A Coherent Curriculum for Every Student

A Coherent Curriculum for Every Student PDF

Author: Edmund C. Short

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-10-11

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1475852622

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This book exhibits a collection of proposals for how school curriculum may be conceived, designed, and realized.

The Death and Resurrection of a Coherent Literature Curriculum

The Death and Resurrection of a Coherent Literature Curriculum PDF

Author: Sandra Stotsky

Publisher: R&L Education

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1610485580

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This book is addressed to teachers who know that the secondary literature curriculum in our public schools is in shambles. Unless experienced and well-read English teachers can develop coherent and increasingly demanding literature curricula in their schools, average high school students will remain at about the fifth or sixth grade reading level--where they now are to judge from several independent sources. This book seeks to challenge education policy makers, test developers, and educators who discourage the assignment of appropriately difficult works to high school students and make construction of a coherent literature curriculum impossible. It first traces the history of the literature curriculum in our middle schools and high schools and shows how it has been diminished and distorted in the past half-century. It then offers examples of coherent literature curricula and spells out the cognitive principles upon which coherence is based. Finally, it suggests what English teachers in our public schools could do to develop a literature curriculum that gives all their students an adequate basis for participation in an English-speaking civic culture.

Understanding by Design

Understanding by Design PDF

Author: Grant P. Wiggins

Publisher: ASCD

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 1416600353

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What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

Toward a Grammar of Curriculum Practice

Toward a Grammar of Curriculum Practice PDF

Author: Edmund C. Short

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2023-07-01

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1438493487

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Curriculum planning can be conceptualized in various ways, and curriculum planners necessarily must adopt a particular approach in order to facilitate their thinking and decision-making. However, the history of curriculum planning suggests that existing conceptualizations are sometimes confusing, imprecise, or not as helpful as they might be. There is a need for a new conceptualization that overcomes the limitations of these earlier conceptions. Through conceptual analysis and concept development, the author presents curriculum planning as a form of educational practice distinct from other practices such as teaching, administration, and policy making. Short's "grammar of curriculum practice" describes a set of key concepts and the meaningful relationships among them that define the essential elements of curriculum and of curriculum planning.

Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards

Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-03-27

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 0309305152

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A Framework for K-12 Science Education and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) describe a new vision for science learning and teaching that is catalyzing improvements in science classrooms across the United States. Achieving this new vision will require time, resources, and ongoing commitment from state, district, and school leaders, as well as classroom teachers. Successful implementation of the NGSS will ensure that all K-12 students have high-quality opportunities to learn science. Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards provides guidance to district and school leaders and teachers charged with developing a plan and implementing the NGSS as they change their curriculum, instruction, professional learning, policies, and assessment to align with the new standards. For each of these elements, this report lays out recommendations for action around key issues and cautions about potential pitfalls. Coordinating changes in these aspects of the education system is challenging. As a foundation for that process, Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards identifies some overarching principles that should guide the planning and implementation process. The new standards present a vision of science and engineering learning designed to bring these subjects alive for all students, emphasizing the satisfaction of pursuing compelling questions and the joy of discovery and invention. Achieving this vision in all science classrooms will be a major undertaking and will require changes to many aspects of science education. Guide to Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards will be a valuable resource for states, districts, and schools charged with planning and implementing changes, to help them achieve the goal of teaching science for the 21st century.

Designing Mathematics or Science Curriculum Programs

Designing Mathematics or Science Curriculum Programs PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1999-11-15

Total Pages: 70

ISBN-13: 0309185629

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With the publication of the National Science Education Standards and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics, a clear set of goals and guidelines for achieving literacy in mathematics and science was established. Designing Mathematics or Science Curriculum Programs has been developed to help state- and district-level education leaders create coherent, multi-year curriculum programs that provide students with opportunities to learn both mathematics and science in a connected and cumulative way throughout their schooling. Researchers have confirmed that as U.S. students move through the grade levels, they slip further and further behind students of other nations in mathematics and science achievement. Experts now believe that U.S. student performance is hindered by the lack of coherence in the mathematics and science curricula in many American schools. By structuring curriculum programs that capitalize on what students have already learned, the new concepts and processes that they can learn will be richer, more complex, and at a higher level. Designing Mathematics or Science Curriculum Programs outlines: Components of effective mathematics and science programs. Criteria by which these components can be judged. A process for developing curriculum that is structured, focused, and coherent. Perhaps most important, this book emphasizes the need for designing curricula across the entire 13-year span that our children spend in elementary and secondary school as a way to improve the quality of education. Ultimately, it will help state and district educators use national and state standards to design or re-build mathematics and science curriculum programs that develop new ideas and skills based on earlier onesâ€"from lesson to lesson, unit to unit, year to year. Anyone responsible for designing or influencing mathematics or science curriculum programs will find this guide valuable.

Comprehension Across the Curriculum

Comprehension Across the Curriculum PDF

Author: Kathy Ganske

Publisher: Guilford Press

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 1606235125

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Successful students use comprehension skills and strategies throughout the school day. In this timely book, leading scholars present innovative ways to support reading comprehension across content areas and the full K?12 grade range. Chapters provide specific, practical guidance for selecting rewarding texts and promoting engagement and understanding in social studies, math, and science, as well as language arts and English classrooms. Cutting-edge theoretical perspectives and research findings are clearly explained. Special attention is given to integrating out-of-school literacies into instruction and developing comprehension in English language learners.

Analyzing The Curriculum

Analyzing The Curriculum PDF

Author: George Posner

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education

Published: 2003-07-24

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780072823271

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This primary text provides the backbone for a basic curriculum course at either the senior or graduate level. The book shows how the parts of a curriculum fit together and helps students identify assumptions underlying curricula. In doing so, students develop the ability to determine why a curriculum proves better for some students than for others; what approaches to teaching are compatible with a particular curriculum; what difficulties a curriculum is likely to encounter during implementation; and what kinds of changes parents, students, and administrators are likely to demand.

Focus

Focus PDF

Author: Mike Schmoker

Publisher: ASCD

Published: 2018-07-16

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 1416626379

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In this 2nd edition of Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning, Mike Schmoker extends and updates the case that our schools could be on the cusp of swift, unparalleled improvements. But we are stymied by a systemwide failure to simplify and prioritize; we have yet to focus our limited time and energy on the most essential, widely acknowledged, evidence-based practices that could have more impact than all other initiatives combined. They are: simple, coherent curricula; straightforward, traditional literacy practices; and lessons built around just a few hugely effective elements of good teaching. As Schmoker demonstrates, the case for these practices—and the need for them—has grown prodigiously. In every chapter, you’ll find late-breaking discoveries and practical advice on how to simplify the implementation of new state standards in the subject areas; on the hidden pitfalls of our most popular, but unproven instructional fads and programs; and on simple, versatile strategies for building curriculum, planning lessons, and integrating literacy into every discipline. All of these strategies and findings are supported with exciting new evidence from actual schools. Their success confirms, as Michael Fullan writes, that a focus on the best "high-leverage practices" won’t only improve student performance; they will produce "stunningly powerful consequences" in our schools.

Learning and Understanding

Learning and Understanding PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2002-08-06

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 030917080X

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This book takes a fresh look at programs for advanced studies for high school students in the United States, with a particular focus on the Advanced Placement and the International Baccalaureate programs, and asks how advanced studies can be significantly improved in general. It also examines two of the core issues surrounding these programs: they can have a profound impact on other components of the education system and participation in the programs has become key to admission at selective institutions of higher education. By looking at what could enhance the quality of high school advanced study programs as well as what precedes and comes after these programs, this report provides teachers, parents, curriculum developers, administrators, college science and mathematics faculty, and the educational research community with a detailed assessment that can be used to guide change within advanced study programs.