Intro to Curriculum Design
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The document provides guidance on effective curriculum design. It defines key terms like generative topic, essential question, and assessment. It recommends designing curriculum backwards, starting with identifying the overall point and desired understandings, then determining acceptable evidence and assessments, and finally planning learning experiences and instructional tasks. It discusses assessing student learning and understanding rather than making evaluations. It also presents examples of essential questions and provides models for curriculum planning and unit design.
Intro to Curriculum Design
- 1. CURRICULUM DESIGN: What do you want your students to learn this year? And how are you going to know if they do? Peter Gow
- 2. Goals for this session Describe effective curriculum Communicate key definitions Assessment Generative topic Essential Question Backwards planning Review stages of unit design Walk through a design procedure
- 3. EFFECTIVE CURRICULUM Has a point that is clear to student and teacher. Has built-in components that support student improvement. Is safe, fair, and credible. Presents a clearly charted course from point to point toward a clear set of goals. Offers opportunities to rehearse and improve the meaningful performance.
- 4. What’s in a curriculum? A text or source of information A set of previously mastered skills Previously mastered knowledge A set of tasks to be completed to promote mastery of skills and knowledge A set of performance tasks to assess mastery and understanding A set of standards and criteria against which performance will be evaluated
- 5. Curriculum by the chunk: The class—piece by piece The homework assignment Small-scale assessments Big assessments But design the work for each unit or topic or chapter as a part of a whole—and do it backwards.
- 6. WAIT! What is an “assessment”? ASSESSMENT is the process of “ measuring” and/or describing student learning and understanding . An assessment is a task that asks a student to demonstrate the quantity and depth of what they have learned. Assessment in the technical sense refers to the work being done. (NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH EVALUATION: Evaluation is the process of judging the quality of the work—this is the part that requires making critical judgments about student work.) The test is the assessment; your score on the test is the evaluation.
- 7. THE DAILY LESSON PLAN Have a goal Have a plan Activities Questions/prompts/challenges Have an idea of what success will look like De-brief yourself--what worked? what didn’t?
- 8. STAGES OF UNIT DESIGN, BACKWARDS (Use “A First Draft of a Unit” here)
- 9. 1. What’s the point IDENTIFY THE POINT of the unit at the topical and conceptual levels: What is the generative topic or what are the understandings (in other words, the central, interesting issues) for this unit? What are the essential questions (the big rhetorical ones that raise the subject matter to the broadest conceptual level)? Then, state your own desired results for the unit (a.k.a. understanding goals ). Roll your own, or look at content standards (NCTM, AAAS, Parker School, etc.)
- 10. HOLD IT! What’s a . . .? GENERATIVE TOPIC: This is the big idea behind the learning: perimeter, the causes of the Civil War, the future tense, solubility ESSENTIAL QUESTION: This is a broad, open-ended question posed for the purpose of inspiring deeper thought and inquiry. Use an EQ to set up the intellectual problem posed by each unit, topic, or chapter ->
- 11. EQs—some examples What is the relationship between humans and their natural environment? Why are innocent people sometimes blamed for society’s suffering? What is the relationship between 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional space? Why does matter behave differently in different states? How do we use language to express time? How can numbers be used to represent human behavior?
- 12. 2. Think like an assessor DETERMINE ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE . What will understanding look like? What will demonstrate to me that my students have achieved the understanding goals I have set? This is what you must set up your assessments to ask for. Problem sets, tests, quizzes, projects, and journals are all okay here, as long as they are keyed to giving students the chance to demonstrate understandings.
- 13. (How to think like an assessor) ASK YOURSELF: What evidence would be sufficient and revealing evidence of understanding? What performance tasks must anchor the unit and focus the instructional work? How will I be able to distinguish between those who really understand and those who don’t (although they may seem to)? Against what criteria will I distinguish the work? What misunderstandings are likely? How will I check for those?
- 14. 3. Hit the plan book PLAN LEARNING EXPERIENCES and instruction. A few catch phrases might help here: Active classroom learning involving student-centered , problem- or project-based work that allows students to tap multiple intelligences might be best. Now that you have your goals and assessments in mind, you can think about the groovy tasks . Now you can identify the knowledge and skills that are really essential to understanding.
- 15. TASKS AND ASKS TASKS: Use the “SIX FACETS” template to help you design the TASKS that you will give students—the work they must do to achieve understanding. ASKS: Use the “SIX FACETS” and “TEACHING WITH BLOOM” sheets to set up the questions that lead to the tasks. What words will you use to direct student thinking in particular ways? (Compare, describe, develop, analyze, list . . .)
- 16. LET’S LOOK AT ANOTHER PLANNING MODEL (Use “Unit Design, Backwards” here)
- 17. QUESTIONS??