DOCUMENT RESUME LL ED 375 598 EC 303 438 Differentiating the Core Curriculum and Instruction TITLE To Provide Advanced Learning Opportunities. INSTITUTION California Association for the Gifted.; California State Dept. of Education, Sacramento. SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. REPORT NO ISBN-0-8011-1093-9 PUB DATE 94 NOTE 35p. AVAILABLE FROM Bureau of Publications Sales Unit, California Department of Education, P.O. Box 721, Sacramento, CA 95812-0271 ($6.50 plus tax for California residents). Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.) PUB TYPE Guides Non-Classroom Use (055) (120) EDRS PRICE MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Acceleration (Education); *Curriculum Development; Educational Methods; Elementary Secondary Education; Enrichment Activities; *Gifted; Individualized Instruction; *Student Development; Student Needs; *Talent; *Teaching Models; Thinking Skills IDENTIFIERS *California; *Differentiated Curriculum (Gifted) ABSTRACT A differentiated curriculum can provide the basis for discovering, serving, and nurturing academic talent across California's diverse student population. Differentiation provides tools to vary the curriculum or instruction so that students who have already mastered given material continue to progress and students who have a particular interest in an area can pursue it in greater depth or in a personalized way. Although aimed at gifted and talented youngsters, four principles of differentiation can be used to meet the needs of all students. These include acceleration, complexity, depth, and novelty. The responsibility for differentiation is one which all educators must share, at the classroom level and the school level. Educators must develop a new vision of excellence that depends on a fresh understanding of how the core curriculum can be differentiated to provide advanced Learning opportunities. The education of the most able students, as with all students, is best developed in challenging contexts which shift the emphasis from the structure of the program to the quality of the curriculum. The core curriculum currently embodied in California's curriculum frameworks is ,ften described as a "thinking curriculum" because it tries to engage students at all times in the search for meaning. In addition to differentiation at the classroom level, successful differentiation at the school level involves new service models, new roles for educators, shared resources, improved assessment practices, and ongoing staff development. (JDD) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.& DEPANTMENT OF EDUCATION arca Educational Rativinitcn and Innnoyetnant of El) CATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document hen been reprOduCed as ;Keyed I rom the person of organization Originating it C WMr changes hate Mten made to Apure reproduction quality Points& view OrOomMassieledinthiedOCU- CI ment do not neCabaegily tepresent official OERI position or DOME Differentiating the Core Curriculum and Instruction to Provide Advanced teaming 0 ortunities BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 a I - I s a 1' I I' I '1 a I A 1 4 1111 A position paper of the California Department of Education and the California Association for the Gifted 3 J Publishing Information Differentiating the Core Curriculum and Instruction to Provide Advanced Learning Opportunities is a joint publication of the California Department of Education and the California Association for the Gifted. The principal ideas in the document are those of Sandra Kaplan, Association president. Michael Cassity prepared the initial drafts. Significant contributions were made by Ron Fontaine, Director of Special Projects. Kern High School District: and by the following administrators and staff members in the Department: Harvey Hunt. Fred Tempes, Barbara Brandes, Barbara Abbott. and Catherine Barker:. The document was prepared for publication by the staff of the Department's Bureau of Publications. Sally Wetterholm Smith edited the text in cooperation with Cathy Barkett. Juan Sanchez designed the layout and cover and prepared the document for printing. Typesetting was done by Carey Johnson. Development of the document was funded in part by a grant from the Jacob Davits Gifted and Talented Education Program. Office of Educational Research and Improvement. U.S. Department of Education. Publication costs were funded by Chapter 2, Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The document was published by the California Department of Education. 721 Capitol Mall, Sacramento, California (mailing address: P.O. Box 944272. Sacramento, CA 94244-2720). It was printed by the Office of State Printing and distributed under the provisions of the Library Distribution Act and Government Code Section 11096. Copyright 1994 by the California Department of Education All rights reserved ISBN 0-8011. 1093-9 Ordering Information Copies of this publication are available for $6.50 each, plus sales tax for California residents, from the Bureau of Publications, Sales Unit. California Department of Education, P.O. Box 271, Sacramento. CA 95812-0271: FAX (916) 323-0823. See page 26 for complete information on payment. including credit card purchases. A partial list of other educational resources available from the Department begins on page 25. In addition, a 68-page illustrated Publications Catalog describing the content of educational resources available from the Department can be obtained without charge by writing to the address given above or by calling the Sales Unit at (916) 445 -1260. 4 Contents Preface iv The Challenge 1 Addressing the Need: A Differentiated Curriculum 1 Shifting the Emphasis from Structure to Quality 2 The Core Curriculum as the Foundation 4 Focusing on Content 4 Attributes of the Thinking Curriculum 5 Expanding the Frameworks: The Need for Differentiation 7 Pathways to Differentiation 7 Decisions to Differentiate the Curriculum 9 Strategies for Differentiation 11 Acceleration /Pacing 11 Depth 12 Complexity 14 Novelty 15 Differentiation at the School Level 17 Services That Support Advanced Learning Opportunities 17 Making It Happen 18 Closing Questions 24 iii a California's schools serve the most diverse student population in the nation. With a broad range of cultural, academic, economic, and linguistic characteristics defining that population, students present a rich array of interests and needs. Gifted and talented students mirror the larger society: they may speak no English or several languages fluently in addition to English; they may live in neighborhoods wracked by poverty or marked by affluence; they may excel in every subject or be eligible for special education services and gifted and talented education at the same time. However, they have one common charactcristic: the ability to perform significantly above grade level in one or more areas of the curriculum. There is convincing evidence that many students do not perform at the upper achievement levels because, in part, they don't have the opportunity to participate in a challenging curriculum. Differentiating the Core Curriculum and Instruction to Provide Advanced Learning Opportunities was created to help teachers extend the core curriculum so that all students are appropriately challenged, even when their inter- iv ests, abilities, and experiences vary widely in a single classroom. The document was produced jointly by the California Association for the Gifted (CAG) and the California Department of Education (CDE), whose representatives have worked together over the past two years to further the goal of dramatically increasing the number of students who can successfully complete advanced coursework. Related training for teachers is also available through CAG and through the California School Leadership Academy. All children deserve an education that challenges each one to be the best that he or she can be. Just as underachieving students need supportive intervention, so the most advanced students should receive careful monitoring to ensure that they are provided opportunities to stretch and extend their knowledge and skills. Educators should not set an upper limit on how much or how fast students may learn. Instead, they should seek to raise the overall level of attainment of all students, add to the existing Humber and variety of advanced and honors classes, and increase the number of students who can be successful in such classes. This publication is designed to help teachers individualize instruc- tion, when necessary, to better meet the needs of all students. It de- scribes how four constructs can be varied by the teacher to provide additional challenges to students: acceleration, complexity, depth, and novelty. Providing access for all students to the core curriculum does not imply a lock-step approach to teaching. Differentiation provides the teacher with tools to vary the curriculum or instruction so that students who have already mastered the material continue to progress and so that students who have a particular interest in an area can pursue it in greater depth or in a personalized way. Although aimed at gifted and talented youngsters, the four principles of differentiation can be used to meet the needs of all students. This publication does not address the issue of placement of gifted and talented students. Several options are available to districts as they design programs. Among the choices are special day classes, magnet schools, cluster grouping within the regular classroom, and indepen- dent study. All grouping strategies have advantages and disadvan- tages, and educators must use professional judgment in selecting the strategies which best meet the needs in their schools and communities. Regardless of program design, this publication can be a valuable tool. Users are invited by CAG and CDE to submit comments on how to improve this document in future printings. HARVEY HUNT SANDRA KAPLAN Deputy Superintendent President Curriculum and Instructional California Association for the Gifted Leadership Branch California Department of Education CATHERINE BARKETT Director Gifted and Talented Education California Department of Education c a , Addressing the Need: A Differentiated Curriculum What can California's educators do to ensure that all students including those whose initial levels of interest, understanding, and performance are remarkably beyond those of their age peersare sufficiently stimulated to operate at increasingly complex levels of thinking and production? Arriving at methods that would ensure such stimulation is a major challenge for those who seek to discover, nurture, and extend academic interest and talent in the grear.tst possible number of students. More students must be taught to make increasingly impor- tant and complex decisions about their work and must be helped to assume greater responsibility for their own learning. Teachers must realize that when they complement a strong curriculum with an environ- ment that encourages students to be shareholders in their educational stake, excellence occurs. By differentiating the core curriculum to provide advanced learning opportunities, educators take an important step toward helping students attain that excellence. 9 This paper was prepared jointly by the California Department of Education and the California Association for the Gifted. In it, the terms gifted, gifted and talented, high achievers, and able learners are all used to refer to the group of students performing significantly above grade level. Rather than being a step-by-step, how-to document, the paper sets forth the point of view that a differentiated curriculum, attended by sound instructional practices and strategies, both ensures stimulation for students and defines one means by which educators can gain that stimu- lation. A differentiated curriculum can be developed in every California classroom; through the efforts of both school and community, such a curriculum can provide a basis for discovering, serving, and nurturing academic talent across a diverse student population. Although instruc- tors in gifted and talented education have traditionally been leaders in the development of differentiated curricula for gifted students, the responsibility for this development is one which all educators must share. Recognition of this responsibility sets the stage for the discus- sions, decisions, and plans needed to differentiate educational experi- ences appropriately in response to the needs, interests, and abilities of advanced learners. The suggestions made in this paper for differentiat- ing the curriculum are not exhaustive, nor are they discrete. Teachers are encouraged to add strategies and combinations of strategies to their repertoire of instructional methods. Shifting the Emphasis from Structure to Quality In their efforts to provide a rigorous education for all students, educators must develop a new vision of excellence that depends on a fresh understanding of how the core curriculum, enhanced by reforms in both subject matter and methodology, can be differentiated to provide advanced learning opportunities. This paper proposes that the education of the most able students, as with all students, is best developed in challenging contexts which shift the emphasis from the structure of the program to the quality of the curriculum. In the past, the standard curriculum available to students in many classrooms was weak, inadequate, repetitive, often remedial in nature, and doggedly skills-based. Students, especially high-ability students, frequently found their educations monotonous, uninspiring, and boring. 10