Science, Astronomy Example

The standard on the right is an 8^th grade science example for astronomy. This standard is extremely open ended meaning that without the context of it being for the 8^th grade and the constraint of covering this standard in a unit’s length of time, this could represent years of learning. It provides a broad description of an astronomically large topic and leaves it to the teacher to decide what to teach.

How does a teacher decide what to teach? Just like the other examples, teachers rely on text books to see what’s relevant on this topic for 8^th graders although the textbook isn’t necessarily used for actual teaching. And because the stakes are so high, teachers must examine released test items and any descriptive test materials. Merge all this material into existing personal knowledge and a teacher can begin to outline what “might” be considered as content to satisfy this standard. The partial build out example on the right represents one possible way to break out the content. The areas in orange are expansions of the standard.

As you can see, the build out is really in its early stages with a structure, but still missing the actual bits of knowledge to be transferred. This actual build out is very tedious and requires constant checking against references that suggest what might be normal for this grade and coverage in the allotted time.

Because defining content is such a complex task, it is a given that no two teachers working independently would arrive at the exact same content to be taught. And it is probably safe to assume that independent teachers would not have time to check the boundary conditions of prior and following courses.

Aligned·By·Design makes it easy for teachers to work together in a department or district level effort to develop classroom curriculum templates with the specific content and sequencing fully defined. Using the common template, each teacher can decide “how to teach” and write their own lesson plans. But if they prefer, Aligned·By·Design can also facilitate group development of lesson plans and sharing of lesson plans. And throughout the development process, every version of the classroom curriculum will be live-linked to standards and knowledge to validate alignment at a glance.

Detail Example Pages

• Math Example, Algebra I

• Social Studies Example

• Science Example, Weather

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