Curriculum Analysis - Inez Escandon



Curriculum Overview

Inez Escandón

University of Texas at San Antonio

Curriculum Overview

Although the curriculum for 1st grade science from North East Independent School District (NEISD) has many strengths, it is certainly lacking in many areas. This curriculum is designed for use across all schools within the district. This curriculum must be diverse since it includes a wide variety of schools including many that are considered exemplary and title 1. The entire curriculum includes a pacing guide, a year-at-a-glance (YAG), scope & sequence, and program resources. The pacing guide and the YAG are both strong and extremely helpful documents. The pacing guide is a calendar that help paces the instruction of the units by using colors to indicate the different units to be covered on certain weeks. The YAG is a document divided up by semester and unit used to give an overall view of what is to be taught, for how long it is to be taught, and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) that are supposed to be mastered.

The Need for the Revised Curriculum

The scope & sequence and the online program resources, however, are in desperate need of attention. The scope & sequence is a document that is supposed to be a weekly detailed plan of what, when, and how to teach. Unfortunately, the scope & sequence for NEISD’s 1st grade science curriculum is far too basic. It seems to be just one step up from the YAG. The scope & sequence provides a small plan for each science unit, usually lasting between one to two weeks, stating the TEKS and ways to spiral content. The result is a vague document that is far too similar to the YAG that is inadequate for any teacher, especially a new teacher, to use. If the document is vague and teacher guidance is limited, there is no way of assuring that the objective is being taught similarly within all 1st grade level classrooms across the district. This can lead to a disconnect within the school’s vertical alignment. If a 1st grade teacher does not teach the objectives the way NEISD intended, the next grade level will have to overcompensate for what was not taught in the previous year.

Surprisingly enough there are lesson plans and evaluations created for 1st grade science, however they are not present in the scope & sequence. These lesson plans can be found within the online program resources. Unfortunately, there is a huge disconnect between the scope & sequence and the online program resources. There are no links or directions on the scope & sequence that refer you to these lesson plans or evaluations. One must learn the existence of these resources and where to find them from others. Even if you know about the online program resources, the reliability and organization of the lesson plan, activity, and evaluation links are poor. The majority of the links within the online program resources are broken. Many times there are no links present at all for a specific unit. This usually occurs because there are no lessons created for it to begin with. Although it is divided by unit, the links are scattered amongst different pages causing teachers to have to search for the resources within the website. This can be extremely frustrating for teachers who are extremely busy and do not have the luxury of having extra time to hunt for resources.

Overall, the inadequacy of this curriculum is most frustrating because it directly affects the learning of the students. As a result, schools within NEISD have lower passing rates in science in comparison to math and language arts. This is the main reason why this curriculum needs to be reanalyzed and revised. When students are performing at a better rate they will be better informed and more confident within the subject area, giving them a better opportunity to pursue a vocation in the science field.

Goals and Philosophy

The goals of this new curriculum are to provide teachers with a strong-guided curriculum that will help bridge the gap between science and math/language arts scores. The philosophy of the curriculum will not change since progressivism seems very appropriate for science. Solving real world problems through scientific inquiry while the teacher facilitates is a meaningful and active way of learning science. If students are trying to figure out what a plant needs to survive, they should be able to experiment with different materials and factors to determine what does and doesn’t work. Through their experiments and data collected, they can then come to a logical conclusion of what a plan needs to survive. Students will not only be more actively engaged in this learning process, but the lessons they learned are more likely to be more clearly understood and retained in their memory. This will help us reach our student outcomes. However, inquiry is sometimes difficult for teachers to do. This means that the curriculum must be adjusted appropriately to support them as well.

The Team and The Process

To maintain vertical alignment, the curriculum should be modified and developed from pre-k to 12th grade. Developing an individual 1st grade science curriculum is neither ideal nor cost/time efficient. With this being said, the curriculum will be developed by a variety of professionals. Ideally, this would include the district science curriculum chair, elementary science and instructional technology (IST) specialists, middle and high school teachers from each science area, elementary teachers from every grade level, special education teachers from the elementary, middle, and high school level, middle school and high school AP teachers, and an elementary GT teacher. To diversify the group, it is important to include bilingual, ESL, and title 1 teachers to account for these groups needs as well. Since the curriculum is being developed for various grade levels, it is important to include members from each one. These teachers have a large amount of knowledge to contribute. Teachers really understand how students learn and what they’re interested in. This is important when it comes down to developing appropriate activities and assessments. Science specialists and the science curriculum chair could help in aligning the activities and assessments with the TEKS. Special education, GT, and AP teachers would be able to input appropriate ways to modify and differentiate for gifted students or students with disabilities. Bilingual and ESL teachers can give insight on how to accommodate for second language learners. They can also help in creating activities and assessments in Spanish for our bilingual and dual language classrooms. IST specialists could help by coming up with ways to integrate technology into science lessons. Title 1 teachers will help inform others of what materials are offered within their school. This will be crucial when creating activities, especially those dealing with technology.

Those participating in the writing of the curriculum will be asked to meet in person during the summer in order to complete this. The writing process will be divided up by elementary and secondary. Science specialists and the district science curriculum chair will be managing and monitoring the groups. In order to keep the vertical alignment, the district science curriculum chair will choose a unit and ask each group to create detailed lesson plans, activities, and assessments for the entire unit. Since they will both have special education, GT, AP, and/or bilingual teachers, they will be asked to include ways to differentiate for these different groups. Since secondary is different, the middle and high school teacher who the unit relates to will lead the planning for that group. When their planning is complete, both groups will come together and present their unit. Comments and suggestions will be encouraged amongst all writers. Afterwards, both will go back and make adjustments based on these comments and suggestions. This will continue by unit until all the units have been covered. Depending on the writers, this process may take from 16-24 weeks. Afterwards the district science curriculum chair and will closely analyze and review the entire curriculum. If the curriculum is deemed appropriate, then the district science curriculum chair will organize the curriculum and send it to the district curriculum chair for approval. If it is approved, science specialists can work with webmasters to get all of the program resources uploaded online.

Document Overview

This curriculum will contain the same major components, YAG, pacing guide, scope & sequence, and online program resources. The YAG and the pacing scale are great as is, however the scope & sequence and the online program resources will be modified. The scope & sequence will still be divided in units but presented in a more detailed weekly plan. Within the day, TEKS and objectives will be clearly stated as well as a general summary of what is to be taught and what activities need to be completed. It will also include how to spiral content and differentiate for special groups. Since the scope & sequence will be available online, links will be inserted with lesson plans, activities, assessments and other materials for easy access. All these materials will also be available online in the district’s program resources website. The website for science will be divided by grade level. Within the primary grades, the resources will be divided by unit. Within each unit, the activities, lesson plans, supplemental materials for differentiating, assessments, and extra materials will be divided into their own categories.

Since all students and schools are different, activities will be sure to address different domains and learning styles. Inquiry, as mentioned previously, is a self-guided way to learning. As a result, appeal is usually extremely high. Also, students are using higher order thinking since within inquiry learning they are usually applying, analyzing, and evaluating something. Since inquiry is peer directed and teacher facilitated, it can account for a variety of cultures. A low-context culture would benefit from this greatly because they enjoy independent control, setting goals for oneself, and direct communication. Although high-context culture prefers to work in groups, the inquiry method allows students to still seek advice from others. This creates a good harmony because those who prefer to work alone can, and those who have questions can always ask others or the teacher.

Other than the online program resources, the district will provide books and additional materials for each unit. For example, if a teacher is required to use “The Busy Tree” to teach interdependence by the scope & sequence, then each school will receive a copy of that book. As stated before, since inquiry is student-lead, the role for the student will not be as scripted. The role for the teacher, however, will be more scripted. The teachers’ script will contain questions to help guide students to their own conclusions naturally. The curriculum will contain lesson plans and ideas that will contain technology. Abstract concepts such as temperature and evaporation can be shown more easily through a movie or an animation. If a student raises the temperature in an animation and the snowman starts to melt, the student can begin to assume that maybe when the temperature goes up so does the heat.

In accordance to the original curriculum document, weekly formative assessments will be provided to evaluate students learning. Each activity is used to practice the objectives whereas the formative mini-assessments are used to determine whether objectives where mastered or not. The idea of weekly formative assessments is desirable because it provides more frequent checks for understanding and gives students more opportunity to improve their grades. Since inquiry learning can be hard to assess, rubrics will be used as grading scales for activities. The rubrics will be designed so that they can be used across all the units. The rubrics will be chosen depending on what skill is being assessed such as a scientific drawing, observation, analysis, or evaluation. In order to have students more accountable for their grade, they will contribute to the rubric. The teacher will award half of the points and the student will award the other half. Each will use the same rubric for consistency.

Implementation and Evaluation Plan

In order to secure faculty buy in, teachers will be given a one-day faculty development in which they are exposed to the curriculum. During this day, teachers will be encouraged to explore the activities and ask plenty of questions. The school’s science specialist, who is leading the training, will show examples of successful inquiry lessons and give tips on how to facilitate correctly. All science specialists will be required to attend a weeklong development in order to master and understand the curriculum before hand. Since the science specialist will be at the school, they will also be giving an on-going staff development to support the teachers as they implement the new curriculum throughout the school year.

To determine the success of the curriculum, various elements will be analyzed. Students and teachers will be given questionnaires and surveys every nine weeks to determine interest, facility, and functionality. Within these surveys, teachers will be able to describe what did work, what didn’t work, and how it could it be adjusted to better meet the needs of students. To ensure fidelity, random observations will be conducted to see if the curriculum is really being implemented. At the end of the year, grades and test scores will be compared to the previous year in order to see if there was any significant improvement. All these factors will decide whether or not to continue with the curriculum. If curriculum is continued, this data will help in modifying and revising for the next year.

Summary

Curriculum Overview

• Although the curriculum for 1st grade science from North East Independent School District (NEISD) has many strengths, it is certainly lacking in many areas.

The Need for the Revised Curriculum

• The scope & sequence and the online program resources are in desperate need of attention. The scope & sequence provides a small plan for each science unit, usually lasting between one to two weeks, stating the TEKS and ways to spiral content. The result is a vague document that is inadequate for any teacher, especially a new teacher, to use. If a 1st grade teacher does not teach the objectives the way NEISD intended, the next grade level will have to overcompensate for what was not taught in the previous year.

• Surprisingly enough there are lesson plans and evaluations created for 1st grade science, however they are not present in the scope & sequence. These lesson plans can be found within the online program resources. There are no links or directions on the scope & sequence that refer you to these lesson plans or evaluations. Even if you know about the online program resources, the reliability and organization of the lesson plan, activity, and evaluation links are poor.

• Overall, the inadequacy of this curriculum is most frustrating because it directly affects the learning of the students. As a result, schools within NEISD have lower passing rates in science in comparison to math and language arts.

Goals and Philosophy

• The goals of this new curriculum are to provide teachers with a strong-guided curriculum that will help bridge the gap between science and math/language arts scores. The philosophy of the curriculum will not change since progressivism seems very appropriate for science. Solving real world problems through scientific inquiry while the teacher facilitates is a meaningful and active way of learning science.

The Team and The Process

• To maintain vertical alignment, the curriculum should be modified and developed from pre-k to 12th grade. Developing an individual 1st grade science curriculum is neither ideal nor cost/time efficient. With this being said, the curriculum will be developed by a variety of professionals. Ideally, this would include the district science curriculum chair, elementary science and instructional technology (IST) specialists, middle and high school teachers from each science area, elementary teachers from every grade level, special education teachers from the elementary, middle, and high school level, middle school and high school AP teachers, and an elementary GT teacher. To diversify the group, it is important to include bilingual, ESL, and title 1 teachers to account for these groups needs as well.

• Those participating in the writing of the curriculum will be asked to meet in person during the summer in order to complete this. The writing process will be divided up by elementary and secondary. Science specialists and the district science curriculum chair will be managing and monitoring the groups. In order to keep the vertical alignment, the district science curriculum chair will choose a unit and ask each group to create detailed lesson plans, activities, and assessments for the entire unit. This will continue by unit until all the units have been covered. Afterwards the district science curriculum chair and will closely analyze and review the entire curriculum. If the curriculum is deemed appropriate, then they will organize the curriculum and send it to the district curriculum chair for approval.

Document Overview

• This curriculum will contain the same major components, YAG, pacing guide, scope & sequence, and online program resources. The YAG and the pacing scale are great as is, however the scope & sequence and the online program resources will be modified. The scope & sequence will still be divided in units but presented in a more detailed weekly plan. Within the day, TEKS and objectives will be clearly stated as well as a general summary of what is to be taught and what activities need to be completed. It will also include links, how to spiral content, and how to differentiate for special groups.

• Since all students and schools are different, activities will be sure to address different domains and learning styles. Inquiry, as mentioned previously, is a self-guided way to learning. As a result, appeal is usually extremely high. Also, students are using higher order thinking since within inquiry learning they are usually applying, analyzing, and evaluating something. Since inquiry is peer directed and teacher facilitated, it can account for a variety of cultures.

• Other than the online program resources, the district will provide books and additional materials for each unit.

• In accordance to the original curriculum document, weekly formative assessments will be provided to evaluate students learning. Since inquiry learning can be hard to assess, rubrics will be used as grading scales for activities. The rubrics will be designed so that they can be used across all the units.

Implementation and Evaluation Plan

• In order to secure faculty buy in, teachers will be given a one-day faculty development in which they are exposed to the curriculum. All science specialists will be required to attend a week-long development in order to master and understand the curriculum before hand. Since the science specialist will be at the school, they will also be giving an on-going staff development to support the teachers as they implement the new curriculum throughout the school year.

• To determine the success of the curriculum, various elements will be analyzed. Students and teachers will be given questionnaires and surveys every nine weeks to determine interest, facility, and functionality. To ensure fidelity, random observations will be conducted to see if the curriculum is really being implemented. At the end of the year, grades and test scores will be compared to the previous year in order to see if there was any significant improvement. All these factors will decide whether or not to continue with the curriculum. If curriculum is continued, this data will help in modifying and revising for the next year.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download