K-12 Curriculum Development

 
Those Kids 08/28/2009
 
Have you ever sat in a meeting with teachers and administrators and heard the term "those kids."  If you have heard someone utter, "those kids," then it is likely that you have also heard the following phrases:

"That group"; "They have been that way since elementary school."; "That side of town"; "They don't act like the other students."

As we begin the school year, I am frightened to think that a group of teachers would say "those kids" when referring to my own children.  If it is inappropriate to say about my children, then it is inappropriate to voice about other people's children.

In the book titled, Other People's Children, Lisa Delpit (1995) wrote, "If we do not have some knowledge of children's lives outside the realms of paper-and-pencil work, and even outside of their classrooms, then we cannot know their strengths.  Not knowing students' strengths leads to our 'teaching down' to children from communities that are culturally different from that of the teachers in the school.  Because teachers do not want to tax what they believe to be these students' lower abilities, they end up teaching less when, in actuality, these students need more of what school has to offer" (p. 173).

Questions for Educators to Consider:

1.  Do teachers in your school use the term, "Those Kids"?

2.  Is it addressed by the team, or do we all secretly feel like that is the best we
     can expect from "those kids"?

3.  Do students live up to the teachers' expectations?

4.  Do our perceptions of students impact curriculum planning and instruction?

5.  Do all students receive the (written curriculum) Key Concepts and Key Skills
     when teachers have lower expectations for one student or for a group of
     students?

6.  If we treat "other people's children" like our own children, does it change our
     views towards the curriculum, instruction and learning goals?

7.  How can we change our school culture to a culture where "those kids"
     become "our kids"? (See DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008).

       If teachers and principals believe the impetus for student learning
       remains outside of their influence and there is nothing they can do
       to overcome these external variables, the idea of school improvement
       will undoubtedly seem futile, if not downright ridiculous.
                                                           (DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008, p. 59)

Make a collective decision to eliminate the term "Those Kids".

References:

Delpti, L. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom.
        New York: The New Press.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R. & Eaker, R. (2008). Revisiting professional learning
        communities: New insights for improving schools. Bloomington, IN: Solution
        Tree.
 
 
Picture
The first day of school never gets old.  For some adults, it may seem like the movie Groundhog Day, where everyday repeats itself.  When I was a student, I could hardly sleep the night before school because I was so excited about seeing my friends and meeting my new teachers.  As a student teacher/college student, I was excited because I had so many lessons I wanted to try with students and I lay awake wondering if I could control a room of sixth graders.  As a first year teacher, I don't think I slept for more than three hours the night before the first day of school.  I was rehearsing my opening remarks and activities with students in my head throughout the night.

Last night was no different than any other year.  As I struggled to go to sleep, I wondered about the new students in our school district.  Would they feel welcome on the first day?  I thought about the principals and the stress that they must have on the first day of school.  Then, my thoughts turned to my own children.  I have a student in elementary school and a student in middle school.  I wondered if they were excited about school or sound asleep.  Would they make positive friends at school on the first day?  Would they have teachers who influence their lives in a positive way?  

No matter if you are a student, student teacher, teacher, administrator or parent, the first day of school creates a little anxiety, combined with excitement about the new school year.  As a Director of Secondary Instruction, my thoughts have changed from when I was a student teacher.  

                           Today, I ask myself the following questions:

1.  What do we want all students to know and be able to do?

2.  Do our students have access to a ‘guaranteed and viable’ curriculum?

3.  What Enduring Understandings do we want students to have at the end
     of the school year?

4.  How can I support student achievement?

5.  How can I support teachers and principals?

6.  What support does our district provide students who do not understand
     the key concepts and skills identified in the ‘guaranteed curriculum’?

7.  What processes need to be established or revised in order to meet our
     district’s goals of raising achievement and closing achievement gaps?

8.   If everything is important, then nothing is important.  What can be
      removed from our district’s curriculum?

The first day of school is an exciting time and it provides students with a new opportunity to shine.  As you go through the school year, I hope you can enjoy reflecting on the seasons of life (i.e., student, student teacher, teacher, support staff, administrator, central office, parent, or other roles you have experienced over the years).  The first day of school never gets old!
 
 
Robyn Jackson (2009) recently shared the importance of unpacking standards.  She wrote, if teachers are going to use standards to guide planning, assessments, and  teaching, we need to understand what each standard asks students to know or do (p. 58).  This article shares research on unpacking standards, provides a process for school districts to follow, and shares next steps after teachers have unpacked the standards.

Does your school district begin each year with teachers meeting to discuss and unpack the state standards or does each teacher work as an independent contractor making decisions which impact student understanding in the privacy of their own classroom?

Ainsworth (2003) wrote, “Unwrapped standards provide clarity as to what students must know and be able to do.  When teachers take the time to analyze each standard and identify its essential concepts and skills, the result is more effective instructional planning, assessment, and student learning”(p. 1).

Several school districts have attempted to align the curriculum through curriculum mapping, aligning teacher created lessons or activities, developing common formative assessments, or other strategies.  Experience has led me to believe that attempting to align the curriculum prior to unpacking state standards leads to frustration and gaps in the written curriculum.  The Benefits of Unpacking the Standards are outlined below (Weber, 2008). 
 
 
Teams demand a merging of individual accountability with mutual accountability.  Few "teams can perform without investing time to shape and agree upon a common purpose, set of goals, and working approach" (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993, p. 25).  Does your team have a common purpose?  When teachers work together to identify key skills and key concepts students need to know and be able to do, they provide feedback and support to other members of the team.  When teams meet to discuss the curriculum, it enhances students opportunity to learn.

DuFour (2004) wrote, "In addition, faculties must stop making excuses for failing to collaborate. Few educators publicly assert that working in isolation is the best strategy for improving schools. Instead, they give reasons why it is impossible for them to work together: "We just can't find the time." "Not everyone on the staff has endorsed the idea." "We need more training in collaboration." But the number of schools that have created truly collaborative cultures proves that such barriers are not insurmountable" (p. 8).

Additional Resources for your Team:

The Power of Teamwork: Inspired by the Blue Angels
View Video

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

What is a Professional Learning Community?

A Process to Develop High-Performing Teams

References:

DuFour, R. (2004). What is a professional learning community? Educational
         Leadership, 61(8), 6-11.

Katzenbach, J.R., & Smith, D.K. (1993). The wisdom of teams: Creating the
         high-performance organization. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
 
 
Wordle: Curriculum
The term curriculum has many different meanings.  Before defining the word curriculum, one would have to ask specific questions about the common curriculum, local curriculum, written curriculum and/or taught curriculum.  The definition varies depending on the person you ask and depending on the word or phrase which precedes the term curriculum. 

In most schools, there is a written curriculum, but each teacher creates lesson plans which place emphasis on different parts of the curriculum.  Several teachers believe in student-led curriculum.  Student-led curriculum would allow the teacher to go into depth or alter the curriculum to meet individual or group learning needs and interests.  Marzano defined a 'guaranteed and viable' curriculum, but this is difficult to accomplish (yet, worth the effort). 

One of my favorite quotes on the topic of curriculum is from Allan Glatthorn:

One of the tasks of curriculum leadership is to use the right methods to bring the written, the taught, the supported, and the tested curriculums into closer alignment, so that the learned curriculum is maximized.
- Curriculum Renewal (1987), p. 4.

The word cloud above was created using Wordle.  You can create word clouds for your teacher team or with your students.  Caution should be used when using this tool with students, because there is no way to filter inappropriate language and content on the Wordle search engine and through the Wordle archive.
 
Back-to-School 08/04/2009
 
“As teachers engage in this dialogue regarding what their students must know and be able to do as a result of this unit they are about to teach,
they become more clear, more consistent, and more confident in their ability to help all students learn” (DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2006, p. 43).

This quote reminds us of the power of teacher collaboration and determining essential learner outcomes at the beginning of the school year.  When I entered the teaching profession, I was given a key to my classroom, a grade book, a set of Teacher's Guides, the state standards and a lesson plan book.  While a first year teacher has creative ideas, a passion for teaching, and a desire to make a difference in the lives of students, a collaborative team is more powerful.  

Guiding Questions to Consider When Teams Meet:

1)  What essential understandings and skills do our students need?

2)  Which standards can be clustered or incorporated into others?

3)  What are the Big Ideas/Enduring Understandings I want students to
     discover on their own after learning these concepts and skills?

The time it takes to meet as a team (vertical, horizontal, content alike, district wide, or other team structure) is worth the time and effort.  "When school staff have a more informed conception of curriculum, a teacher's daily decisions about how to deliver instruction not only affect student achievement in that classroom but also future student achievement, for it is assumed that students will be entering the next classroom prepared to handle a more sophisticated or more expanisve level of work" (Zmuda, Kuklis & Kline, 2004, p. 122). While several theorists and professional organizations have debated the ‘what’ of curriculum, implementation of curriculum and curriculum decisions are made daily by K-12 classroom teachers.  Begin the year with the end in mind and provide teachers with time to work as a collaborative team.