1. Bridging the Gap Math and Curriculum Redesign Fonda Vadnais fonda
Bridging the Gap Math and Curriculum Redesign Fonda Vadnais
Cover slide. Provide people with a 2 minute warning. The title of our session and review the topic.

2. Sorting Activity
Provide each group with a file folder and an envelope of definitions.

3. Cross-Curricular Competencies Mathematical Processes
Literacy/Numeracy Benchmarks
Curricular General Learner Outcomes
An interrelated set of attitudes, skills, and knowledge that is drawn upon and applied to a particular context for successful learning and living. (3)
Critical components of math knowledge that enable success in mathematics education and embrace lifelong learning in mathematics. (4)
Acquire, connect, create and communicate meaning in a variety of contexts throughout daily life to discover and make sense of the world. (1)
Overarching statements about what students are expected to learn in each part of the Alberta mathematics Program of Study. (2)
Definition answers
Hand our envelope with descriptors to each group
Hand out answer keys – k-9 or 10-12

4. INSPIRING EDUCATION: THE JOURNEY BEGINS
Discuss Inspiring Education document. It forms the foundation of everything that Alberta Education is working towards. Show document and that it is available on Alberta Education’s website for download. Copies can be ordered at a cost of $6.25 per book from Alberta Education. We are willing to place a bulk order if there is interest from jurisdictions, or you can download it.
Show video. Link is embedded in the “Curriculum Redesign Introductory Video”
Curriculum Redesign Introductory Video

5. Alberta Education Mission: To ensure inclusive learning opportunities that enable Kindergarten to Grade 12 students to achieve success as engaged thinkers and ethical citizens with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Alberta Education’s mission is founded on the work done through Inspiring Education. Review the mission. The one area that has created the most controversy is “entrepreneurial spirit”. Clarification of each term is provided by Alberta Education.

6. Engaged Thinker Ethical Citizen Entrepreneurial Spirit
Collaborating to create new knowledge
Ethical Citizen
Doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do
Entrepreneurial Spirit
Creating new opportunities
Review the three terms and descriptive statements.
Hand out – descriptors of each in point form

7. Collaborating to create new knowledge
Engaged Thinker
Collaborating to create new knowledge
Think critically and creatively.
Make discoveries through inquiry, reflection, exploration, experimentation and trial and error.
Use technology to learn, innovate, collaborate and communicate.
Gather, analyze and evaluate information.
Work with multiple perspectives and disciplines to identify problems and solutions.
Integrate ideas from a variety of sources into a coherent response.
Communicate well with others.
Statements related to “Engaged Thinker”.

8. Doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do
Ethical Citizen
Doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do
Care for myself physically, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually.
Move beyond self-interests to the needs of others.
Build relationships based on humility, fairness, and open-mindedness.
Collaborate and communicate to contribute fully to the community and the world; environmentally, economically, culturally, socially and politically.
Engage with many cultures, religions, and languages; demonstrating respect, empathy and compassion for people and issues.
Assume life responsibilities – whether they be the duties of parent, neighbour, mentor, employee or employer.
Adapt to any situation by relying on personal knowledge, skills, or an experience; yet request the assistance of others and request assistance for others when needed.
Statements related to “Ethical Citizen”.

9. Entrepreneurial Spirit Creating New Opportunities
Create opportunities and achieve goals through hard work, perseverance and discipline.
Strive for excellence and success, and am respected for my achievements.
Explore ideas and technologies individually and in diverse teams, challenging the status quo.
Take risks and make bold decisions in the face of adversity.
Transform discoveries into products or services that benefit my school, community and the world.
Statements related to “Entrepreneurial Spirit”.

11. This cartoon identifies the need for the shift to a competency focused education

12. NEW MINISTERIAL ORDER ON STUDENT LEARNING
The Ministerial Order on Student Learning was signed May 6, This is a legal document. It is Not in Draft and mandates what must be reflected in our schools today. There is a link to the Ministerial Order on the SAPDC website as well as here.

13. COMPETENCIES
A focus on competencies is less about knowing something and more about how and where to access the information and then engaging ethically and entrepreneurially with what is known to create and innovate. This shifts education away from a process of disseminating information to a process of inquiry and discovery.
"A competency is not merely a collection of skills; it is a way of approaching problems and issues, within which certain skills are required." ("Good Thinking: The Creative and Competent Mind", Helen Haste, Creativity, Wisdom, and Trusteeship)

14. WHAT IS A CROSS CURRICULAR COMPETENCY?
An interrelated set of attitudes, skills and knowledge
Applied in developmentally appropriate contexts for successful living and learning
Applied from K-12 across all subject/discipline areas
A multi-disciplinary competency is an interrelated set of attitudes, skills and knowledge that is drawn upon and applied to a particular context for successful living and learning. The multi-disciplinary competencies are applied in developmentally appropriate contexts from K through Grade 12 and across subject/discipline areas. They are closely associated with learner outcomes.

15. WHY CROSS-CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES?
Growth of the whole child
Enable personalized learning
Support teacher decision making
Provide consistency across subject/discipline areas and in assessing and reporting
Growth of the whole child – a student centered approach
Enables personalized learning and supports teacher decision making by allowing teachers to select the indicator that best meets the needs of the student and is appropriate to the context of the learning experience.
Provides consistency for students as they develop the acquired competencies and for assessing and reporting student progress and achievement relative to the cross-curricular competency.

16. THE 10 MULTI-DISCIPLINARY COMPETENCIES
Know how to learn
Think critically
Identify and solve complex problems
Manage information
Innovate
Create opportunities
Apply multiple literacies
Demonstrate good communication skills
Demonstrate global and cultural understanding
Identify and apply career and life skills
Multi-disciplinary Competencies – are developed for every student, in every grade, across every subject/discipline over time.
These are the shortened versions – the detailed competencies can be found in the Ministerial Order on Student Learning or in the one page poster.

17. What Practices Do You Currently Do In The Specific Topic Area
Competency
What Practices Do You Currently Do In The Specific Topic Area
Know how to learn
Think critically
Identify and solve complex problems
Manage information
Innovate
Create opportunities
Apply multiple literacies
Demonstrate good communication skills and work cooperatively with others
Demonstrate global and cultural understanding
Identify and apply career and life skills
We are all doing great things in our math classrooms and already addressing many, if not all of these competencies. This activity would be a great starting point as you look at and evaluate where you are along this transition to Curriculum Redesign. The next step would be to create teaching moments, assignments, activities or tasks to address the competencies that are missing in your current practice.

18. Arts Literacy Numeracy Language Arts Mathematics Science
Social Studies
Wellness
(e) innovate: create, generate and apply new ideas or concepts
( c) Identify and Solve Complex Problems
(a) know How To Learn, to gain knowledge
New curriculum will have a foundation in Literacy and Numeracy. Curriculum will be developed in 6 content areas. The 10 multi-disciplinary competencies are then woven throughout each content area.
The pedagogical shift is that “Literacy and Numeracy” and the “10 Competencies” are embedded in each content area within the initial planning. A question will be how and what will schools assess in this model.

19. Literacy and Numeracy are foundational to all student learning
Literacy and Numeracy are foundational to all student learning. Literacy is more than just the ability to read and write, and numeracy is more than the ability to solve number problems. They are a means of discovering and making sense of the world
Literacy
Numeracy
A literate person has the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute in varying contexts in and BEYOND the classroom.
A numerate person has the confidence and habit of mind to search out quantitative or spatial information, critically assess, reflect upon and apply it in their lives when making judgments or decisions and taking action.
If we try to differentiate Literacy from Language Arts and Numeracy from Math, we see that literacy is more than just the ability to read and write and numeracy more than just the ability to solve number problems.
A Literate person has the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, in a variety of contexts in and BEYOND the classroom.
A Numerate person has the confidence and habit of mind to search out quantitative or spatial information, critically assess, reflect upon and apply it in their lives when making judgments or decisions and taking action. 
Click on literacy and numeracy to play videos from slide show view linked to “Literacy” and “Numeracy”

20. Looking at a Problem Mathematically
Greg is helping his friends move from Edmonton to Calgary, a distance of 300 km. He has borrowed his father’s truck to transport the furniture. If he travels at a speed of 100 km per hour, how long will he need to truck?
Mathematically the answer is simply 6 hours. But lets bring in our knowledge of how things work in the world – our numeracy and Literacy skills.
Are you driving straight through? Did you stop and unload the furniture? Did you stop for gas or to eat? What time of day/ are you travelling – traffic/road conditions? What part of your trip is High wat and what part is city driving?

21. The Lack of Pirates is Causing Global Warming
If we read this graph mathematically the title is true. So being numerate and literate really does matter.
Being Numerate Matters

22. Literacy and Numeracy
Handout the Literacy and Numeracy benchmarks and have participants sort them
Benchmarks here have been re-written in a condensed generic manner. This is only one interpretation of where the benchmarks might fit, some teachers say all the benchmarks could fall in the overlap area – the discussion is the important part here.

23. Literacy and Numeracy Literacy Numeracy use qualitative and
spatial concepts to
communicate meaning
use diverse texts and media to communicate
create and express meaning
communicate what we know, can do and want to learn
communicate about concepts, ideas and understandings
use language tools to communicate meaning
connect prior knowledge and experiences to create new understandings
use effective literacy/problem solving strategies to acquire knowledge
use effective strategies to respond to knowledge
use effective strategies to generate and share information
use effective mental calculations and estimation strategies to manage information
analyze and evaluate information
Handout the Literacy and Numeracy benchmarks and have participants sort them
Benchmarks here have been re-written in a condensed generic manner. This is only one interpretation of where the benchmarks might fit, some teachers say all the benchmarks could fall in the overlap area – the discussion is the important part here.

25. Learning Resources
Moving away from print to digital resources.
No Learning Resource Centre to buy textbooks from – Purchase directly from the publishers
Publishers are now creating digital textbooks.
Will teachers use digital textbooks the same way as print? Hope not!
What does that mean for your school, your teachers and your students?
Moved from one type of technology - the book – to many different technologies: phones, tablets, computers and this will change rapidly
Watch video “The Book” 2:38 less if they get the point.
If they find this amusing what will your grandchildren think about the tools we are so enamoured with today?
References: Library
Computer
Cell Phone
Tablets

26. DIGITALLY-BASED ASSESSMENT
Inspiring Action on Education (June 2010) contemplates a future where “provincial assessment could also be made available on-demand.”
Realizing this vision is only possible through digitally-based exam administrations
Digitally-based provincial assessments will enable
Secure delivery of assistive technologies such as text-to-speech
The use of multi-media in provincial assessments
Innovative assessment items
Assessments to be securely delivered across a broad spectrum of devices
Many existing and legacy systems will need to be replaced or enhanced
Ideally, cloud-based infrastructure will be utilized that can easily respond to rapid spikes in demand.
Alberta Education is moving to digitally based provincial assessments to meet the “On-Demand” element. AB Ed is currently looking for a new platform to deliver the type of assessments that will be required to measure student attainment of the newly developed curriculum.

27. INCREASED DIPLOMA ADMINISTRATIONS
This year, both the November and April diploma examination sessions are considered “open sessions”.
In the past, these two sessions were restricted to schools and students enrolled in courses that concluded in November and April.
Students may now re-write diploma examinations during these two sessions without having a current November or April course mark.
Pre-registration for these two sessions is mandatory.
In November, Chemistry 30, ELA 30-2, Math 30-1 and Physics 30 are offered.
In April, Biology 30, ELA 30-1, Social Studies 30-1 and Social Studies are offered.
In the transition period, AB Ed has responded by expanding the “Diploma Exam Administration”.

28. FUTURE INCREASED OFFERINGS
In November 2015 and April 2016, all “high-demand” diploma examination subjects will be offered during these two sessions:
Biology 30
Chemistry 30
ELA 30-1
ELA 30-2
Mathematics 30-1
Physics 30
Social Studies 30-1
Social Studies 30-2
Future offerings of Diploma Exams.

29. STUDENT LEARNING ASSESSMENTS (SLAs)
On May 9, 2013 Minister Jeff Johnson announced that Alberta would be giving teachers more tools to help students succeed by introducing assessments that will replace the existing Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs).
The Student Learning Assessments (SLAs) will be digital and will be administered at the start of Grades 3, 6, and 9.
A window of approximately 10 days, near the start of the school year, will provide schools with the opportunity to decide when it will be best for students to complete the assessments.
The outcomes that will be assessed come from the previous year’s Programs of Studies (i.e. grades 2, 5, and 8).

30. SLAs
Grade 3 and 6 SLAs will be based on the numeracy and literacy benchmarks found in the learner outcomes of the current grade 2 and 5 programs of study
By 2017 all SLAs , grade 3, 6, and 9 will be developed to assess the cross curricular competencies and Numeracy and Literacy Benchmarks.
Grade 9 SLAs will be developed to assess a range of components.

31. TIMELINES for SLAs June 2014 June 2015 June 2016 September 2017
Choice Last administration Last administration Full implementation
administration of (full cohort) of the (full cohort) of the of the Grade 9 SLAs
Grade 3 PATs Grade 6 PATs Grade 9 PATs
___________________________________________________________________________
June September September September 2016
Last full-cohort Choice Full implementation Full implementation
administration of administration of of the Grade 3 SLAs of the Grade 6 SLAs
the Grade 3 PATs Grade 3 SLAs and piloting of the and piloting of the
Grade 6 SLAs Grade 9 SLAs