OVERVIEW OF STANDARDS- BASED CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT

Dr. Judith Castro

REFLECTION

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”

(Plutarch)

OBJECTIVES To clarify basic concepts

Curriculum Alignment Standards

Content Expectations (Performance) Assessment

To examine the process of curriculum development from an interdisciplinary/ constructivist perspective

WHY YOU ARE HERE

You are here because you: Are knowledgeable about

educational practices Master English content Have experience in teaching Are qualified in your area

Paulo Freire

“What knowledge and skills are worthwhile learning? What are the goals of education?”

ANALYSIS OF CONTENT

What should I teach? How should I teach it? What do I need? How do I measure the effectiveness

and quality of my teaching? How will I measure and evaluate

students’ learning?

Curriculum Development Provides a framework under which a

teacher can develop new abilities related to what knowledge and learning are.

Curricular projects require careful development by experts of many different types, during the design, testing, and implementation stages.

Needs faculty input throughout all phases.

Curriculum- the Center of Education A road map of planned experiences

given to learners by a facilitator A comprehensive educational plan that

teaches students to think and to be, not only to do

All the planned experiences individual learners have in a program of education whose purpose is to achieve broad goals and related specific objectives.

Constructivism

A theory of knowledge with roots in philosophy, psychology and cybernetics.

How does this theory of knowledge translate into knowledge?

How do definitions of what it means to “construct” knowledge inform our actions as educators?

Constructivist Characteristics Socrates’ approach was to lead his students

through a series of questions in order to promote critical thinking.

Knowledge is constructed by the individual through his interviews with his environment.

Learners actively construct knowledge in their attempts to make sense of their world, then learning will likely emphasize the development of meaning and understanding.

Scaffolding is a process of guiding the learner from what is presently known to what is to be known. It allows students to perform tasks that would be slightly beyond their ability.

Multiple perspectives Authentic activities Real-world environments

Teachers serve as guides, monitors, coaches, tutors and facilitators.

The learner’s previous knowledge constructions, beliefs and attitudes are considered in the knowledge, construction process.

Problem-solving, higher-order thinking skills and deep understanding are emphasized.

THINK INTERDISCIPLINARY

Review the Content Standards from other disciplines.

Share ideas. “Break-the-mold” school for the

21st century.

PLANNING FOR CHANGE AND TECHNOLOGY

Leading change and implementing technology go hand in hand. The key to success in both is a thorough, inclusive planning process.

Curriculum Alignment Assures materials taught matches

standards and assessments for specific grade levels

“maps” curriculum onto the standards to guarantee expected content

Helps curriculum move logically from one grade level to the next so it is not redundant and does not leave gaps in student learning

What do we align?

Standards Curriculum Teaching Evaluation

Alignment process

Comprehensiveness Emphasis Depth Consistency with achievement

standards Clarity for users Content and performance match

STANDARDS Parameters which serve as a guide toward

the achievement of education of highest quality

Help accountability in curriculum planning Quality indicator that allows the teacher

to approach the curricular, instructional and technological scope: planning, development and assessment of student learning.

CONTENT STANDARDS

Express the content and knowledge that should be taught and learned in school.

Indicate concepts students should acquire.

EXPECTATIONS(performance objectives/ learning outcomes)

Express quality and degree of proficiency students should demonstrate in relation to Content Standards.

Provide concrete examples of what the student is capable of doing.

Used to develop performance tasks. Indicate how the student uses the

content learned.

ASSESSMENT STANDARDS

Classified into three types: Diagnostic Formative Summative (use performance tasks)

Indicate mastery of knowledge and skill by levels and contexts.

Norman Webb’s Alignment System

Categorical Concurrence- measures the extent to which the same or consistent categories of content appear in the standards and the assessments.

Depth-of-Knowledge Consistency- measures the degree to which knowledge elicited from students on assessment is as complex within the context area as what students are expected to know and do as stated in the standards.

Range-of-Knowledge Correspondence- determines whether the span of knowledge expected of students on the basis of a standard corresponds to the span of knowledge that students need in order to correctly answer the corresponding assessment items/ activities.

Balance of Representation- measures whether objectives that fall under a specific standard are given relatively equal emphasis on the assessment.

Source of Challenge- determines whether the primary difficulty of the assessment items is significantly related to students’ knowledge and skill in the content area as represented in the standards.

DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE(DOK) Level 1- Recall

Recall of a fact, information, or procedure. Level 2- Skill/ Concept

Use information or conceptual knowledge, two or more steps, etc.

Level 3- Strategic Thinking Requires reasoning, developing plan or a sequence

of steps, some complexity, more than one possible answer.

Level 4- Extended Thinking Requires an investigation, time to think and process

multiple conditions of the problem.

“Human nature tends to seek its motivation in the agreeable rather than in the disagreeable.”

(John Dewey)