Curriculum
Curriculum is WHAT we want our students to learn. This starts with CVU's Expectations for Student Learning (ESLs), which include broad, analytical rubrics intended to assess transferable skills over time. Directly informing and supporting the ESLs are other local, state, and national guidelines for curriculum development (i.e. Department Literacies and the Common Core Standards, which provide more specific learning targets that can be used to design instruction).
Curriculum also includes course and unit KUDs, which are our local curriculum guides driven by the ESLs, Common Core, and our own departmental requirements/suggestions. All courses at CVU now have course KUDs, and most teachers use unit KUDs to drive their assessment and instruction. Many teachers also provide unit KUDs to their students to keep the learning goals clear and explicit.
ESLs Course KUDs Common Core
Curriculum also includes course and unit KUDs, which are our local curriculum guides driven by the ESLs, Common Core, and our own departmental requirements/suggestions. All courses at CVU now have course KUDs, and most teachers use unit KUDs to drive their assessment and instruction. Many teachers also provide unit KUDs to their students to keep the learning goals clear and explicit.
ESLs Course KUDs Common Core
Designing Your KUDs
Before you begin teaching, you need to know where you're headed. This is basic backwards design (Wiggins and McTighe). What are your goals for learning? What do you want your students to Know, Understand, and be able to Do? What does your department require? What do state and/or national standards require? This is the most important part of a successful course or unit; knowing what you want all students to know, understand, and be able to do, allows you to determine what and how to teach, and what, when, and how to differentiate. Standards help make KUDs easier, as they provide measurable goals for us.
Know: these are the facts. What information, content, people, places, terms, formulas, etc., do ALL students need to know by the end of the unit. These should be things that could be put on flash-cards or memorized.
Understand: these are big ideas. Ten years from now, what do you hope they still understand about this topic? These should be worded as thesis statements. "At the end of the unit, all students should understand that....", then finish the sentence.
Do: these are the skills. What will students be able to DO at the end of the unit? Each of these should start with a verb. These are not the daily activities or learning experiences, rather, they are the skills that they will learn through those activities and experiences. This is where the language of the standards will most often be helpful, so use the language of the standards whenever possible. Here are some Google docs that can make it easier to steal the language for your KUDs (and even create custom standards-based rubrics):
ESL Indicators Common Core Standards
World Language Literacy Science Literacy Math Literacy
Fine Arts Literacy Practical Arts Literacy
Know: these are the facts. What information, content, people, places, terms, formulas, etc., do ALL students need to know by the end of the unit. These should be things that could be put on flash-cards or memorized.
Understand: these are big ideas. Ten years from now, what do you hope they still understand about this topic? These should be worded as thesis statements. "At the end of the unit, all students should understand that....", then finish the sentence.
Do: these are the skills. What will students be able to DO at the end of the unit? Each of these should start with a verb. These are not the daily activities or learning experiences, rather, they are the skills that they will learn through those activities and experiences. This is where the language of the standards will most often be helpful, so use the language of the standards whenever possible. Here are some Google docs that can make it easier to steal the language for your KUDs (and even create custom standards-based rubrics):
ESL Indicators Common Core Standards
World Language Literacy Science Literacy Math Literacy
Fine Arts Literacy Practical Arts Literacy
KUD Template
Scales
Scales are a bridge between our curriculum and our instruction. Based on the research of Marzano, scales are 4-pt ESL-based rubrics used to guide instruction and track student learning. They are more precise and grade-appropriate tools that allow teachers to communicate measurable expectations about skills and content to students, and to provide precise information about necessary skill or content instruction. Scales are worded to help students understand what is expected; they are written in first-person and explain what a student can do, not what he/she can't do. Drafted scales currently exist for 9th and 10th grade-level skills from ESLs 1, 2, 3, and parts of 4 and 5. We have also created 11/12 scales for Reading.
Scales and all they entail and allow are exciting, yet complicated, and it’s clear that we have a lot of work still to do in this area. Teachers are experimenting with and honing the existing drafts, and we will all share what works once we know what works.
9th Grade
10th Grade
11/12 Reading Literature
11/12 Reading Informational Text
Scales and all they entail and allow are exciting, yet complicated, and it’s clear that we have a lot of work still to do in this area. Teachers are experimenting with and honing the existing drafts, and we will all share what works once we know what works.
9th Grade
10th Grade
11/12 Reading Literature
11/12 Reading Informational Text