AAA Curriculum Design and Delivery:

Developing Interventions that Align, Advance, and Assimilate into the

Content and Contexts of Schools

IES Conference
Washington, DC
June 2006

Deb Simmons
Texas A&M University

Scott Baker
University of Oregon

Mike Coyne
University of Connecticut
The path from design & delivery to
evidence may involve a number of
detours and redirects.
 Session Questions

• What are the critical curriculum design &

delivery features for intervention research?
• How do these differ across content,
grade/age, teacher characteristics,
administrative units, etc.?
What lessons have we learned from IES
development & efficacy projects?

Teacher Quality: Reading and Writing

Mathematics
& Reading

Vocabulary & Early Reading

 Goal 2 Development Grants are about
developing and testing ideas.
• Goal Two – develop programs, practices,
and policies that are theoretically and
empirically based and obtain preliminary
(pilot) data on the relation (association)
between implementation of the program,
practice, or policy and the intended
education outcomes.

www.ies.ed.gov
 There are some fundamental design &
delivery dimensions to consider along the
theory > curriculum > implementation >
evidence road.
Big Idea: Curriculum development
and design must be situated in the
context and content of classrooms.

This doesn’t mean that we must

capitulate to the status quo, rather we
must help establish the efficacy of new
ways of thinking & doing.
 Curriculum Design Principles

• Big Ideas
• Strategic Integration
• Conspicuous Strategies
• Primed Background Knowledge
• Judicious Review
• Mediated Scaffolding
(Kame’enui, Carnine, Dixon, Simmons &
Coyne, 2002)
 What other curriculum dimensions must be
considered in development & efficacy grants?
• Curriculum Content: What is taught ---the official
curriculum or planned curriculum.
• Curriculum Context: The conditions---when &
where curriculum is implemented.
======================================
• Curriculum Design: Selection, schedule, and
organization of information and content.
• Curriculum Delivery: Process & professional
development used to implement the curriculum.
 Curriculum design and delivery must covary
with content and context.
Content Context
Reading Age/Grade
Social Studies Teacher/schools
Math District Policies
Design • Accountability & Relevance • Optimal lesson length for student
• Alignment with naturally occurring units age
What
Comprehensive or specific? • Involvement of teachers in the
Sequence
• Supplement or supplant current materials development of
Organization Integration of strategies with existing materials materials/intervention.
• Schedule of components
Delivery • Will curriculum content supplement or supplant • Additional resources required
instruction • Technology required
Who • Who will deliver and special characteristics • Time required in relation to time
How available
• When will PD occur
When
Time: Supplement or Supplant
Where Alignment with naturally social
studies instructional periods (30
minutes per day)
Start date of intervention
Length of intervention (End before
TAKS testing)
Personnel: Who will Deliver
Grouping Structure
Enhancing the Quality of Expository Text
Instruction & Comprehension through
Content and Case-Situated Professional
Development: Year 01 Design Experiment

Texas A&M University &

University of Texas - Austin

IES Goal 2 Development Grant

Teacher Quality/Reading Writing
Texas A&M & University of Texas
Personnel
Deborah Simmons – PI
Sharon Vaughn & Bill Rupley - Co-PIs
Angie Hairrell & Meaghan Edmonds –
Project Coordinators
Vic Willson – Statistician
Ron Zellner – Technology Specialist
Kristi Cleere – Project Specialist
Glenda Bryns, Brandi Kocian, Kelly
Lawrence – Graduate Assistants
Research Question for Teacher Quality
What combination of professional
development strategies and supports
effectively help teachers

• Develop knowledge of effective

vocabulary and comprehension
instruction and

• Implement evidence-based practices

in their social studies instruction?
 Proposed Outcomes
• Case-situated professional development
program: 3 vocabulary and 3
comprehension routines.
• Instructional lesson plans with technology
supported strategies to implement cases.
• Reports on evidence collected about the
efficacy as reflected by student & teacher
performance.
Experimental Design
 Teacher quality includes knowing content and
knowing how to teach.
More than 8 million students in grades 4-12 are struggling readers
(USDOE, 2003) and social studies textbooks pose particular challenges
because of the unfamiliar content.

Goal: How to develop the

quality of teacher’s
vocabulary and
comprehension instruction in
social studies content.
 Design by Content Considerations
Quadrant 1
• Accountability & Relevance
– How does “what” you teach align with state standards, district
expectations?
• Alignment with naturally occurring units (weeks, modules, themes, cases)
– How will the units of your curriculum be organized and must they align
with the existing “units”?
• Scope: Comprehensive or specific
– What is the scope of your curriculum. Will it address “all” of a content
area or a specific feature?
• Supplement or supplant current materials
– Will your curriculum provide stand alone materials or will you use existing
materials?
• Integration of strategies with existing materials
– How will your intervention “fit” with existing materials?
• Overall Intervention Design
– How will you “scaffold” strategy introduction?
Curriculum Content: Social Studies

Content Context
Reading Age/Grade
Social Studies Teacher/schools
Math District Policies
Design • Accountability & Relevance
• Alignment with naturally occurring units
What
Comprehensive or specific
Sequence
• Scope: Supplement or supplant current
Organization materials
• Integration of strategies with existing materials
• Overall intervention design

Delivery
Who
How
When
Where
 Accountability
& Responsibility

Design question: How does “what” you teach

align with state standards, district expectations?

Lesson Learned: If we asked for social studies

time, we would be responsible for and
accountable for social studies learning.
Vocabulary & Comprehension Standards
• Vocabulary
– Use multiple reference aids, including a thesaurus, a synonym finder,
a dictionary, and software, to clarify meanings and usage (4-8);
– determine meanings of derivatives by applying knowledge of the
meanings of root words such as like, pay, or happy and affixes such
as dis-, pre-, un- (4-8); and
– Study word meanings systematically such as across curricular
content areas and through current events (4-8).
• Reading/Comprehension
– Monitor his/her own comprehension and make modifications when
understanding breaks down such as by rereading a portion aloud,
using reference aids, searching for clues, and asking questions (4-8);
– Determine a text's main (or major) ideas and how those ideas are
supported with details (4-8);
– Paraphrase and summarize text to recall, inform, and organize ideas
(4-8);
Sample Social Studies Content Standards

• History. The student understands the similarities

and differences of Native-American groups in
Texas and the Western Hemisphere before
European exploration.
• History. The student understands the causes
and effects of European exploration and
colonization of Texas and the Western
Hemisphere.
• History. The student understands the causes
and effects of the Texas Revolution, the
Republic of Texas, and the annexation of Texas
to the United States.
How We Demonstrated Accountability & Alignment
 Alignment: If the “unit” of instruction
doesn’t fit the content or the context, it is
unlikely to be implemented optimally.

• How will the units of your curriculum be organized and

must they align with the existing “units”?

• We worked with “six-week” units defined by district and

operationalized by social studies chapters (roughly).

• Challenge: Designing the instructional

strategies to fit the 6-week units.
 What if you are working with
multiple districts that have different
programs?
What Does Your Curriculum Promise and
What Does it Replace?
• Scope: Comprehensive or specific?
– What is the scope of your curriculum; Will it address
“all” of a content area or a specific feature?

• Supplement or supplant current materials

– Will your curriculum provide stand alone materials or
will you use existing materials?

Challenge: How to make vocabulary

instruction more comprehensive.
 The
TheEarliest
Earliest Texans
Texans
Case 1
Week 1
were

hunters
hunterswho
wholater
laterbegan
beganto
tofarm
farmand
andsettle
settle
inincommunities
communities
Children and
grandchildren or
When Way of life: How they survived: How they lived: their________
First Trail to Followed herds of Animals provided food, clothing Came over a land bridge Moved southward
woolly mammoths and and shelter. called ___________ that
Texas: 50,000 giant bison connected Asia and North
years ago America

Learning About Followed animal herds Objects made by these people or Traded flint from an open pit Arrived in Texas
_________ tell us that they mine or_________
the Past:
hunted herds of animals and used
10,000 years ago the meat, bones, and hides.

Changes in Ways Way of life or They began to grow their own Known as ________
________ changed as food or practice __________. _________
of Life:
the giant animals died Baskets, pottery, and dried foods
2,000 years ago out or became extinct. became ____________.

________provide information about the earliest Texans. Vocabulary List

About 10,000 years ago the _______________ of the first agriculture Native Americans
people in North America arrived in Texas. They hunted animals
artifacts quarry
for food, clothing, and shelter. They also traded flint from a______
in the Texas Panhandle. About 2,000 years ago their______ changed trading goods
and the earliest Texans began practicing __________. culture
descendants
Which vocabulary strategies best fit
social studies content?
• Activate and Build Background Knowledge
• Conceptual Organizers – Semantic Features
Analysis
• High Priority Words/Tier 2 Words
• Context Clues
• Morphemic Analysis
• Formative Assessment
• Multiple exposures
• Cumulative review
• Depth of processing
 Integration: How to Integrate Evidence-
based Practices into Existing Text &
Curriculum
• Strategy: Begin with existing evidence-
based practices
• Goal: Not to create new practices but to
integrate components into instructional
routines.
• Challenge: Which strategies to select and
how to organize them for maximal power
and ease of use.
 Integrate Multiple Strategies
The Earliest Texans

2.) Definition: Underline the key words. 3.) Illustration 4.) Context: Circle the correct sentence.

The scientist
the beliefs, social examined the
practices, and bacteria culture.
characteristics of
a racial, religious, People from
or social group different
backgrounds have
different cultures.
1.)

5.) Words That Are Related: Choose two

Culture 6.) Word Building: Choose a real word
and then write another word.
related words.

7.) My Definition: Write your own

definition.

A. Tiger A.Culturer
B. Society B. Cultured
C. Customs
D. Science
______________

Case 1 Week 1
What design unit fits the content &
context?

Cumulative & progressive design

• Case Design: 3 Cases for Vocabulary;
Three Cases for Comprehension
• Each Case 6 Weeks
• Each Case added a new strategy to the
base strategy
• Each Week 3 days per week
• Each day 30 minutes
Intervention Design: How will you
scaffold strategy introduction?
Teacher

Case Overview Vocabulary Student

Case I: Explicit Case II: Build Case III: Independent

Teaching of Content Background Knowledge Vocabulary Learning of
Vocabulary Words in Context
Identify and Prioritize critical Identify and Prioritize critical Identify and Prioritize critical
content vocabulary content vocabulary content vocabulary

Preview and Connect Preview and Connect vocabulary Preview and Connect vocabulary
vocabulary and content and content and content
Build and Activate background Build and Activate background
knowledge knowledge

Teach Words Explicitly using: Teach Words Explicitly using: Teach Words Explicitly using:
Chapter Overview Chapter Overview Chapter Overview
Vocabulary Map Vocabulary Map Vocabulary Map
Practice Activities Practice Activities Practice Activities

Build Independent Word Learning

Strategies using:
Around Word Clues
Assess and Maintain word Assess and Maintain word Assess and Maintain word
knowledge knowledge knowledge

Case I: Answering &
Generating Questions
Identify proper nouns, preteach
them & provide linkages and
context for content to be read
Teach roles & responsibilities
within collaborative groups (3-4);
provide feedback on products that
show evidence of student activity
and participation (logs)
Teaching Strategies Explicitly
1.Levels of questions
2.Generating questions before,
during & after reading
-Maintain strategy use
-Become indep. & flexible strategy
users
Case Overview
Comprehension
Case II: Monitoring
Comprehension
Students identify proper nouns,
Teacher preteaches them &
provides linkages and context for
content to be read
Students assume roles &
responsibilities within collaborative
groups; Teacher provides
feedback on student logs
Teaching Strategies Explicitly
1.Comprehension Monitoring
-Maintain strategy use
-Become indep. & flexible strategy
users
Case III: Enhancing
Summarization through
Writing and GOs
Students identify proper nouns,
Teacher preteaches them &
provides linkages and context for
content to be read
Students assume roles &
responsibilities within collaborative
groups; teacher provides feedback
on student logs
Teaching Strategies Explicitly
1.Representing using GOs
2.Using GOs and gist statements to
write summaries
-Maintain strategy use
-Become indep. & flexible strategy
users
 Design X Context Considerations
Quadrant 2
• What is the optimal lesson length for student age
and grade?

• What is the optimal involvement of teachers in

the development of materials/intervention?

• What is the involvement of teachers in the

piloting of materials/intervention?
 Delivery X Content Considerations
Quadrant 3

• Will curriculum content supplement or supplant

instruction?
• Who will deliver intervention and are there
special characteristics of these individuals?
 Delivery by Context
Quadrant 4
• Will additional resources be required to deliver the intervention?
• Is technology required/available?
• What is the time required in relation to time available?
• When will PD occur?
• Will intervention be a time supplement or supplant?
• Does the intervention delivery align with natural social studies instructional
periods? (30 minutes per day)
• What is start date of intervention?
• What is the length of the intervention? (End before TAKS testing)
• Personnel: Who will deliver?
• Grouping Structure: Does the grouping structure parallel conditions of the
classroom?
For a copy of this presentation:
http://teacherquality.tamu.edu