Rigorous Curriculum Design: How to Create Curricular Units of Study That Align Standards, Instruction, and Assessment - Softcover

Ainsworth, Larry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1935588052 ISBN 13: 9781935588054

Verlag: Lead + Learn Pr, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

The need for a cohesive and comprehensive curriculum that intentionally connects standards, instruction, and assessment has never been more pressing. For educators to meet the challenging learning needs of students they must have a clear road map to follow throughout the school year. Rigorous Curriculum Design presents a carefully sequenced, hands-on model that curriculum designers and educators in every school system can follow to create a progression of units of study that keeps all areas tightly focused and connected.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Larry Ainsworth is the Executive Director of Professional Development at The Leadership and Learning Center in Englewood, Colorado. He travels nationally and internationally to assist school systems in implementing best practices related to standards, assessment, and accountability across all grades and content areas. He is the author or coauthor of ten published books, including Rigorous Curriculum Design, “Unwrapping” the Standards, Power Standards, Common Formative Assessments, Student Generated Rubrics, and Five Easy Steps to a Balanced Math Program, including three 2006 editions, one each for the primary, upper elementary, and secondary grade spans. His chapter “Common Formative Assessments: The Centerpiece of an Integrated Standards-Based Assessment System” appears in the 2007 assessment anthology Ahead of the Curve: The Power of Assessment to Transform Teaching and Learning, edited by Douglas B. Reeves.

Larry regularly works on site in school systems to assist leaders and educators in understanding and implementing standards-based practices: prioritizing and “unwrapping” the standards, developing common formative assessments, designing authentic performance tasks, and creating rigorous curricular units of study in all content areas, pre-kindergarten through grade 12.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Applicable to every grade, course, and content area, you will learn:

What rigorous curriculum is and how to create, sequence, and pace such a curriculum

Why seeing the "big picture" connections first is essential to beginning curriculum design

How to design a grade- or course-specific curricular unit of study, from start to finish

How to use formative assessments and data analysis to guide instruction before, during, and after each unit

How leaders can organize, implement, and sustain this model throughout the school and/or school system

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Excert Content: CHAPTER 1
What Is Rigorous Curriculum Design?

Before defining curriculum design in terms of rigor, let’s first start with a fundamental definition of the general term, curriculum. There are varying definitions, all useful for providing an important foundational understanding of the term. Among them are the following:

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, the origin of the word
curriculum is from the Latin curricle, meaning “course, racing chariot,” and currere, “to run.” Loosely interpreted, a curriculum is a course to be run.

Peter Oliva (2005) defines curriculum as:

A number of plans, in written form and of varying scope, that
delineate the desired learning experiences. The curriculum,
therefore, may be a unit, a course, a sequence of courses, the school’s
entire program of studies . . . (p. 7).

W. James Popham offers two related explanations of curriculum:

By curriculum, I mean the outcomes that educators hope to achieve
with their students. The three most common kinds of outcomes
sought are students’ acquisition of cognitive skills, bodies of
knowledge, and their affect (such as particular attitudes, interests, or
values) (2003b, pp. 16–17).

In this time-honored definition, a curriculum represents
educational ends. Educators hope, of course, that such ends will be
attained as a consequence of instructional activities which serve as
the means of promoting the curricular ends (2004, p. 30).

Douglas B. Reeves (2001) writes:

An effective standards-based curriculum is planned “with the end in
mind.” The selection of a standards-based curriculum implies focus,
discernment, and the clear exclusion of many things that are now in
textbooks, lesson plans, and curricula (p. 13).

Apart from these clear and compatible definitions of the word, many broad
synonyms for curriculum, often used interchangeably, include: standards, lesson plans, textbooks, scope and sequence, learning activities, and prescribed courses of study provided by the state, province, district, school division, or professional content area organizations. The result is a rather nebulous understanding of the term whenever educators use it in dialogues and discussions.

For purposes of this book, I am defining curriculum as the high-quality delivery system for ensuring that all students achieve the desired end—the attainment of their designated grade- or course-specific standards. My vision for designing such a curriculum is founded upon the intentional alignment between standards, instruction, and assessment.

The Current Need to Update and Redesign Curricula

School systems have been working hard over the past several years to get the means for achieving this desired end firmly in place and accepted within their professional culture. These “means” include, but are not limited to, the effective use of standards, differentiated instructional practices, formative assessments, and corresponding data analysis.

Today, educators and leaders are well aware of the need to update and redesign their existing curricula—particularly in the U.S., where forty-three states and the District of Columbia have adopted the rigorous Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics. Equally rigorous curricula aligned to these new standards must be created to help educators prepare their students for the national assessments that will be first administered in 2014–15. In addition, stronger links are needed between curricula and the many professional best practices being implemented. Not only have curricula not kept pace with the updated versions of state or provincial standards and assessments, often the established curricula are
reflective of only the more traditional components:

• A general listing of content and performance standards (student learning
outcomes or objectives) for each content area
• A yearlong scope and sequence of what to teach and in what order
• A pacing calendar of when to teach it and how long to take in doing so
• A list of related learning activities
• A suggestion of assessments to use
• A list of required or recommended materials and resources

All of these traditional components are, of course, necessary to retain, but they need to be further clarified. In addition, other important components should be added. We must broaden our view of what we want our curricula to be and do.

Curricular architects must acknowledge that the function of a rigorous cur -
riculum is to raise the level of teaching so that students are prepared for the 21st century with skills that “drive knowledge economies: innovation, creativity, teamwork, problem solving, flexibility, adaptability, and a commitment to continuous learning” (Hargreaves and Shirley, 2009).

Think about the following blend of both traditional and new components for an updated and redesigned comprehensive curriculum:

• Specific learning outcomes students are to achieve from pre-kindergarten
through grade 12 in all content areas
• Vertical representation of those learning outcomes (grade-to-grade, course-to-
course) in curricular frameworks
• Units of study—topical (literary devices, character traits, narrative writing);
skills-based (making text-to-text connections, simplifying fractions); thematic
(patterns, ecology, composition and creativity, personal rights)
• Emphasis on standards-based skills and content knowledge
• Academic vocabulary specific to each discipline and pertinent to each unit of
study
• Explicit linkages to state or provincial assessments and to college and career
readiness
• 21st-century learning skills
• Higher-level thinking skills
• Interdisciplinary connections
• Authentic, student-centered performance tasks that engage learners in
applying concepts and skills to the real world
• Ongoing assessments to gauge...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Lead + Learn Pr
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1935588052
• ISBN 13: 9781935588054
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 338
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN; https://www.hmhco.com/shop; ; 125 HIGH STREET; BOSTON; MA; 2110; USA
• Verantwortliche Person: eVatmaster Consulting GmbH; 497000000000; contact@evatmaster.com; ; Bettinastr. 30,60325; Frankfurt am Main; 60325; Deutschland