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Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
"A Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum Is Not Proper Noun" by Thomas Many
"The guaranteed aspect of a guaranteed and viable curriculum (GVC) requires all students enrolled in the same class, course, or grade level be exposed to the same rigorous curriculum regardless of the teacher to whom they are assigned. If what teachers teach is different from one classroom to the next, the curriculum is not guaranteed" (Many et al., 2022, p. 92).
"The viable aspect of a GVC recognizes that teaching the curriculum and covering the curriculum are two very different things. While teachers can cover a lot of content, to teach the curriculum requires students learn what teachers teach. If the amount of content for which teachers are responsible exceeds what they can reasonably teach within the time allotted, the curriculum is not viable" (Many et al., 2022, p. 92).
Essential Standards & REAL Protocol
Essential Standards & REAL Protocol
"A Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum is the commitment between and among teachers to teach what the team has agreed are the essential standards"
(Many et al., 2022, p. 93)
One of the first steps collaborative teams take is to identify a small handful of essential outcomes to study together. These essential standards are part of our Guaranteed Viable Curriculum - they describe what all of our students can be reasonably expected to know and do. As a team, we guarantee and commit to making sure all students are proficient with our essential standards.
One way collaborative teams can identify essential standards is to use the REAL protocol.
Learning Targets
Learning Targets
Once teams have established the essential standards, they should create learning targets that clarify the outcomes of lessons.
"It is through the simple, yet powerful process of unwrapping essential standards that teams come to understand what each standard requires that teachers should teach and students should learn." (DuFour et al., 2016, p. 118)
Teachers are encouraged to translate learning targets into "I can" statements. "I can" statements clarify for students what they should know and be able to do, help teachers determine the level of rigor necessary for proficiency, and are a valuable resource for parents as they provide a clear explanation of what is expected for mastery.
Common Formative Assessments
Common Formative Assessments
"While they offer many benefits, the primary goal of common formative assessments is to provide information about student learning and to identify which students are in need of additional time and support.”
(Bailey, K. & Jakicic, C. (2012). Common Formative Assessment: A Toolkit for Professional Learning Communities at Work. )
Summative assessments give students the opportunity to prove what they have learned. These assessments should be given at the end of a unit. Formative assessments are essential in the PLC process because they are small check ups through out the learning process. Formative assessments give the student and teacher the opportunity to improve student learning. The results of frequent formative assessments drive the instruction in the classroom.
Prevention Loop
Prevention Loop
The Prevention Loop is often called the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle. The PDSA cycle guides the work of collaborative teams on a unit-by-unit basis. It outlines the types of tasks and products that teams create in each phase of the cycle as well as the progression in which teams address critical questions of learning.
Plan
Teams backward PLAN to identify and design:
Essential standards for each unit and specific Learning Targets (Q1: What do we want students to know and be able to do?)
Summative and Formative assessment items and timing including SMART goals for end of unit assessments (Q2: How will we know if they have learned it?)
Sequence of instruction, including best instructional practices that increase student learning of the essential standards
Do
Teams implement or DO the plan. They collect evidence of student learning at key times as planned through the use of common assessments.
Study
Teams STUDY evidence of student learning to identify general strengths and errors, patterns, specific student levels, and effective practices.
They develop a plan to support students who do not achieve proficiency and strategies for extending the learning for all students. (Q3: How will we respond when some students do not learn? Q4: How will we extend the learning for students who are already proficient?)
They evaluate the effectiveness of assessment items, pacing, and instructional strategies.
Act
Teams ACT on their plan to support and gather additional evidence of student learning to ensure that their support resulted in higher levels of student achievement.
"It is difficult enough to bring these concepts to life in a school or district where there is a shared understanding of their meaning. It is impossible when there is no common understanding and the terms mean very different things to different people" (DuFour et al., 2016, p. 19).
This glossary exists to align the understanding of key terms surrounding the PLC process for ASD1. With common understanding comes common expectations and clarity for all members of the PLC.
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