Vertical Articulation Sample and Activity

One consideration for curriculum planning is how content is distributed over the K-12 career of a student. The focus for this exercise is grades 3-10. Vertical alignment is a spatial reference to the transition of students through each grade level. We need to consider how concepts are developed throughout the career of a student, and how science content builds from grade level to grade level. This articulation activity helps to determine what students should know before coming to a grade level and what students will be expected to know as they leave that grade level and advance to the next level. Use the Vertical Articulation Sample to help map the science content for an organizer, within a standard, over several grade bands. Content organizers appear throughout the Standards document to assist educators in aligning science ideas across grade levels. For each topic organizer, the development of conceptual understanding is described from grade 3 through grade 10. The Vertical Articulation Activity below is a chart that allows a teacher to examine and record the content of their grade level while making a comparison to the content that comes before and after their grade level. To assist teachers in mapping the content, a sample, Overview of Benchmarks has been provided for the organizer Diversity and Interdependence of Life. It is an overview of the content showing the development of conceptual understandings for the benchmarks. Teachers should use the Ohio Academic Content Standards to then enhance their maps with grade level indicators. Once the mapping is complete, explore how the concepts embodied in this benchmark build and how the indicators help to inform the overall content of the Life Science Benchmark C. It is important to note within the grade bands that some content and skills are only featured in one grade level. So it is important to make sure that all content indicated for a grade band is addressed during instruction. This information is will ultimately inform and guide the development of lessons so that students develop the content and skills needed at each level to prepare for success at the next level.

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Science 2007

Vertical Articulation Sample and Activity

Vertical Articulation Activity
Students Prior Knowledge as Identified in Standards Grade-Band Content as identified in the standards that is taught at my grade level. (Place an asterisk for content that is only taught at my grade level for this grade band.) Expected Student Knowledge as Identified by Standards for next grade level

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Science 2007

Vertical Articulation Sample and Activity

Overview of Benchmarks Diversity and Interdependence of Life 3-10
Grades 3 5 Students explore interactions between organisms and their environment including the flow of energy through an ecosystem. This exploration involves relating plant and animal structures, common characteristics, behaviors of organisms that relate directly to their survival in the habitat and how organisms change their environment. Grades 6 8 Students explore the diversity and interdependence of life by tracing the flow of energy via food webs. They explain the interaction of biotic and abiotic factors and the environment which can cause slow or fast changes. Students know that the disruption of energy flow can by altered by human activity and examine some effects. Grades 9 10 Students explain the flow of energy and the cycling of matter through biological and ecological systems. Students examine how cells and organisms acquire and release energy. Students explain how evolutionary relationships contribute to similarities and differences of species. They explain how the variation in organisms within a species (via genetic mechanisms) may increase the survival rate of some members of that species if environmental conditions change. Students recognize adaptive radiation. Students describe the biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems and how they interact with one another including how human activities can impact natural systems.

Ohio Department of Education OAT Toolkit for Science 2007