Creating Quality Curriculum for Gifted Learners

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Creating QualityCurriculumfor Gifted Learners

• Cindy Sheets
• ALPS 2008
• cindys2449_at_aol.com816-525-7046
• 816-916-6001 (cell)

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Curriculum?

• What is curriculum?
• What are the components of quality curriculum?
• What makes curriculum a good fit for gifted
  learners
• What makes curriculum good for life-long
  learners?
• (Is it possible to learn and have fun at the same
  time?)

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What KIND of Curriculum is Best?

• Content Based Curriculum (Joyce Van-Tassel
  Baska)
• Parallel Curriculum Model (Carol Tomlinson et
  al.)
• Concept-Based Curriculum (H. Lynn Erickson)
• Problem-Based Curriculum
• Multiple Menu Model (Renzulli et al.)

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Some Underlying Assumptions About Curriculum .

• guide students in mastery
• key information, ideas, and the fundamental
  skills of the discipline.
• help students grapple with complex and ambiguous
  issues and problems.
• move students from a novice to an expert level of
  in the disciplines.
• provide students opportunities for original work
  in the disciplines.
• help students encounter, accept, and ultimately
  embrace challenge in learning

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• prepare students for a world in which knowledge
  expands and changes at a dizzying pace.
• help students determine constants in the past and
  in themselves while helping them prepare for a
  changing world.
• help students develop a sense of themselves as
  well as their possibilities in the world in which
  they live.
• be compelling and satisfying enough to encourage
  students to persist in developing their
  capacities.
• (The Parallel Curriculum Model, Carol Tomlinson
  et al.)

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• Teachers who are beginning to implement
  concept-process curriculum models are discovering
  techniques to help students think beyond the
  facts. With a student population that has been
  trained to think more about facts than ideas, the
  transition can be difficult. It takes patience
  and perseverance on the part of the teachers, but
  if they persist, students will begin to
  understand that facts relate to bigger ideas.
• (H. Lynn Erickson, Concept-Based Curriculum and
  Instruction)

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What about Standards and Objectives?

• And those TESTS!

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Questions to ask yourself . . .

• What do you really mean when you say Im
  teaching a unit on __________?
• Why are you teaching a unit on ______?
• What is the big idea or important lesson you
  want students to understand from this topic or
  unit?
• What do you want student to know, understand or
  be able to do?

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Concept Based Curriculum

• Promotes greater depth of understanding
• Provides transferable learning
• Provides structure for students
• Promotes higher-level thinking
• Less emphasis on facts
• Motivation!

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Designing Curriculum Starting From the Big Idea

• What are the principles or concepts we can
  explore?
• What are the essential questions that can be
  asked about these concepts?
• What content would best illustrate these
  concepts?
• Which processes should be taught or applied?

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• What types of skills will students need to be
  able to demonstrate?
• What instructional products might be used to
  demonstrate understandings?
• What activities will help the students uncover
  the big idea?

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Structure of Knowledge
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Teaching for Meaning and Understanding

• Understanding big ideas in content is central to
  the work of students
• Students can only find and make meaning when they
  are asked to inquire, think at high levels, and
  solve problems.
• Students should be expected to apply knowledge
  and skills in meaningful tasks within authentic
  contexts.

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Ten Components of a Comprehensive Curriculum Unit
As outlined in The Parallel Curriculum Model
by Tomlinson, et al., 2002
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Does that Make it Gifted?

• Is it differentiated?
• Is it adapted, modified, or a replacement of
  general education curricula?
• Is the pace a match to gifted learners?
• Are there opportunities to extend or go beyond
  the basic unit or curriculum?
• Are there opportunities to explore personal areas
  of interest, or to highlight personal strength
  areas?
• Does it demand sufficient depth and higher level
  thinking not based just on factual learning?

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What About the Affective Domain?

• Creativity
• Creative production
• Creative problem solving
• Understanding of Self
• Intrapersonal skills
• Social Skills and Interactions
• Intrapersonal skills

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Two Units

• Awake Curiosity!

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Paleontology
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Why Paleontology?
Why Puzzles?

• Science is a process of putting together puzzle
  pieces until the big picture becomes more clear

• Theories change over time
• Inquiry science process skills
• Understand the nature of science
• Practice methodologies and skills used in the
  discipline

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Would you like to be a Paleontologist?

• Fossils
• My, how dinosaurs have changed
• Careers
• Create-a-saurus
• Museum
• (Evolution)
• The Big Dig

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Tyrannosaurus
Charles Knight
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Make-a-SaurusMy Life with Raptors and Other
Dinosaurs
The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins
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Bambiraptor KU Museum of Natural History
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(No Transcript)
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From the Farmers Field to the White House

• More than fun with fruits and vegetables

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• A Unit for Fourth graders
• Data collection and analysis graphing
• Creative skills
• Propaganda and Persuasion
• Tie in to election year themes or other

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What are we Learning?

• Surveys questions
• Demographics
• Data collection
• Organization
• Graphs and Charts
• Analysis, Evaluation
• Research
• Ad appeals
• Creative production
• Presentation skills
• Creative language and persuasion
• Technology skills

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Is that on the Test?
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More, More, More . . .

• Mock Trial
• Genetics
• Bridge Building
• Artifact Exchange
• Seminars
• Messages From Space (Astrobiology)
• Archaeology (DIG) (Interact)
• Video Production
• Robotics

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Middle School Examples

• Middle School Curriculum planning
• Principles
• Template
• Example

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Resources and References
The Parallel Curriculum A Design to Develop High
Potential and Challenge High-Ability Learners,
Carol Tomlinson, et al, Corwin Press,
2002 Understanding by Design, Grant Wiggins and
Jay McTighe, ASCD 1998 Concept-Based Curriculum
and Instruction Teaching Beyond the Facts, by H.
Lynn Erickson, Corwin Press, 2002 The Multiple
Menu Model A Practical Guide for Developing
Differentiated Curriculum, by Joseph Renzulli,
Jann Leppien, and Tom Hays, Creative Learning
Press, 2000 Content-Based Curriculum for High
Ability Learners, by Joyce Van-Tassel Baska (with
Catherine A. Little) 2002