Improve Curriculum Articulation and Alignment IMPROVE CURRICULUM ARTICULATION AND ALIGNMENT

IMPROVE CURRICULUM ARTICULATION AND ALIGNMENT Michael Phan UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDIES

2011 by Michael Phan ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Improve Curriculum Articulation and Alignment Introduction Organizations Selected I chose middle school (7th and 8th grade) and high school (9th through 12th grades) as my

adjacent organizations. I chose the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) standards for writing. It should be noted that KSDE breaks out the writing standards for 7th and 8th grades separately, and has a single set of standards for high school. For purposes of this analysis, I will be aggregating the 7th and 8th grade curricular standards and treating them as a single middle school category. Analysis of Curriculum Articulation and Alignment There are many weaknesses in both the articulation and alignment of KSDE writing standards. In this section, I will treat these categories as separate; first I will explain why the curriculum articulation is defective, and next I will explain why the curricular alignment is also defective of necessity, because of the flaws in curricular articulation. These analyses will lead directly into an improvement plan, as I will have discussed the main weak points of the writing standards; it will only remain to discuss my plan for remediating these weak points. Curriculum Articulation According to Fabrikant and Wachowitz (2007), there are two components of curriculum articulation, vertical articulation and horizontal articulation. Vertical integration refers to the way in which contents tend to be organized with regard to the sequence and continuity of learning experiences (p. 20) while horizontal articulation is the scope and integration of curricular contents of different disciplinary areas and knowledge domains (p. 20). Bergman (1998) further defined vertical articulation as the degree to which student learningsflow

Improve Curriculum Articulation and Alignment naturally from one year to the next (p. 99). This point is an important one, for, as I shall argue, it represents much of what is defective in the curricular standard I am critiquing. For middle school, the Kansas curricular standards has only four high level benchmarks: (1) The student writes narrative text using the writing process; (2) the student writes expository

text using the writing process; (3) the student writes technical text using the writing process; and (4) the student writes persuasive text using the writing process. The same benchmarks are often repeated for high school, as Table 1 demonstrates. Table 1. Narrative Writing Knowledge Base Indicators Middle School
1. Understands and develops a focused written piece that includes plot elements (e.g. initiating event, rising and falling action, climax, conflict, setting, character development, resolution). (Ideas and Content: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 2. Uses (1) personal experience (2) observations (3) prior knowledge in written text. (Ideas and Content: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 3. Clearly defines the main idea with selection of relevant details from a variety of sources. (Ideas and Content: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 4. Analyzes and understands implications of plagiarism (e.g. ethical, legal). (Ideas and Content: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 5. Understands and independently uses appropriate strategies to generate narrative text (e.g. brainstorming, listing, webbing, working in pairs or cooperative groups and identifying information from print sources). (Organization: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 6. Writes a piece with an inviting introduction, appropriate body, and satisfying conclusion that leaves the reader with a sense of resolution. (Organization: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 7. Selects transitions to connect ideas within and between paragraphs. (Organization: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 8. Selects original and compelling vocabulary and/or figurative language appropriate for the purpose and audience. (Voice: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P)

High School
1. Composes a written piece with plot elements and also experiments with point of view and various narrative techniques. (Ideas and Content: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 2. Selects and uses (1) personal experience (2) personal observation (3) prior knowledge. (Ideas and Content: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 3. Writes from experiences and relies on detailed insight, a sense of how events unfold, and how people respond to life and to one another. (Ideas and Content: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 4. Analyzes and understands implications and consequences of plagiarism (e.g. ethical, legal, professional). (Ideas and Content: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 5. Applies appropriate strategies to generate narrative text (e.g. brainstorming, listing, webbing, working in pairs or cooperative groups and identifying information from print sources). (Organization: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 6. Writes a piece with an inviting introduction, appropriate body, and satisfying conclusion that leaves the reader with a sense of resolution. (Organization: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 7. Selects varied transitions to connect ideas within and between paragraphs in the writing piece. (Organization: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P) 8. Selects vocabulary and figurative language that conveys a particular tone and personality (e.g. humor, suspense, originality, and liveliness). (Voice: prewriting, drafting, revising: N,E,T,P)

Improve Curriculum Articulation and Alignment I used highlighting to call attention to the most overt overlaps between the middle school and

high school standards. Note that point 6 of the benchmark has simply been copy-and-pasted from middle school to high school, and that points 2 and 7 are distinguished by one word apiece; thus, in 2, the middle school student is expected to use personal experience etc. while the high school student must select and use experience. In 7, the middle school student selects transitions and the high school student selects varied transitions. The differences in 2 and 7 are minor; I would even argue that they are incoherent, as nothing in the benchmark defines the difference between say, using experience and selecting and using experience, or between transitions and varied transitions. There is also some laziness in terms of defining what is supposed to be a new learning point versus what is supposed to be reinforced from prior curricula. For example, point 4 in table 1 is something with which both middle school students and high school students must be familiar; in the high school curriculum, a different column could have been used to distinguish between what are supposed to be new learnings and what learnings are supposed to be carried over and reinforced from middle school. Curricular Alignment According to Stern (2002), the ultimate goal of curricular alignment is ensuring that learning lessons and tasks fit into the course goals, which are themselves reflected in the curricular plan (pp. 17-18). It is obvious that, if there is ambiguity or stagnation in the curricular plan, then the teacher will have a much more difficult time of curricular alignment. Consider point 6 in Table 1 above: Writes a piece with an inviting introduction, appropriate body, and satisfying conclusion that leaves the reader with a sense of resolution. First, how is a high school teacher meant to structure learning tasks to achieve this knowledge indicator goal when

Improve Curriculum Articulation and Alignment he or she does not reliably know how, or whether, this skill was taught in middle school?

Obviously, a twelfth-grade writing teacher is not going to have the same lesson approach to point 6 as, say, a seventh-grade teacher. But since the benchmark for narrative writing in both grades is exactly the same, there is nothing on which the high school teacher can rely in terms of expecting a certain level of competence from incoming students; there is, in other words, no sense of standard-based narrative writing progression from middle school to high school. How, then, is a high school teacher supposed to create a more challenging lesson (as compared to middle school) for narrative writing? The risk is that two teachers separated by five grades will see this benchmark and act upon in the same way, which at the least is a disservice to the high school writing student who needs more sophisticated instruction than s/he received in middle school. Improvement Plan My improvement plan is built on going through the entire writing standard and creating varied, incremental language that clearly shows a teacher how knowledge indicators, and associated teaching tips, change from middle school to high school, and indeed from grade to grade. Take, for example, one bullet point from within the benchmark of narrative writing, the expectation that a student Writes a piece with an inviting introduction, appropriate body, and satisfying conclusion that leaves the reader with a sense of resolution. I would actual break this benchmark up into six distinct benchmarks, one for each grade from seven to twelve, with each benchmark showing clear progress over the past one. I have demonstrated how to take this approach in Table 2, although of course I would recommend that a committee of teachers, principals, and, if necessary, professors and consultants come together to create a version of this benchmark that accords with the latest pedagogical thinking about writing, and also insert teacher tips in line with best practices. My table is only a proof of concept for how I would

Improve Curriculum Articulation and Alignment amend the existing writing standards to make them incremental, that is, building on each other and moving towards mastery. Table 2. Example of Incremental Knowledge Indicators Middle School Grade 7 Grade 8 Able to Apply to understand apply inverted and, in short essay format essays (100in essays of 500 words), 500 words or apply inverted more. pyramid essay format.

High School Grade 9 Grade 10 Grades 11 and 12 Having Builds on Brings together concepts and mastered the grade 9 by competencies from grades 7 to basics of the adding 10 in order to write a piece inverted mastery of with an inviting introduction, format, is able sub-sections appropriate body, and to write within the satisfying conclusion that essays of up essay format. leaves the reader with a sense to 1,500 Also able to of resolution. words with go beyond this format. inverted pyramid format in creative ways.

Curricular alignment would improve because of this articulation plan, as teachers would have a much better sense of new and grade-personalized pedagogical goals and tips for every year.

References

Improve Curriculum Articulation and Alignment Bergman, A.B. (1998). A survival kit for the elementary school principal. New York, NY: Prentice Hall. Fabrikant, S. & Wachowitz, M. (2007). The European information society. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Kansas State Department of Education. (2010). 7th and 8th grade writing standards. Retrieved January 10, 2011 from http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1726. Kansas State Department of Education. (2010). High school writing standards. Retrieved January 10, 2011 from http://www.ksde.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1726. Stern, B.S. (2002). Social studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Eye on Education.