Curriculum Materials Analysis Benchmark Assignment

Standards Addressed
InTASC Standards
NET-S
Emphasis:
1. Standard #1 Learner Development
2. Standard #2 Learning Differences
3. Standard #4 Content Knowledge
4. Standard #6 Assessment
5. Standard #7 Planning for Instruction
Also Addressed:
1. Standard #3 Learning Environments
2. Standard #5 Application of Content

Emphasis
#1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning.
#2: Design and Develop Digital Age Learning
Experiences and Assessments.
Also Addressed
#5: Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.

Purpose
The purpose of this analysis is to help you figure out what modifications you might need to make
to a lesson in a teachers guide to make sure that it fits the I-AIM and builds on your students
science toolkits (student ideas, funds of knowledge, special needs & talents). It will help you
identify the strengths of the lesson that you can build on and the weaknesses in the lesson that
you need to modify. The questions provided here are a guide to help you focus your analysis of
the lesson before you plan your own version of the lesson.
Directions
First, use colored pencils or crayons to color-code the outline of the lesson you will teach from
the teachers guide (Foss manual or other guide). Use the colors that match the I-AIM stages.
Please do this on a copy of the lesson, not the original manual. You will turn in a copy that is
color coded (you may scan it and submit to drop box or turn in hard copy in class)
Second, use the following questions as a guide to analyze your curriculum materials. For each
stage of I-AIM below, summarize the how well your materials fit the I-AIM functions and
connect to your students science toolkits. Include strengths (what the lesson does well) and
weaknesses (what you can improve on).
Third, summarize the modifications you will make in your own lesson, if necessary, to make sure
your lesson fits I-AIM and connects to students science toolkits.
All analyses must be made relative to the knowings and doings. DO NOT ANALYZE YOUR
OWN LESSON PLANS: ANALYZE THE CURRICULUM MATERIALS (Teachers Guide) and
explain the modifications you will make in your own lesson plans.
Katy Graves
Name of the curriculum material/teachers guide
(for example, Foss Kit on Earth Materials, Investigation 2- Liquids)
Best of Bugs: Designing Hand Pollinators
-Lesson 3: Exploring Pollination Materials

Standards and Learning Goals

Standards:
PO 2. Participate in guided investigations in life, physical, and Earth and space sciences.
PO 3. Compare the results of the investigation to predictions made prior to the investigation.
PO 4. Generate questions for possible future investigations based on the conclusions of the
investigation.
Disciplinary Core Idea: LS2.A Plants depend on water and light to grow, and also depend on
animals for pollination or to move their seeds around.
Cross-Cutting Concept: students observe the shape and stability of structures of natural and
designed objects are related to their function(s).
Knowings:
Students will know...
1. That pollination needs to happen in order for new plants to grow.
2. How to use the engineering design process to solve a problem.
3. How to design experiments to accurately test materials
Doings
Students will be able to:
1. Test various materials accurately
2. Use results to make a design
3. Use test results to revise and improve designs

Question Stage
1. Experience Phenomena
a. Is there an initial experience with phenomena that sets the context for the
instructional sequence?
Students have been introduced to the process of pollination through a story that came with the
kit. We have also been watching videos about it and learning about it in the classroom. They do
not however have a first hand experience with pollination.
b. Is this phenomenon a familiar experience to students?
Students have been introduced to the process, but just this year. The idea of pollination and
engineering is new, but something we have been working on for a few weeks.
2. Establish a Question
a. Is there a driving question related to the learning goal? If so, what is it?
Yes, What materials and properties of materials work best for picking up and dropping off
pollen?
b. Is the driving question introduced to students?
Yes
c. Is this problem/question relevant and interesting to my students? Why/how?
(think about students experiences and funds of knowledge)
I think it is relevant and interesting because we have recently built a new garden, and have had
lots of discussions about spring, and how the flowers bloom. In terms of funds of knowledge
some student could relate because they knew that bats pollinate cactus flowers, so bats can act
like insects.
3. Elicit Students Initial Ideas

a. Is there an opportunity to find out what ideas students have at the beginning of the
lesson? If so, how?
Yes, the students have an opportunity to explore the materials and record what properties they
think the materials have.
b. Is there an opportunity for the teacher for find out what students think about the
driving question? If so, how?
Yes, the class has an opportunity to share their ideas and predictions whole group. The teacher
also will collect the responses students recorded.
c. What are the ideas related to the question that my students already have?
That whatever we use for the hand pollinators has to be sticky enough to pick up the pollen, but
also soft like insects.
d. What cultural resources can I likely draw on?
Because we live in the desert we could talk about desert plants and how they get pollinated. I
could also draw on different materials they may encounter in their lives such as masa, flour, or
cotton.
Your analysis based on the above questions.
Based on the questions above I see that the kids do have a lot of background knowledge and
some interest in the question at hand. We have been talking about pollination and creating hand
pollinators for a while, and now the kids are very excited to get their hands on some of the
materials. So I think once they do start exploring the materials they will be well prepared to start
making predictions about what will work well and what won't. I also think however that this
lesson could be a bit more relevant to them. The story is about a girl who lives in the Caribbean,
not in the desert. Most of the kids do not have a garden at home and have not learned about
pollination before this year.

Modifications you could make.

Use plants from the desert as examples.
Have students bring in materials from home that they could test.
Explore & Investigate Stage
1. Explore Phenomena
a. Do the students explore (have experiences with) a variety phenomena BEFORE
explanations are offered? What are the experiences?
Yes, students are given bags of 6 kinds of materials (an eraser, marble, foil, pom-pom, pipe
cleaner, tape). They have the opportunity to simply explore the materials and write down
different properties they have. They make predictions and then they will test the materials (using
baking soda) to see which materials will pick up and drop off the most pollen.
b. Does the lesson connect or take advantage of the types of experiences and funds
of knowledge my students have? Why/how?
Many students may have seen some of these materials before. Also, because the story is set in the
Dominican Republic, some of the words are in Spanish. All of my students are Spanish speakers,
so they were excited to see some Spanish in the lesson.
c. Are there opportunities for students to engage in scientific practices? If so, which
ones? How?
Yes, the students are engaging in making observations, creating predictions, and conducting
experiments
2. Identify patterns

a. Does the activity help students identify patterns in their experiences? If so, what
are the patterns that the students are supposed to see?
Yes, the students are supposed to see that the fuzzy objects can both pick up pollen and drop it
off, whereas the smooth objects will not pick up pollen and the sticky ones will not drop off the
pollen.
b. Are there opportunities for students to engage in scientific practices? If so, which
ones? How?
Yes in this part they will be recording their data and drawing conclusions from that data.
c. What questions will students likely have?
They will likely still wonder why these materials worked better than others.
Your analysis based on the above questions.
Based on the above questions I see that the students get an opportunity to explore the materials,
make predictions, and test out which materials will work best, just like a real scientists. I think
that the fact that each student will have the materials to test will be very beneficial for them,
because they can feel like real scientists conducting an experiment. I also think that the practice
in recording their own data and drawing conclusions from that helps them feel independent in
their science endeavors. I thing I think could be improved upon is to allow the students to
explore materials outside of the bag that is given to them. It is nice that everyone uses the same
materials, but I think they should be able to explore the materials they are curious about too.

Modifications you could make.

Expand the materials to anything they might find or want to bring in.
Explain Stage
1. Students Explain Patterns
a. Does the lesson provide an opportunity for students to share their explanations for
phenomena and/or patterns? If so, how?
Yes, after the experiment is done, the students have an opportunity to share with their groups and
then with the whole class.
b. What explanations will my students likely come up with or models will they
draw?
They will say that the fuzzy objects work the best because they are most like the insects that
pollinate flowers in nature.
2. Introduce Scientific Ideas
a. Does the teachers guide (or other curriculum resource) direct the teacher to
present scientific ideas related to the learning goal AFTER students explore? If so,
how?
Yes in the reflection portion we ask about why it was important to conduct the experiment in a
certain way (so we could get the same results) it also goes over which materials work the
best/worst and what properties those materials have/
b. Will these scientific ideas/representations be understandable to my students?
Why/how?
I believe so because they will be doing the experiments themselves and with partners, so they
will be able to see the difference between how two groups are conducting the experiment and
what the results are

c. Are there opportunities for students to engage in scientific practices? If so, which
ones? How?
Yes, the students are interacting with the materials and conducting the experiment themselves.
They will also be drawing conclusions from their results
3. Compare Student Ideas
a. Does the teachers guide (or other curriculum resource) provide opportunities for
the students to compare new science ideas to their own previous ideas and note
similarities and differences? If so, how?
Yes, there is a portion where we compare their answers from their original predictions to the
results from their experiment.
Your analysis based on the above questions.
I really like how hands on the exploration portion of this lesson is. I also think it is important that
the students are given the opportunity to reflect on their original thinking. However I think there
needs to be more connections to the concept of pollination. The curriculum does not lay out how
our experiment connects to pollination very clearly.

Modifications you could make.

While the students are conducting their experiments ask more questions about how what we are
doing connects to pollination.
Apply Stage
1. Near & Novel Contexts
a. Does the teachers guide (or other curriculum resource) direct the teacher to allow
students to apply their new ideas to new situations related to the learning goal? If
so, how?
In the curriculum material it simply tells the teacher to be sure they reflect on their ideas and
allow for modification of their original predictions. The applying phase will come in the next
lesson when they start to construct their hand pollinators.
b. Are there opportunities for students to engage in scientific practices? If so, which
ones? How?
The closest that I would say it comes is reflection and modification. They have a chance to think
about how it went and what they would change.
c. Are these application situations relevant and interesting to my students? Do they
take advantage of my students funds of knowledge? Why/How?
This particular portion only relates to my students in that we have been working on pollination
for a while, so they have become interested in it over time. Other than that I cannot say it directly
relates to their funds of knowledge.
Your analysis based on the above questions.
The apply phase is not particular relevant in this particular lesson. I think that this will come in
the next lesson of their unit when they are actually constructing their hand pollinators. However I
do believe there is ample time for reflection, which is another important part of the process.

Modifications you could make.

The only way I could think to modify it is to allow the kids to begin constructing their hand
pollinators after they do their experiments. But this isn't even a true modification because they
will get a chance to do that, just not within this lesson (that will be lesson 4).

Reflect Stage
1. Reflect on Learning
a. Do students have opportunities to compare their initial answers to the driving
question to their final answers?
Yes, this is done after they explore the materials and do the experiment
2. Reflect on Doing Science
a. Do students have opportunities to think about how what they did fits scientists
science?
There is not a question asked about this in the curriculum materials, but they do ask what part of
the engineering process did we just complete?
Your analysis based on the above questions.
I think that there is some opportunity for reflection, but there could be more. The materials do
not offer an opportunity to reflect on doing science specifically. I believe this is because this unit
is more focused on engineering, that is why it asks about the engineering design process. But
within this process the kids are doing lots of science that is not necessarily recognized.

Modifications you could make.

I could add more reflection questions about doing scientists. So instead of just asking about
engineers we would also ask, how did we do science? Do you think this is similar to what real
scientists do?
Language Goals
1. How do the materials support students in speaking about science?
Yes, there is lots of opportunity for discussion both in small groups and whole class.
2. How do the materials support students in reading in science?
There is only one story that is read as a class. No other reading materials are provided.
3. How do the materials support students in writing in science?
Somewhat. Students do have to record observations and predictions. But this is only done by
circling pictures and writing a few sentences.
4. How do the materials support English Language Learners in science?
The materials give some worksheets with visuals on them.
Your analysis based on the above questions.
The focus of this lesson is more on the doing and the discussing. The lesson does not focus on
reading or writing as much because it wants to encourage more talking about what is going on
and what they are doing.

Modifications you could make.

If I wanted to include more reading and writing, I could have hand outs about the process for the
students to read, or have more written rather than verbal directions. I think to include more
writing I would have the kids write up a summary of what they did, what worked, etc. To
accommodate for ELLs we could add more pictures and include a power point that has it big and
bright.

Summary and Individual Contributions

In your own words, answer the following questions.
a. What are the overall strengths of your curriculum materials?
b. What are the overall weaknesses of your curriculum materials?
Your summary.
The strengths of this lesson are definitely in the exploration and investigation areas. The students
have a lot of opportunities to explore the materials and manipulate them. It also has the
exploration done in a controlled way, so the kids can learn how to create consistent results. The
lesson also has opportunities for reflection and explanations. We can discuss as a class how these
materials are going to solve our problem or answer our question. The weaknesses are in the
applying phase. In this lesson they don't have an opportunity to apply what they learned from our
question. This will come in the next lesson. I also think that the materials could relate our
experiment to what science is more and explain to the kids how what we are doing is what
scientists really do.

Rubric for Curriculum Materials Analysis

For details on grading categories, please see complete rubric in syllabus.
Category

Criteria for Exceeds Expectations

Curriculum
Materials

Curriculum materials and lesson are clearly and completely

identified

Points

Learning goals are for planned lesson.

Learning Goals

Complete and relevant knowings & doings identified and

related to Disciplinary Core Ideas and Cross-Cutting concepts.
Includes all relevant practices

Includes relevant language goals

2 point
Copy of curriculum materials are turned.
Color-Coded
Lesson

Procedures are color-coded to fit I-AIM stages.

I-AIM stages are correctly identified.

Extensive annotations for modifications.

Analysis of materials thoughtful and thorough for each stage of
the I-AIM instructional model.
I-AIM

Analysis shows deep understanding of each stage of I-AIM.

Analysis is related to learning goals and curriculum materials

Students
Science Toolkits
Language
Support in
Science
Modifications

Includes specific examples for each stage.

The analysis demonstrates insightful consideration of students
science toolkits (conceptual ideas, funds of knowledge &
special needs/talents)
Evidence or rationale is provided
Insightful analysis of how the curriculum materials support
students in speaking, reading, and writing in science.
Insightful analysis of how curriculum materials support English
Language Learners in science.
Extensive and original modifications are suggested in all areas
that strengthen fit to I-AIM, match students resources & needs,
and align with learning goals.

Thoroughly summarizes analysis.

Summary

Identified strengths and weaknesses are based upon analysis.

Evidence is provided for claims.

3 points
Total

Your
Points

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