Documenting a Scope and Sequence
Labeling Helps Schools Map Their Curriculum
Schools that are interested in personalizing their instruction for gifted students can begin by mapping what they teach.
Any school serious about improving the curriculum for all students in general, and refining individualized opportunities for gifted students in specific will need to record, or map what it is teaching before starting any new reforms.
Whatever tool is used to record what is happening in a class, it should be broken down first by months. For each month, the teachers should at the very least record its content, skills taught, and assessments used.
Content
Content indicates what the students will know after the section is completed. For example, students will read a specific book or interpret certain poetry. When documenting the content, teachers can use the I, R, M labeling system. I=Introduce, R=Reinforce, and M=Master/Maintain. Introduce is for the first exposure the students will have to this objective. Reinforce is used when an objective will be reviewed and extended. Master/Maintain is used for objectives that the students will master and maintain while in school. Please note that it is possible that not all of the objectives will be mastered by the 12th grade.
Skills
Skills should always be planned based on the Course Goals (e.g., reading, writing, logic, thinking skills, researching skills, problem solving, speaking skills, etc.) Skills can be defined as "life-long skills" (which can be recorded as LLS) such as appreciating independence and leadership, and/or "academic or content skills" (which can be recorded as CS) such as identifying rising and falling action.
Thought should also be given when considering skills as to how deeply and in what manner the skills are taught. There are three general considerations here – Mastery, Spiral, and Organic teaching.
Mastery - teaching skills that are mastered and then absorbed into higher order skills (skills that are with students for life such as learning to convert fractions to decimals, then learning new applications of the mastered unit)
Spiral - teaching new strands every year, where the concepts are used again and again (e.g., learning metaphors and similes) and used with increasing sophistication.
Organic – teaching a single proficiency every year until students’ skills and knowledge get better, but the proficiency can not be broken down into smaller parts (e.g., learning to waltz) but each time done it gets better.
Assessment
Assessments should be thought of in terms of establishing benchmarks that indicate how well the skill or content has been acquired by the student. Exemplars of fulfilling benchmarks can be simple tasks such as literature discussions, or quizzes, or reflective essays. Or, they can be much more than that.
The assessment phase can be the single most important factor for differentiating instruction for gifted students if done properly. This is where teachers can raise the bar higher for the gifted students by expecting a higher success rate on tests, a more complicated term project that demonstrates a greater depth of understanding, a live presentation or recital, or whatever skill that would both meet the requirement of the acquisition of the curriculum piece, along with the opportunity to allow the gifted student to stretch his or her abilities.
This is a simple, yet effective way to both differentiate learning and to meet course standards as educators search for ways to personalize education for gifted students in today’s world of limited teaching resources.
