1. Curriculum Overview
Curriculum Team Work
Year 1

2. KTD – Curriculum Development
K = What I KNOW I Know
T = What I THINK I Know
D = What I know I DON’T Know

3. KTD – Curriculum Development
Iowa Core
Big Idea/Enduring Understanding
Mission Statement
Course Purpose
Grade Level Benchmark
Component

4. KTD – Curriculum Development
Iowa Core
Big Idea/Enduring Understanding
Mission Statement
Course Purpose
Grade Level Benchmark
Component

5. Goal for the Year
Understand the meaning behind the Iowa Core Standards
Align what we teach to the Iowa Core -21st Century Skills
Identify gaps and overlaps – fill/remove
Write a Mission Statement, Course Purposes, Grade Level Benchmarks and Components
Update the Curriculum Maps to reflect new GLB, Components and IC Standards……

6. Goal/Outcomes for Today
Look at the big picture of our work – how the Iowa Core fits in
Discuss the process for our work to understand expectations and work for the year
Define our current reality (what we teach) (Step 1)
Analyze the Iowa Core for better understanding (Step 2)
Align our BM to the IC (Step 3)

7. Questions we will answer
What is the Iowa Core?
How does the Iowa Core fit into our current Standards and Benchmarks?
What is the structure for curriculum going to look like?
Will our Curriculum Maps still be used?
What does the process look like for year 1, 2, and 3, and beyond?

8. Curriculum Assessment
Year 1 – alignment to ICC
Write Grade Level Benchmarks and Components for each grade/course
Alignment in Curriculum Maps
Curriculum
Year 3 – Aligning assessments with our curriculum. Writing common summative assessments
Continue training on Assessment OF and FOR Learning
Alignment in Curriculum Maps
Embedded in Year 2 and Year 3
Professional Development planned Characteristics of Effective Instruction – Assessment FOR Learning
Teaching And Learning
Instruction
Assessment

9. Importance of Curriculum
Second biggest impact on learning is from what is taught. (Shanahan)
Explicit curriculum is important in ensuring that teaching occurs.
Explicit curriculum prevents excessive overlaps across grade levels.
Curriculum needs to be organized.
An explicit curriculum makes differentiated instruction possible.

10. Curriculum Framework – IC and OCSD
Big Ideas/GLB: Declarative statements of enduring understandings for all students at all grade/course levels. Grade Level Benchmarks (Essential Questions)
Concepts: Describe what students should know, key knowledge, as a result of instruction, specific to grade level. Components (Concepts and Skills)
Competencies: Describe what students should be able to do, key skills, as a result of this instruction, specific to grade level. Components (Skills)

11. Big Ideas – GLB or Essential Questions
Worth Being Familiar With – these are those Nice to Know things we want student to know but they are not assessed
Important to Know and Do – Part of your subject area but not essential to life-long skill attainment – might be assessed if relate to the enduring understandings
Big Ideas– Reflected in the IC and your Content Standards and will be the Grade Level Benchmarks and Components
The enduring understandings are those things that will serve students well beyond their school years. What are the things that are worth knowing 10 years from now? What are the things that will help me organize new learning?

12. Hierarchy of OCSD Curriculum
The Grade Level Benchmarks and Components drive instruction = they provide the roadmap to what the teacher needs to teach. Currently these are reflected in the Essential Question and the Content and the Skills.
But…. They all do not meet the requirements of “Big Ideas”
Bigger Ideas…..
How do we help students “master” this content?
What do we do if they don’t?
Content Area Standard/IC
Subject Mission Statement
Grade Level/Course Purpose
Grade Level Benchmarks
Components

13. Steps in the Process Step 1: Define Current Reality
Step 2: Analyze the Iowa Core
Step 3: Align current reality with IC – eliminate any gaps and/or overlaps
Step 4: Develop a Subject Mission Statement
Step 5: Develop Grade Level/Course Purposes
Step 6 and 7: Write Grade Level Benchmarks and Components
Step 8: How do GLB’s and Components fit with GLB – Based Grading?

14. IC and the “Big Ideas” What does the Iowa Core look like?
Do we teach the big ideas described in the IC? What’s our current reality?
What if we don’t teach something in the Iowa Core now?
Do we have any gaps or overlaps in our curriculum right now after aligning to the IC?

15. Current Reality – Step 1
On the “walls” list what you are currently teaching
Look at the essential question/content/skills and identify the “Big Ideas” your grade level or course teaches. (You can use your ATLAS maps to assist with this and your Standards/Benchmarks

16. Understanding IC – Step 2
What do the Benchmarks of the Iowa Core 21st Century Skills mean – what do they expect our students to know and be able to do within a grade band?
Iowa Core
Determine what big idea they are wanting our students to know – discuss and write what you believe the meaning to be and how it fits into Music.

17. Aligning with the IC – Step 3
Using the strands from the Iowa Core 21st Century Skills, determine which Benchmarks you are currently teaching and at what grade level… then place the name of the strand and the BM number next to the content on your “wall”
If there is content in the IC that is not on your “wall” you will need to add it to the appropriate grade level within that band.
Do we have any overlaps within a band? With any other grade level/course? (appropriate?)

18. Mission Statement – Step 4
Answer the questions:
Why do we have a Music curriculum and what we want students to know and be able to do?
Why does this area exist in our curriculum?
Is:
Student focused (Students will be able to…)
Measurable
Descriptive about curricular area

19. Mission Statement
Music offers students a prism through which to develop both creative and critical skills, thus enabling them to synthesize their subjective experiences with history, theory and culture. Using a variety of approaches, students hone communication and problem solving skills, learning craftsmanship and teamwork through sustained effort. Above all, our faculty prepares students to become thinking, articulate, sensitive and conscientious citizens and musicians.
Fostering Educational and Artistic Excellence
To advance music education by encouraging the study and making of music by all.
The study of music provides students with the skills necessary to use their minds creatively as well as intellectually. To instill within each student an understanding, appreciation and love for music

20. Grade Level/Course Purpose – Step 5
Answers the questions
What will students in the 4th grade know and be able to do?
What will be different from the emphasis in another grade? What will the focus be in this grade/course?
Is:
Student focused (Students will be able to…)
Measurable
Descriptive about grade level/course

21. Course Purpose 7th Grade Example – Instrumental Music
Students will express themselves through musical performance. They will demonstrate characteristic tone quality, music literacy, and ensemble skills through a variety of technique studies and literature.

22. Writing Grade Level Benchmarks – Step 6
Must:
Be student focused “The student will….
Be measurable
Begin with a verb which determines level of thinking and indicate method of summative assessment
Be from Bloom’s top 4 levels of Bloom’s taxonomy
Be indicative of the main skill/concept – the essential question or purpose of the unit of study

23. Writing Components – Step 7
Must:
Be student focused “The student will….
Begin with a verb which determines level of thinking and indicate method of formative assessment
Be measurable
Be from Bloom’s any levels of Bloom’s taxonomy – scaffolding of skills and concepts should take place
Provide direction for instruction toward success of the Grade Level Benchmark

24. Big Ideas/GLB are… Reflect Higher Order Thinking - Rigorous
They require “uncoverage.” or “investigation” or “evaluation” These abstract concepts stimulate higher-level thinking. They are more than just facts. They come from the top 4 levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. They have a greater potential for engaging students. The verb provides clues as to the assessment
Student Centered
They reflect what the student will know or be able to do as result, not what the teacher will do
Timeless
The concept transcends individual examples and/or activities. They have enduring value beyond the classroom. They will be relevant to any time teaching and do not reflect specifics – reflect skills such as problem solving
Measurable
They can be measured to determine success.
Essential Concepts or Skills
They are the heart of the discipline. They are worthy of the time it will take to study them at some depth
( and Understanding by Design. Wiggins & McTighe. ASCD )

25. Big Ideas/GLB Are Not…
Topics (Apples, Winter, Shakespeare, Maps, Fractions)
Facts (2x4=8, red and yellow make orange, the capital of Illinois is Springfield)
Skills (multiplying, painting, memorizing, rhyming)
Assignments (research paper, collage, speech, book report)
Textbook Units (Unit 1, The World At War, Rational Numbers)

26. Science Example Apples Better Choices:
Students will describe different species of plants and animals and different classify them by observable characteristics
Students will demonstrate understanding that plants and animals have life cycles including being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying.
Students will illustrate that organisms have basic needs.
Students will consider a variety of ways humans change environments in ways that can be either beneficial or detrimental to themselves or other organisms.
(IC/Life Science/K-2)
Apples is a topic, not a big idea. As such, there is no concept that can be considered timeless or universal. While one may really like apples, they aren’t considered engaging for study. While a unit on apples may contain worthwhile activities, it is important that students are learning concepts not just “doing activities.”

27. Literacy Example Main Idea Better Choices
Students will use a variety of strategies to make sense of what they read.
Students will monitor their thinking as they read so that the text makes sense
Students will use a variety of strategies to fix their reading when meaning breaks down.
This (Main Idea) is really an essential skill, not a “big idea.”

28. Music Example Rhythm Better Choices
Students will demonstrate music literacy through a variety of technique studies and literature.
Read, create and perform the following rhythms: whole notes and rests, dotted half notes, half notes and rests, dotted quarter notes, quarter notes and rests, dotted eighth notes, eighth notes and rests, sixteen notes and rests, and syncopated rhythms.
Demonstrate a steady beat and rhythmic accuracy through foot tapping, clapping, and counting out loud.

29. Developing big ideas/GLB helps students
“Understand rather than memorize
Retain ideas and facts longer because they are more meaningful
Make connections between subjects and facets of a single subject
Relate ideas to their own lives, and
Build networks of meaning for effectively dealing with future knowledge.”
(from How to Differentiate in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, 2nd Edition; C.A. Tomlinson; ASCD; 2001)

30. Grade Level Benchmarks
Describes the “essential” things ALL students in this grade level or course MUST KNOW or BE ABLE TO DO in Music
GLB's are units of instruction that make connections between separate concepts or skills
Year-long course = 7-12 GLB's
Trimester = 3-6 GLB's

31. Grade Level Benchmarks
Each GLB requires high level of student thinking as well as dynamic student involvement in their learning
Written with verbs from top 4 level of Bloom's Taxonomy – application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation
Each GLB directs the assessment
Summative Assessment

32. GLB's Criteria: A positive statement about what the students will do
Verbs describing specific, measurable actions
Includes an end result – what the student will be able to do
High levels of achievement – Bloom's top 4 levels of thinking

33. GLB's - Example What is wrong with these examples?
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to identify notes
Introduce the vocabulary words
Students will understand tempo
Students will read the textbook chapter about composers

34. Components
Statements of concepts or skills that describe what students must know or do in order to perform the GLB.
Can be written from all levels of Bloom's Taxonomy
Content or skills scaffold as the GLB is taught
3-8 per GLB

35. Components - Continued
Simple and Complex skills
Must have students being active, not passive learners
Teachers become more facilitative instead of only providing information that students memorize

36. Components - Continued
Which are simple and which are complex?
Students will maintain a steady beat
Students will conduct research on a composer
Students will perform a piece using correct tempo
Students will read melodies
Students will play melodies in three-part rounds

37. Grade Level Benchmarks
How do you go about identifying GLB's?
What are the “essential” skills/topics?
What is the relevance of the topic/skills?
What might students “do” with the information they learn?
What skills will be involved?
Are several topics related – if yes, group together
Those connected skills/topics make up a GLB
Quiz time!

38. Grade Level Benchmark
Answer the following questions to make sure it meets all GLB requirements
DOES IT....?
Uses a positive statement and tells what the student will do
Uses a specific measurable action verb
Contains an end result
Requires high levels of thinking
Requires dynamic student involvement
Make connections – topics, skills and applications related
Directs the summative assessment

39. Grade Level Benchmarks
How do we write the GLB?
Group topics/skills together – lay out your “wall”
Don't force groupings
Visualize the grouping – what will students be able to do when they participate in the learning?
What will students know or be able to do?
Check the criteria to be sure all are present
Are all the components – skills and topics – identified and included in the GLB?
Remember to make all statements specific and measurable
Components tend to scaffold content or skills

40. Monitor Implementation
How will we know if the curriculum is leading students to mastering the content?
What do we do if our students have mastered the content before instruction?
What will we do if they are not mastering the content?
What supports are we providing to the struggling learners in our classroom?
What will you do to make sure ALL students master the content?

41. Updating Curriculum Maps