IOWA CORE CURRICULUM
Kristen Thibodeaux
About Iowa Core Curriculum:
Every student deserves an education in order to succeed. Today's economy consists of many kinds of technology. The ICC provides the education we need using different core subjects. In using the subjects Iowa Core Curriculum figured out ways for students can succeed through their learning process in education.
Student Benefits:
- Students focus and learn about the topics education brings.
- Knowledge of students expands throughout problem solving, comprehending, and asking many questions.
- Issues students to gain knowledge and process information accurately.
- Students attract learning experiences from their interests.
Curriculum:
- Intended curriculum- the content target for the enacted curriculum, often captured in content standards or other similar documents.
- Enacted curriculum- the content actually delivered during instruction in the classroom and other learning settings.
- Assessed curriculum- the content that is assessed to determine achievement (Porter 2004).
Alignment
How well the students learn and understand the elements that guide them in education.
Directionality
Alignment is broken down in direction:
- Horizontal Alignment- degree of match across two components(Niebling et al., 2008).
- Vertical Alignment- degree of match within one component (e.g., district benchmark assessments) across multiple levels (e.g.,across grade levels).
Dimensions
There are different alignment aspects in which they summarize three different dimensions.
- Topical/Conceptual/Knowledge- Topics and information that students are supposed to learn.
- Cognitive Complexity/Demand- What students are expected to do with the tropical/conceptual knowledge (e.g., Bloom's Taxonomy).
- Emphasis- The extent to which topical/ conceptual knowledge with accompanying complexity/demand are addressed by the intended, enacted, or assessed curriculum.
Level of Analysis
Grain size:
- Coarse-Grained- Tends to be global or general in nature;
- Fine-Grained- Specific, targeted, one-to-one correspondance (Niebling et al., 2008).
Iowa Core Curriculum: Characteristics of Effective Instruction
START- acronyms to the characteristics of Effective Instruction
S- tudent-Centered Classrooms
- students construct the knowledge they know through experiences in holistic and authentic challenges.
- students communicate their connections through the teachers encouragement.
- Curriculum and assessments come into context by the real world performances such as classroom learning experiences.
T- eaching for Understanding
- Lead students in understand thought-provoking activities such as explanations, finding evidence and examples, analyze and generalize topics in different ways.
- Teachers make sure the students have and understanding by
- making learning a long-term, thinking-centered process,
- provide for rich ongoing assessments,
- support learning with powerful representations,
- pay heed to developmental factors,
- induct students into the discipline, and
- teach for transfer.
A- ssessment FOR Learning (Formative Assessment):
- Process used to help improve students' achievement of core content.
- Practices help the students with clear targets in learning.
- They set goals as well as working through models of weak and strong work.
- They get the ability to self-assess.
R- igorous and Relevant Curriculum
- Challenge that is emotionally complex and requires students to use knowledge and problem solve.
- They have to create works in the real world problems.
- Includes authentic work, and knowledge of skills to problems.
- Develops in-depth understandings and abilities to express ideas.
- When the students meet these requirements it is very useful in the real world.
T- eaching for Learner Differences
- Requires the understanding of teachers of concepts.
- They need to identify factors that affect the desired outcome, and employ different methods to teach the concepts and skills desired.
- Provide access in general information for students.