How do I add skills and assessments to my curriculum map?

Step 1

Begin by watching this 3-minute focusing on one school in Princeton, NJ and their work with designing 21st Century Learning and Teachin. (Link to SchoolTube)

As you watch, consider the following questions:

1. What are the most relevant skills for students to develop in 21st Century high school classrooms?
2. How do teachers and students feel about the design performance assessments and projects in the video?
3. Who is the 21st Century student? How will you open up new learning opportunities for these students?

Step 2

Consider what you want students to know or be able to do in order to demonstrate mastery or understanding of the content in your class. As we work to revise the Skills column in your curriculum map, consider these aspects of writing Skills into your curriculum map:

1. Are specific, observable, and measurable
   
2. Include benchmarks and critical skills from district consensus map (NYC)
   
3. Begin with action verbs and are precise (examples from Ann Johnson):
• Find the main idea and supporting details.
• Estimate sums and differences using rounding techniques to the nearest 1000.
• Alphabetize to the second letter.
• Interpret data represented in a bar graph.
• Identify root words, suffixes, and prefixes.
• Label the parts of an informative speech.
• Explain the difference between fact and opinion.
• Locate and identify parts of a book: title page, table of contents, index, and gloassary.
• Compare and contrast the benefits and limitations of a hybrid car an SUV.
• Define the hypothesis and conclusion of an “if-then” statement.
• Analyze four primary documents written by John F. Kennedy.
• Tell time to the minute.

Now, begin to revise or add to the Skills column of your curriculum map, either for your targeted unit or for the entire map, depending on time.

Step 3

Next, consider assessments. Assessments are:

1. Demonstrations of learning
2. Tangible products, projects, or observable performances; for example:
• Grant proposals
• Screenplays
• Surveys
• Diagrams
• Essays (creative, persuasive, descriptive, expository)
• CAD blueprints
• Documentaries
• Lab reports
• Broadcasts
• Digital portfolios
• Tests (essay, objective, short answer)
• Media criticism
• Webcasts
• Spreadsheets
• Teleplays
• Graphic organizers
• Web page
• Story Maps
3. Written in non form
4. Able to give a more complete picture of learning when multiple types are used

• Portfolios
• Projects
• Performance and Authentic Tasks
• Academic Prompts
• Quizzes/Tests
• Observations/Dialogues
• Informal Checks for Understanding

Step 4

a) Add to or revise the Assessments column on your Curriculum Map for each unit of study. If you are not able to draft questions for each unit, focus on the unit you have chosen to focus on for this workshop.

b) Continue adding Skills to your curriculum map. You can fill in this part of your curriculum map for all units of study or just the unit you have chosen to focus on for this workshop, depending on the time allotted.

How do I choose a curriculum map template and add essential questions?

Step 1

Begin by watching this 5-minute focusing on one school in Chattanooga, TN and their work with essential questions and curriculum design. (Link to YouTube)

As you watch, consider the following questions:

1. Why exert the energy to shift from planning learning activities to planning learning outcomes and key understandings?
2. What is the relationship between rich, higher-order questions and rich, higher-order answers?
3. What is your theory about how to support all students increase their depth of knowledge in your classroom and in your curriculum?

Step 2

All curriculum maps will have at least four components:

1. Essential Questions
2. Concepts/Content
3. Skills
4. Assessments

Most will also include a section aligning to Standards and noting Resources. We will begin with Essential Questions, the over-arching interrogatives that provide focus and engage students (A. Johnson). Essential questions als0 encourage higher-level thinking, help students make connections beyond content being studied, and focus on the “So Why Am I Teaching This?”

Sample Essential Questions include:

• What is my story?
• Where do we find cells?
• Is everything quantifiable?
• Who are everyday heroes?
• What is the difference between a scientific fact, theory, and a strong opinion?
• Is the Civil War still going on today?

Choose one unit of study from your existing curriculum map, and write or revise an essential question for that one unit. You may need to draft several possible options and check with colleagues for their ideas as well. Use the list of key concepts you created as a pre-assignment for this work as a starting place for your essential question generation.

Step 3

Choose a template for your map that fits your context — either a school-wide template or one that makes sense to you. It should have the elements mentioned above. Sample curriculum map templates are below:

1. Curriculum Map A
2. Curriculum Map B
3. Curriculum Map C
4. Curriculum Map C (ELA 9/10 Standards Included for NYS & CCSS)

Step 4

a) Add your draft Essential Questions to your Curriculum Map for each unit of study. If you are not able to draft questions for each unit, focus on the unit you have chosen to focus on for this workshop.

b) Add Concepts/Content to your Curriculum Map as well. You can fill in this part of your curriculum map for all units of study or just the unit you have chosen to focus on for this workshop, depending on the time allotted.

What is curriculum mapping?

Step 1

Begin by watching this 11-minute animated video by Sir Ken Robinson. (Link to YouTube)

As you watch, consider the following questions:

1. What claims does this video make? What is Sir Ken Robinson urging educators to do differently?
2. What connections, if any, do you see between this video and the curriculum mapping process your school is undertaking?

Step 2

Before turning to your existing curriculum map, select 2-3 of the sample maps below and skim them for information. Ask:

1. What information can be gleaned from a map?
2. What are the common elements on the maps that you reviewed?

Sample Maps

• Algebra
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Civics
• Debate
• ELA 9tru12
• Geometry
• Number Patterns
• Physics
• Read180 ELA
• US History 1
• US History 2
• Writing/Literature

Step 3

Discussion & Journal Questions

1. What is a curriculum Map?
2. What are the components of a curriculum map?
3. Why are we mapping at our school?

Consider some curriculum mapping terms and definitions: CM Terms PDF

Step 4

a) Choose one class or prep for your curriculum mapping work. The Curriculum Mapping, Part 2 session will start with your existing map.

b) Consider your entire curriculum, and list the 5-8 most important concepts that you want students to understand.

One of her many great recs includes a wiki from a NYS district. Vicki Windman (Clarktown Central School District, NY) has a terrific wiki site for Special Education. She clusters App recommendations by topic (Organization, ELA, ASD, Basic Operations in Math, etc.). She also has attachments at the bottom of the page such as iPad Apps to meet IEP goals that are detailed and well-researched.

The trick is that schools interested in learning how to integrate iPads into their school communitites need to encourage teachers, tech folks, and administrators to spend the time investigating Apps that will meet their students’ and teachers’ needs.

Some schools create Technology Spotlights in their weekly team meetings where 3-5 minutes of each meeting agenda are given over to one or more team members presenting on new educational technologies they are trying in their classrooms. This practice is a perfect way to build a school’s repertoire with iPad Apps given that it always feels like there is never enough time in the day. Make it part of how business is done, and iPad Apps for Special Education will be part of the fabric of the work rather than an add-on.

I have joined and created several Ning networks for education and found it to be a great place to build professional online learning communities. In the last 6 months, I have not been active in those networks but recently visited the site again to check in, and this is what I found.

Ning is becoming a subscription pay service as of July 2011, but Pearson has offered to sponsor small “Mini Ning” communities for education, thereby ensuring that Education Nings can remain free of advertisements. The details can be seen in this blog post: http://education.ning.com/profiles/blogs/pearson-to-provide-ning-mini. The long and the short of it is that for Nings of 150 members or less, it will be free as long as you complete the application form for Pearson: http://go.ning.com/pearsonsponsorship/

Jing is an amazing and free tool for creating screenshots and screencasts. The free version of the software allows you to record short videos (up to five minutes) and narrate using your computer’s built in microphone (or an external if you prefer). After you’re finished recording, Jing will share the screencasts via Facebook, Twitter, Screencast.com, or Flickr AND provide a hyperlink for you to share via email, chat, websites, etc.

CNET has a great review of the software which you can check out here: http://download.cnet.com/Jing/3000-13633_4-10744274.html.

Educational organizations tend to use Jing to provide quick How-To videos for disseminating technical knowledge (e.g., how to fill out a new purchase request or budgeting form) as well as instructional knowledge (e.g., how to create an essential question while curriculum mapping).

Below is a list of 5 Apps currently residing on my iPad. I chose 5 that I use daily.

For Taking Notes

I love Penultimate and even was inspired this week to research and order a stylus for my iPad. Even before the stylus arrived yesterday, I was using this App daily to take notes at meetings, make to-do lists, draw with my niece, and send my friends silly notes via email just because. As of June 2011, the App costs $1.99 and is worth the splurge.

For Ruling the World (or at least my computer)

Logmein is a REAL pricey App at $30 bucks, but what it allows me to do is worth the initial investment. On many days, I have been able to leave computer at home and rely entirely on my iPad. I leave my computer on and open at home, connected to the internet, and then as long as my iPad has cell/wireless access, I can see an image of my computer directly on my iPad. This means I can access all files and all software on my iPad without having to upload to the cloud or purchase mobile versions of Beta software in order to reproduce computer functionality on my iPad. Way too cool!

Kindle for Your iPad

While the world decides on the best hardware for eReaders (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc.), I’m taking full advantage of the FREE Kindle software for my MacBook Pro, iPhone, and iPad. I have both iBooks and Kindle at the moment (software), and I find that I’m more apt to open a book on Kindle than iBooks. Not sure why yet, but the result is that I really love my free Kindle software. I have a few free books and a couple I’ve paid for through my Amazon account.

Top-”Selling” Free Apps for Education

One of the most fun Apps I downloaded is PaintSparkles. It is very, very simple and very, very fun. My niece and I spent all last weekend drawing, practicing letters and numbers, and generally just admiring the very simple and memorizing sounds and graphics that follow the movement of the finger as it draws on the iPad touch screen.

PBS Kids is a slam dunk. Free and wonderful. Just download it.

A recent NYTimes Article publishes a list of the best children’s books on iPads. Definitely worth a read! (Link to article)

I remind myself of the research project parameters below as I get back into writing, reading, and researching daily.

Purpose of the Study

There are urban educational leaders leading with a learning-oriented leadership model (Drago-Severson, 2004, 2009) and employing the pillar practices of transformational adult learning. Some are working in urban schools with significant populations of ELs and using the pillar practices to actively facilitate the transformational learning of their teachers of ELs. In this study, I plan to investigate how sixteen teachers from two urban schools describe and understand their experiences in the learning-oriented approach to leadership as it relates to their transformational learning. How teachers of ELs experience professional development that is part of a learning-oriented leadership model (Drago-Severson, 2004, 2009) in urban school districts is critical because it will help school leaders better understand how and if teachers experience growth in this leadership model that might help them respond to complex, adaptive challenges in the context of their professional lives. As a result, we may learn more about how to provide more developmentally appropriate supports and challenges to educators across the spectrum of developmental diversity in urban school contexts as they learn and grow professionally to better serve ELs in their classrooms.

Research Problem

There is important work to be done in better understanding how professional development for teachers of ELs might better prepare them for the adaptive challenges they face in their work. The explicit link has not yet been made, but it is important to note that Drago-Severson’s (2009) work with educational leaders who intentionally attend to the developmental diversity of the adults they lead highlights the importance of tending to the different ways that adults make sense of their work and life experiences. Educational leaders who recognize this diversity in the adults they lead are better able to consider how they offer different supports and challenges in the working environment. Educational leaders who are charged with leading teachers of ELs could be thinking more intentionally about developmental diversity in the supports and challenges they provide. Teachers of ELs have particularly complex and numerous adaptive challenges within the professional context of their lives, and knowing more about how to appropriately support the transformational growth of these teachers may help educational leaders transform the heightened attention on the performance of ELs within the Accountability Era context into actual gains in learning and achievement among ELs in urban schools.

Research Questions

My process for crafting my research questions has been both iterative and interactive, guided by Maxwell’s (2005) work on qualitative research design. I propose the following questions to guide the study:

1. How do 16 teachers of English learners describe and understand their experiences with adaptive challenges in their professional lives? How do they describe and understand their experiences growing to better handle the complex, adaptive challenges in their professional lives?
2. What, if any, relationship exists between participants’ ways of knowing (Kegan, 1982, 1994) and how they describe and understand their experiences growing to better handle the adaptive challenges in their professional lives?

My research questions refer to several key ideas I will use throughout this study, and I define them here. First, adaptive challenge is a term I use from Ronald Heifetz’s (1994) research on leadership. Throughout this study the term adaptive challenge is used to indicate problems in the workplace where new learning is required because the problem is not yet well-defined and/or there is not yet a known solution for that problem. Simply put: “adaptive problems are often systemic problems with no ready answers” (Heifetz & Laurie, 2001, p. 132). Second, I use the term ways of knowing in reference to Kegan’s (1994, 2000) constructive-developmental theory of adult development. This term refers to four common ways of knowing in adulthood: instrumental knowers, socializing knowers, self-authoring knowers, and self-transforming knowers. These terms will be further defined in Chapter 2. Finally, I use the term “teachers of English learners” and “teachers of ELs” to refer to any teacher in a K-12 setting who teaches one or more students either identified by federal Title 1 labels as “LEP” (Limited English Proficient) or “FLEP” (Formerly Limited English Proficient) or arriving at schools unable to perform grade-level academic tasks in English.

References

Drago-Severson, E. (2004). Helping teachers learn: Principal leadership for adult growth and development. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.

Drago-Severson, E. (2009). Leading adult learning: Supporting adult development in our schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Heifetz, R. (1994). Leadership without easy answers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Heifetz, R. A., & Laurie, D. L. (2001). The work of leadership. Harvard Business Review, 79,1-12.

Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self: Problems and process in human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kegan, R. (1994). In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kegan, R. (2000). What “form” transforms?: A constructivist-developmental approach to transformative learning. In J. Mezirow (Ed.), Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 35-69). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Wiley.

This captures the essence of o ur (Ramon, Linda, myself) project this semester for our Leadership and Governance class in UELP.

The general pattern:

(Name the topic) I am interested in learning about (working on/exploring)… [your topic and the concept]

(Imply your question(s) … because I want to find out …. [who/what/when/how/whether/why]

(State the signficance) … in order to better understand how/what/why/what…

(State the significance) … so that we will know more about/be able to determine …

The Speech

We are interested in studying the use of emotional intelligence tools for school leaders because we want to find out how using emotional intelligence tools with school leaders will enhance their ability to assess their leadership in order to build strong leadership teams in school.

I am actually enjoying the fluidity and freedom of reforming and revising my research questions. The revisions no longer incite fear of an abrupt change in project. The process makes me feel akin to a potter before the kiln hardens her wares. Place your finger or arm along or inside the clay project while it spins on the wheel, and a project starts to change shape, top to bottom. I was doing some reading for my methods class, and I have committed to revising some portion of my DP writing as I read articles and chapters that shift my thinking or give me a deeper understanding of the research process. Tonight’s writing inspired a reconfiguring of my research questions (below).

I have a few goals, but one of them is to get to one central question with sub-questions below–suggested by Creswell (2007). The other goal was to craft the questions a bit more intentionally to my chosen qualitative methods approach of writing a case study. I am still playing with the idea of incorporating ethnography data collection and analysis, advisers and logic permitting, but my questions even in the their revised form are still firmly planted in the descriptive project of my case study.

1.     How do teachers of English learners describe and understand their professional growth in the context of an urban elementary school where a learning-oriented model of leadership (Drago-Severson, 2004, 2009) defines professional development experiences?

a.     How do teachers describe and understand the supports and challenges they experience as part of their professional development?

b.     How do teachers describe and understand their informative learning experiences?

c.     How do teachers describe and understand their transformative learning experiences?

2.     What patterns of similarity and difference, if any, exist among participants with common ways of knowing as defined by Kegan’s (1982, 1994) constructive-developmental theory?

My mother had asked for this book for Christmas, but seeing as she had to go right back to work after Christmas I seeing as I had been snowed into Vermont for 4 days longer than I had expected to be, her new-found Christmas treasure and I became very well acquainted in the week after Christmas.

So the idea is super gimmicky. I love it! Every month you focus on a new organizational skill and a different room in your house or area of your life. January’s skill is time management and January’s focus area is the kitchen. Before I say more about how this book has become the Brita system for my life’s proverbial water, I’ll tell you one more thing about the set-up of the book. Each week, Leeds assigns you a task that is part reflective and part action-oriented; on average the week’s task takes 1-2 hours.

I am proud to say that yesterday, one day before the month’s end, I finished the tasks of Chapter One (January), and the kitchen in my house is now in much better shape. I can’t say it’s exactly how I want it, but then again, imposing order on an entire kitchen’s worth of stuff is more than a month’s worth of organizing and thinking. I can say that my bags of chips now have a happy home in a Muji storage unit fit for the task, and my cupboards are no longer bursting at the seams with oil, vinegars, and chipped coffee mugs.

One interesting byproduct of the month’s “work” is my relationship to time management. I’m generally an organized and goal-oriented person, but the exercises in the book were helpful in identifying where I was spending time that had nothing to do with my life’s goals. Interestingly, I hadn’t been thinking lately about what my goals were, and I found that having a chance to write them down pushed me think about them really productive ways.

Here’s one last plug for the author and book: I’m getting my financial act together at the same time as I’m getting my house in order. The day after Christmas while I was reading my mom’s copy of the book, I said I’ve got to have this for myself! I went to book store with my cousins and sister in tow, and alas, the store didn’t have a copy of the book. To my good fortune though, they did have One Year to an Organized Financial Life. Not usually my thing, but I thumbed through it and decided maybe it was time to invest. Bought the book, and guess what? I like it even more than the Organized Life book! I even redid my entire filing system in my house and organized all my tax information from 2010 and have started the paperwork to start my own small business. Pretty cool! Definitely worth poaching from a friend or loved one who may have left their copy momentarily under the tree