Prioritizing the Curriculum and Vertical Planning

1. Prioritizingthe Curriculum and Vertical Planning

2. Any document or plan that defines: • the work of teachers • the contentto be learned by the students • the methods to be used in the process. What is it like? A path or course to run in small steps. What is the Purpose?To focus and connectthe work of teachers in their classroom to the standards, assessments, and classroompractices in order to raise studentachievement. Curriculum What isn’t it? Curriculum is NOTthe textbook or program you purchased from a publisher. Curriculum can no longer be what we’ve been doing for the past 15 years unless it is demonstrated to be in line with the standards, assessments and student learning styles!

3. Why ‘Prioritize’ the Curriculum? • Every state’s curriculum hasfar too manystandardsto be learned in the time available. • The prioritizing curriculum process provides the means to deal with this abundance of standards and limited time.

4. Why Prioritize the Curriculum? • Prioritizing the curriculum does not eliminate the curriculum, but rather‘codes the curriculum’. • All teachers that teach a common gradenow will emphasize the same learning and understanding.

5. Why Vertical Planning? • Identifies what needs to be learned across individual grade levels as well as a vertical sequencefrom grade level to grade level. • Prevents redundancies in instruction. • Guards against gaps in student learning.

6. Prioritizing the Curriculum • Not all content is equal! • Standards contain a range of performance objectives and standard statements. • Some performance objectivesare moreimportantthan others in helping students succeed!

7. How do we do it? STEP 1 • Prioritize the Standards into Essential, Important and Compact categories. Essential = 4-6 questions in the CST (Requires 70% of the Instructional Time) Important = 4-6 questions in the CST (Requires 25% of the Instructional Time) Compact ≤ 1 question in the CST (Requires 5% of the Instructional Time)

8. Prioritizing the Standards E essential I important I important I E essential

9. STEP 2: Vertical Planning • Each teacher shares with team the prioritized standards for his/her grade level. • Look for redundancies and gaps between grade level. • Discuss what students need know, understand, and be able to doupon entering each grade level.

10. STEP 3: Vertical Mapping • Cluster those Standards in the three categories (Essential, Important, and Compact). • Identify the CONCEPTS/SKILLS that need to be mastered by the end of each grade level. • For EVERY standard in EACH grade level, list the vocabulary, Approaches to Learning (ATL), and resources needed to enhance learning.

11. SCIENCE 7 STANDARD AND 2 BRIEF DESCRIPTION WHITE BOARDS TXBK P.28 SAMPLE EXIT SKILL QUESTION/ PROBLEM SAMPLE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT/ CLASSROOM ROUTINE/ NOTETAKING/ INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES TERM/S

12. Step 4: THE VERTICAL MAP • Each group posts their maps. • Have a gallery walk to view all the different teams’ map. • Based on all the teams’ outputs, create a final map for next school year. GRADE 6 GRADE 7 GRADE 8

13. Curriculum Maps: Why are they so important? Use as communication device Conceptualizea unit Enable consistent curriculum pacing and planning Highlight important vocabulary “Shows"students’ knowledge gained over time.

14. Step 5: Curriculum Map • Estimate how much time should be spent on each topic and arrange them sequentially on your roadmap. • The goal of the roadmap is to assure that all the content is taught before it is tested!!!! • Revisions are expected to be made to the content maps and to the course maps as ALL teachers experience them.

15. Where do we go from here?