Social Studies/World Languages

Curriculum Team WorkYear 1

1. Name2. What you teach3. Hope or Fear

Who makes up this Curriculum Team?

Goal for the Year Understand the meaning behind the Iowa Core Curriculum Benchmarks Align what we teach to the Iowa Core Curriculum Identify gaps and overlaps – fill/remove Write a Mission Statement, Course Purposes, Grade Level Benchmarks and Components Update the Curriculum Maps to reflect new GLB, Components and ICC Standards……

Goal/Outcomes for Today

Look at the big picture of our work – how the Iowa Core Curriculum fits in Discuss the process for our work to understand expectations and work for the year Define our current reality (what we teach) (Step 1)

Analyze the Iowa Core Curriculum for better understanding (Step 2)

Align our BM to the ICC (Step 3)

Questions we will answer

What is the Iowa Core Curriculum? How does the Iowa Core Curriculum fit into our current Standards and Benchmarks? What is the structure for curriculum going to look like? Will our Curriculum Maps still be used? What does the process look like for year 1, 2, and 3, and beyond?

Curriculum

Teaching And

Learning

Instruction Assessment

Year 1 – alignment to ICCWrite Grade Level

Benchmarks and Components for each grade/course

Alignment in Curriculum Maps

Year 3 – Aligning assessments with our curriculum. Writing common summative

assessmentsTraining on

Assessment OF and FOR LearningAlignment in

Curriculum Maps

Embedded in Year 2 and Year 3

Professional Development

planned around student and staff

needsCurriculum Mapping

Importance of CurriculumSecond biggest impact on learning is from what is taught. (Shanahan)

Explicit curriculum is important in ensuring that teaching occurs.Explicit curriculum prevents excessive overlaps across grade levels.Curriculum needs to be organized.An explicit curriculum makes differentiated instruction possible.

Curriculum Framework – ICC and OCSD

Big Ideas/GLB: Declarative statements of enduring understandings for all students at all grade/course levels. Grade Level Benchmarks (Essential Questions)

Concepts: Describe what students should know, key knowledge, as a result of instruction, specific to grade level. Components (Concepts and Skills)

Competencies: Describe what students should be able to do, key skills, as a result of this instruction, specific to grade level. Components (Skills)

Big Ideas – GLB or Essential Questions

Hierarchy of OCSD CurriculumThe Grade Level Benchmarks and Components drive instruction = they provide the roadmap to what the teacher needs to teach. Currently these are reflected in the Essential Question and the Content and the Skills.

But…. They all do not meet the requirements of “Big Ideas”

Bigger Ideas…..How do we help students “master” this content?What do we do if they don’t?

Steps in the Process Step 1: Define Current Reality Step 2: Analyze the Iowa Core Curriculum Step 3: Align current reality with ICC – eliminate any gaps and/or overlaps Step 4: Develop a Subject Mission Statement Step 5: Develop Grade Level/Course Purposes Step 6 and 7: Write Grade Level Benchmarks and Components Step 8: Develop way to validate or monitor implementation of curriculum

ICC and the “Big Ideas”

What does the Iowa Core Curriculum look like? Do we teach the big ideas described in the ICC? What’s our current reality? What if we don’t teach something in the Iowa Core Curriculum now? Do we have any gaps or overlaps in our curriculum right now after aligning to the ICC?

Current Reality – Step 1

On the “walls” list what you are currently teaching

Look at the essential question/content/skills and identify the “Big Ideas” your grade level or course teaches.

Understanding ICC – Step 2

What do the Benchmarks of the Iowa Core Curriculum mean – what do they expect our students to know and be able to do within a grade band?

http://www.corecurriculum.iowa.gov/Home.aspx Determine what big idea they are wanting our students to know – discuss and write what you believe the meaning to be

Aligning with the ICC – Step 3 Using the strands from the Iowa Core, determine which Benchmarks you are currently teaching and at what grade level… then place the name of the strand and the BM number next to the content on your “wall” If there is content in the ICC that is not on your “wall” you will need to add it to the appropriate grade level within that band. Do we have any overlaps within a band? With any other grade level/course? (appropriate?) Place an ** by those OCSD concepts we have that are considered “extra”

Mission Statement – Step 4Answer the questions:

Why do we have a Social Studies curriculum and what we want students to know and be able to do?

Why does this area exist in our curriculum?

Is:Student focused (Students will be able to…)MeasurableDescriptive about curricular area

Mission Statement

Students in the social studies program will develop an understanding and appreciation of the contributions that diverse civilizations and cultures have made throughout history and the impact that they have had on the development of democratic ideals. Students will study contemporary geographic, social, political, and economic issues that shaped the world that our students live in today.

Grade Level/Course Purpose – Step 5Answers the questions

What will students in the 4th grade know and be able to do?

What will be different from the emphasis in another grade? What will the focus be in this grade/course?

Is:Student focused (Students will be able to…)MeasurableDescriptive about grade level/course

Course Purpose

4th Grade ExampleStudents will examine the history, geographical features, and natural resources of the five regions of the U.S. to compare and contrast them and their interdependence

Writing Grade Level Benchmarks – Step 6

Must:Be student focused “The student will….Be measurableBegin with a verb which determines level of thinking

and indicate method of summative assessmentBe from Bloom’s top 4 levels of Bloom’s taxonomyBe indicative of the main skill/concept – the

essential question or purpose of the unit of study

Writing Components – Step 7

Must:Be student focused “The student will….Begin with a verb which determines level of thinking

and indicate method of formative assessmentBe measurableBe from Bloom’s any levels of Bloom’s taxonomy –

scaffolding of skills and concepts should take placeProvide direction for instruction toward success of

the Grade Level Benchmark

Big Ideas/GLB are…Reflect Higher Order Thinking - Rigorous

They require “uncoverage.” or “investigation” or “evaluation” These abstract concepts stimulate higher-level thinking. They are more than just facts. They come from the top 4 levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. They have a greater potential for engaging students. The verb provides clues as to the assessment

Student CenteredThey reflect what the student will know or be able to do as result, not what the teacher will do

TimelessThe concept transcends individual examples and/or activities. They have enduring value beyond the classroom. They will be relevant to any time teaching and do not reflect specifics – reflect skills such as problem solving

Measurable They can be measured to determine success.

Essential Concepts or SkillsThey are the heart of the discipline. They are worthy of the time it will take to study them at some depth

(www.movingbeyondthepage.com and Understanding by Design. Wiggins & McTighe. ASCD. 1998.)

Big Ideas/GLB Are Not…

Topics (Apples, Winter, Shakespeare, Maps, Fractions)Facts (2x4=8, red and yellow make orange, the capital of Illinois is Springfield)Skills (multiplying, painting, memorizing, rhyming)Assignments (research paper, collage, speech, book report)Textbook Units (Unit 1, The World At War, Rational Numbers)

Science ExampleApples

Better Choices:

Students will describe different species of plants and animals and different classify them by observable characteristics Students will demonstrate understanding that plants and animals have life cycles including being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying. Students will illustrate that organisms have basic needs. Students will consider a variety of ways humans change environments in ways that can be either beneficial or detrimental to themselves or other organisms.

(ICC/Life Science/K-2)

Literacy ExampleMain Idea

Better ChoicesStudents will use a variety of strategies to make sense of what

they read.Students will monitor their thinking as they read so that the

text makes senseStudents will use a variety of strategies to fix their reading

when meaning breaks down.

Social Studies Example

Vietnam

Better Choices

Students will explore various causes which led to the conflict in Vietnam and connect them to recent historical events. Students will hypothesize why war causes societal

divides and design a policy to assist. Students will evaluate the United States’

involvement in the Vietnam conflict.

Developing big ideas/GLB helps students“Understand rather than memorizeRetain ideas and facts longer because they are more

meaningfulMake connections between subjects and facets of a

single subjectRelate ideas to their own lives, andBuild networks of meaning for effectively dealing

with future knowledge.” (from How to Differentiate in Mixed-Ability

Classrooms, 2nd Edition; C.A. Tomlinson; ASCD; 2001)

Grade Level Benchmarks

Describes the “essential” things ALL students in this grade level or course MUST KNOW or BE ABLE TO DO in Social Studies/World Language

• GLB's are units of instruction that make connections between separate concepts or skills

• Year-long course = 7-12GLB'sTrimester = 3-6 GLB's

Grade Level Benchmarks• Each GLB requires high level of student thinking

as well as dynamic student involvement in their learning

• Written with verbs from top 4 level of Bloom's Taxonomy – application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation

• Each GLB written directs assessments–Formative and Summative

GLB's• Criteria:

–A positive statement about what the students will do

–Verbs describing specific, measurable actions

–Includes an end result – what the student will be able to do

–High levels of achievement – Bloom's top 4 levels of thinking

GLB's - Example• What is wrong with these examples?

– By the end of the lesson, students should be able to describe a social movement

– Introduce the vocabulary words– Students will understand how one country

controls another– Students will read the textbook chapter

about the constitution

Components• Statements of concepts or skills that describe

what students must know or do in order to perform the GLB.

• Can be written from all levels of Bloom's Taxonomy

• Content or skills scaffold as the GLB is taught• 3-8 per GLB

Components - Continued• Simple and Complex skills• Must have students being active, not passive

learners• Teachers become more facilitative instead of only

providing information that students memorize

Components - Continued• Which are simple and which are complex?

–Students will list the common characteristics of a social movement

–Students will conduct research to identify the most prevalent reasons countries go to war

–Students will classify the states according to the amount of natural resources they provide

–Students will explain in their own words the foreign policy of the United States during World War I

–Students will design a country using the principles of either a democracy, a monarchy, or communism

Grade Level Benchmarks• How do you go about identifying GLB's?

– What are the “essential” skills/topics?– What is the relevance of the topic/skills?– What might students “do” with the information they

learn?– What skills will be involved?– Are several topics related – if yes, group together– Those connected skills/topics make up a GLB

•Quiz time!

Grade Level Benchmark– Answer the following questions to make sure

it meets all GLB requirements – DOES IT....?

• Uses a positive statement and tells what the student will do• Uses a specific measurable action verb• Contains an end result• Requires high levels of thinking• Requires dynamic student involvement• Make connections – topics, skills and applications related• Directs the summative assessment

Grade Level Benchmarks– How do we write the GLB?

• Group topics/skills together – lay out your “wall”– Don't force groupings

• Visualize the grouping – what will students be able to do when they participate in the learning?

• What will students know or be able to do?• Check the criteria to be sure all are present• Are all the components – skills and topics – identified and

included in the GLB?• Remember to make all statements specific and

measurable• Components tend to scaffold content or skills

Monitor Implementation

• How will we know if the curriculum is leading students to mastering the content?– What do we do if our students have mastered the

content before instruction? –What will we do if they are not mastering the

content?– What supports are we providing to the struggling

learners in our classroom?– What will you do to make sure ALL students master

the content?

Updating Curriculum Maps