An Apple Core a Day …

1. An Apple Core a Day …

2. Instructional Program Alignment? Standards Curriculum Instruction Assessment

3. Aligning the Instructional Program Curriculum Instruction Standards Assessment

4. Teaching the CoreMajor Components • Core Content • Curriculum Design • Assessment • Differentiation

6. Why a Core Curriculum? • The core: • Sets high expectations for ALL students. • Provides foundation skills for future learning. • Helps to avoid repetition. • Identifies gaps. • Provides equal access for students throughout the state.

7. Why a Core Curriculum? • Action by the State Board of Education in January 1984 established a policy requiring the establishment of specific core curriculum standards. • These standards must be completed by ALL K-12 students as a requisite for high school graduation.

8. The Core Curriculum • Describes the minimum to be taught • Is not everything that may be taught • Contains content not teaching strategies • Is assessable through multiple measures • Infuses Life Skills • Infuses Character Education principles • Signals Integration • Is developmentally appropriate

9. How is the core developed? • All decisions for curriculum development are based on the student and are: • age appropriate • developmentally appropriate • address individual needs • accommodate community characteristics

10. How is the core developed? • Select Core Steering Committee • Develop Intended Learning Outcomes • Review Research • Prepare to Write Core Curriculum • Receive input stakeholders • Survey teachers • Select a writing team • Write first draft • Revise • Receive input • Pilot • Evaluate Pilot • Hold Public Hearings • Final Revision • Present to State Board for Approval • Implement the Core

11. Revised Core vs Old Core

12. Revised Core vs Old Core

13. Core Terminology • Standard • A broad statement of what students are expected to know and be able to do • Describes what a student can do after a broad unit of instruction • Describes something that is observable/operational (Students will…)

14. Core Terminology • Objective • A more focused and specific description of what students should know and be able to do at the completion of instruction • Describes what is taught • Describes students in ways that are observable and operational • Serves as the focus for end-of-level and end-of-course tests • Assessable with multiple measures

15. Core Terminology • Indicator • Observable and measurable description of student actions • Indicates that a student has mastered a particular skill or body of knowledge • Involves an active verb • Includes specific content, various levels of thinking skills, abstraction and complexity • Serves as an example of how an objective may be assessed • Is assessable with multiple measures

16. Science Core – 6th Grade Standard: Students will describe the characteristics and movement of heat, light, and sound. Objective: Describe the movement of heat. Indicator: Compare the movement of heat in various situations. Identify how heat moves from the sun to Earth. Compare and contrast efficient and inefficient uses of heat energy. Experiment with various insulating materials. Core Example

17. Teaching the Core • The core must be purposefully taught. • The focus of all instruction must be to ensure that students have enduring understanding of the core.

18. Teaching the CoreMajor Components • Core Content Knowledge • Curriculum Design • Assessment • Differentiation

20. Curriculum DesignAKA Learning Experiences • Where should a good curriculum design begin? • Textbooks? • Favorite lessons or activities? • Goals? • Standards? • Assessment of student skills? • Tradition? • Colleague pressure?

21. Curriculum Design Core Curriculum ? Formal and Informal Assessments

22. Curriculum Design • What should a good curriculum design do? • Help make teaching decisions • How much time should be spent? • Which concepts are more important? • Include valid assessment of learning • Tests? • Performance tasks? • Lead to effective learning activities

23. Understanding By Design A curriculum model which affects--- • Teacher planning • Teacher delivery • Student learning • Student assessment

24. What's to be learned? dispositions knowledge skills expectations & standards Taught How well? How learned? Learner Assessments Learning opportunities Understanding By Design

25. Backward Design Process Stage 1: Identify Desired Results Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

26. Stage 1: Identify Desired Results • Enduring Understanding • Essential Questions • Knowledge and Skills

27. Understanding “…the capacity to apply facts, concepts and skills in new situations in appropriate ways"Howard Gardner

28. Understanding Without pressing the point too much, we urge teachers to think of students as juries think of the accused: innocent (of understanding) until proven guilty by a preponderance of evidence that is more than circumstantial. Grant Wiggins

29. Establishing Curricular Priorities Worth beingfamiliar with Important toknow and do "Enduring"understanding

30. Enduring Understanding Filters • Fulfills state standards • Represents a "big idea" having enduring value beyond the classroom • Resides at the heart of the discipline • Requires student uncoverage • Engages students

31. "Unpack" Content Standards • What "big ideas" are embedded within the state core standards?

32. Backward Design Process Stage 1: Identify Desired Results Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

33. Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence • Performance tasks • Quizzes, tests, prompts • Unprompted evidence • Self-assessment

34. Teaching the CoreMajor Components • Core Content • Curriculum Design • Assessment • Differentiation

36. A significant part of the continuing crisis in public education can be attributed to the difference between what educators say a student can do, as documented with report cards and diplomas, and what students can actually do, as observed at work and in the home. -Dr. Douglas Reeves

37. Informal Assessment Informal checks for Understanding Observation/Dialogue Quiz/Test Academic prompt Performance task/project more complex more time consuming knowledge in context evidence over time

38. Student Achievement and Test Performance May be Improved by: • Teaching for understanding of core objectives • Teaching for attainment of basic and higher order skills • Using instructional methods appropriate to curriculum goal • Monitoring individual performance • Providing meaningful and timely feedback • Maintaining good class management • Maximizing academic learning time • Setting high expectations for ALL

39. Assessment Types Worth beingfamiliar with Traditional quizzes and tests Paper/pencil Selected response Constructed response Important toknow and do Performance tasks and projects Open-ended Complex Authentic "Enduring"understanding

40. Think Like an Assessor Not an Activity Designer • Design assessments before you design lessons and activities • Be clear about what evidence of learning you seek

41. Multiple Sources • Think "photo album" versus "snapshot“ • Sound assessment requires multiple sources of evidence, collected over time.

42. Teaching the CoreMajor Components • Core Content • Assessment • Curriculum Design • Differentiation

44. Backward Design Process Stage 1: Identify Desired Results Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

45. Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction • Sequence of learning experiences and instruction • Student engagement

46. Evidence shows that students can succeed with time, focus, multiple opportunities, personalized solutions, feedback, rigor, and CONSISTENTLY high expectations.

47. Learning Experiences WHERE W = Help students know where the unit is going. H = Hook the students and holdtheir interest. E = Equip students, explore the issues, and experience the ideas. R = Provide opportunities to rethinkand revise. E = Allow students to exhibittheir understanding and evaluatetheir work.

48. Classroom Ramifications • ALL teachers should understand the expectations of the core curriculum. • Staff development opportunities should be made available for ALL teachers to learn about standards, objectives and recommended teaching practices. • ALL activities inside or outside the regular classroom should be focused on core objectives.

49. Classroom Ramifications • Teaching strategies should be designed to meet individual learning needs. Adaptations might include: • Changing classroom environment • Changing teaching style • Changing instructional materials • Changing level of complexity of content.

50. Differentiation • How can teachers be certain that all students reach the learning goal or attain the enduring understanding?