K-12 Curriculum Development

Curriculum mapping is an ongoing process which asks teachers to develop curriculum goals, identify essential content, skills and concepts, and reflect on the taught curriculum.  Some school districts make the mistake of diving into curriculum mapping and attempting to complete a product.  When teacher teams become satisfied with the product, then the process is at risk.  If a principal or superintendent asks teachers to change their focus from curriculum mapping to test item development or writing across the curriculum, then teachers soon realize that curriculum mapping was a fad and is no longer "the main thing."

Andy Stanley wrote (1999) "Everybody ends up somewhere in life.  A few people end up somewhere on purpose.  Those are the ones with vision."  Can your school district afford for the teachers in one building to end up somewhere on purpose while the other schools work in isolation and each teacher determines what matters most for their respective classrooms?  Do all sixth grade English Language Arts teachers have a common goal or course goals for preparing students for the next level of learning?

Stanley suggests that teams answer the following questions related to "Vision":

Topic:  Curriculum Mapping

1.   Why must we see this vision through to the end?

2.   What difference will curriculum mapping make?

3.   What is there to gain?

4.   What is there to lose?

5.   What is at stake?

6.   Why should we attempt curriculum mapping?

7.   Why must it be done now?

8.   What do we lose by waiting until next year?

9.   What will we need to give up in order to pursue our vision for curriculum
      mapping?

10.  How does misalignment among team members or schools impact the overall
       vision?

Developing a vision for curriculum mapping is important for developing a common focus for all educators involved in the process.  Revisiting the vision will help educators clarify the purpose and allow educators to determine the next steps for curriculum mapping.  If student achievement is the goal, then we must identify the inputs and the process for aligning the work of teachers and teacher teams.  Does your school district have a vision for curriculum development or curriculum mapping?

References:
Stanley, A. (1999). Visioneering. Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc.

Social networking is the new buzzword.  According to a recent online article titled, 20+ mind-blowing social media statistics revisited:

Facebook currently has in excess of 350 million active users on a global basis.

Six months ago, there were 250 million active users....meaning around a 40% increase of users in less than half a year.


At the current rate, Twitter will process almost 10 billion tweets in a single year!

LinkedIn has over 50 million members worldwide.  This means an increase of around one million members per month since August 2009.

There are more than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) shared each week on Facebook.

What Does This Mean for K-12 Educators?
The statistics are staggering.  There is a good chance that you recently created a blog, updated your Facebook account in the last 24 hours, or sent a photo to a friend or relative using your phone or computer.  Ten years ago, it was difficult to share information with teachers in the same school.  Web 2.0 and online discussion boards are making it possible for a middle school science teacher in Colorado to connect with a middle school science teacher in Canada, Florida, Puerto Rico, and Ohio without attending a state or national conference.  Ongoing professional conversations can improve teaching and learning and teachers can impact students well beyond the walls of their classroom.

What Social Network Sites Are Available for K-12 Educators?
This is a short list of resources and online communities that educators can navigate and join.  When blogs started appearing on the Internet, they were typically one-way communication or message boards.  The sites below allow you to be a full participant and you can even steer the direction of the conversation.  You can post questions, share your teaching strategies, and connect with other professionals.

http://englishcompanion.ning.com/
English Companion Ning by Jim Burke
Nings have borrowed the tools of Facebook and MySpace—the ability to post a personal profile, upload media, and have multiple asynchronous and synchronous conversations—while allowing for the customization around a particular subject. 

http://www.classroom20.com/
Classroom 2.0 Ning

http://ncssnetwork.ning.com/
National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Ning

http://ascdedge.ascd.org/
ASCD EDge

http://www.allthingsplc.info/
Professional Learning Communities 

Social Networking and Learning Communities
Social Networking enables teachers to accelerate their professional development and to connect with their friends and colleagues more frequently than the annual conference.  While there are obvious benefits from attending state and national conferences, social networking allows educators to stay connected.  What Social Networking sites do you recommend for K-12 educators?  Please share your thoughts regarding Social Networking for educators and your thoughts on participating in these virtual learning communities.

About This Site:
K-12 Curriculum Development was designed to encourage teachers, administrators, curriculum coordinators and others to share ideas, discuss recent books about curriculum, share tools for supporting the work of teachers and administrators, and foster an online professional learning community.

As we enter the second semester, many teachers and administrators are meeting around the country to determine the best use of time for the remainder of the school year.  Some staff members call this pacing, some call it curriculum alignment and some staff may even call it survival.

What should every student know and be able to do?
This may be the most fundamental question asked by K-12 curriculum developers. At this point in the school year, it may feel like a race to Spring Break, followed by a final sprint to summer vacation.  According to Jay McTighe (2010), "The most successful teaching begins with clarity about important learning outcomes and about the evidence that will show that learning has occurred" (p. 274).

What can school administrators do?
Provide classroom teachers with uninterrupted time during the workday or on early release days to focus on curriculum development and curriculum revision.  Many teachers state that they desire to participate in collaborative conversations, but the central office staff or the building administrators conduct so many other meetings that curriculum conversations get lost in the shuffle. 

What can teachers do? 
Using Web 2.0 tools such as a curriculum blog, wiki, threaded discussion, Skype or Google docs will allow teachers to communicate with their grade level and with teachers in other disciplines and across the school district.  While this is no substitute for the time that administrators should provide teachers, these online tools make communication possible 24/7.  Collaborative decisions can be made prior to the meeting and the online collaboration will allow each teacher to use face-to-face meetings for the topics that require a face-to-face meeting.

Why is K-12 Curriculum Development important?
"Curriculum for school districts is no longer 'just nice to have.'  Curriculum is a necessity for furthering student achievement.  Further, school districts through their curricula, have the tools at their disposal to control and ensure what students learn" (Squires, 2009, p. 133).

K-12 curriculum development allows educators to identify key concepts and skills, identify important content, reflect on student understandings and misunderstandings, and create plans for ensuring student success at the next grade level or level of learning.  The end of the school year is filled with awards assemblies, guest speakers, fundraisers, grade level parties, field day, job shadow day, spring break, AP exams, state assessments and other events.  These events happen each year and we should be prepared to balance our instruction around interruptions.  Wiggins and McTighe (2005), wrote, “In the absence of a learning plan with clear goals, how likely is it that students will develop shared understandings on which future lessons might build” (p. 21)? 

If your school system does not have a common curriculum, select one of the following strategies and watch student achievement soar:

1.   Unwrap State and National Standards

2.   Begin Curriculum Mapping

3.   Clarify Content Priorities

4.   Determine what you will Stop Teaching

5.   Write Generalizations/Enduring Understandings/or Learning Outcomes for
      each unit of study and for each course

6.   Identify Areas where the Curriculum can be Integrated

7.   Use a Share Drive, Google Docs, or other Online Tool to Communicate what is
      essential


8.   Develop a commitment to "guarantee" certain parts of the curriculum to all
      students

9.   If your district already has a common curriculum, begin to develop
      assessments to identify student strengths and weaknesses.

10. Begin to conduct vertical conversations to discuss what students should know
      when they enter your course and what they need to know at the next grade
      level.  These conversations can be handled online in the beginning and
      teachers can get together at the end of the school year to discuss next
      steps.  It may be impossible to have a district meeting in the spring, but 
      Web 2.0 tools make communication possible and efficient.  Skype,
      Dim Dim, and other free tools make face-to-face communiction possible and
      teachers don't have to leave their classroom.   

If you have thoughts regarding K-12 Curriculum Development or additional strategies that you use in your school, please join the conversation and share how your school or district provides time for teachers to collaborate to identify what every student should know and be able to do.


References:

McTighe, J. (2010). Understanding by design and instruction. In Marzano, R. (Ed.),
         On excellence in teaching. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.  

Squires, D.A. (2009). Curriculum alignment: Research-based strategies for
        increasing student achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Wiggins, G., and McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design (2nd ed.). Alexandria,
        VA: ASCD.

Most teachers and administrators have experienced spending one to two years in meetings debating what students should know and be able to do, only to see the final document used as a book end.  Many school districts focus on creating documents and in lose sight of the bigger picture which is student achievement.

Curriculum development is "an ongoing process that asks teachers and administrators to think, act, and meet differently to improve their students' learning" (Hale, 2008, p. 8).  Have you ever thought about what it would look like to act differently and meet differently in schools?  Wiggins wrote, "The great scandal in K-12 education is that almost every K-12 system is actually not a system at all" (p. 24).

Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents (Schlechty, 2002) is a timeless classic.  If educators are seeking to improve student achievement, they can begin by focusing on the following quotes from Working on the Work.

"Schoolwork is a form of work intended to produce learning."

Teachers should purposefully create, design, identify, or otherwise make available to students authentically engaging activities, programs, tasks, assignments, and opportunities to practice that result in students learning those things it is determined that students need to learn to be judged well educated (p. xvi).

Resources for K-12 Curriculum Developers:

Ainsworth, L. (2003). Unwrapping the standards: A simple process to make
       standards manageable. Englewood, CA: Lead + Learn Press.

Ladder Against the Wrong Wall
Blog Archives

Hale, J.A. (2008). A guide to curriculum mapping: Planning, implementing, and
         sustaining the process. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Jacobs, H.H. (2010). Curriculum 21: Essential education for a changing world.
          Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Marzano, R. (Ed.). (2010). On excellence in teaching. Bloomington, IN: Solution
         Tree Press.

Schlechty, P.C. (2002). Working on the work: An action plan for teachers,
         principals, and superintendents. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Wiles, J. (2009). Leading curriculum development. Thousand Oaks, CA:
          Corwin Press.

When parents and guardians send their students to school they want teachers to teach for understanding.  Simply assigning worksheets, fill-in-the blank, crossword puzzles, or other time killers will not support student understanding of key concepts and essential skills.  Most teachers would be insulted by the previous statement, because most professional teachers work extremely hard developing lesson plans, hands-on learning, ongoing assessments, and activities which will engage students.

Wiggins and McTighe (2005), identified the "Twin Sins" of curriculum development as activity-focused teaching and coverage-focused teaching.  Extremely hard working teachers can err on the side of developing such fun activities that the students end up remembering the activities and not the key concepts.  In today's high-stakes era of testing and accountability teachers feel pressure to 'cover' material, rather than teach for understanding.  Covering material may indicate that a teacher has taught content or checked off each state standard, but it does not mean that student understanding took place.

If you want to make a long-term impact on student understanding, consider reading one or more of the following books with a team of educators:

Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., Cocking, R. (Eds.). (1999). 
          How people learn: Brain,mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.:
          National Academies Press. 

Erickson, H.L. (2007). Concept-based curriculum and instruction for the thinking
          classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Gardner, H. (2006). Five minds for the future. Boston, MA: Harvad Business School
          Press.

Tomlinson, C.A., & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction and
          understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (Expanded 2nd ed.).
          Alexandria, VA: ASCD.


I would like to know the names of other titles that you feel worthy of mentioning under the topic of teaching for understanding.  I look forward to reviewing your feedback!

This week, I had the privilege of attending the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.  At the pre-conference, I attended a full day session with Ken Kay, President of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. 

Kay asked the following question:

Are we intentional about teaching 21st century skills?

This question is much more difficult to answer than "Are we teaching 21st century skills?"  The follow-up question K-12 curriculum developers need to ask is "Which skills are we teaching and how does our school and school system measure progress towards predetermined goals?"

Other Key Questions shared by Ken Kay:

1.  Will students leave our school district with skills that add value to their
     employer and to the workforce?

2.  What skills will we need to teach students in order to help them "add value" to
     their employer or to the workforce?

3.  How do you take a school system that is teaching core subjects/content and
     help the teachers make the transition to teaching 21st century skills in the
     core subject areas?

4.  If you decided that students need to become 'globally competent,' what steps
     would teachers and administrators need to take?

5.  What is the current reality in our school district?  
     Do teachers say they are teaching 21st century skills?  
     Is an assignment in the computer lab still considered a lesson which reinforces
     21st century skills? 
     Do teachers reinforce skills as students move upward through the school
     system?

Additional Resources for K-12 Curriculum Development:

Route 21 - Resources for 21st Century Skills

Route 21 - Rubrics and Implementation Tools

The MILE Guide: An Online Self-Assessment Tool for Schools and Districts

West Virginia Department of Education - Teach 21

Nearly fifty years ago, Jerome Bruner wrote:

"If the hypothesis.....introduced is true - that any subject can be taught to any child in some honest form - then it should follow that a curriculum ought to be built around the great issues, principles, and values that a society deems worthy of the continual concern of its members."

                                                    -  Jerome Bruner, The Process of Education, 1960

This statement is as true today as it was in 1960.

Questions for Educators to Consider:

1.  Can any subject be taught to any child in some honest form?

2.  What do we expect all students to know and be able to do?

3.  Do we have a process for identifying Essential Learning Outcomes for each
     course?

4.  Do we have a clearly defined purpose for each course? 
     (i.e., Thinking with the end in mind)

5.  What current events, local issues, or community norms should be included in
     the curriculum?

6.  Is the role of this course to prepare students with academic knowledge or do
     we want to develop students who can apply their understanding of content in
     an ethical manner?

7.  Should each teacher identify what students should know and be able to do or
     should teacher teams or district teams work together to establish a common
     curriculum?  What would Bruner recommend?

8.  Should curriculum focus on state standards or should it go beyond the state
     standards to include locally determined Essential Learning Outcomes?

9.  Is everything identified in the curriculum of equal importance?

10.  What impact, if any, does it have on students if our school system has not
       developed a curriculum built around the great issues, principles, and values
       that a society deems worthy of the continual concern of its members?


Teachers are more likely to implement a curriculum that has grown out of their own conversations and meetings, that allows for teacher autonomy and that represents their own beliefs about what should be taught - 
See Home-Grown Curriculum.


References:

Bruner, J. (1960). The process of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
         Press.

Time for a Tune-Up: Comprehensive Curriculum Evaluation
By Lisa H. Meyers
Principal Leadership - September 2005

"How important is a high-quality curriculum?  A school without a quality curriculum is like a car without an engine - neither goes anywhere.  One responsibility of a school administrator is to ensure that quality curriculum is designed, adopted, and implemented."
                                                                                                    - Lisa Meyers

Prior to this afternoon, I had not read this article.  This informative article provides educators with several key considerations for K-12 curriculum development, curriculum alignment, curriculum evaluation and renewal.  I highly recommend this article! 

For additional information related to curriculum evaluation and a curriculum audit, visit these K-12 Curriculum Development topics:

Curriculum Management Audit

Curriculum Clutter

Curriculum Development

Share your thoughts on
Time for a Tune-Up: Comprehensive Curriculum Evaluation