General Curriculum Background Information
What is Curriculum?
Curriculum is the process for "what" is taught in school. Further defined, curriculum is an educational process (a procedure, method, manner, or means - the "what" that is taught - a pedagogical course of action) of schooling (teacher instruction, student learning) is set in motion (Sorenson et al, 2011). This is the framework that will help to guide instruction.
Curriculum is the process for "what" is taught in school. Further defined, curriculum is an educational process (a procedure, method, manner, or means - the "what" that is taught - a pedagogical course of action) of schooling (teacher instruction, student learning) is set in motion (Sorenson et al, 2011). This is the framework that will help to guide instruction.
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What is Instruction?
Instruction is "how" the "what" is taught in schools. Defined further as the strategies, techniques, materials, media, and place where the curriculum is implemented (Sorenson et al, 2011). This may be the method the teacher use to teach "what" is being learned. An example would be using blogs as a reflection tool in Language Arts.
Instruction is "how" the "what" is taught in schools. Defined further as the strategies, techniques, materials, media, and place where the curriculum is implemented (Sorenson et al, 2011). This may be the method the teacher use to teach "what" is being learned. An example would be using blogs as a reflection tool in Language Arts.
Content StandardsContent standards describe the knowledge and skills that students should attain, often called the "what" of "what students should know and be able to do." They indicate the ways of thinking, working, communicating, reasoning and investigating the important and enduring ideas, concepts, issues, dilemmas and knowledge essential to the discipline. In short, content standards are the overarching ideas and knowledge that students should walk away with from a discipline.
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Performance STandardsPerformance standards are concrete statements of how well students must learn what is set out in the content standards, often called the "be able to do" of "what students should know and be able to do" Performance standards specify "how good is good enough." They are the indicators of quality that specify how adept or competent a student demonstration must be. An example of performance standards what we use at Our School is the Arrow Standards for literacy and math. More about this on website.
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BenchmarksBenchmarks are the specific component of the knowledge or skill identified by an academic content, performance or operational standard. It can be characterized as being declarative, procedural or contextual in the type of knowledge it describes. Attainment is communicated through:
Example: A grade 3 benchmark is, students can understand and apply number properties and operations.
Benchmarks help let educators, students and parents know what content and skills should be obtained over a certain period of time or grade level. |
Grade Level IndicatorsGrade Level Indicators provide even further detail by showing us what learning targets look like for each grade. These are built off the content standards and benchmarks for for each grade or discipline.
Example: Grade Level Indicators for 3rd grade math
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References
Ohio Department of Education. (2013). Content and Performance Standards. Retrieved from:
http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Academic-Content-Standards/Academic-Content-Standards-Resources/Academic-Content-
Standards-Terminology-Definitions
Iowa Department of Education. (2012). Benchmarks and Grade Level Indicators
Retrieved from: https://www.educateiowa.gov/pk-12/no-child-left-behind/standards-benchmarks-grade-level-indicators
Sorenson, R. D., Goldsmith, L. M., Mendez, Z. Y., & Maxwell, K. T. (2011). The principal’s guide to curriculum leadership. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Academic-Content-Standards/Academic-Content-Standards-Resources/Academic-Content-
Standards-Terminology-Definitions
Iowa Department of Education. (2012). Benchmarks and Grade Level Indicators
Retrieved from: https://www.educateiowa.gov/pk-12/no-child-left-behind/standards-benchmarks-grade-level-indicators
Sorenson, R. D., Goldsmith, L. M., Mendez, Z. Y., & Maxwell, K. T. (2011). The principal’s guide to curriculum leadership. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.