How to Plan Curriculum Using SLP Guiding Questions

Curriculum Planning

When planning curriculum, teachers need to consider three strategic learning practices: learning outcome, conceptual redundancy of learning outcome, materials.

The following is what teachers need to decide when to offer the following three practices:

1. Curriculum 1: Each and every student is supported by relevant standards with measurable and achievable outcomes that are accessible and drive all learning
2. Curriculum 2: Each and every student is supported by units and lessons that provide an integrated approach and support conceptual redundancy of the learning outcomes.
3. Curriculum 3: Each and every student is supported by access to curriculum materials that match the content and rigor of the learning

Review

In my previous Blog Post, What is the Look and Sound of Student Ownership?, I mentioned that students with an ownership mindset know they have the authority, capacity, and responsibility to own their learning, according to the Developing Student Ownership book. Authors Robert Crowe and Jane Kennedy define curriculum as what students need to know and do at the end of a lesson, unit, or course. Crowe and Kennedy emphasized that students must demonstrate an increase in ownership by clearly articulate answers to the following questions:

• What am I learning?
• Why am I learning?
• How will I demonstrate I have learned it?

So, how does a teacher build the authority, capacity, and responsibility needed for student ownership of their learning? Crowe and Kennedy suggest that a teacher must model the thinking behind ownership, explicitly teach the skills of ownership, and most importantly, be willing to delegate the authority, capacity, and responsibility to the students.

Strategic Learning Process

Crowe and Kennedy show how to move students towards ownership by strategically deciding when to offer the following three learning practices:

Strategic Learning Process	Each and Every Student must be able to answer the following questions	Reflection: How well do you develop students to own their learning
Curriculum 1: Each and every student is supported by relevant standards with measurable and achievable outcomes that are accessible and drive all learning	· What skill am I learning? · Why am I learning this skill? . How will I know I have learned this skill?	How often and how well do you offer this support? · The learning outcome aligns with a relevant standard and uses appropriate academic language · The learning outcome aligns with what the standard calls for · The learning outcome identifies how the students will show the demonstration of the learning · All student learning is driven by the learning outcomes and can be attained from the lesson
Curriculum 2: Each and every student is supported by units and lessons that provide an integrated approach and support conceptual redundancy of the learning outcomes.	· How does learning in various ways-listening, speaking, reading, and writing-support mastery of the skill? · How does the current learning relate to previous and subsequent learning? – How can I use this learning in the future?	How often and how well do you offer this support? ·  The unit or lesson integration includes opportunities for students to listen, speak, read, and write about the learning outcome · The unit or lesson integration offers students a focus on both the content standards and the learning practices · The unit or lesson provides students with conceptual redundancy through multiple, varied interactions with the same concept · The unit or lesson aligns with previous learning and builds to subsequent learning
Curriculum 3: Each and every student is supported by access to curriculum materials that match the content and rigor of the learning outcomes.	· What materials am I using to support this learning? · How do these materials support this learning? What other materials could I use to continue this learning?	How often and how well do you offer this support? · The curriculum materials build to master the relevant standards with measurable and achievable learning outcomes · The curriculum materials are specifically selected to support the content of the standard for learning outcome · The curriculum materials specifically selected to support the rigor of the standard or learning outcome – The curriculum materials are accessible to all students.

Implementing Strategic Learning Practices (SLP)

In Strategic Learning Practices, Crowe and Kennedy lay out the following:

• Clearly define each learning practice
• Describe what implementation looks and sounds like in the classroom
• Share teacher planning questions and offer examples of how students have been supported with these learning practices in various content areas and grade level
• Explain how these practices directly lead to increased student ownership

Crowe and Kennedy give teachers planning questions, offer examples of how students have been supported with these learning practices in variety of content areas and grade levels, and explain how these practices directly lead to increased ownership in their book.

I would rather use one grade level unit to show the Strategic Learning Practices in regards to curriculum. This way you can see how one grade unit is applied to all three curriculum practices.

Each student is supported by relevant standards with measurable and achievable outcomes that are accessible and that drive all learning.

This means for students to own their learning regarding curriculum, each student must be able to answer these questions:

1. What skills am I learning?
2. Why am I Learning this?
3. How will I know I have learned this skill?

As a teacher how would you plan to support your students?

Crowe and Kennedy provide questions to guide you through implementing this learning practice:

1. What does the standard call for?
2. Which part of the standard will student learn in this lesson?
3. What academically appropriate language will be included?

The unit is a 3^rd grade ELA unit called The Power of Friendship: Charlotte’s Web

Standard calls for Reading Literature (RL.3.3) Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain their actions to contribute to the sequence of events.

Break down the standards into 2 teachable parts:

1. Describe characters in a story
2. Explain their actions contribute to the sequence of events

Next, review the learning progression from the previous grade level and subsequent grade level to see what has been learned and the next grade level learning progression.

Grade Level	Standard
RL.3.3	Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
RL.2.3	Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.
RL.1.3	Describe characters, settings, and major events in s story, using key details.

Then, determine the answers for these questions:

1. How will my students show their learning?
2. Why are my students learning this skill?

Decide what the demonstration of learning will be: Once students can describe characters in the story (Wilbur, Charlotte, Fern), students will answer a writing prompt question.

So far, this is to help you plan the curriculum part of the lesson.

Last, you will need to determine how you will teach the skills to students by answering these questions:

• How will students show this learning?
• How will you teach the skill to your students?

Make sure that your students will own this information so you can increase the probability of their learning. You need to ask these questions:

• How will I share this information with my students?
• How will I check that my students understand the goals of the learning?

Consider the range of learners in your classroom: What are the ways you can support your students, so they own this information.

You want to make sure your students understand the value of owning their learning and decide on:

How will my students understand that knowing these parts of the learning will support ownership of their learning?

This involves students participating, where they will reflect on their learning every day. Once a week, review the learning progression and have students rank themselves. The ranking determines what skills they could teach another student, what skills they feel they would master, and what skills they need more support with. Students themselves are the best at figuring out their own needs.

In summary, teachers need to support students by:

• Focusing on a relevant standard,
• Determining what skill the students will learn,
• How they will show they have learned it,
• Having students know and understand what they are learning, and
• Ensure the instructional time is used efficiently.

Each student is supported by units and lessons that provide an integrated approach and support conceptual redundancy of the learning outcomes.

This means that students must answer these questions to own their learning regards curriculum:

• How does learning in a variety of ways-listening, speaking, reading, and writing-support mastery of the skill?
• How does current learning relate to previous and subsequent learning?
• How can I use this learning?

To plan how you would offer support to your students, first you are to determine:

What skill will my students learn, and how will they show they have learned it?

You begin by reviewing the RL.3.3 standard: Describe characters in a story (e.g., traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain their actions contribute to the sequence of events. Your focus for this lesson is describing characters by identifying traits, motivations, or feelings.

Identifying characters’ traits is the first foundational skill students need to master.

You can review the standards at the earlier grade to find out what has been learned. RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. This standard shows students learned characters’ trait in how characters respond to major events.

Next, you need to determine answers to these questions:

• How does the unit or lesson integrate reading, writing, speaking, and listening?
• How does the unit or lesson integrate content standards with practice standards?

The unit integrates reading, writing, speaking and listening by:

• Close reading of a text
• Participating in class discussions
• Writing a well-organized paragraph to support an idea.
• Critiquing and analyzing the reasoning of others. (Listening)

Texts and Materials

Core materials:

• Book: Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (HarperCollins Publishers, 2012) – 680L

Supporting Materials:

• Rubric: Grade 3 Literacy Analysis and Opinion Writing Rubric

Text Selection and Rationale

Charlotte’s Web is in the third-grade band level with a Lexile level of 650L the quantitative measures place the core text. The qualitative measures, particularly the complex vocabulary and sentence structure, make the text for study. Unpacking and analyzing the complex sentences and language is critical for understanding.

Supporting All Students

Intellectually prepare to teach the unit before launching the unit. Here is a link to show you how:

https://www.fishtanklearning.org/teacher-support/ela-tools/preparing-to-teach-fishtank-ela/preparing-to-teach-an-ela-unit

The curriculum materials support the rigor of the learning outcomes by examining what it means to be a good friend, whether or not friendship is always easy, or whether or not conflicts and struggle are an important part of strengthening friendship. When students deeply connect with the characters, they will learn about the power of helping others, how creatively and determination can help solve problems, and how people can change. Students will also understand the cycle of life and beauty, and emotional responses that come with death through the eyes of Wilbur.

Last, make sure that students will own this information so you can increase the probability of their learning. Ask yourself these questions:

• How will I share this information with my students?
• How will I check that my students understand the goals of the learning?

If you have a range of reading levels in your classroom, your students should all be clear on the learning goal for each day. Students need to understand what materials they are using and how these materials will support them. After you share this information, you can have students turn and talk to their shoulder partner to be certain they can explain in their own words the goal, the plan and how the materials will support them. Make this a daily routine.

Students need to understand the value of owning their own learning. You need to determine:

• How will my students understand that knowing these parts of the learning support ownership of their learning?

You can have students self-assess their progress. The self-assessment includes a reflection on what specific materials best supported their achievement and why.

In summary teachers need to:

• Have materials that match the content of the lesson,
• Materials that directly support the learning of the determined skill, and
• Materials that are rigorous and challenging the thinking of the students.

You can view How to Develop Students to Own How They Are Learning post next.