The Curriculum Bridge

From Standards to Actual Classroom Practice
Third Edition
Pearl G. Solomon - St. Thomas Aquinas College
The Curriculum Bridge
January 2009 | 248 pages | Corwin
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ISBN: 9781452272849
Available from January 0001
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ISBN: 9781412969840
Available from January 0001

Description

"Comprehensive in scope, this book thoroughly lays out what a classroom teacher or curriculum developer needs to do to create an effective curriculum that can then be adapted into actual classroom instruction."
—Stephen D. Shepperd, Principal
Sunnyside Elementary School, Kellogg, ID

Translate standards into classroom curriculum that fulfills accountability requirements and meets students' learning needs!

Meeting the individual needs of students and the requirements of federal mandates is a challenge that educators face every day. This third edition of an award-winning book focuses on curriculum, content standards, teaching, and testing and provides teachers with solid guidelines for best practices.

In this detailed, comprehensive guide, Pearl Gold Solomon discusses the bridge between the written and the taught curriculum and gives readers a big-picture overview of how the current political environment and public opinion affect standards and curriculum. The book offers:

  • An up-to-date review of educational research, including how learning takes place
  • Ways to connect curriculum and standards to best teaching practices
  • Information on traditional, alternative, and high-stakes assessments
  • Expanded coverage of how best to plan and implement professional development

This information-rich resource is an indispensable tool for all educators who want to make informed and meaningful decisions to promote standards-based instruction, improve student outcomes, and create the best possible environments for learning.

Contents

Preface to the Third Edition

  • Who Should Read This Book
  • What This Book Is About

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Author

  • 1. Why Standards and Tests Are on the Front Page
  • About This Chapter
  • At the Top of the Political Agenda: Education
  • Why the Focus on Standards and Tests?
  • The No Child Left Behind Legislation
  • Economic Influences and Some Words of Caution
  • The Media Influence Opinions on Standards
  • The Origins of the Current Wave of Public Concern
  • Initial Responses of the Educational Community
  • Government Calls for Reform
  • Initial Responses to the Calls for Reform
  • Standards in Other Countries
  • A Summary: Systemic Change, Restructuring, and Reform
  • Notes
  • 2. Who Chooses the Curriculum? Are Standards and Tests Necessary?
  • About This Chapter
  • Some Charismatic Differences of Opinion
  • The Public Concerns, Opinions, and Influences
  • Teachers and Teacher Organizations Respond
  • University Professors and Researchers Respond
  • Forms of Curriculum Control
  • Nongovernment Influences on Curriculum
  • Getting Ready to Design Curriculum
  • Notes
  • 3. About How Learning Happens
  • About This Chapter
  • Educational Philosophy: Piaget and Constructivism
  • Compromise
  • The Changing Nature of the Concept of Intelligence
  • Cognition, Metacognition, and Goals: Connections to Practice
  • Interest
  • Real Experiences and Technology in the Instructional Process
  • Connecting Research to Practice: Summary Hypotheses
  • Notes
  • 4. Choosing Standards and ?Designing Them Down?
  • About This Chapter
  • The Curriculum Committee Meets
  • A Bit of History
  • Defining Standards in New Terms
  • Curriculum Enactment
  • 5. Constructing Creative Classrooms
  • About This Chapter?Dealing With the Differences
  • Organizing the Environment
  • The Actors: The Performers and Their Director
  • The Script: The Overall Plot
  • Notes
  • 6. How Are We Doing? Measuring Success
  • About This Chapter
  • Standards and Their Measures
  • The Purposes of Measures or Assessments
  • A History of Assessment Forms
  • The Quality and Consequences of High-Stakes Assessments
  • Improving HSSB Tests
  • Where Should Meg, April, and Brad Begin?
  • Challenge 1: Establishing Validity and Testing Reliability
  • Challenge 2: Tasks or Performances Versus Concepts
  • Challenge 3: Writing Rubrics
  • Challenge 4: Disaggregating the Assessment Results
  • Challenge 5: Levels of Performance, Grading
  • Challenge 6: Sharing Results With Students, Parents, and the Community
  • Notes
  • 7. Where Do We Go From Here?
  • About This Chapter
  • Where Will the Leadership for Needed Change Come From?
  • Professional Development for Teachers
  • Using Technology and Its Networks for Sharing Curriculum and Research
  • Technology for Communicating With Our Public
  • Notes

References

References

Index

Index

Description

"Comprehensive in scope, this book thoroughly lays out what a classroom teacher or curriculum developer needs to do to create an effective curriculum that can then be adapted into actual classroom instruction."
—Stephen D. Shepperd, Principal
Sunnyside Elementary School, Kellogg, ID

Translate standards into classroom curriculum that fulfills accountability requirements and meets students' learning needs!

Meeting the individual needs of students and the requirements of federal mandates is a challenge that educators face every day. This third edition of an award-winning book focuses on curriculum, content standards, teaching, and testing and provides teachers with solid guidelines for best practices.

In this detailed, comprehensive guide, Pearl Gold Solomon discusses the bridge between the written and the taught curriculum and gives readers a big-picture overview of how the current political environment and public opinion affect standards and curriculum. The book offers:

  • An up-to-date review of educational research, including how learning takes place
  • Ways to connect curriculum and standards to best teaching practices
  • Information on traditional, alternative, and high-stakes assessments
  • Expanded coverage of how best to plan and implement professional development

This information-rich resource is an indispensable tool for all educators who want to make informed and meaningful decisions to promote standards-based instruction, improve student outcomes, and create the best possible environments for learning.

Contents

Preface to the Third Edition

  • Who Should Read This Book
  • What This Book Is About

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Author

  • 1. Why Standards and Tests Are on the Front Page
  • About This Chapter
  • At the Top of the Political Agenda: Education
  • Why the Focus on Standards and Tests?
  • The No Child Left Behind Legislation
  • Economic Influences and Some Words of Caution
  • The Media Influence Opinions on Standards
  • The Origins of the Current Wave of Public Concern
  • Initial Responses of the Educational Community
  • Government Calls for Reform
  • Initial Responses to the Calls for Reform
  • Standards in Other Countries
  • A Summary: Systemic Change, Restructuring, and Reform
  • Notes
  • 2. Who Chooses the Curriculum? Are Standards and Tests Necessary?
  • About This Chapter
  • Some Charismatic Differences of Opinion
  • The Public Concerns, Opinions, and Influences
  • Teachers and Teacher Organizations Respond
  • University Professors and Researchers Respond
  • Forms of Curriculum Control
  • Nongovernment Influences on Curriculum
  • Getting Ready to Design Curriculum
  • Notes
  • 3. About How Learning Happens
  • About This Chapter
  • Educational Philosophy: Piaget and Constructivism
  • Compromise
  • The Changing Nature of the Concept of Intelligence
  • Cognition, Metacognition, and Goals: Connections to Practice
  • Interest
  • Real Experiences and Technology in the Instructional Process
  • Connecting Research to Practice: Summary Hypotheses
  • Notes
  • 4. Choosing Standards and ?Designing Them Down?
  • About This Chapter
  • The Curriculum Committee Meets
  • A Bit of History
  • Defining Standards in New Terms
  • Curriculum Enactment
  • 5. Constructing Creative Classrooms
  • About This Chapter?Dealing With the Differences
  • Organizing the Environment
  • The Actors: The Performers and Their Director
  • The Script: The Overall Plot
  • Notes
  • 6. How Are We Doing? Measuring Success
  • About This Chapter
  • Standards and Their Measures
  • The Purposes of Measures or Assessments
  • A History of Assessment Forms
  • The Quality and Consequences of High-Stakes Assessments
  • Improving HSSB Tests
  • Where Should Meg, April, and Brad Begin?
  • Challenge 1: Establishing Validity and Testing Reliability
  • Challenge 2: Tasks or Performances Versus Concepts
  • Challenge 3: Writing Rubrics
  • Challenge 4: Disaggregating the Assessment Results
  • Challenge 5: Levels of Performance, Grading
  • Challenge 6: Sharing Results With Students, Parents, and the Community
  • Notes
  • 7. Where Do We Go From Here?
  • About This Chapter
  • Where Will the Leadership for Needed Change Come From?
  • Professional Development for Teachers
  • Using Technology and Its Networks for Sharing Curriculum and Research
  • Technology for Communicating With Our Public
  • Notes

References

References

Index

Index

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The Curriculum Bridge

From Standards to Actual Classroom Practice

Pearl G. Solomon
Cancel Print

January 2009 | 248 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Paperback 27/02/2023 9781412969840 $40.95
Lifetime 27/02/2023 9781452272849 $37.00

"Comprehensive in scope, this book thoroughly lays out what a classroom teacher or curriculum developer needs to do to create an effective curriculum that can then be adapted into actual classroom instruction."
—Stephen D. Shepperd, Principal
Sunnyside Elementary School, Kellogg, ID

Translate standards into classroom curriculum that fulfills accountability requirements and meets students' learning needs!

Meeting the individual needs of students and the requirements of federal mandates is a challenge that educators face every day. This third edition of an award-winning book focuses on curriculum, content standards, teaching, and testing and provides teachers with solid guidelines for best practices.

In this detailed, comprehensive guide, Pearl Gold Solomon discusses the bridge between the written and the taught curriculum and gives readers a big-picture overview of how the current political environment and public opinion affect standards and curriculum. The book offers:

  • An up-to-date review of educational research, including how learning takes place
  • Ways to connect curriculum and standards to best teaching practices
  • Information on traditional, alternative, and high-stakes assessments
  • Expanded coverage of how best to plan and implement professional development

This information-rich resource is an indispensable tool for all educators who want to make informed and meaningful decisions to promote standards-based instruction, improve student outcomes, and create the best possible environments for learning.


Table Of Contents:

  • Preface to the Third Edition
  • Who Should Read This Book
  • What This Book Is About
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Author
  • 1. Why Standards and Tests Are on the Front Page
  • About This Chapter
  • At the Top of the Political Agenda: Education
  • Why the Focus on Standards and Tests?
  • The No Child Left Behind Legislation
  • Economic Influences and Some Words of Caution
  • The Media Influence Opinions on Standards
  • The Origins of the Current Wave of Public Concern
  • Initial Responses of the Educational Community
  • Government Calls for Reform
  • Initial Responses to the Calls for Reform
  • Standards in Other Countries
  • A Summary: Systemic Change, Restructuring, and Reform
  • Notes
  • 2. Who Chooses the Curriculum? Are Standards and Tests Necessary?
  • About This Chapter
  • Some Charismatic Differences of Opinion
  • The Public Concerns, Opinions, and Influences
  • Teachers and Teacher Organizations Respond
  • University Professors and Researchers Respond
  • Forms of Curriculum Control
  • Nongovernment Influences on Curriculum
  • Getting Ready to Design Curriculum
  • Notes
  • 3. About How Learning Happens
  • About This Chapter
  • Educational Philosophy: Piaget and Constructivism
  • Compromise
  • The Changing Nature of the Concept of Intelligence
  • Cognition, Metacognition, and Goals: Connections to Practice
  • Interest
  • Real Experiences and Technology in the Instructional Process
  • Connecting Research to Practice: Summary Hypotheses
  • Notes
  • 4. Choosing Standards and ?Designing Them Down?
  • About This Chapter
  • The Curriculum Committee Meets
  • A Bit of History
  • Defining Standards in New Terms
  • Curriculum Enactment
  • 5. Constructing Creative Classrooms
  • About This Chapter?Dealing With the Differences
  • Organizing the Environment
  • The Actors: The Performers and Their Director
  • The Script: The Overall Plot
  • Notes
  • 6. How Are We Doing? Measuring Success
  • About This Chapter
  • Standards and Their Measures
  • The Purposes of Measures or Assessments
  • A History of Assessment Forms
  • The Quality and Consequences of High-Stakes Assessments
  • Improving HSSB Tests
  • Where Should Meg, April, and Brad Begin?
  • Challenge 1: Establishing Validity and Testing Reliability
  • Challenge 2: Tasks or Performances Versus Concepts
  • Challenge 3: Writing Rubrics
  • Challenge 4: Disaggregating the Assessment Results
  • Challenge 5: Levels of Performance, Grading
  • Challenge 6: Sharing Results With Students, Parents, and the Community
  • Notes
  • 7. Where Do We Go From Here?
  • About This Chapter
  • Where Will the Leadership for Needed Change Come From?
  • Professional Development for Teachers
  • Using Technology and Its Networks for Sharing Curriculum and Research
  • Technology for Communicating With Our Public
  • Notes
  • References
  • Index

Recent Product Reviews:

Contents of book did not clearly align with curriculum leadership course. The text is well written, but would be better suited for master level course.
Patrick Jenlink, Secondary Leadership Educ Dept, Stephen F Austin State University
"This book provides good, practical suggestions and ideas, and shows their connections to educational research."
Gary Schumacher, Superintendent, Monona Grove School District, WI
"Comprehensive in scope, this book thoroughly lays out what a classroom teacher or curriculum developer needs to do to create an effective curriculum that can then be adapted into actual classroom instruction."
Stephen D. Shepperd, Principal, Sunnyside Elementary School, Kellogg, ID

Recommendations