Handouts are available below.

Big Idea

Is it okay to cut out topics out of the curriculum? I think it’s okay not to get to every topic in the curriculum – but, that means what I will cover needs cover all the standards (and also creates deep learning opportunities for students too).

Episode Notes

Here are a couple of big ideas from the video:

1. When it comes to our science curriculum, do we want students to have a deep understanding of something or just passable knowledge? Ideally, we’d like a deep understanding.

2. if you’re using standards-based grading, where students are assessed on how well they perform specific science skills, you’ll use different parts of each topic to teach and assess certain skills. And if you’re able to assess all the skills effectively and comprehensively using a handful of topics, then there’s not a huge need to add more topics and more tests.

3. Going forward, when you start your year, start thinking about the topics and, more importantly, what you want to do in each unit to bring out each standard. One way to do this is to look back at last year’s assessment to see what was done. See handouts for sample

Resources

Handout(s): Ep100 Handouts – Why I Don’t Cover Every Topic in the Science Curriculum

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