Examining Curriculum Materials: IA: Unit Purpose

Examining Curriculum Materials: IA: Unit Purpose

Learning Goal:

Name of material:

Major Criterion	Indicators - What must a material do to meet the criterion?	Ö or X	Justification and Citation How does the material meet this indicator? OR Why does this material fail to meet this indicator? Be sure to give specific examples
Criterion A: Conveying unit purpose Does the material convey an overall sense of purpose and direction that is understandable and motivating to students?	1. A problem, question, representation (or otherwise identified purpose) is presented to students.
	2. The problem, question, representation (or otherwise identified purpose) is likely to be comprehensible to students.
	3. The problem, question, representation (or otherwise identified purpose) is likely to be interesting and/or motivating to students.
	4. Students are given an opportunity to think about and discuss the problem, question, representation (or otherwise identified purpose).
	5. Most lessons are consistent with the stated purpose and those that are not are explicitly labeled as digressions.
	6. The material returns to the stated purpose at the end of the unit.

Examining Curriculum Materials: IC - Lesson/Activity Purpose

Learning Goal:

Name of material:

Major Criterion	Indicators - What must a material do to meet the criterion?	Ö or X	Justification and Citation How does the material meet this indicator? OR Why does this material fail to meet this indicator? Be sure to give specific examples
Criterion C: Justifying lesson/activity sequence Does the material involve students in a sequence of activities that takes the students' perspectives into account and systematically builds toward understanding of the learning goals?	1. The activities are systematically sequenced.
	2. The sequence of activities reflects consideration of students' initial ideas and skills and builds strategically toward a more accurate understanding of the learning goals
	3. The material provides teachers with the rationale for the sequence, making clear the function of each activity in relation to the overall sequence of activities.

Examining Curriculum Materials: IID - Taking Account of Student Ideas

Learning Goal:

Name of Material

Major Criterion	Indicators - What must a material do to meet the criterion?	Ö or X	Justification and Citation How does the material meet this indicator? OR Why does this material fail to meet this indicator? Be sure to give specific examples
Category II: Taking Account of Student Ideas Criterion D: Addressing commonly held ideas Does the material attempt to address commonly held student ideas?	1. The material explicitly addresses commonly held ideas.
	2. The material includes questions, tasks, or activities that are likely to help students progress from their initial ideas, for example, by explicitly challenging students' ideas, for example, by comparing their predictions about a phenomenon to what actually happens prompting students to contrast commonly held ideas with the scientifically correct ideas, and resolve differences between them extending correct commonly held ideas that have limited scope.
	3. The material includes suggestions to teachers about how to take into account their own students' ideas.

Examining Curriculum Materials: III A&B: Engaging Students with Real World Phenomena (Examples)

Learning Goal:

Name of material:

Major Criterion	Indicators - What must a material do to meet the criterion?	Ö or X	Justification and Citation How does the material meet this indicator? OR Why does this material fail to meet this indicator? Be sure to give specific examples
Category III: Engaging Students with Relevant Phenomena Criterion A: Providing variety of phenomena Does the material provide multiple and varied phenomena to support the learning goal? Criterion B: Providing vivid experiences Does the material provide an appropriate balance of firsthand and vicarious experiences with real world examples/phenomena that are explicitly linked to the learning goals?	A1. The material provides real world examples/phenomena that are relevant to the learning goals.
	A2. The material makes clear to the students the relationship between real world examples/phenomena and the learning goals.
	A3. The real world examples/phenomena are likely to be comprehensible to students.
	B1. When practical and appropriate, the material provides firsthand experiences with real world examples/phenomena that are explicitly linked to the learning goals.
	B2. The material provides other experiences (e.g. text, pictures, and video) that give students a vicarious sense of real world examples/phenomena.
	B3. The set of experiences is efficient, i.e. the benefits justify the costs in time and money.

Examining Curriculum Materials: IVC: Representing Ideas Effectively

Learning Goal:

Name of material:

Major Criterion	Indicators - What must a material do to meet the criterion?	Ö or X	Justification and Citation How does the material meet this indicator? OR Why does this material fail to meet this indicator? Be sure to give specific examples
Criterion C: Representing ideas effectively Does the material include accurate and comprehensible representations of the learning goals?	1. The material includes accurate representations related to the learning goals (or asks students to critique representations that are not accurate).
	2. The representations are likely to be comprehensible to students.
	3. The material asks students to consider what the representations show and do not show or invites them to compare the representations to what is being represented..
	4. The representations clearly distinguish between accurate ideas in the learning goals and common naïve alternatives describe in the learning research literature.

Examining Curriculum Materials: IVF: Providing Practice

Learning Goal:

Name of material:

Major Criterion	Indicators - What must a material do to meet the criterion?	Ö or X	Justification and Citation How does the material meet this indicator? OR Why does this material fail to meet this indicator? Be sure to give specific examples
Criterion F: Providing Practice Does the material provide questions and/or tasks in a variety of situations for students to practice knowledge or skills related to the learning goals?	1. The material includes questions or tasks for students to practice using knowledge or skills related to the learning goals in real world contexts.
	2. The material provides practice using unfamiliar contexts and questions or tasks (ones which students have not previously encountered) as well as familiar ones.
	3. The material makes it clear to the teacher and the students what precisely is being practiced.
	4. The material provides practice using sets of questions or tasks sequenced from simple to complex.
	5. The material provides students first with opportunities for guided practice with feedback and then with practice which gradually decreases the amount of support

Examining Curriculum Materials: VA: Encouraging Students to Explain Their Ideas

Learning Goal:

Name of Material:

Major Criterion	Indicators - What must a material do to meet the criterion?	Ö or X	Justification and Citation How does the material meet this indicator? OR Why does this material fail to meet this indicator? Be sure to give specific examples
Category V: Promoting Student Thinking about Phenomena, Experiences, and Knowledge Criterion A. Encouraging students to explain their ideas Does the material routinely include suggestions for having each student express, clarify, justify, and represent his or her ideas? Are suggestions made for when and how students will get feedback from peers and the teacher?	1. Material routinely encourages students to express their ideas.
	2. Material encourages students not only to express but also to clarify, justify, and represent their ideas (a material is not expected to encourage students to clarify, justify, and represent ideas each time they are asked to express their ideas; however, in the course of teaching a particular key idea the material should provide students with opportunities to clarify, justify, and represent ideas).
	3. Material provides opportunities for each student (rather than just some students) to express ideas.
	4. Material includes specific suggestions on how to help the teacher provide explicit feedback to students or includes text that directly provides students with feedback.
	5. Material includes suggestions on how to diagnose student errors, explanations about how these errors may be corrected, and recommendations for how students' ideas may be further developed.

Examining Curriculum Materials: VB: Guiding Interpretation & Reasoning

Learning Goal:

Name of Material

Major Criterion	Indicators - What must a material do to meet the criterion?	Ö or X	Justification and Citation How does the material meet this indicator? OR Why does this material fail to meet this indicator? Be sure to give specific examples
Category V: Promoting Student Thinking about Phenomena, Experiences, and Knowledge Criterion B: Guiding student interpretation and reasoning Does the material include tasks and/or question sequences to guide student interpretation and reasoning about experiences with phenomena, representations, and ideas?	1. The material includes specific and relevant tasks and/or questions for the experience or reading.
	2. The questions or tasks have helpful characteristics such as framing important issues helping students to relate their experiences with phenomena or representations to presented scientific ideas helping students to make connections between their own ideas and the phenomena or representations observed helping students to make connections between their own ideas and the presented scientific ideas anticipating common student misconceptions focusing on contrasts between student misconceptions and scientific alternatives.
	3. There are scaffolded sequences of questions or tasks (as opposed to separate questions or tasks).

Examining Curriculum Materials: VI: Probing Student Understanding

Learning Goal:

Name of material:

Major Criterion	Indicators - What must a material do to meet the criterion?	Ö or X	Justification and Citation How does the material meet this indicator? OR Why does this material fail to meet this indicator? Be sure to give specific examples
Criterion B: Probing student understanding Does the material include assessment tasks that require application of ideas and avoid allowing students a trivial way out, like using a formula or repeating a memorized term from the text without understanding it?	1. The material provides assessment questions and/or tasks that focus on the use of the knowledge and/or skills specified in the learning goals (for example, they ask students to apply, explain, etc).
	2. The material includes questions and/or tasks that students have not previously encountered.
	3. The material includes questions and/or tasks that students do not use the exact context in which students were taught the learning goals.
	4. The material includes assessment questions and/or tasks likely to provide evidence about whether or not students hold any commonly held student ideas that are relevant to the learning goals and described in the learning research literature.