Planning with a Focus on Student Understanding St. Amant High School 1.

Planning with a Focus on Student Understanding

St. Amant High School

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Whole Group Goal

Participants will deepen their understanding of the components of the curriculum framework in order to impact effective planning and teaching.

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Curricular Framework

Big PictureGuiding Questions

Grade Level Expectations (GLEs)

Essential Question

HowHow is the framework forthe curriculum created with

a priority for studentunderstanding?

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Read over the Hypothetical High School Cross-Curricular Unit on The Holocaust

What about this unit represents best teaching practices?

A Familiar TruthThe Holocaust units presents a familiar scene – an

activityoriented curriculum in which students participate in a variety of learning activities. The unit is engaging for students and is organized around a theme to provideInterdisciplinary, real-world connections.

These are all great qualities within a curricular unit.

But questions remain….

Consider just the ENGLISH portion…

What are the big ideas and important skills to be developed during the unit according to the APCC?

Do the activities reflect those big ideas and important skills?

What understandings will emerge from all these activities and will endure?

Quick Activity In your envelopes, find the slips of paper

that represent stages of planning instruction.

Put those slips in the order that you perform them when starting a new unit.

Compare your sequence to that of your neighbor’s. Discuss how they are alike or different and WHY.

Stages in Backward Design Process

1. Identify Desired Results

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2. Determine Acceptable Evidence

3. Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction

Identify Desired Results stage 1

What do we want students to understand and be able to do?

What enduring knowledge is worth understanding?

What should my students remember 50 years from now?

What essential knowledge should my students retain?

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Non-example of Enduring Understanding

Determine Acceptable Evidence stage 2

Evidence (from assessment) has to show us what students know and understand.

Teachers must recognize the difference between a student knowing the content and a student understanding that content.

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Plan for “Acceptable Evidence”

Ask yourself: What do I want to hear my students say and what do I want to see my students do to prove their understanding?

Then: Plan assessments that give students the opportunities to say and do those things

• Throughout the unit• At the end of the unit

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Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction stage 3

What activities will I use to develop my students’ understanding?

How will the activities be organized to support the level of thinking required?

How will I differentiate instruction so that all students achieve the goals?

The Equation

Curriculum Document•Derived from National/State Standards• Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum• Represents collective wisdom

Teacher•Teacher knowledge of content and curriculum• Level of implementation •for instructional practices/strategies• Lesson Design• Understanding of students

Students•What do they already know?•What do they need?•How do they learn best?•What knowledge will they need to truly understand?

Student Understanding

Curriculum Framework –The Constant Variable

Big PictureGuiding Questions

GLEs