Increasing Student Learning

Increasing Student Learning

Best Practices for Building and Using CM to Improve Student and School Performance
Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs

Difference between standards, curriculum

• Standards are guidelines
• Many curriculum documents are well-intentioned pieces of fiction


• Example – medicine, guidelines are not applied the same to all patients. Each
  patient has unique needs. In education, each school has a unique population and over time, within the school populations change.
• Curriculum


• Should reflect what is actually happening in the classroom

Isn’t this just another fad?

• It is a very different environment now, than even ten years ago
• Internet – can access schools from all over the world
• Computers – allow for ease of recording and dissemination, plus linking of documents
• Curriculum is not a static document any more – information and technology is changing
• It is replacing the old model of a committee writing documents that aren’t used. The
  maps reflect reality, not fantasy
• Difference between autonomy and isolated teachers, teaching what they want
• Without an understanding of the total K-12 experience, teachers are in isolation

Curriculum – a path to run in small steps, Latin root

• Internal alignment within maps
• Assessment should reflect the skills that are listed
• A pop quiz does not assess formation of hypothesis
• Alignment between teachers – reflecting what actually happened each year
• Goal of assessment is to improve students learning. It shouldn’t just be for
  grading.
  • English teacher correcting mistakes doesn’t teach the student to do it
  • Coaches, music teacher etc don’t DO the work for the student, they coach and model
  
  Bi-Level Analysis


• Look at the subject matter concepts and the skills required in the test
  • “Translate” the directions - explain how you do or figure out the way to do the
    problem
  • Talk about the words – explain how you did it - use thinking words
  • Highlight the requisite language capacity
• Linguistic patterns –
• length of passage
• language used in questions/prompts – prepositions
• High frequency words
• Infer, analyze, determine etc
• These words need to be posted and used within the content areas.
• Specialized words
• Subject specific or discipline specific
• Looking it up isn’t showing knowledge or using the word
• Kids should be speaking the words, not just reading
• Editing and revising strategies
• Word choice – strengthens the writing
• Unit specific – word walls showing useful words for the unit
• Revise for better adjectives
• Paragraphing - What makes a paragraph complete?
• Basic punctuation
• Fuzzy spelling
• Most assessments are short reading and writing responses – however, this is backward
  from how we learn language
• We listen, speak, write, then read. Our classrooms assume the opposite
• Curriculum Mapping is the hub for other issues – standards, literacy, technology. All
  can be represented on the maps. It gives a focal point for discussion.