentice

furniture

pelt

axe

gentry

petticoat

baptize

goodwife

pillory

barrel

governor

pine

Bible

hoe

Sabbath

candles

hogs

saw

claims

homemade

servant

congregation

house

shift

community

import

See figure 1.8

Page 14

Phase II: Note Patterns and Relationships

Group and Label

Hypothesis Support Refute Page 16

Work with your partner to record three hypotheses in the organizer.

Phase III: Find Evidence

Page 17

Read and find evidence to support and or refute your hypotheses.

Phase IV: Explain your reasoning and evidence.

Were your hypotheses correct?

Did you need to refine your hypotheses?

What evidence did you find for each of the

hypotheses?

Phase V: Reflect

What did you learn about the process of using clues to form hypotheses and gathering evidence to support your hunch?

How are historians detectives?

Planning

Step 1: Purpose and Strategy

Scenario

An incomplete story

Step 2: Develop a clear idea of what you want students to discover.What do I want students to uncover?

• All stories share common elements, and by changing the elements of the story we can create new stories.

• There are as many stories that can be told as there are people with imaginations.

• Good writers have writing techniques that make a story extraordinary.

Step 3: Determine Clues and Information Source

Step 4: Decide how students will demonstrate what they have learned?

Write a story about an ordinary event, but make it extraordinary.

Make it a story worth reading by including the criteria we discussed in class. Use Microsoft Word to publish your story and illustrate it with watercolor. You may work in a group of no more than four.

Reading/Writing Writer’s Club

Synthesis Realistic Fiction

Step 5: Reflect upon the Process

What made “The Tree of Birds

a Good Story?”

What makes for a good story?

Hook

Mystery

Student Phases

Marcus found a book that looked interesting to him in the school library, but someone had not taken very good care of the book. Words were marked out with a marker, pages were torn out, and the only thing left of the book were some pictures.

Help Marcus tell the story of “The Tree of Birds.”

Phase I: Identify the Problem, Strategy, and Data Sources

What clues in the picture tell you what happened before this page?

What clues tell you what is happening now in the picture?

What do you think will happen next?

Mystery StrategyPhase II: Examine the Clues and NOTE any patterns or relationships.

• Identify what you know.

• Form a hunch.

• Formulate a tentative hypothesis.

Phase III: Find EVIDENCE to support or refute your hypothesis. REFINE your hypothesis if needed.

• Phase IV: Explain your reasoning using evidence to support your hypothesis.What I think will happen? Support

What I think will happen? Support What did happen?

Mystery Strategy

Phase V: Reflect

• What made “The Tree of Birds a Good Story?”

• If you were to plan a story what would you want to remember about the writer’s techniques to make your story worth reading over and over again?

• What did you learn about how good readers use clues when reading to make predictions and test hypotheses?

Assessment

• Write your own realistic fiction using an ordinary event. Make the ordinary event into an extraordinary story.

• Remember to use the criteria we talked about for a good story.