Guide Questions for the Review of the Curriculum
Stage 1Content Standards
- Do the content standards reflect the desired results: the most important and enduring ideas, issues, principles and concepts from the disciplines; and skills and habits of mind that should be taught and learned?
- Are the standards attainable, considering the capabilities of the target learners?
- Performance Standards
- Do the performance standards express the criteria against which students’ performances or products shall be assessed?
- Do they answer the question, “How well must students do their work?”
- Are they the big and enduring ideas drawn from the disciplines?
- Do they reflect the major problems, issues and themes that are deemed most important for students to learn?
- Do they center around the major understanding, problem, issue or theme?
- Do they unpack the essential understandings?
- Are they relevant to students’ lives? To society?
- Do they provide enough challenge or rigor?
- Are they manageable: not too demanding of time or resources?
- Are they suitable to the target students’ ages, interests, and abilities?
Assessment
- Are they directly linked to standards through clearly stated criteria?
- Do they provide for multiple sources of evidence to document student progress/attainment of standards?
- Do they provide enough evidence of learning or attainment of the standard(s)?
- Do they accommodate a range of multiple intelligences and learning styles? Do they permit choices?
- Do they demonstrate conceptual understanding, and content and skill acquisition?
- Do they emerge naturally from the instructional activities?
- Do they provide for individual or group work?
Instructional Activities
- Do they address one or more specific standards?
- Do they involve significant content and processes from the standards?
- Do they lead to products and performances that can be used to assess student learning?
- Do they promote active learning?
- Do the introductory activities engage and motivate students?
- Do the enabling activities ensure student progress toward the attainment of the standards? Are these sufficient?
- Do the culminating activities encompass the identified standards? Do they require students to demonstrate their learning in relation to the standards?
