Talent Development Secondary Assessment, Curriculum, and Instruction Blueprint Practices to Support a Culture of Success The Blueprint: The Blueprint targets curriculum, instruction and assessment as key areas for closing skill gaps and accelerating student proficiencies. The Blueprint outlines evidence based instructional approaches needed to achieve implementation with fidelity. The Blueprint lays the foundation for curriculum, instruction and assessment in TDS classrooms. The Blueprint identifies the following evidence based practices implemented by TDS teachers and supported by TDS coaches and facilitators: Assessment that provides opportunities for students to apply academic learning to real world context in a way that helps them see relevance, meaning, and purpose Curriculum that is challenging and equips students to reason, evaluate, and think critically Instruction that reinforces teaching for understanding Tenets: All decisions surrounding curriculum, instruction and assessment are informed by a variety of assessment techniques and data sources. Collaboration and shared vision for curriculum, instruction and assessment are necessary for student success. Ongoing tiers of support with opportunities to reflect on instructional approaches are keys to successful implementation of these practices. All curriculum and assessment is designed to create learning experiences that build on students interests and develop their strengths.
Blueprint for Instruction What is essential to deliver effective instruction in the TDS classroom? Planning for Instruction Backwards plan all units and lessons. Align all instructional activities to student evaluation criteria. Create lessons that move from concrete to abstract thinking. Provide an array of recovery options. Write student centered lesson plans. Begin lessons with opportunities to identify students prior understandings and misconceptions. Provide modeling, explicit instruction, demonstration, and exploration on a regular basis. Provide opportunities for students to engage in metacognitive learning behaviors. Help students to develop positive attitudes toward learning, and to develop and apply habits of mind. Purposefully manage instructional time to support acceleration and enhanced student performance. Anticipate instructional moves as facilitators of learning experiences. Anticipate expected behaviors that promote success. Anticipate possible challenges or inhibitors to student success. Assist students as they try to gain a clear understanding of purpose and expected outcomes. Delivery Lead students in performance based tasks. Teach by facilitating, showing or modeling performance based activities. Allow student to apply skills in a real world context. Use checklists, rubrics, or exemplars to teach or reinforce students understanding of performance criteria. Focus on student discourse as a vehicle for instruction of thinking skills. Engage students in activities requiring reasoning, interpretation, and critical analysis. Employ discussion protocols as a framework for student discourse.
Delivery [cont d] Include cooperative learning opportunities in most lessons. Group students into heterogeneous teams. Require students to work collaboratively to construct, elaborate, analyze, and synthesize. Differentiate to reach all students. Differentiate through intentional grouping. Provide differentiation by content, process, or product. Scaffold questions to support students in moving from literal to abstract understanding of ideas. Explicitly teach literacy skills in all content areas. Teach vocabulary. Require students to use discourse when processing and reflecting on ideas, concepts, and experiences. Model reading and text based comprehension strategies. Classroom Environment Create a safe and nurturing classroom environment. Promote active student engagement and learning. Explicitly teach and reinforce expected behaviors. Help students to maintain a positive outlook on learning. View student mistakes as teachable moments and necessary pre conditions to learning. Connect student learning activities to academic success and long term goals. Use positive behavior intervention systems. Provide opportunities for student self reflection and self monitoring. Offer extra time and support to the right student, and at the right time. Analyze the components of problems and defend answers with evidence. Explicitly teach social skills. Reinforce social skills in student teacher interactions.
Blueprint for Assessment What is essential to implement effective assessment practices in the TDS classroom? Planning Backwards plan all assessment. Determine indicators for successful mastery of standards before creating assessment tasks. Determine indicators for successful mastery of standards before planning units or lessons. Work collaboratively to create assessments. Assess student understanding of essential skills and big ideas. Use student data to create common assessments which target areas of low student performance. Include only elements that are designed to improve student performance. Student Expectations Set individual student learning goals for the course. Provide a diagnostic assessment that establishes baseline student understandings for the course. Share pre determined expectations and evaluation criteria with individual students. Gauge course performance and mastery of student learning goals using summative assessments. Set daily instructional learning goals. Share and reinforce daily expectations and evaluation criteria with students. Incorporate formative assessments that align with daily instructional learning goals. Include multiple assessment techniques. Assess students application of knowledge, class participation, and achievement via alternative products and performance tasks. Provide opportunities for students to explain their answers or to show their work for solutions. Include opportunities for student self reflection and metacognition to promote intrinsic desire, motivation, and persistence. Grade assessments. Provide timely and regular feedback. Consider grades as only one of many types of feedback to students and parents. Ensure equitable and fair reflection of student effort.
Blueprint for Curriculum What is essential to develop and use curriculum effectively in the TDS classroom? Curriculum Alignment Connect to learning goals and expected outcomes. Align with state and national standards, including the Common Core State Standards. Provide a series of learning experiences that guide students to meet the standards. Connect to summative assessments. Align with expected outcomes of high stakes assessments. Describe clear expectations for student achievement at every grade level. Connect to performance assessments. Identify expectations for student products, performances, or tasks using checklists, rubrics or exemplars. Communicate expectations for products, performance, or tasks to students. Student Expectations Support high expectations for student learning and thinking. Set learning goals which are rigorous yet achievable. Require students to use evaluation and performance criteria as evidence of success. Require students to process information at high levels through questioning that guides students from concrete to abstract reasoning. Require students to defend their answers or opinions with relevant theories or evidence. Student Support Promote student engagement. Provide high interest materials and topics which enhance student motivation. Resource classrooms with tools and instructional aids that facilitate student engagement. Make information relevant for the intended audience.
Student Support [cont d] Promote student understanding and independent learning. Aid students in constructing relationships between learning topics and student interests. Scaffold information and tasks to promote student understanding. Help students to synthesize information. Teach students to be resourceful, strategic, and persistent learners through the use of a variety of learning tools such as graphic organizers, spreadsheets, Venn diagrams, tables, and matrices. Help students recognize an analytic answer that exhibits good reasoning.