AAA Curriculum Design and Delivery:

IES Conference Washington, DC

June 2006

Deb SimmonsTexas A&M University

Scott BakerUniversity of Oregon

Mike CoyneUniversity of Connecticut

Developing Interventions that Align, Advance, and Assimilate into the Content and Contexts of Schools

The path from design & delivery to evidence may involve a number of

detours and redirects.

Session Questions

• What are the critical curriculum design & delivery features for intervention research?

• How do these differ across content, grade/age, teacher characteristics, administrative units, etc.?

What lessons have we learned from IES development & efficacy projects?

Teacher Quality: Reading and Writing

Mathematics& Reading

Vocabulary & Early Reading

Goal 2 Development Grants are about developing and testing ideas.

• Goal Two – develop programs, practices, and policies that are theoretically and empirically based and obtain preliminary (pilot) data on the relation (association) between implementation of the program, practice, or policy and the intended education outcomes.

www.ies.ed.gov

There are some fundamental design & delivery dimensions to consider along the

theory > curriculum > implementation > evidence road.

Big Idea: Curriculum development and design must be situated in the

context and content of classrooms.

This doesn’t mean that we must capitulate to the status quo, rather we must help establish the efficacy of new

ways of thinking & doing.

Curriculum Design Principles

• Big Ideas• Strategic Integration• Conspicuous Strategies• Primed Background Knowledge• Judicious Review • Mediated Scaffolding

(Kame’enui, Carnine, Dixon, Simmons & Coyne, 2002)

What other curriculum dimensions must be considered in development & efficacy grants?

• Curriculum Content: What is taught ---the official curriculum or planned curriculum.

• Curriculum Context: The conditions---when & where curriculum is implemented.

======================================• Curriculum Design: Selection, schedule, and

organization of information and content.• Curriculum Delivery: Process & professional

development used to implement the curriculum.

Curriculum design and delivery must covary with content and context.

Content Context Reading Age/Grade

Social Studies Teacher/schools

Math District Policies Design

What Sequence

Organization

• Accountability & Relevance • Alignment with naturally occurring units

Comprehensive or specific? • Supplement or supplant current materials

Integration of strategies with existing materials • Schedule of components

• Optimal lesson length for student age

• Involvement of teachers in the development of materials/intervention.

Delivery

Who How

When Where

• Will curriculum content supplement or supplant instruction

• Who will deliver and special characteristics

• Additional resources required • Technology required • Time required in relation to time

available • When will PD occur

Time: Supplement or Supplant Alignment with naturally social studies instructional periods (30 minutes per day) Start date of intervention Length of intervention (End before TAKS testing) Personnel: Who will Deliver Grouping Structure

Enhancing the Quality of Expository Text Instruction & Comprehension through Content and Case-Situated Professional Development: Year 01 Design Experiment

Texas A&M University & University of Texas - Austin

IES Goal 2 Development Grant Teacher Quality/Reading Writing

Texas A&M & University of Texas Personnel

Deborah Simmons – PISharon Vaughn & Bill Rupley - Co-PIsAngie Hairrell & Meaghan Edmonds – Project CoordinatorsVic Willson – StatisticianRon Zellner – Technology SpecialistKristi Cleere – Project SpecialistGlenda Bryns, Brandi Kocian, Kelly Lawrence – Graduate Assistants

Research Question for Teacher Quality

What combination of professional development strategies and supports effectively help teachers

• Develop knowledge of effective vocabulary and comprehension instruction and

• Implement evidence-based practices in their social studies instruction?

Proposed Outcomes

• Case-situated professional development program: 3 vocabulary and 3 comprehension routines.

• Instructional lesson plans with technology supported strategies to implement cases.

• Reports on evidence collected about the efficacy as reflected by student & teacher performance.

Experimental Design

Teacher quality includes knowing content and knowing how to teach.

More than 8 million students in grades 4-12 are struggling readers (USDOE, 2003) and social studies textbooks pose particular challenges

because of the unfamiliar content.

Goal: How to develop the quality of teacher’s vocabulary and comprehension instruction in social studies content.

Design by Content ConsiderationsQuadrant 1

• Accountability & Relevance– How does “what” you teach align with state standards, district

expectations? • Alignment with naturally occurring units (weeks, modules, themes, cases)

– How will the units of your curriculum be organized and must they align with the existing “units”?

• Scope: Comprehensive or specific– What is the scope of your curriculum. Will it address “all” of a content

area or a specific feature? • Supplement or supplant current materials

– Will your curriculum provide stand alone materials or will you use existing materials?

• Integration of strategies with existing materials– How will your intervention “fit” with existing materials?

• Overall Intervention Design– How will you “scaffold” strategy introduction?

Curriculum Content: Social Studies

Content Context Reading Age/Grade

Social Studies Teacher/schools

Math District Policies Design

What Sequence

Organization

• Accountability & Relevance • Alignment with naturally occurring units

Comprehensive or specific • Scope: Supplement or supplant current

materials • Integration of strategies with existing materials • Overall intervention design

Delivery Who How

When Where

Accountability& Responsibility

Design question: How does “what” you teach align with state standards, district expectations?

Lesson Learned: If we asked for social studies time, we would be responsible for and

accountable for social studies learning.

Vocabulary & Comprehension Standards• Vocabulary

– Use multiple reference aids, including a thesaurus, a synonym finder, a dictionary, and software, to clarify meanings and usage (4-8);

– determine meanings of derivatives by applying knowledge of the meanings of root words such as like, pay, or happy and affixes such as dis-, pre-, un- (4-8); and

– Study word meanings systematically such as across curricular content areas and through current events (4-8).

• Reading/Comprehension– Monitor his/her own comprehension and make modifications when

understanding breaks down such as by rereading a portion aloud, using reference aids, searching for clues, and asking questions (4-8);

– Determine a text's main (or major) ideas and how those ideas are supported with details (4-8);

– Paraphrase and summarize text to recall, inform, and organize ideas (4-8);

Sample Social Studies Content Standards

• History. The student understands the similarities and differences of Native-American groups in Texas and the Western Hemisphere before European exploration.

• History. The student understands the causes and effects of European exploration and colonization of Texas and the Western Hemisphere.

• History. The student understands the causes and effects of the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas, and the annexation of Texas to the United States.

How We Demonstrated Accountability & Alignment

Alignment: If the “unit” of instruction doesn’t fit the content or the context, it is

unlikely to be implemented optimally.

• How will the units of your curriculum be organized and must they align with the existing “units”?

• We worked with “six-week” units defined by district and operationalized by social studies chapters (roughly).

• Challenge: Designing the instructional strategies to fit the 6-week units.

What if you are working with multiple districts that have different

programs?

What Does Your Curriculum Promise and What Does it Replace?

• Scope: Comprehensive or specific?– What is the scope of your curriculum; Will it address

“all” of a content area or a specific feature?

• Supplement or supplant current materials– Will your curriculum provide stand alone materials or

will you use existing materials?

Challenge: How to make vocabulary instruction more comprehensive.

The Earliest Texans

hunters who later began to farm and settle in communities

When Way of life: How they survived: How they lived:

Children and grandchildren or

their________First Trail to

Texas: 50,000 years ago

Followed herds of woolly mammoths and giant bison

Animals provided food, clothing and shelter.

Came over a land bridge called ___________ that connected Asia and North America

Moved southward

Learning About the Past:

10,000 years ago

Followed animal herds Objects made by these people or _________ tell us that they hunted herds of animals and used the meat, bones, and hides.

Traded flint from an open pit mine or_________

Arrived in Texas

Changes in Ways of Life:

2,000 years ago

Way of life or ________ changed as the giant animals died out or became extinct.

They began to grow their own food or practice __________. Baskets, pottery, and dried foods became ____________.

Known as _________________

were

________provide information about the earliest Texans. About 10,000 years ago the _______________ of the first people in North America arrived in Texas. They hunted animals for food, clothing, and shelter. They also traded flint from a______ in the Texas Panhandle. About 2,000 years ago their______ changed and the earliest Texans began practicing __________.

Case 1Week 1

Vocabulary Listagriculture Native Americansartifacts quarrytrading goods culturedescendants

Which vocabulary strategies best fit social studies content?

• Activate and Build Background Knowledge • Conceptual Organizers – Semantic Features

Analysis • High Priority Words/Tier 2 Words • Context Clues• Morphemic Analysis • Formative Assessment • Multiple exposures • Cumulative review • Depth of processing

Integration: How to Integrate Evidence-based Practices into Existing Text &

Curriculum• Strategy: Begin with existing evidence-

based practices • Goal: Not to create new practices but to

integrate components into instructional routines.

• Challenge: Which strategies to select and how to organize them for maximal power and ease of use.

Integrate Multiple Strategies The Earliest Texans

2.) Definition: Underline the key words. 3.) Illustration 4.) Context: Circle the correct sentence.

6.) Word Building: Choose a real word and then write another word.

7.) My Definition: Write your own definition.

5.) Words That Are Related: Choose two related words.

1.)

Culture

The scientist examined the bacteria culture.

People from different backgrounds have different cultures.

A. TigerB. SocietyC. CustomsD. Science

A.CulturerB. Cultured

______________

the beliefs, social practices, and characteristics of a racial, religious, or social group

Case 1 Week 1

What design unit fits the content & context?

Cumulative & progressive design• Case Design: 3 Cases for Vocabulary;

Three Cases for Comprehension• Each Case 6 Weeks • Each Case added a new strategy to the

base strategy• Each Week 3 days per week• Each day 30 minutes

Case Overview VocabularyCase I: Explicit

Teaching of Content Vocabulary

Case II: Build Background Knowledge

Case III: Independent Vocabulary Learning of

Words in ContextIdentify and Prioritize critical content vocabulary

Identify and Prioritize critical content vocabulary

Identify and Prioritize critical content vocabulary

Preview and Connect vocabulary and content

Preview and Connect vocabulary and contentBuild and Activate background knowledge

Preview and Connect vocabulary and contentBuild and Activate background knowledge

Teach Words Explicitly using:Chapter OverviewVocabulary MapPractice Activities

Teach Words Explicitly using:Chapter OverviewVocabulary MapPractice Activities

Teach Words Explicitly using:Chapter OverviewVocabulary MapPractice Activities

Build Independent Word Learning Strategies using:Around Word Clues

Assess and Maintain word knowledge

Assess and Maintain word knowledge

Assess and Maintain word knowledge

Teacher

Student

Intervention Design: How will you scaffold strategy introduction?

Case Overview Comprehension

Case I: Answering & Generating Questions

Case II: Monitoring Comprehension

Case III: Enhancing Summarization through

Writing and GOsIdentify proper nouns, preteach them & provide linkages and context for content to be read

Students identify proper nouns, Teacher preteaches them & provides linkages and context for content to be read

Students identify proper nouns, Teacher preteaches them & provides linkages and context for content to be read

Teach roles & responsibilities within collaborative groups (3-4); provide feedback on products that show evidence of student activity and participation (logs)

Students assume roles & responsibilities within collaborative groups; Teacher provides feedback on student logs

Students assume roles & responsibilities within collaborative groups; teacher provides feedback on student logs

Teaching Strategies Explicitly1.Levels of questions2.Generating questions before, during & after reading

Teaching Strategies Explicitly1.Comprehension Monitoring

Teaching Strategies Explicitly1.Representing using GOs2.Using GOs and gist statements to write summaries

-Maintain strategy use-Become indep. & flexible strategy users

-Maintain strategy use-Become indep. & flexible strategy users

-Maintain strategy use-Become indep. & flexible strategy users

Design X Context ConsiderationsQuadrant 2

• What is the optimal lesson length for student age and grade?

• What is the optimal involvement of teachers in the development of materials/intervention?

• What is the involvement of teachers in the piloting of materials/intervention?

Delivery X Content ConsiderationsQuadrant 3

• Will curriculum content supplement or supplant instruction?

• Who will deliver intervention and are there special characteristics of these individuals?

Delivery by ContextQuadrant 4

• Will additional resources be required to deliver the intervention?• Is technology required/available? • What is the time required in relation to time available?• When will PD occur?• Will intervention be a time supplement or supplant?• Does the intervention delivery align with natural social studies instructional

periods? (30 minutes per day)• What is start date of intervention? • What is the length of the intervention? (End before TAKS testing) • Personnel: Who will deliver?• Grouping Structure: Does the grouping structure parallel conditions of the

classroom?

For a copy of this presentation:http://teacherquality.tamu.edu