Aligning the BVSD Curriculum with the new Colorado Academic Standards

1. Aligning the BVSD Curriculum with the new Colorado Academic Standards

2. Goals for Today • Understand the transition to the new Curriculum Essentials Documents within the context of the change process and the Standards Based Teaching and Learning Cycle • Prepare to lead a session between February 9 and April 19 with faculty at your school to share the vision, timeline, and supports for the transition to the new CEDs

3. At the national level… 2009 National Common Core State Standards (CCSS) published for Language Arts and Mathematics

4. At the national level… 2009 National Common Core State Standards (CCSS) published for Language Arts and Mathematics Adopted by the Colorado State Board of Education

5. 2010 - Colorado adopted the new Colorado Academic Standards (CAS)

6. CDE’s advice for districts regarding new Colorado Academic Standards adopted in December 2010 In 2011-2012: Review local standards by December 2011 and make needed revisions, pursuant to SB 08-212 Design/redesign curriculum based on Colorado Academic Standards Provide professional development on the Standards-based Teaching and Learning Cycle

7. BVSD Timeline • Summer 2011 – BVSD Standards and curriculum revised by teacher teams to align with new state standards • Sept-Oct 2011 – feedback and revision • October 14 – Teacher collaboration about Curriculum Essentials Documents • November 2011 – present standards and overview of revised curriculum to BVSD Board of Education • December 2011 – Board of Education asked to approve standards • Jan-May 2012 – present details of curriculum documents in each content area to the Board of Education

9. Complex change Transitioning to Curriculum Documents that change the way content is organized and, in some cases, change the actual content students will learn.

10. Complex change This transition is nested within an even more complex change:

11. Complex change This transition is nested within an even more complex change: Implementing the Standards-Based Teaching and Learning Cycle

12. Standards-based Teaching and Learning Cycle New Curriculum Essentials Documents

13. Standards-based Teaching and Learning Cycle A: Standards in all academic disciplines or content areas*, along with benchmark information, concepts and skills, are identified and adopted at the district level. B: Essential benchmark information, concepts and skills expected for all students are identified and described. C: Essential benchmarks are articulated (aligned) within and among grade levels and across the district to ensure there are no gaps or unnecessary overlaps in those expected learnings. D: Adopted curricula provide a scope and sequence of essential benchmarks that engage students in learning standards in all content areas. E: Curriculum guides (frameworks), maps, pacing guides or other curricular tools are produced at the district level to assist teachers to plan effective instruction that focuses on essential benchmark information, concepts and skills.

14. Standards-based Teaching and Learning Cycle F: Descriptions of proficiency are created to describe the types and levels or performance expected for all essential benchmark concepts and skills in all content areas and grade levels. G: Examples of proficient student work are created and distributed to teachers to provide models of learning and performance expectations for all essential benchmark concepts and skills. H: Adopted or purchased instructional programs and materials are intentionally articulated and aligned with standards-based curricula, I: Standards and benchmarks are communicated effectively to students and parents. Students understand and can describe proficient performance for those concepts and skills.

15. Standards-based Teaching and Learning Cycle Curriculum Essentials Documents Intervention & Extension Assessments Summative &Formative Instructional Best Practices

16. Without vision, there is confusion.

17. At your table, discuss the following scenario, and record your talking points for each question. Please be prepared to share out. You are presenting to your faculty about the changes in the Curriculum Essentials Documents and the implications of those changes. Your teachers ask you the following question: What would you say? What do the Curriculum Essentials Documents have to do with helping students learn?

18. People who lack confidence in their skills to implement change may experience anxiety.

19. At your table, please discuss the skills that teachers at your school need the most support with. How might teachers get support in developing these skills?

20. Without incentives, change may be gradual at best. At worst, there may outright resistance.

21. Without adequate resources, even people who embrace the vision may become frustrated.

22. At your table, please discuss what incentives might be most effective with teachers at your school. What resources, in addition to time and money, might your teachers need in order to implement the curriculum?

23. Without an action plan, the system experiences false starts.

24. Action Plan for BVSD’s Implementation of Curriculum What do students need to know, understand and be able to do?

25. Your School Presentation • As you design a presentation for your staff…… • Determine the possible use of any slides prior to this one & incorporate them into this section of the power point. • Because of the implementation variability of the Standards Based Teaching & Learning Cycle within schools, please adjust the use of slides & amount of time spent sharing the following information to meet the needs of your faculty. • Pull up this presentation and add notes in the notes field or take notes on your paper copy.

26. Standards-based Teaching and Learning Cycle New Curriculum Essentials Documents

27. Standards-based Teaching and Learning Cycle

28. The New Colorado Academic Standards and also the BVSD CEDs in all content areas… • Are designed with the end in mind, postsecondary and workforce readiness, articulated through prepared graduates competencies. • Include technology and 21st century skills: critical thinking, invention, information literacy, collaboration and self direction. • Are written for mastery. • “Mastery” means that a student has facility with a skill or concept in multiple contexts. • Share the same organizational elements across contents • Standards • Prepared Graduate Competencies • Grade Level Expectations • Evidence Outcomes • Prepared Graduate Competencies • Grade Level Expectations

29. Prepared Graduate Competencies The preschool through twelfth-grade concepts and skills that all students who complete the Colorado education system must master to ensure their success in a postsecondary and workforce setting. Standards Standards are the topical organization of an academic content area. Grade Level Expectations Expectations articulate, at each grade level, the knowledge and skills of a standard that indicates a student is making progress toward high school. What do students need to know?. 21st Century and PWR Skills Inquiry Questions: Sample questions intended to promote deeper thinking Relevance and Application: Examples of how the grade level expectation is applied in a real-world, relevant context. Nature of the Discipline: The characteristics and viewpoint one keeps as a result of mastering the grade level expectation. Evidence Outcomes Evidence outcomes are the indication that a student is meeting an expectation at the mastery level. How do we know that a student can do it?

30. Learning by Content Area/Grade Level • Secondary -- Using the Key Changes by Content Sheets answer the following: • How will these changes impact the structure of your course? • Elementary – Each grade level team, choose one subject to examine the key changes: • How will these changes impact the structure of your classroom? *specialists divide among the grade levels/content areas.

31. Key Changes by Content Visual Arts • Four standards instead of six • Reference to expressive features and characteristics of art include elements and principles of design. • Intentional opportunities for multiple ways to combine visual literacy skills with the making of art

32. Key Changes by Content Music • Four standards instead of six • Two explicit standards for the expression of music and the theory of music have been identified • Levels of difficulty have been identified • Western notation skills are found throughout the theory of music and creation of music standards • Connection of music has been expanded • Improvisation is more prominent in all levels

33. Key Changes by ContentHealth and Physical Education • Expansion of the physical education standards to include health education • Intentional opportunities for integration of health and physical education concepts and skills • Intentional differentiation of health and physical education specific concepts and skills • Use of national standards for health and physical education varies in how they were incorporated into the standards template

34. Key Changes by Content Language Arts – now called Reading, Writing, and Communicating • Four standards instead of six • Concepts and skills are more clearly defined across the foundational years of PreK – 2nd grade • Lexile Reading Levels have been raised • More emphasis on reading and writing expository and argument/ persuasive texts at every grade level

35. Key Changes by ContentWorld Languages • Foreign Language was renamed World Languages. World Languages is a term that connotes an international, focus encouraging students to become competitive citizens of the world. • Grade-band standards (K-4, 5-8, and 9-12) was replaced with range level expectations. Articulating standards by range level from novice-low to intermediate-mid in each area affords greater specificity of skill development • Standards emphasize communication, connections, comparisons, and understanding of culture

36. Key Changes by ContentMathematics • Move to 4 content standards and 8 Mathematical Practice Standard • Emphasis on Personal Financial Literacy throughout • Approximately 30% “shift” in topics in each grade level • High School is not divided into courses at the state level. BVSD used recommendations from the CCSS to create Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 and 4th year courses.

37. Key Changes by ContentScience • Three standards instead of five • Inquiry and process skills embedded in evidence outcomes • Grade-level articulation at pK-8 BVSD will follow state sequence at pK-5, but retain our own sequence at 6-8 (all grade level expectations and evidence outcomes will still be addressed by the end of 8th grade)

38. Key Changes by ContentSocial Studies • There are now four Standards in Social Studies: History, Geography, Economics and Civics; they are paired with two Grade Level Expectations for each Standard. • Personal Financial Literacy now incorporated PK-12. • At Elementary, key changes are the move of Colorado History from 3rd to 4th grade and the move of post revolutionary war history from 5th to high school. • At Secondary, much more emphasis on defining, describing and explaining at middle level and defending, analyzing and justifying at the high school level.

39. Transition Documents http://www.bvsd.org/curriculum/curriculumreview/Pages/default.aspx

40. Standards-based Teaching and Learning Cycle New Curriculum Essentials Documents

41. Standards-based Teaching and Learning Cycle

42. What this means for teachers across all content areas… • Student thinking is displayed, heard, valued and expected • Opportunities for more conversations in all classes • Multiple strategies used, accepted and encouraged with a movement towards efficiency • The outcome is now the knowledge of content (not just getting the answer)

43. What this means for teachers - Mathematics • More context in math class • Fewer repetitive problems • Building skills and strategies to get to the algorithm – not starting with the algorithm • Teaching is no longer textbook bound

44. What this means for teachers - Reading, Writing, & Communicating • Designing opportunities for more technical reading & writing • Building skills and strategies that students can transfer to any reading or writing situation – “Development of the writer vs. the writing” • Incorporating authentic reading, writing, listening & speaking tasks • Increasing use of technology for communication, researching and presenting

45. What this means for teachers – World Languages • 90% of instruction in each level of World Language courses are taught in the target language. • Increased authentic opportunities for students to practice oral & written communication, make cultural connections and comparisons in order to understand the country’s culture • Much less memorization of isolated facts, and grammar exercises

46. What this means for teachers – Social Studies • Various opportunities to demonstrate knowledge – ie: presentation, project based, theatre, simulations • Integrated content areas – ie: use of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills integrated into social studies content • Opportunities for higher level thinking and learning – ie: analyze, compare, contrast, interpret 

47. What this means for teachers – Science • Students at all levels will be asked to develop, communicate and justify scientific explanations • Students at all levels will be asked to gather, analyze and interpret scientific data • more focus on reading, writing, speaking, and collaborating within science • much less memorization of isolated facts, formulas and vocabulary

48. What this means for teachers – Fine Arts, Physical Education and Health • Various opportunities to demonstrate knowledge – ie: skills, performance, projects, conceptual discussion, cross-curricular connections • Opportunities for higher level thinking and learning – ie: analyze, compare, contrast, interpret 

49. English Language Learners Differentiated instruction and assessment is necessary for students performing at various levels of English proficiency in order to provide comprehensible input and feedback for these students and assure full access to the curriculum. Use sheltered instruction strategies Use WIDA/CELPS

50. Students with Special Needs Instruction: Content, Process, Product Accommodations Collaboration: Co-planning & co-teaching