Assessing and Improving Curriculum Materials

Assessing and Improving Curriculum Materials
Martin Kozloff
Copyright 2006 Features of Well-designed Curriculum Materials
We'll discuss well-designed (and poorly designed) curriculum
materials one feature at a time.
1. Curriculum materials (lesson-based programs and textbooks) should teach
knowledge systems.
These include literature, math, biology, chemistry, music, history,
foreign language, beginning reading, and so forth. However, some materials
are NOT about recognized knowledge systems; e.g., "multiple intelligences,"
"multi-cultural education," and "learning styles." These are usually fads,
and are poorly designed, untested, and waste money, effort, and time. [If
the materials you selected for the assignment do not focus on a knowledge
system, please get something else.]
2. Well-designed materials provide a comprehensive and varied sample of
knowledge.
That is, the sample of equations to solve, poems to analyze, or words
to decode is large and varied enough that students, by comparing and
contrasting examples: (1) easily grasp the general ideas (e.g., the
defining features of concepts, the routines for solving equations); and (2)
generalize knowledge from the sample to new examples; e.g., new equations,
new poems, and new words to decode. The knowledge sample should reflect
a. What is required by a state standard course of study.
b. What scientific research says students need to know.
c. What experts in the field believe is important to include.
d. What YOU know about the subject matter.
For instance, a beginning reading curriculum should cover all five main
reading skills (phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency,
vocabulary, comprehension), and it should provide a wide range of examples
of each of these main skills. For instance,
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/report.htm
http://reading.uoregon.edu/
Likewise, a textbook in social studies should have many examples of
political systems so that students can (1) compare and contrast
democracies, monarchies, theocracies, and dictatorships; (2) identify the
essential (defining) features in the examples; and (3) use this general
knowledge of the concepts to examine new examples.
Improvements. You can improve curriculum materials in several
ways:
a. Add knowledge. For instance, a reading curriculum may have too
little instruction on phonemic awareness.
http://reading.uoregon.edu/pa/
If so, and if the materials are otherwise well-designed, you could
use supplementary materials that have been tested and are effective.
http://www.fcrr.org/FCRRReports/table.asp
http://www.fcrr.org/FCRRReports/lagging.htm
Or perhaps a history textbook has no explicit instruction on
important vocabulary words. Students have to figure out from the context
what important words mean. [This is why so many students quickly become
lost and give up.] Or perhaps a science textbook presents no big ideas
(such as life cycles) to organize instruction. You can add these
missing components.
b. Increase the range and variety of examples. A history textbook may
narrowly define democracy using modern political systems (with voting
booths and political parties) as examples, but it doesn't include ancient
examples that don't have modern features. Therefore, students may
make a stipulation error that democracy is defined by voting booths
and political parties. You can add examples.
Likewise a beginning reading curriculum may teach students
to sound out the words sun, man, ram, fit, am. But it should have more
variation so that students can see clearly how changes in letters change
the words, like this.
sun fit am
run sit sam
runs sits sat
fun it rat
its You can add these sorts of examples that will reveal sameness and
difference.
3. Well-designed curriculum materials display scope and sequence charts
(or at least subject matter outlines) showing how knowledge is organized;
that is, what is covered, and when.
A well-designed curriculum organizes knowledge into large groups,
called strands. For example,
a. Arithmetic consists of counting, addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division strands,
b. Literature might consist of strands on poetry, plays, fiction,
time periods when different kinds of poetry was written (Romantic,
Victorian), and analytic tools for comprehending literature-such as
knowledge of rhyme schemes and figures of speech.
c. Geology might consist of strands on the structure of the earth;
movement of the continents; minerals; the formation and types of
rocks; and analytic tools such as chemistry and physics, how to
examine rock samples, how to examine geological strata, and how to
determine the age of rocks and strata.
As said, these groups of knowledge within a curriculum are called
strands. Following are examples of scope and sequence charts for strand-
based curricula. Horizontal lines show when knowledge on the strand is
worked on.
Strands and Scope and Sequence in a Beginning Reading Curriculum
Days/Lessons 1 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Phonemic
Awareness
Pronunciation __________ _____ __ ___
Rhyming _______
Blending ________ Letter-sound
Correspondence ____________________ ___ ___ ___ Decoding ____________________________ Fluency
______________________________ Vocabulary _________________________________ Comprehension _______________________ Notice that some strands begin before other stands. This is because
knowledge from some strands is a pre-skill for learning other strands. For
example, students can't decode words until they can pronounce the sounds,
can hear the separate sounds in words, and know which sounds go with which
letters. Likewise, fluency building begins after students have learned to
decode some words; otherwise, there is nothing for students to be fluent
with.
High School American Literature Curriculum
Class Periods, Or Lessons
Strands
Time/Dates
_________________________________________________________________________
Plays ___|_____|______
Our town
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Town
Death of a salesman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_a_Salesman
A raisin in the sun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Raisin_in_the_Sun Novels
___________|______|__ Moby Dick http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Mel2Mob.html
Huckleberry Finn http://etext.virginia.edu/twain/huckfinn.html Of mice and men http://etext.virginia.edu/twain/huckfinn.html Poetry
_______|____|___
Walt
Whitman http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/waltwhitman Emily Dickinson http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson Robert Frost http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/robertfrost Influences on Writers: biographical
societal
____________________________________________________________________________
Analytic Tools
____________________________________________________________________________ Identifying main ideas Character Symbolism
Conflict/resolution Rhyme Figures of Speech Notice in the above scope and sequence/strand chart that some strands are
taught for only part of the curriculum. This is because that is all the
time/lessons required. In contrast, poor curriculum materials provide little or no
information on when a kind of knowledge is introduced, how long it is
worked on, and how it is connected to other kinds of knowledge taught.
That is, no strands, scope, and sequence are presented.
Improvements. A teacher can examine materials and then if needed
outline the knowledge presented. What is taught, when it is taught, how
earlier knowledge is integrated with later knowledge. The outline enables
the teacher to (1) identify places to add knowledge; (2) rearrange items in
a more logical progression; and (3) show students how material in the
course is connected.
4. In well-designed materials, the lessons, units (sequences of lessons),
or textbook chapters are built consistently from knowledge items selected
from the strands (groups of knowledge).
For example, lessons in a beginning reading curriculum include
knowledge items from strands on phonemic awareness, letter-sound
correspondence, decoding, fluency, and comprehension. Each knowledge item
is taught during tasks or exercises that last a few minutes.
Task 1. Phonemic awareness.
"Boys and girls. Listen. sss...uuu...nnn. Say it fast!"
sun
[repeat with run, man, fast] Task 2. Letter-sound correspondence.
"Boys and girls. New sound (points to letter n). This letter
makes the sound nnn." Sat it with me." nnn. "Your turn.
What sound?" nnn. Task 3. Decoding or sounding out words.
"I'll show you how to sound out this word.