After this past week, I'm downright excited.
On Thursday, our administrators and curriculum committee had the good fortune to spend a day with Jan Unwin, Superintendent of Graduation and Student Transitions, and Maureen Dockendorf, Superintendent of Early Years. They also spoke at our district day on Friday morning. Listening to the passion and pride -(Maureen even used the word joy)- that these educational leaders have with respect to the direction that the curriculum is taking was infectious. Knowing that three of our local teachers were directly part of that conversation was the icing on the cake.
If you're not familiar with the re-designed framework, there's a great "Tools" section on the new website which outlines the core competencies and structures of the curriculum. In addition to some terrific snapshot pdf documents available for printing out, there is a short series of videos that can give you the broad-strokes overview. (https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/tools).
Curriculum Model
Jan and Maureen opened their presentation with a thought that's had me thinking for the past two days. The kindergarten students who enter our doors this fall will be alive in the 22nd Century!
What a lucky thing, for all of our children, that the educators of this province have been given the gift of such an inclusive curriculum to bring to the table.
The three core competencies: Communication, Thinking and Personal and Social Skills have been organized around a continuum of profiles to help us support our learners in developing these areas.
Each set of profiles is designed to be completely inclusive- even our most impacted students will find a home within them. They are NOT arranged around grade levels, but rather individual capacities. As students develop sophistication with particular skill, they will move up the continuum.
For me, what makes these profiles even better, is that the competencies are the FOUNDATION of all things curriculum. When we talk about needing to support our learners with self-regulation skills, or to spend time helping kids develop friendships or better ways to explain themselves, we are not creating a bridge to the curriculum, we are EXPLORING curriculum. All of this important work we do with our learners is a part of what we are supposed to be doing, which means we don't need to feel guilty about the things we "aren't able to get to." Jan and Maureen were clear- 73% of the Learning Standards are about Curricular COMPETENCIES, (the skills and processes), not the content. We've been given the gifts of time and opportunity to explore things in a way that's meaningful for both our students and ourselves.
Year to year, week to week, group to group, our practice, our content, our focus, can ebb and flow with the needs of the kids. And it's expected that our students in the room will as diverse in their capacity with the core competencies as they already are with the content focused IRPs. Which makes it even more relevant, and important, for EVERYONE to be learning together.
Let's consider the Thinking Competency, where the Critical Thinking strand is broken into 6 profile descriptions, framed around "I statements" to allow students to reflect on their own growth.
Level 1 states "I can explore. I can explore materials and actions. I can show if I like something or not."
At Level 4, "I can gather and combine new evidence with what I already know to develop reasoned conclusions, judgments, or plans. I can use what I know and observe to identify problems and ask questions. I can explain and engage with materials and sources. I can consider more than one way to proceed and make choices based on my reasoning and what I am trying to do. I can develop or adapt criteria, check information, assess my thinking, and develop reasoned conclusions, judgments or plans.
While these two profiles are very different in their level of sophistication, they allow a place for ALL students to be part of the exploration. These profiles are organized with the expectation that students explore all facets of the competency (as defined around the outside of the circle), with whatever level of support they require to be successful (knowing that students in the middle require the most intensive help).
These core competencies are actualized through curricular competencies- the stuff students are supposed to DO, and the content, which is the stuff students are supposed to KNOW. Knowing and doing the activities within the Learning Standards will help students to UNDERSTAND the Big Ideas.
Let me give you an example of what this might look like in practical terms. Let's say a grade 6 classroom is working to understand the basic structure and function of the nervous system in their science lesson.
They begin with a short video which defines and describes the nervous system. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dah-4mtAnsQ).
After watching the video, the kids are exploring the curricular competencies of:
- Explore and pose questions that lead to investigations
- With support, plan appropriate investigations to answer their questions or solve problems they have identified.
They've had a conversation and have decided that their focus for this particular lesson is "what are the parts of the nervous system, and where are they in my body?"
The student who is working at profile level 1 for Critical Thinking is organizing cut-outs of the parts of the nervous system onto a cut-out of his body that he started when they were working on the muscular system. He's partnered up with a couple of other students, who also wanted to use their cut-outs, and who are also adding labels with short sentence descriptions to go with the parts. While an EA is nearby, the kids are working together and the adult stops by when needed for clarification or support.
At the same time, the student who is proficient at level 4 of the Critical Thinking Profiles has drawn a quick labeled sketch of the nervous system, and is now working on some additional reading and research to find out some additional details about the spinal cord, because he's interested to know more about why some people are unable to walk.
The Big Idea they'll all need to cycle back to is: Multicellular organisms rely on internal systems to survive, reproduce, and interact with their environment. By the end of this lesson, the students know what the nervous system is and a little bit about how it works. The student described above isn't the only one who got excited about an individual question- so as they wrap up, the class generates a list of the things they are wondering about, which will form the foundation of the inquiry to follow.
As the example above shows, this redesigned framework allows to explore new learning at a level that is developmentally appropriate for them as individuals. As teachers, we will continue to use our favorite units and lessons to continue to explore things we've been excited and engaged about ourselves, we'll just look at it through the lens of curricular competencies, rather than as bits of content. And, more often, we'll be able to keep our class together as a community as we move forward.
I love the way Shelley Moore recently framed this- it's not about finishing together....it's about BEGINNING together. Working within the framework of the Learning Standards gives teachers more autonomy than ever to meet their students where they are at, and to adjust things as we grow and learn together.
I'm proud to be part of an education system that is so inclusive and respectful of our students. Thank you to everyone who worked on it- you truly understand that THEY ARE ALL OUR KIDS!
