Important Front Matter and Blog Commenting information

Front Matter assignment.

 A LOT of very important information is presented in the front matter of each of the curriculum documents. For this assignment you are to choose TWO documents from different places and critically compare and contrast them. One document should be a subject document from Ontario. The other should be the same subject document from somewhere else in the world such as a New Zealand, Scotland, and California. Taiwan

Choose or create a graphic organizer to compare and contrast.  Critically analyse what you have discovered using written text.  For example, what do they say about the importance of their specific subject? What content does the Ministry consider important in that subject (KNOW)? What skills does the Ministry consider important in that subject (DO)? What values are being implicitly taught in each subject (BE)? What does each document say about assessing the subject? In approximately 5 to 7 pages critically analyze how the documents are the same, and how they differ, on those points. Ask yourself if the Ministry is missing things that you believe should be taught or are focusing on things that you believe should not be as heavily focused on. Remember – critical thinking is KEY. Do NOT just summarize!

What’s new? Length of front matter assignment is revised to 5 to 7 pages. This includes the graphic and critique. Critique is double-spaced.

  

Criteria for assessment

Chooses/creates an effective graphic organizer for compare and contrast. The reader can easily see the similarities and differences. 

Sees the Big Picture for KDB. 

Asks significant questions

Offers critique rather than observation

Get it...has depth in insights. 

Sample organizers 

You do not need to recreate the wheel. Sample organizers are available at this link or create your own. Watch for the attributions of your chart choice. When I went to put in a simple Venn diagram for an example I wanted to use a Pinterest pin but it turned out it came from a site where Teachers Pay Teachers and I needed to pay $4.50 U.S. So I left it out! 

Here is a good link defining different levels of attribution for images obtained from Flickr/Creative Commons. Don't forget to be a digital citizen!  

Blogs

Your colleagues will be giving you feedback throughout. To be a responsible member of this classroom community you need to give constructive feedback so that the blogs improve (if needed).  You will not be getting designated feedback from your TA/instructor so it is important that you take this responsibility seriously.

Blogging comments
Success Criteria	Your constructive comments
Feedback involves personal reflections on the blog
Feedback asks questions to provoke thinking on the part of the blogger.
Feedback provides constructive comments on how well the blog fulfills blog criteria.
Your feedback reflects the growth mindset.
Your written feedback is posted for each individual for class the next week. You will hand in one sheet with all your feedback comments on it to the instructor/TA.

You also need to hand us a paper copy of ALL your feedback on the day determined in the Syllabus. Generally that will be 9 pieces of feedback – no more than 3 pages long in total.  A longish paragraph will do but make sure that it fits the criteria above.

There are two ways to capture your feedback.

1  1.  Compose all your ongoing blog comments on a Word doc with each comment identifying the person the post is being sent to and date of sending it.  Then post the comment.

2. Take screen shots of all your feedback and paste all of them into a Word document, print and and hand this in. This website describes how to do it for many different platforms.  With a Mac you can use Grabber and with a PC you can use Snippit. Both allow you to select part of a screen and take a shot of the selection, save it with a name, and then paste it into a Word document. 

    Here is how to do it on a PC. 

Snippit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLbCQkiqr-w

OR on a MAC 

Sources: https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=how%20to%20make%20a%20selected%20screenshot%20mac&es_th=1

 Good luck. Don't get discouraged on the Front Matter. It is hard to learn something new but you can do it and it will be worth for the years ahead. Builds your... 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/grocko/41266791/in/photolist-4Dvbp-dhngfd-moQz9F-82XZS5-eRUueA-bbSopn-9Axxvp-9Auerq-81WHqp-paX95B-8QBA2s-9w6W5k-oL66ji-9uPxSR-8shddY-8vByeT-5x2Hk4-jYc2Ux-ogdjsM-a6ARMn-wQVzeK-wZDnTU-ekpqaY-9x4dHp-hLZYXz-xwL35R-9qG2rV-5UkiBD-4w49bE-kbGeHz-r3NxpX-d5haUL-xYpqZ2-wJA4Cj-qH2aQH-c8ZYGy-ag7TzZ-fndNXx-j3MHVS-qFxh3L-wWqzNK-7EBae2-hwZFvC-7vykP5-ea7bX5-jDcTf1-8q8zrP-rugXnu-bLK3V6-cR62Cy

On understanding and deconstructing curriculum documents.

The best way to to understand what curriculum documents look like is to actually look at them! At first they can be pretty overwhelming until you begin to see the patterns in the documents. The best way to do this is to carefully look at documents that are relevant to you.  Looking at more than one document is also helpful because then you can compare different subject areas. In Ontario, curriculum documents are differentiated by subject areas and grade levels. You will find an Ontario curriculum document for each subject for grades 1 to 8. In secondary there is often a grade 9 and 10 version and a grade 11 and 12. 

To find any curriculum document you go first to  Ontario Ministry of Education.  You can search for elementary curriculum or secondary curriculum in the Search bar in the right hand corner at the top of the page. 

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/

Searching will take you to 

 http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/

OR 

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/index.html

Choose By Subject not By Grade. 

From there you choose which curriculum document you wish to look at. 

Look Fors: 

1. Table of Contents

2. Front Matter - Everything written before Strands and Expectations . Some documents have much more than others in the Front Matter.  The front matter will tell you the philosophy behind the document and what is considered most important for a student to Know, Do and Be in the subject area from K to 12.

3. Assessment & Evaluation & Achievement Charts. What is most important for a student to Know, Do and Be? 

4. Overall Layout: How is the subject area presented in the document?  (For example, Social Studies grades1 to 6 is one subject area divided into Strands. In Grade 7 and 8 there is History and Geography and each subject area is divided into Strands.  In Grades 9 and 10 the documents identifies history, geography and civics (politics).  This document is called The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 and 10 Canadian and World Studies.  Similarly the grades 11 and 12 document is also Canadian and World Studies.  Other subjects are more straight forward.

What subtopics or STRANDS are in each grade? Does this follow through for every grade or do the STRANDS change?

4. Look at one grade, one strand. 

What are the Overall Expectations?
What are the titles of the Specific Expectations?
Are there examples of how a teacher might help students to meet the expectations?
Are there suggestions for what Big Ideas (KNOW) that might be taught?
Are there suggestions for what Big Skills (DO)  that might be taught?
Is there any mention of teaching values (BE)? 

Look at another Strand in the same grade, same subject. Are the answers to the above questions the same or different? 

5. Unifying framework In Ontario, there is no unifying framework. There is nothing to tell you what should be taught across all subject areas K to 12. This is because each subject area creates its own documents and is only loosely guided by an overall vision. You will probably find that other countries or provinces provide an overall vision. Look at Hong Kong's 7 Goals for all Learners. 

And the unifying framework for all subjects, all grades 

Source: unknown 

There is no unifying framework in Ontario. But what does your document say about

• the environment?
• healthy relationships?
• mental health, well- being? 
• equity?
• financial literacy?
• mathematical literacy?
• inquiry? 
• critical thinking and critical literacy? 
• technology?
• 21st Century education? 
• ways of learning?  

Front Matter Assignment: 

Here you will apply the "theory" of Chapter 2 to the Front Matter of one subject area from Ontario and the same subject area from somewhere else - outside Ontario.   So, you will be comparing and contrasting two documents from two different jurisdictions. To do this most effectively you want to compare the same subject area and same "strand" (although it may not be called a strand). Choose another jurisdiction. Use the same process as above to find a similar curriculum document from another country or another province. Sometimes it is not called a Ministry of Education, there may be another name such as Education Bureau, but with a little exploring you should be able to locate what you want from where you want it. And don't forget you can choose Google Translate if you are looking at a country where you do not understand the language. Basically you are looking for the KDB in the front matter.  

You are asked to choose a graphic organizer or mind map to show your thinking. Some suggestions for a compare and contrast graphic organizer are found at this link. Or you can create one on your own. We also want some thoughtful discussion on the content of the Front Matter and what you found.  The rubric for this task is in Resources. BUT, you can't really do this fully until we discuss the Chapter 2 reading next week.  Getting familiar with the documents for next week and the Chapter 2 reading will take you a long way to where you need to be for the Front Matter assignment AND the curriculum design. 

This blog is supposed to give your a head start on the Front Matter and Curriculum Design. I hope that it does not just confuse you more.  So take a stab at it and if you don't understand it perfectly know that there is still time and things will become clearer in class. ... 

http://www.bensalemsd.org/Page/10808

Until next week! 

Thoughts on beginning to blog.

September 2015. I have been here before. In fact, I wrote in this blog last September and if you look at the previous entries they address a lot of the questions that you might have during the course. The best resource I know for HOW to start your blog is from Dr. Candace Figg who is the chair of the Teacher Education department.  It is a simple step-by-step guide. Or try watching a YouTube with instructions on blogging.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FIk653lvkk

A blog will give you opportunity to begin to "brand" yourself. Your digital footprint is important. You have no doubt heard the advice not to post images on social media that suggest you like to party.  But the answer is not to turn away from engaging in social media. It turns out that lots of principals and those hiring in education "google" you BEFORE they look at applications.  And if you have a strong digital presence in the area of education then you will be considered before someone without such a presence! So the blogging this term is to get you thinking about your own "branding" - because not having a digital presence is not an asset in today's job market.

Last year I has a Master of Education student Monica Taylor. She began a blog for her course with me called Monica Taylor MEd Blog.

http://msmtaylor.blogspot.ca/2015_07_01_archive.html

She used the blog for more than just the course and continued on. Monica has established herself as a real presence and she is noted as an Ontario blogger at the OSSEMOOC site. OSSEMOOC is a grass roots organization that runs webinars during the year with Ontario educators. Its name suggests that this is secondary only but that is not so. The topics of interest refer to K to 12. One week they did a session on pedagogical documentation, for example, which is an assessment technique widely used in primary teaching. And a lot of the excellent secondary teachers know that the best high school class looks like a Kindergarten!


SO....  Take this opportunity to learn a practical skill as well as share your own thoughts about significant issues on the course. The rubrics for this are below:

Success Criteria	Comments
Uses “I” rather than third person
Integrates personal experiences with other resources and course reading.
Reflects upon connections to uncover new insights
Goes beyond description to deal with significant issues or concerns ­and shows depth/complexity
Uses language conventions properly. Paper is well organized, coherent and is reader ­friendly
Blog is scholarly in nature. There are at least 2 references in APA style beyond class readings. References can come from online sources, social media as well as traditional sources. References are noted at the end of the blog in traditional APA style.
Blog is aesthetically attractive. There is at least 1 image that is connected to the text and 2 hyperlinks to relevant connections on the Internet. Relevant You Tubes may be embedded into the blog. Attribution is given for images and videos.
Blog is only one page long. This is hard to estimate and images and You Tubes do not count in the length.

 You will be peer assessing the blogs of 3 other students so it is really important to give quality feedback. When you assess others you will also improve your own blogging skills. 

Blogging comments
Success Criteria	Your constructive comments
Feedback involves personal reflections on the blog
Feedback asks questions to provoke thinking on the part of the blogger.
Feedback provides constructive comments on how well the blog fulfills blog criteria.
Your feedback reflects the growth mindset.
Your written feedback is posted for each individual for class the next week .  On Nov You hand in one sheet with all your feedback comments on it to the instructor/TA.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDVSw54VU1A

The You Tube shows you how elementary students think about making comments. I look forward to your blogs and your comments.