Prioritizing and Mapping the Curriculum with the Learning-Focused Toolbox

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Prioritizing and Mappingthe Curriculum with
theLearning-Focused Toolbox

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• A Process for Developing Guaranteed and Viable
  Curriculum

Created by LEARNING-FOCUSED SOLUTIONS
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Essential Questions

• What process was used to create the curriculum
  documents?
• What do the documents look like?
• Where are they now?
• Where do we go from here?

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• What is it?

What is it like? A path or course to run in small
steps.

• Any document or plan that defines
• the work of teachers
• the content to be learned by the students
• the methods to be used in the process.

• What is the Purpose?To focus and connect the
  work of classroom teachers in school to the
  standards, assessments and classroom practices in
  order to raise student achievement.

Curriculum
What isnt it? Curriculum is NOT the textbook or
program you purchased from a publisher.
Curriculum can no longer be what youve been
doing for the past 15 years unless it is
demonstrated to be in line with the standards and
assessments!
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Why Prioritize the Curriculum?

• Every states curriculum has far too many
  standards to be learned in the time available.
• In the past, teachers have had to independently
  prioritize their curriculum - which has provided
  an uneven taught curriculum that results in
  inconsistent achievement.

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Why Prioritize the Curriculum?

• The prioritizing curriculum process provides the
  means to deal with this abundance of standards
  and limited time.
• Prioritizing the curriculum does not eliminate
  curriculum, but rather codes the curriculum.
• All teachers that teach a common grade or course,
  now will emphasize the same learning and
  understanding rather than emphasizing coverage!

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Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
the single most important initiative a school or
district can engage in to raise student
achievement..

• As referenced by Bob Marzano in his book
• What Works In Schools

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Guaranteed Curriculum

• EVERY STUDENT is provided the opportunity to
  learn a core curriculum which provides them with
  the probability of success in school.

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Viable Curriculum

• Schools make sure that the necessary time is
  available and protected so students will be able
  to learn the guaranteed curriculum.

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Quality Curriculum

• Provides teachers with a guide for what students
  need to learn in order to be successful.
• Prevents redundancies in instruction.
• Guards against gaps in student learning.

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Quality Curriculum

• Provides a sequence of what needs to be learned
  across individual grade levels or courses as well
  as a vertical sequence from grade level to grade
  level or from course to course.
• Provides teachers with a correlation to the
  standards and assessments in an attempt to assure
  students are as well prepared as possible.

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Exemplary Practices in High Achievement,High
AccountabilityDistricts andSchools
Organization -- Multiple Options
for Acceleration -- Vertical AND Grade Level
Teams -- Large Blocks of Time -- Literacy Math
Blocks
Assessment -- Focus
Assessment for Learning -- Continuous Formative
Assessment -- Benchmark Assessments That Direct
Instruction -- Continuous Use of Rubrics
Instruction -- K- 12
Reading Comprehension -- K- 12 Writing in
Content -- Advance Organizers, Scaffolding,
Preview -- Differentiated Cognitive Strategies --
Schools With Instructional Coaches
Planning -- Priority, Time
Allocated -- Data Results Driven -- Team-Based
Individual Planning -- Linked to Staff
Development
Curriculum -- Prioritized
Curriculum -- K-12 Benchmarks/Maps -- Curriculum
Maps With Vocabulary Focus
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Best Curriculum

• The highest quality curriculum is developed by
  utilizing a wide range of resources during the
  development and subsequent monitoring of the
  curriculum.
• Standards
• Benchmarks
• Performance Objectives/Standard Statements
• Assessments
• Teacher experience

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Prioritizing

• Not all content is equal!
• Standards contain a range of performance
  objectives and standard statements.
• Some performance objectives are more important
  than others in helping students succeed!

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How do we do it? STEP 1

• Teachers prioritized the PA Academic Standards
  into Essential, Important and Compact categories.
• Essential 50 of the Content
  Requires 70 of the Instructional Time
• Important 30 of the Content
• Requires 25 of the Instructional Time
• Compact 20 of the Content
• Requires 5 of the Instructional Time

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Differences

• Essential refers to the Big Ideas or concepts
  that you want your students to understand at a
  greater depth.
• Important refers to the key knowledge and skills
  that lead to student understanding of the
  essential knowledge.
• Compact refers to the less important stuff that
  students can usually get by without or will be
  acquired as a result of other instruction.

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Prioritizing in Toolbox
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Vertical Teaming

• After grade level teams and course teams
  prioritized their Standards, they met in vertical
  teams.
• Here they reviewed and discussed their rationale
  for how they prioritized each Standard.
• They looked for redundancies and gaps before
  returning to their teams to make revisions.

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STEP 2

• They clustered those Standards in the three
  categories into TOPICS that will be used to guide
  instruction.
• Then they identified the CONCEPTS that are
  contained in each topic.
• For every topic, they created a Curriculum Map
  including all the necessary elements.

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Mapping in Toolbox
Creating Curriculum Map in Toolbox
Printed or published version of the Curriculum
Map
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Topic Course
Key Learning (Enduring Understanding)
Instructional Tools
Assessment(s)
Unit Essential Question(s)
Concept
Concept
Concept
Lesson Essential Questions (LEQs)
Lesson Essential Questions (LEQs)
Lesson Essential Questions (LEQs)
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
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Curriculum Map Components
KEY LEARNING A full statement of what is
essential for students to know and do,
representing significant concepts key to
understanding the content.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S) Written as a thought
provoking and engaging question about the content
that provides a view of the Big Picture and
acts as the Mental Velcro for students to make
connections.
Concepts Nouns in the Performance Objectives
of each states standards.
Concepts The heart of the units content.
Concepts Big Ideas that connect the skills or
knowledge to the overarching topic.
Lesson Essential Questions Concept specific but
link to and support unit EQ(s).
Lesson Essential Questions Frame the study of
the topic and guide the learning. HOTS
Lesson Essential Questions Used to activate
summarize key ideas.
Vocabulary Multiple meaning words words that
are easily misunderstood.
Vocabulary Words related to Big Idea concepts
and skills being taught.
Vocabulary Words that are critical and essential
to understanding the content being taught.
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Topic First Grade Writing
Instructional Tools Story Maps
Writing Process
Writers Workshop Animated Literacy
Word Splash Organized Word
Walls D-Nelian Handwriting
Key Learning Spoken words, illustrations print
convey meaning.
Unit Essential Question How can I be a good
writer?
Concepts
Letters Words
Directionality
Capitalization/Punctuation
LEQ(s) (1) How do I
form letters correctly?
(2) How do I make words that say what I mean?
LEQ(s) (1) Where do
I start writing? (2)
Where do I go when I reach the end of the line?

• LEQ
• What does a sentence look like? How would I
  know one if I saw one?

Vocabulary middle left around
right bottom top
down
Vocabulary return sweep left
top right bottom
Vocabulary question period
space capital letter sentence
lower/upper case letters exclamation mark
question mark
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Curriculum Map
Instructional Tools Egg Osmosis Kit DNA
magnetic board Cookie Cell Model Rubric
Topic Cells Their Environment (Cell-e-brating
life on a microscopic level.)
Key Learning All living organisms are made up of
cells with specialized parts and functions. Each
type of cell has a characteristic structure.
Unit Essential Question If you were a cell,
would you have more or less mitochrondria to
party?
Cell Anatomy Physiology
The Cell Its DNA
The Cells Environment
LEQ(s) (1) Why would you call a nucleus the
central center of a cell? (2) How is your DNA
similar to the DNA of bacteria?
LEQ(s) (1) How is a fence and a cell membrane
similar? (2) What happens when a cell changes
environment?
LEQ(s) (1) How are a cells parts related to
function? (2) What causes varieties in cells?
Key Vocabulary ribosomes chromatin
centrioles Golgi Bodies endoplasmic
reticulum lysosome
Key Vocabulary DNA RNA nucleotides
nitrogen bases complementary bases Double helix
Key Vocabulary osmosis solutions
diffusion hypotonic plasmolysis
hypertonic permeable isotonic
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Topic Persuasive Writing (10th Grade American
Literature)
Instructional Tools Essay Rubric
Persuasive Writing Graphic Organizer
Literature Suggestions
Equiano, Paine, P. Henry, Jefferson, popular
media political documents
Key Learning Persuasive writers use reason,
emotion credibility to influence our thinking
motivate readers to action.
Unit Essential Question How do persuasive
writing techniques influence motivate a
reaction from readers?
Concepts
Logic Reason
Emotional Appeal
Clarity
LEQ (1) What are the differences between fact
and perception?
LEQ(s) (1) How do
the words a writer chooses influence his
audience? (2) How does popular belief persuade a
majority?

• LEQ
• How do I connect the individual parts of an essay
  in order to unify it?

Vocabulary refute opposition deduction
qualify induction logos
Vocabulary structure organization
emphasis pace coherence
transitions unity rhetorical question

Vocabulary diction tone pathos
attitude spin rhetorical purpose

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Sample Curriculum Map 3rd Grade Math
Multiplication
Instructional Tools Graph Paper Multiplication
Charts Calculator Real Life Problems (finding
area) Sequence Chart of Steps
Key Learning Multiplication is a more
efficient way of adding.
Essential Question How do we use multiplication?
Real-Life Application
Meaning
Process
LEQ(s) 1. How can arrays help you
understand multiplication? 2. How is
multiplication repeated addition? 3. How can
you use skip counting to find a product?
LEQ(s) 1. How do you multiply factors to
get a product? 2. What patterns can help you
remember the multiplication facts? 3. How
can we find errors in multiplying?
LEQ(s) 1. Where is multiplication used
in real-life?
Vocabulary large lots budgeting finding
area shopping Industry
Vocabulary arrays repeated product digit value
Vocabulary factors product reversing lattice
method patterns errors
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8th Grade Social Studies The Lewis and Clark
Expedition
Instructional Tools
Key Learning(s) Exploration is motivated by
political, economic, scientific, social
factors. Individuals and their values impact
history. Patterns in one historical event can be
found in other historical events.

• Students will be able to
• Primary Sources
• Time Line
• Persuasive Writing Graphic
• Persuasive Writing Rubric
• Word Splash

Unit Essential Question(s) The Lewis and Clark
Expedition Whats the big deal?
The Corps ofDiscovery
Significance
Motivation
Lesson Essential Questions
Lesson Essential Questions
Lesson Essential Questions
What were the contributions of the
expedition? How can we find patternsin
historical events? How is the Lewis and
ClarkExpedition like other events in history?
Why did you send them, Thomas Jefferson? How
can you support Jeffersonsdecision?
Who were they andwhy were they chosen?

• corps
• adventurous
• leadership
• teamwork
• perseverance

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Curriculum Maps Why are they so important?
Use as communication device
Conceptualize a unit
Enable consistent curriculum pacing and planning
Highlight important vocabulary
Enable students to "see" the knowledge gained
over time and their learning
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Visual representation
Vocabulary term Arms race

Definition A competition between countries for
the most and most powerful weapons
Personal association Swans and peacocks

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Step 3 Course Map

• Teachers estimated how much time should be spent
  on each topic and arranged them sequentially on a
  course map.
• The goal of the course map 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.

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Pacing and Prioritizing Time
Clicking on the Topic in the timeline opens the
Curriculum Map for the unit.
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Step 4 A Work In Progress

• Revise the priorities and edit the Curriculum
  Maps as needed based on current assessment data
  and experience.

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Benefits for Teachers

• The instructional WHAT has been shared, making
  it quick and easy to develop plans
• Many instructional factors have been decided and
  developed for teachers, making their planning
  time much more efficient
• Lessons are directly connected to the
  school/district prioritized curriculum
• Planning and sharing with peers is easier and
  more efficient

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Benefits for Students

• Mobility has much less impact on achievement
• Instruction is directly connected to what is
  tested
• Consistency of strategies and formats raises
  their performance

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How do you use your Curriculum Maps?

• The Curriculum Maps are not meant to create
  more work for teachers but to act as guides as
  they plan instruction!
• In grade level/course teams, preview the maps and
  discuss what content you are already addressing
  in your instructional program.
• At this point, you can assess what needs to be
  added or deleted from your current program to
  assure student success

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What to do with it?

1. Using Toolbox, your Curriculum can be
   automatically published to your district/school
   Curriculum website

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School/District Use

• Complete the rest of the unit decisions and
  develop the lessons in Toolbox
• Saves teacher planning time
• More school/district input into instruction
• Allows for consistency of assessments and
  learning strategies
• Easily shared and distributed to teachers

Decision 1
Decision 2
Decision 4
Decision 5
Decision 6
Decision 3 part of Decision 2 in Toolbox
Decision 8
Decision 9
Decision 10
Decision 11
Decision 7
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Where do we go from here?

• July 11-12, 13-14, 18-19, 20-21, 2006
• First draft Prioritization and mapping
• Document published but not shared
  (http//publish.learningfocused.com/304886)
• September 12
• First review, revisions by volunteer members of
  Review Committee
• Document shared within Toolbox
• Summer 2007
• Second review, revisions by Review Committee

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Where do you go from here?

• Questions to ask at district level
• Who do you give access key code to?
• Who gets Read Only?
• Who gets Edit rights?
• How does the sequencing of the units on the
  Timeline correlate to the text book series used
  in the district?
• Who will introduce the maps to the staff? When?
• How will exemplary lessons/units be attached to
  the map?
• Who will create lessons/units?
• Who will approve and save lessons/units?
• How will staff be informed of new lessons/units?