1. Parallel Curriculum Model
A plan for moving every child
toward expertise

2. Our Advance Organizer Define curriculum Review curriculum components
Define curriculum models
Overview of PCM goals and purposes
Definitions, goals, and purposes of each parallel
Illustrations of each parallel
Decisions and next steps
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3. The Word: Curriculum Latin: Running course
Scotland 1603: Carriage way, road
United States 1906: Course of study
United States, 1940: Plan for learning (study)
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4. What is curriculum?
Curriculum is a design PLAN for learning that requires the purposeful and proactive organization, sequencing, and management of the interactions among the teacher, the students, and the content knowledge we want students to acquire.
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5. Some of the components of a comprehensive curriculum unit
Content
Assessment
Introduction/Closure
Teaching Strategies
Learning Activities
Grouping and Pacing
Products
Resources
Extension Activities
Differentiation
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6. Characteristics of Exemplary Curriculum
Powerful knowledge goals, representative or generative topics, and big ideas
Advance organizers that clarify prior knowledge, future activities, and expectations
Motivating introductory experiences
Challenging and active learning activities
Authentic resources and products
Aligned assessment strategies and growth criteria, feedback, debriefing, transfer and extension opportunities, interaction, and support
Interest-based applications and extensions
Modifications that attend to powerful student differences
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7. What is a curriculum model?
A model is a format for curriculum design developed to meet unique needs, contexts, and/or purposes. In order to address these goals, curriculum developers design, reconfigure, or rearrange one or more key curriculum components.
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8. The Framework Underlying All Curriculum Models
KEY CURRICULUM COMPONENTS
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Intro
Content
Assessment
Resources
Extensions
Modifications
Teaching
Learning
Products
Grouping

9. Reasons and Rationale for a Curriculum Model Based on Student Differences
Why should we differentiate our curriculum?
What kinds of student differences should we address?
How will we develop or revise curriculum to address these differences?
What should we expect from differentiation?

10. Learning is our Business
We want to ensure and increase student learning and achievement.
Learning begins with attention to students’ prior knowledge, motivation, attention, effort, and perception.
Different learners have different levels of prior knowledge, motivations, effort, and learning styles.
If we attend to learner differences we can make our curriculum more efficient.
Efficiency, effectiveness, and planning increases the quality of curriculum.

11. Differences Among Learners
Students have different levels of prior knowledge and cognitive abilities (Vygotsky/Bloom/Lu/Kulick)
Some students need, prefer, or learn best with a logical, sequence of main ideas that explain the structure of a topic or discipline (Bruner/Taba/Tyler)
Other students prefer to think in analogies and to see relationships among and across ideas (Gordon/Sternberg)
Many students prefer to see how ideas are used in the world (Dewey)
Still others need to see the personal relevance of ideas and topics to become motivated to learn (Wigginton/Summerhill)
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12. So, how does PCM provide qualitatively differentiated curriculum?
Opportunities to learn the core knowledge (enduring facts, concepts, principles, and skills) within a discipline
Opportunities to learn about the numerous relationships and connections that exist across topics, disciplines, events, time, and cultures
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Opportunities to transfer and apply knowledge and/or use the tools and methods of the scholar, researcher, and practitioner
Opportunities for students to address or develop intrapersonal qualities and develop their affinities within and across disciplines

13. What is the Parallel Curriculum Model?
The Parallel Curriculum Model is a set of four interrelated designs that can be used singly, or in combination, to create or revise existing curriculum units, lessons, or tasks. Each of the four parallels offers a unique approach for organizing content, teaching, and learning that is closely aligned to the special purpose of each parallel.
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14. The Parallel Curriculum Model
OF CONNECTIONS
CURRICULUM OF
PRACTICE
CURRICULUM OF
IDENTITY
CORE CURRICULUM
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KEY CURRICULUM COMPONENTS

15. Why Four Parallels?
Qualitatively differentiated curriculum isn’t achieved by doing only one thing or one kind of thing.
Students are different.
Students have different needs at different times in their lives.
Students’ styles, talents, interests, environments and opportunities are different.
Students have different levels of expertise.
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16. The Parallel Curriculum: Four Facets of Qualitatively Differentiated Curriculum
Core: The essential nature of a discipline
Connections: The relationships among knowledge
Practice: The applications of facts, concepts, principles, skills, and methods as scholars, researchers, developers, or practitioners
Identity: Developing students’ interests and expertise, strengths, values, and character
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17. The Core Curriculum: Definition
The Core Curriculum addresses the core concepts, principles, and skills of a discipline. It is designed to help students understand essential, discipline-based content through the use of representative topics, inductive teaching, and analytic learning activities.
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18. The Curriculum of Connections: Definition
The Curriculum of Connections builds upon the Core Curriculum. It is a plan that includes a set of guidelines and procedures to help curriculum developers connect overarching concepts, principles, and skills within and across disciplines, time periods, cultures, places, and/or events. This parallel is designed to help students understand overarching concepts and principles as they relate to new content and content areas.
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19. The Curriculum of Practice: Definition
The Curriculum of Practice is a plan that includes a set of guidelines and procedures to help students understand, use, generalize, and transfer essential knowledge, understandings, and skills in a field to authentic questions, practices, and problems. This parallel is designed to help students function with increasing skill and competency as a researcher, creator, producer, problem solver, or practitioner in a field.

20. The Curriculum of Identity: Definition
The Curriculum of Identity is a plan that includes a set of guidelines and procedures to assist students in reflecting upon the relationship between the skills and ideas in a discipline and their own lives, personal growth, and development. This parallel is designed to help students explore and participate in a discipline or field as it relates to their own interests, goals, and strengths, both now and in the future.
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21. What does “Parallel” mean?
Each parallel has components that align with each other.
Parallels can be used singly or in combination.
Each of the parallels is of equal value and use with a variety of students or with an individual student at a variety of times.
The choice to use a particular parallel should be strongly related to learners’ profiles, the subject area, content goals, related units, lessons, and tasks.
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22. Ascending Levels of Demand
Ascending levels of intellectual demand is the process that escalates one or more facets of the curriculum in order to match a learner’s profile and provide appropriate challenge and pacing. Prior knowledge and opportunities, existing scheme, and cognitive abilities are major attributes of a learner’s profile. Teachers reconfigure one or more curriculum components in order to ensure that students are working in their zone of optimal development.
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23. Why Provide Ascending Levels of Intellectual Demand?
To honor differences among students
To address varying levels of prior knowledge, varying opportunities, and cognitive abilities
To ensure optimal levels of academic achievement
To support continuous learning
To ensure intrinsic motivation
To provide appropriate levels of challenge
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24. Ascending Levels of Intellectual Demand Take Into Consideration Students’ …….
Cognitive abilities
Prior knowledge
Schema
Opportunities to learn
Learning rate
Developmental differences
Levels of abstraction
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25. Ascending Levels of Intellectual Demand
Vary the depth
Adjust the abstraction
Change the complexity
Make contexts and examples more or less novel or familiar
Adjust the pace
Use more/less advanced materials and text
Provide more/less scaffolding
Provide frequent/intermittent feedback
Provide/let students infer related strategies
Infer concepts from applications and problem solving
Provide more/fewer examples
Be more/less explicit/inductive
Provide simpler/more complex problems and applications
Vary the sophistication level
Provide lengthier/briefer texts
Provide more/less text support
Require more/less independence or collaboration
Require more/less evidence
Ask for/provide analogies
Teach to concepts before/after examples
Teach principles before/after examples or concepts
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26. What are the purposes for the Parallel Curriculum Model?
Provides teachers with a comprehensive framework with which they can design, evaluate, and revise existing curriculum
Improves the quality of the curriculum units, lessons, and tasks
Enhances the alignment among the general, gifted, ESOL, and special education curricula
Increases the authenticity and power of the knowledge students acquire and their related learning activities
Offers teachers the flexibility to achieve multiple purposes
Reinforces the need to think deeply about learners and content knowledge
Uses high quality curriculum as a catalyst for observing and developing abilities in learners
Allows flexibility to address varying needs and interests of learners
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27. Ten Unique Things About PCM
Defines curriculum and curriculum models
Describes the 10 components of curriculum design
Unifies various purposes for differentiated curriculum
Identifies specific goals for each parallel
Describes how curriculum can be used to address the affective domain
Describes specifics for increasing intellectual challenge
Treats all parallels as equal in value
Supports an inclusive approach to special education
Addresses collaboration between ESE, gifted, and general education
Stresses the development of talent and expertise for every learner

28. The Core Curriculum
The Core Curriculum addresses the core concepts, principles, and skills of a discipline. It is designed to help students understand essential, discipline-based content through the use of representative topics, inductive teaching, and analytic learning activities.
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29. Core is not…….. Cultural literacy Basic skills Regular education
curriculum
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30. Categories of Knowledge
Facts: A specific detail, verifiable information
Concepts: A general idea or understanding, especially a generalized idea of a thing or class of things; a category or classification
Principles: Fundamental truths, laws, doctrines, or rules, that explains the relationship between two or more concepts
Generalizations: A generalization is a principle or concept that can be applied across topics or disciples
Skills: Proficiency, ability, or technique, strategy, method or tool
Attitudes Self-knowledge of appreciations, values,and actions related to a topic that are affective in nature
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31. Guiding Questions within the Core Curriculum
What is the essential content within this discipline?
What are the powerful concepts, principles and skills within this discipline?
Which topics best represent the core content discipline?
Which topics are developmentally appropriate for my students?
How might I help students construct an accurate scheme of this discipline?
Which resources, activities, and products provide opportunities for students’ analytic thinking about core knowledge?
How might I assess student learning?
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32. The Curriculum of Connections: Definition
The Curriculum of Connections builds upon the Core Curriculum. It is a plan that includes a set of guidelines and procedures to help curriculum developers connect overarching concepts, principles, and skills within and across disciplines, time periods, cultures, places, and/or events. This parallel is designed to help students understand overarching concepts and principles as they relate to new content and content areas.
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33. What kind of connections are we talking about?
Connections across time, events, topics, disciplines, cultures, and perspectives
Connections to self, other texts, and other people
Understanding of intra and interdisciplinary
macroconcepts
Understanding of intradisciplinary
generalizations
Understanding of interdisciplinary themes

34. Guiding Questions within the Curriculum of Connections
What are the major concepts and principles in this discipline?
Which of these major concepts and principles link to numerous topics, people, events, time periods, cultures and other disciplines?
Which topics, events, people, or time periods best represent these intra or interdisciplinary connections?
Which topics, events, people, or time periods are developmentally appropriate for my students?
How might I help students construct a more comprehensive scheme of this discipline, related topics, and other disciplines?
Which resources, activities, and products provide opportunities for students to think metaphorically about macroconcepts, principles, and generalizations?
How might I assess student learning?

35. The Curriculum of Practice: Definition
The Curriculum of Practice is a plan that includes a set of guidelines and procedures to help students understand, use, generalize, and transfer essential knowledge, understandings, and skills in a field to authentic questions, practices, and problems. This parallel is designed to help students function with increasing skill and competency as a researcher, creator, producer, problem solver, or practitioner in a field.

36. What is meant by the Curriculum of Practice?
Real world applications
Practitioner
Problem solver
Researcher
Creator
Producer

37. Why might we use the Curriculum of Practice?
Allows students to function as a practitioner, a producer, a researcher, a problem solver, or a creator in the discipline
Allows students to assume a leadership role in conducting their own research
Provides a rationale for the persistent student question, “Why is this so important to learn?”
Provides students with the tools and methods for independent learning
Provide a means for exploring the daily lives of professionals in the discipline
Offers students the opportunity to learn how to use and apply the skills of the discipline in real world situations
Supports transfer and application

38. Guiding Questions within the Curriculum of Practice
What are the common problems, practices, issues, needs, and questions within this discipline?
Who are the practitioners, researchers, problem solvers, and contributors within this discipline?
What are the powerful cognitive, research, reference, learning, communication, and methodological skills within this discipline?
What kinds of products, services, research, or investigations are typically conducted in this discipline?
Which problems, practices, issues, needs, and questions are developmentally appropriate for students?
Which resources, activities, and products provide opportunities for students’ to act like a practicing professional within this field?
How might I assess student learning?

39. The Curriculum of Identity: Definition
The Curriculum of Identity is a plan that includes a set of guidelines and procedures to assist students in reflecting upon the relationship between the skills and ideas in a discipline and their own lives, personal growth, and development. This parallel is designed to help students explore and participate in a discipline or field as it relates to their own interests, goals, and strengths, both now and in the future.

40. The Identity Parallel
Emphasizes the role of the individual within a content area
Provides opportunities for self exploration
Supports an individual’s search for affinity, affiliation, and knowledge of self
Offers a sequential plan to address increasing levels of interest and commitment to a field

41. Guiding Questions within the Curriculum of Identity
What are the various interests, abilities, and learning preferences of my students?
Which topics, skills, opportunities, and careers are related to my students’ profiles?
How might I link my students’ profiles with the content I am required to teach?
How might I introduce my students to professionals, organizations, and role models in their areas of interest and strength?
How might I help my students discover their own strengths and affinities?
How might I identify, measure, and help my students reflect upon their growth and progress toward self-actualization?
What is our long-term plan for supporting my students’ self-actualization?
Which opportunities and activities are appropriate for my students at this stage of their development ?
Which resources, activities, and products provide opportunities for students’ self-reflection and personal development?

42. Where do standards fit in with this picture?
National and state committees of content experts
Identified core concepts, principles, generalizations, skills, attitudes, and applications in various content areas.
Spiraled the content across grade levels
SSS are aligned with the “Big Ideas”

43. What is a standard?
A content standard is a declarative statement that identifies the essential knowledge in a given subject area that students should attain as a result of instruction. Performance standards, or benchmarks, specify ascending levels of understanding across various grade levels.

44. Products
Definition: Performances or work samples created by students that provide evidence of student learning
Purpose: To assess student growth, to provide for student reflection, to monitor and adjust instruction, to evaluate students
Characteristics: Aligned with the content goals, teaching methods and students’ learning needs; varied; authentic; motivating; efficient

45. Assessments
Definition: Varied tools, techniques, and criteria teachers use to measure students’ acquisition of knowledge
Purpose: To ascertain the extent to which students have attained the knowledge contained within the learning goal(s), to make decisions about future areas of emphasis
Exemplary Characteristics:
Aligned with the learning goal, reliable, valid, varied, efficient, equitable, motivating, have a low baseline and a high ceiling

46. Core: Assessments
Assess students’ prior knowledge with regard to the representative topic and core concepts, principles, and skills.
Useful assessment formats include: concept maps, journal entries, reflections, graphic organizers, charts, diagrams, tables, and collages
Evaluate the extent to which students have mastered the core concepts, principles, and skills of the discipline(s). Ask for definitions, synonyms, examples, classification, and explanations.
Use rubrics to measure student learning over time. Measure the quality/depth of conceptual understanding and guiding principles.

47. The Relationship Between Assessment and Curriculum
Prior KNOWLEDGE
PREASSESSMENT
Reveals critical differences among students. Guides teachers’ decisions and planning
TEACHING AND LEARNING
ACTIVITIES AND FEEDBACK
ON-GOING & POST ASSESSMENT

48. How might we use a particular parallel?
Design a unit
Revise a unit
Design a lesson
Revise a lesson
Design a task
Revise a task
Use in the regular classroom
Use it in the gifted or ESE program
Use it will all students
Use it with some students
Use different parallels with different curriculum components
Use one parallel while another teacher uses another parallel
Use one parallel after another teacher has used a different parallel
Move back and forth between parallels within the same unit
Use a parallel as an extension of a core unit
Use parallel activities as optional activities for some students

49. Who might design PCM curriculum?
Classroom teachers
Special education teachers
Vertical teams
Inclusion teams
Grade level teams
Curriculum developers
Subject area departments

50. With whom might I use the PCM?
Individual students
Small groups of students
Entire classes
Students with specific interests and affinities
Students who are currently unmotivated by traditional curriculum
Students with advanced levels of prior knowledge
Students with latent strengths and abilities
Students with advanced cognitive abilities

51. What contextual factors should we consider when making decisions about the use of PCM?
What is the present status and quality of our curriculum?
Which content areas are in greatest need of improvement?
What are the varying strengths and needs of our students?
How do we want students to be different as a result of our curriculum revision efforts?
What kind of content learning must we do first?
What kind of professional learning do we need to conduct?
What information do we have or can we gather about our students in order to make decisions about the appropriate use of PCM?
How might we sequence and pace a PCM initiative?

52. James Lee in Phi Delta Kappan
“When students engage in challenging and authentic learning activities in which purposeful intellectual work is connected to the real world of problem solving and creative projects and in which a critically supportive audience responds to work in progress, students’ motivation and commitment to meet high expectations increase dramatically.”

53. Caution: Cape does not enable user to fly.
  -- Batman Costume warning label

54. THE END