Curriculum Development Process - Essay Example

Language: Spanish Stage 6, Spanish Continuers Mark/weighting: 20 marks due: Week 10 Task Quality teaching evidence Participating in theclass project: A blog titled “Mi experiencia con el español” (My experience with the Spanish language).  Write a post in Spanish about your experience as a Spanish learner (Include trips to Spanish-speaking countries, Spanish or Latin American origins if it applies to your case, Spanish-speaking relatives or friends, activities that you enjoy doing in Spanish), and address how you have benefited from learning this language (travelling, interacting with Spanish speakers, participating in exchanging programmes, reading texts in their original language, understanding of different cultures).  Search for support material for learning Spanish and post it to the blog (e.g. videos, texts that awake your interest, audio files, links to other websites)  Write a reflection on your reasons for choosing that material and why you find it relevant for Spanish learners  Write a comment on the posts of at least five other students  Discuss your findings and opinions on the blog in the classroom MARKING CRITERIA You will be assessed on your ability to:  create a text about your personal experience  use accurate vocabulary and grammar  present a logical development of ideas  research and present information from other sources  reflect on your research and justify your choice of material for Spanish learners  assess your peers by commenting on their posts, while showing support, mutual respect and ability to analyse texts. Intellectual quality Deep knowledge – students show awareness of the advantages of learning Spanish and the key concepts of the unit by telling their own experience, and reading about the experience of others with the same language. Deep understanding – students demonstrate their intercultural competence by writing a blog post in Spanish, reflecting on their experience, searching for supporting material for Spanish learners, and commenting on the texts written by other students. Problematic knowledge – students see aspects of the Spanish learning experience from different points of view. Higher-order thinking – students are given opportunity to justify their choices and arrive at conclusions about their own experience and the experiences of others. Metalanguage – students use appropriate vocabulary on linguistic structures and foreign language learning to comment the texts of other students and reflect on their chosen materials. Substantive communication – students interact with others in Spanish through the blog. Quality learning environment Explicit quality criteria – students receive a clear explanation of the criteria used in assessing their work (before commencing the task); instructions are to be found in the blog. Engagement – students are allowed to post more entries than required in the blog and comment on the texts of more students. The level of participation evidences their initiative and interest on the activity. High expectations – students know what it is expected from them, the marking criteria and how they can improve their learning. Social support – students are encouraged to be creative, assess their peers, and search for learning resources which help them in their learning process. Students’ self regulation – students are continuously on task by writing or reading posts in a blog which is often actualized by different participants. Student direction – students have freedom on choosing their materials, searching and commenting texts that awake their interest. Significance Background knowledge – students’ prior knowledge and experiences on using and understanding Spanish language is recognised and addressed. Cultural knowledge – students search for supporting materials which can be related to Spanish-speaking culture and communities, and they acquire new cultural knowledge by sharing materials and experiences with others. Knowledge integration – writing posts in a blog and researching for it help students develop ICT skills; students are given opportunities to find and read information on history, geography, society, art and literature of Spanish-speaking countries. Inclusivity – all students participate in the class project. Connectedness – students can interact with an audience beyond the classroom because the blog is public. Narrative – students write about their experience. Planning and Programming using the Quality Teaching Framework Stage: 6 Year: 12 Unit: Lifestyles Duration: 3 weeks What do I want my students to learn? to improve their Spanish learning by means of their prior knowledge and understanding to develop intercultural competence to learn effectively and efficiently for academic purposes, and to apply that knowledge in multiple settings to meet the learning objectives and outcomes set by the stage 6 syllabus for Spanish Continuers, by addressing the prescribed themes for the course What do students now know and understand? According to the expectations of the stage 6 syllabus, students have acquired a significant understanding of the function of grammar in Spanish (Board of Studies NSW, 2009: 17), a deep basis for the approach to complex authentic texts in this language. Additionally, they have practiced listening, reading, writing and speaking skills, they have studied Spanish for many hours, and they have acquired knowledge and experience on Spanish language and culture. What do they need to learn? Students need to develop intercultural competence, to learn effectively and efficiently for academic purposes, and to apply that knowledge in multiple settings. According to the syllabus, students need to meet the following objectives: “Objective 1 – exchange information, opinions and experiences in Spanish Objective 2 – express ideas through the production of original texts in Spanish Objective 3 – analyse, process and respond to texts that are in Spanish Objective 4 – understand aspects of the language and culture of Spanish-speaking communities.” (Board of Studies NSW, 2009: 9) Syllabus outcomes According to the syllabus, students will achieve the following outcomes linked to the mentioned objectives: “The student: 1.1 uses a range of strategies to maintain communication 1.2 conveys information appropriate to context, purpose and audience 1.3 exchanges and justifies opinions and ideas 1.4 reflects on aspects of past, present and future experience 2.1 applies knowledge of language structures to create original text 2.2 composes informative, descriptive, reflective, persuasive or evaluative texts appropriate to context, purpose and/or audience 2.3 structures and sequences ideas and information 3.1 conveys the gist of texts and identifies specific information 3.2 summarises the main ideas 3.3 identifies the tone, purpose, context and audience 3.4 draws conclusions from or justifies an opinion 3.5 interprets, analyses and evaluates information 3.6 infers points of view, attitudes or emotions from language and context 4.1 recognises and employs language appropriate to different social contexts 4.2 identifies values, attitudes and beliefs of cultural significance 4.3 reflects upon significant aspects of language and culture” (Board of Studies NSW, 2009: 11) Syllabus content The syllabus for Spanish Continuers prescribes three themes: “the individual the Spanish-speaking communities the changing world. Each theme has a number of prescribed topics and suggested sub-topics with which students will engage in their study of Spanish”. (Board of Studies NSW, 2009: 13) This unit of work covers the topic Lifestyles within the theme The Spanish-speaking communities, and it relates to the theme The individual as well, because the own experience and the experience of other individuals is considered. Why does that learning matter? (to the students) Students learn how to interpret texts and events from another culture, and establish relationships with the own culture (savoir-comprendre). Students learn how to interact with people from other cultures (savoir-faire). Students acquire knowledge on other cultures and the relationship between language, communication and culture (savoirs). Students acquire metacognitive strategies in order to acquire new learning and monitor their own learning process (savoir apprendre). Students recognize the importance of being open to foreign cultures (savoir être). What will I do to maximise student learning? I will apply the quality teaching framework. I will show students that they have access to a variety of resources to regulate their own learning process, since they can find bilingual and monolingual dictionaries, read newspapers and magazines in Spanish, and watch videos, among others. The class blog will have a list of resources, which will be continuously actualized by the teacher and students. I will give students the opportunity to talk about their learning process, and I will be open to students’ feedback on the lessons and tasks. I will cater for students needs and modify lesson plans if necessary. What will my students do (or produce)? Students will write a blog post in Spanish about their experience as Spanish learners, addressing how they have benefited from learning this language. They will search for support material for learning Spanish and post this material in the blog. They will write a reflection on their reasons for choosing that material and it relevance for Spanish learners. They will write a comment on the post of at least five other students. In the classroom, they will discuss their findings and opinions on the blog. How does this assessment task plan using the Backward Design process? This assessment task followed the three stages of a backward design according to Wiggins and McTighe (2005): I identified desired results: As explained above, I take into account the syllabus objectives and outcomes, enduring understandings and competencies students need to develop, which determined the assessment task. I determined the acceptable evidence, and I designed an assessment task, which enables students to demonstrate evidence of their learning I planned learning experiences and instructions, following WHERETO: w= Students know where the unit is going from the beginning and what it is expected from them. h = Students are “hooked” by an attractive and motivating task, which allows them flexibility and practice of ICT skills. e = Students are given opportunities to be equipped with the needed skills to accomplish the task, to experience the key ideas of the unit and relate them to their own experience, and to explore the issues by themselves. r = Students can rethink and revise their understandings and work by means of the blog, since it will be continuously actualized. e = students are allowed to evaluate their work by means of peer and self-assessment. t = this learning experience has potential to be tailored to students’ individual needs, interests and styles o = the design is organized in small, logic and clear steps, so students are not overload with work; learning experiences allow students to be creative and to direct their own learning process, so there is more engagement and learning is effective since they practice multiliteracies (Stewart-Dore 2003), and they develop the roles of a literate person: code breakers, text participants, text users and text analysts (Santoro, 2004). How well do I expect them to do it? Since high expectations are made clear to students (oral instructions in the class and written criteria in the blog) before commencing the task and these expectations are the same for everyone, I expect students to do the task well. Students will see samples of blog post, beginning with the teacher’s blog post about her/his experience as Spanish learner and her/his own comments and feedbacks on students’ work. It is possible that they make mistakes when they write in Spanish, and that they do not understand every word they read, but it is not an objective to achieve perfection. Desired outcomes above are realistic. Feedback will be provided as task proceeds. Assignment, teaching practices and desired results are aligned. Under these conditions, students’ performance and achievement should be according to the expectations. How will I know when they’ve learned it? When writing a blog post about their experience, students convey information appropriate to context, purpose and audience, reflect on their past and present experience, apply knowledge of language structures to create an original text, and structure and sequence ideas and information. When they post in the blog the relevant material they searched for learning, students reflect upon significant aspects of language and culture, and they exchange and justify opinions and ideas, when they write their reasons for choosing that material. When they comment on other students’ posts, students compose reflective and evaluative texts appropriate to context, purpose and audience of the blog, and they evaluate the information provided by other students. ASSESSMENT Informal formative assessment Writing a comment on the posts of at least five other students Discussion of students’ findings and opinions on the blog in the classroom Summative formal assessment Writing a post in Spanish about students’ experience as Spanish learners Writing a reflection on their reasons for choosing support material for Spanish learners that they searched and posted in the blog Part A By applying the backward mapping in order to design an assessment task, I could understand an approach which strictly and deeply relates all stages of the teaching process. Backward mapping refers to curricular designs which are backward, because they start with the end: the desired student learning outcomes (results, goals or standards). The curriculum is derived “from the evidence of learning (performances) called for by the standard and the teaching needed to equip students to perform” (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005: 14). The educational purpose of backward design focuses on understanding. Teachers need clarity on the intended specific understandings of students and how such understandings can be demonstrated in practice, before teaching for understanding (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005). The objectives of a lesson and the targeted outcomes are always in mind by means of this model, which provides teachers for clear orientations to design assessment tasks and to develop lesson plans. Assessment becomes meaningful in the classroom. For teachers represents more than making questions and assigning isolated exercises; for students, more than awarding marks and passing a subject, since assessment helps them to ensure enduring learning and to show evidence of their knowledge. Aligning assessment with learning outcomes, content and teaching strategies leads to my improvement as a teacher and curriculum developer, because a curriculum should include achievement standards which describe the quality of expected student learning as a result of being taught the content (ACARA, 2010: 4). We learn to be teachers and curriculum developers by teaching and designing curricula. Reading about backward design and applying it enables me to achieve a deep knowledge, and to question different teaching practices and become a self-reflective teacher, open to different approaches. That makes me also open to students, and allows me to understand them better and to provide them with quality teaching. Part B The assessment task which I designed for the unit of work Lifestyles (participating in a class project of a blog about experiences with the Spanish language) relates with the backward mapping model, because this assessment task was determined by learning objectives and outcomes, and it enables students to perform according to standards to be met. The targeted outcomes are derived from the objectives of interacting, understanding texts and producing texts listed in the stage 6 syllabus for Spanish Continuers (Board of Studies NSW, 2009: 11). These institutional standards specify what students should know and be able to do, and “provide a framework to help us identify teaching and learning priorities and to guide our design of curriculum and assessments” (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005: 14). These external standards justify my chosen learning outcomes, which consider the development of students’ intercultural competence. As Stewart-Dore (2003: 163) states, “today’s students must know not only how to learn effectively and efficiently for academic purposes, but also how to apply that knowledge in multiple settings”. The designed assessment task uses the quality teaching framework (NSW DET, 2007) and fulfills the requirements of the standards-referenced approach (Board of Studies NSW, 2003: 8), because this task focuses on outcomes by means of the backward mapping model. The main objectives are exchanging information, opinions and experiences in Spanish, and to express ideas through the production of original texts. The assessment task enables students to demonstrate evidence of their learning in the following forms: When writing a blog post about their experience as Spanish learners, students have the opportunity to convey information appropriate to context, purpose and audience, to reflect on their past and present experience, to apply knowledge of language structures to create an original text, and to structure and sequence ideas and information. When they search for relevant material for learning, they reflect upon significant aspects of language and culture, because they are confronted with the question: Why is this material relevant for a Spanish learner? Then, students have to exchange and justify opinions and ideas, because they are requested to write their reasons for choosing that material. When they comment on other students’ posts, they compose reflective and evaluative texts appropriate to context, purpose and audience of the blog, and they evaluate the information provided by other students. The designed assessment task allows students to practise multiliteracies, because this task accesses and activates students’ existing knowledge. Furthermore, students interrogate meaning and comprehend critically, they select and organise information by searching for material and they represent knowledge by writing their own texts. This process relates to the four-phase framework by Stewart-Dore (2003). Participating in the blog project was chosen as a learning experience, because it helps developing the four roles of a literate person according to Santoro (2004): code breakers (when students read texts in Spanish and use vocabulary showing their metalinguistic knowledge), text participants (their prior linguistic and cultural knowledge as Spanish learners is activated), text users (they produce text for the blog and use other materials for their own learning) and text analysts (students analyse texts of their peers, and comment them). Another reason for choosing this learning experience was its potential to be tailored to individual needs, interests and styles. Students have flexibility and they are allowed to write about themselves and to research what awakes their interest. This task can be attractive and motivating to students, because it uses a popular Internet resource such as a blog. Strategies for preventing and dealing with malpractice proposed by Board of Studies NSW (2010) are considered in the lesson plan. Before searching for materials for Spanish learners, students are taught about referencing of sources and the need of acknowledging them. Commenting on students’ posts as a form of peer evaluation provides for quality learning environment. This task is divided in a series of smaller steps, so students are not overloaded with work. By preventing malpractice, assessment tasks can meet their objectives and demonstrate what students really learned. The blog is a space of written dialogue similar to the Reflective Dialogue Journal (Stewart-Dore, 2003), where opportunities to reach the desired goals are provided and responsive feedback is offered to other students. As explained above, this task provides several opportunities for students to show evidence of their learning, it reflects the learning outcomes considered by the correspondent syllabus, and the learning experiences enable students to achieve the desired results. References Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (2010). Curriculum Development Process. Version 4.0. Retrieved from http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/ACARA_Curriculum_Development_Process_Paper_v4_June_2010.pdf Board of Studies New South Wales (2003). HSC Assessment in a Standards-Referenced Framework – A Guide to Best Practice. Retrieved from http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc_assessment_policies/#hsc_assess_framework Board of Studies New South Wales (2009). Spanish Continuers Stage 6 Syllabus. Retrieved from http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/spanish-continuers-st6-syl-from2010.pdf Board of Studies New South Wales (2010). Advice to teachers – HSC Assessments and Submitted Works. Retrieved from http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc_assessment_policies/#hsc_assess_framework New South Wales Department of Education and Training (2007). Programming using the Quality Teaching Framework. Retrieved from http://qtp.nsw.edu.au/middle_years/admin/literacy/docs/qtframework.pdf Santoro, N. (2004). Using the four resources model across the curriculum. In A. Healy and E. Honan (Eds.), Text next: new resources for literacy learning (pp. 51-67). Marrickville, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association. Stewart-Dore, N. (2003). Strategies for practising multiliteracies. In G. Bull and M. Anstey (Eds.), The Literacy Lexicon (2nd ed.) (pp. 161-180). Sydney: Pearson Education Australia. Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Read More