An Outline of How Our Curriculum Model Works . . .

So I thought it might be helpful to try to build a better understanding among parents and community members about how our model of curriculum works, and how it is different from the "old way".  First, let's explain what the different components of our curriculum are called, what each part contains, and how it is related to the other parts. . .

First, our overall PBE curriculum centers around THREE key areas.  In our traditional system, curriculum was solely centered around content area learning.  If you did well in math, you got a good grade.  If you did well in History, you got a good grade, etc. etc. for all content areas.  In our PBE curriculum, there are THREE key areas:  Content, Habits of Mind, and Complex Reasoning Skills.  The content is the same content areas outlined in Maine's Learning Results and very similar to the same content we spent our time with as students in the "old" system:  Math, ELA, Science, Social Studies, Foreign Language, Performing Arts, CTE, etc.  Habits of Mind refers to things like getting work turned in on time, doing complete work, giving things your best effort, etc.  These are a lot like many of the things your teachers probably asked of you when you were a student, only you were "graded" on them as part of your content knowledge.  In our curriculum, the same expectations exist, we're just assessing them for what they are - Habits of Mind and NOT content understanding.  In other words - we figured out that just because you can write neatly and turn papers in on time, doesn't mean you understand the Bill of Rights! Finally, the last component is Complex Reasoning Skills.  Again, in the past these were part of your overall grade in the content area.  In our PBE curriculum we believe these skills are important enough to assess separately.  Skills like Decision making, problem solving, deduction, persevering, goal setting, etc. can all be found under the category of "Complex Reasoning Skills".

Each of these three key components is then broken down further.  At the largest level, we have what are called "Strands".  These are mostly organizational in nature to help us understand where students are.  The next largest level of learning is called a "Measurement Topic".  Then, each Measurement Topic is broken down into Learning Progressions (or scopes) which are further broken down into Learning Targets.  Each Learning target has a "scale" that defines the level of learning required to demonstrate proficiency (otherwise known as taxonomy) at each Learning Target.  If I were to create an organizational chart for each of these components it would look like this:

Content Area (example:  Reading)

Then...

Strand (example:  Informational)

Then...

Measurement Topic (example:  Text Structures and Features)

Then...

Learning Progressions (7 learning levels)

Then...

Learning Targets

Then...

Scales that outline what specific skills at what levels of learning must be demonstrated to meet proficiency.

Students are expected to demonstrate proficiency (a score of a three) for each Learning Target.  Once they have completed all the learning targets in each progression, they will have demonstrated proficiency at the Measurement Topic Level, which is required by law.

Now, does this mean that students go along their Learning Target progressions in lock step order, checking things off as they go, mindlessly moving from one to the next to the next until they've checked them all off?  NO.  Let's see if I can clarify. . .

First, part of the teacher's job is to understand where each student is at in their learning and then build each student up in their learning from where they are to where they need to be.  The intent is NOT to force students to mindlessly start at level 1 and then move from one item to the next, either re-learning materials they already know, or being asked to learn materials they aren't ready for.  The teacher uses multiple methods to determine where a child is at in their learning and they enter the learning progressions at the levels they are at.

Secondly,  students do not have to work solely on one Measurement Topic (MT) at a time.  Lessons are created that allow multiple MT's to be worked on simultaneously, even across content areas so that students can "mix it up" and not feel as though they are marching along one path of learning.

Overall, this system has been created so that the focus of learning is NOT about identifying who is going to teach what, when "it" is going to be taught, where "it" is going to be taught, or even how "it" is going to be taught!  The students get to drive the answers to these questions!  Instead, this system was created to identify what the essential knowledge is, what the progression of this learning is, what it looks like to be proficient at this learning, and what are the various ways students could demonstrate their understanding of this knowledge.  The system is created to make the student the "driver" and while the teacher still teaches. .. they are doing so with the individual student's learning needs at the center of all that they do!

Long enough post for now. .. more later! :)