Standard 9 – Evaluate and use effective curriculum design
Module 1- I can assess a current professional curriculum, noting its strengths and weaknesses, and predict how I might need to adapt that curriculum for my students.
WHY? Teachers are given adopted curriculum when they are hired that they are expected to teach. No curriculum is perfect. Some are actually terrible. It is important to teach your students and not the curriculum. Don’t lock step each day through the curriculum without thought and attempts to modify for student need.
Module 2-I know the standards my students are supposed to meet and will aim my lessons to meet those standards.
WHY? The reality of high stakes testing is here. Every teacher wants their students to feel like they are coming in on the same playing field as every one else. If you don’t know where you are supposed to go, you will never get there.
Module 3-I can create and write daily learning targets that help my students know exactly what they will be learning in my class.
WHY? Research shows that posting a clear learning target and repeating that target several times during a lesson helps 30% more students obtain that learning target.
Many administrators look for the learning target in their walk-throughs and also ask students what the learning target is during classroom drop-ins.
Module 4-I can write and implement lessons where students are actively engaged in the learning.
WHY? Teachers who actively engage students in the learning process have way less behavior problems, and students who are happier and better meet their learning goals. The days of Sage on the Stage are over.
Module 5-I can think thoroughly through a daily lesson, differentiating for my learners, and at the end of my lessons I know where each student is in meeting the daily learning target.
WHY? Students are never one size fits all. Teachers need to meet students and meet their learning needs. Teachers, for their evaluations, will need to turn into their administrators lesson plans that show their attempts to meet individual student need. Teachers should also plan the next day’s lesson on where there students were the day before. Knowing how to assess quickly for this information is imperative.
Module 6-I can reflect on my lessons and modify them based on suggestions I am given from others, and personal reflection and growth.
WHY? Good teachers collaborate, seek feedback, and are always growing in their practice.
Before starting on this course I was creating a curriculum for our school to fit the needs of our students. I had almost no experience writing curriculum and only experience writing lesson plans. I was struggling to ensure that the curriculum was solid and comprehensible. After reading Rigorous Curriculum Design by Larry Ainsworth (2010), I knew I was going to be able to get on the right track with this project.
I am now able to align my teaching to some standards, which wasn’t the easiest decision to make. I had to search and find early childhood education (ECE) benchmarks and then align these with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2014) for English language use in Kindergarten to ensure that my students will be able to meet these targets. The ECE benchmarks I used came from the Department of Early Learning (DEL, 2012) and these I found very useful, and am familiar with them as an ECE educator. I know how to align the standards and how I can effectively use the CCSS to help my students be Kindergarten ready in the next year.
While I was writing my unit plan I did have some issues in the teaching methods I was using. Though I had researched the methods and knew that they were sound, they weren’t translating into an engaging and rigorous curriculum. It took a few revisions and some looking at the Ainsworth (2010) text to help me figure out how I could keep the original style but make the lessons more engaging and help the children work at higher levels.
The writing of this unit has helped me to understand how to plan out a unit and tie my entire curriculum back to the standards and big ideas that will help my students be prepared for success. It is not just enough for us to use rigorous curriculum but we must also “broaden our view of what we want out curricula to be and do” (Ainsworth, 2010). We have to use the most current standards and “new components” (Ainsworth, 2010) to reach all of our students and help them achieve the high standards that are being expected of from our children with the CCSS. As I continue to write my curriculum I have a foundation to stand upon that lets me know what I’m doing and go about it in a thoughtful and productive manner.
Having participated in this course has given me the foundation I need to help others and myself create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that fits the needs of the school and the children in that school. I hope to finish the unit and create more units as I go forward.
Ainsworth, L. (2010). Rigorous curriculum design: How to create curricular units of study that align standards, instruction, and assessment. Englewood, CO: Lead Learn Press.
Council of Chief State School Officers. (2014). English language proficiency standards. Retrieved from http://www.k12.wa.us/MigrantBilingual/pubdocs/ELP/WA-ELP-Standards-K12.pdf#K-Standards
Department of Early Learning. (2012). Washington state early learning and development guidelines birth through 3rd grade. Retrieved from http://www.del.wa.gov/publications/development/docs/guidelines.pdf
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