Victorian Curriculum -

Implementation in the

specialist school

Karen UnderwoodManager, Participation, Achievement and Transitions DET

Sharon Foster Manager, Victorian Curriculum F-10 VCAA

7 September 2017

Agenda

1. An orientation to the Victorian

Curriculum – back to basics

2. Planning for “Sammy on Monday” –

unit planning, including assessment

3. Whole school planning

4. Reporting

Working with the

Victorian Curriculum F–10

http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/foundation10/viccurriculum/curriculumplanning.aspx

Curriculum

• is the statement of the purpose of schooling

defines what it is that all students have the

opportunity to learn

• is represented as a continuum or set of

progressions defining increasingly complex

knowledge, skills and concepts

• the school develops the teaching and

learning program - how the curriculum is

delivered

Curriculum matters

• A guaranteed and viable curriculum is the

school level factor that has the most impact

on student achievement (Marzano, 2003)

• Enabling and monitoring every student’s

progress along the continua is the

fundamental role of teachers and schools

and the purpose and endpoint of all reform

efforts

http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/overview/diversity-of-learners

Victorian Curriculum – Design and Structure

Design and structure reaffirms:

• the importance of discipline-based learning

approach, where the disciplines are regarded as

both enduring and dynamic

• capabilities are a set of discrete knowledge and

skills, not a statement of pedagogies and

students benefit from explicit instruction

• that knowledge and skills are transferrable across

the curriculum and therefore are not duplicated.

http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/overview/curriculum-design/learning-areas-and-capabilities

Victorian Curriculum F–10 2017 Learning Areas Capabilities

• The Arts

o Dance

o Drama

o Media Arts

o Music

o Visual Communication Design (7-10)

o Visual Arts

• English

• Humanities

o Civics and Citizenship

o Economics and Business

o Geography

o History

• Languages

• Health and Physical Education

• Mathematics

• Science

• Technologies

o Design and Technologies

o Digital Technologies *

• Critical and creative thinking

• Intercultural*

• Ethical*

• Personal and social

Understanding the intentIntroductory materials will assist teachers to

understand the specific purpose and features

of the curriculum:

• Rationale and aims

• Structure

➢Strands - Key organising elements within

each curriculum area.

➢Sub-strands - Supplementary organising

elements within some curriculum areas.

• Scope and Sequence

• Glossary

Understand

the structure

• Strands

• Achievement

standards

Placement of standards – Levels A-D

http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/overview/curriculum-design/standards-and-levels

Placement of standards F-10

http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/overview/curriculum-design/standards-and-levels

Capabilities• Are a set of discrete

knowledge and skills that

can and should be taught

explicitly.

• Will be:

✓ explicitly introduced,

✓ practised,

✓ demonstrated, and

✓ deployed

by students in and

through the learning

areas.

Critical and Creative Thinking Ethical Capability

• Questions and Possibilities

• Reasoning

• Metacognition

• Understanding concepts

• Decision making and

actions

Personal and Social Capability Intercultural Capability

• Self Awareness and Management Recognition and expression of emotions

Development of resilience

• Social Awareness and Management Collaboration

Relationships and diversity

(contains sub-strands)

• Cultural Practices

• Cultural Diversity

Strand structureRefined and simplified the structure. Removed duplication.

Curriculum components

• Band/Level descriptions

• Content descriptions ▪ explain what to teach

▪ organised in Strands / Sub-strands

▪ have elaborations – these are suggestions only

• Achievement standards▪ explain how well a student should learn the content

Working with the structure

• The content descriptions and

achievement standards are not

independent — they should be read

together

• When viewing the sequence of

achievement standards, look at the

broad development of conceptual

understanding and skills - read them

holistically, not in an atomised way

Continuum - Progression of learning

progress progress progress progress progress

Sort the statements into a continuum of learning (A – 2)

They follow simple rules, participate in group activities cooperatively, take turns and

share some items

They begin to identify and practise basic skills for including and working with others in

groups

They respond to teacher prompts to follow basic social rules when working alongside

others

When prompted they can identify acceptable and unacceptable ways to behave in

familiar groups

They describe their contribution to group tasks

They recognise familiar people and demonstrate ways to interact with others.

They cooperate with others when working or playing in groups, showing an

understanding of the impact of their behaviour on others.

They attend to and implement some basic social rules.

They react to the attention of others and focus on significant people and watch and

respond to others showing cooperation

They practise solving simple problems, recognising there are many ways to resolve

conflict

Sort the statements into a continuum of learning –

number from 1-10 (1 being easiest)They follow simple rules, participate in group activities cooperatively, take turns and

share some items

C

They begin to identify and practise basic skills for including and working with others in

groups

F

They respond to teacher prompts to follow basic social rules when working alongside

others

B

When prompted they can identify acceptable and unacceptable ways to behave in

familiar groups

C

They describe their contribution to group tasks 1-2

They recognise familiar people and demonstrate ways to interact with others. B

They cooperate with others when working or playing in groups, showing an

understanding of the impact of their behaviour on others.

D

They attend to and implement some basic social rules. D

They react to the attention of others and focus on significant people and watch and

respond to others showing cooperation

A

They practise solving simple problems, recognising there are many ways to resolve

conflict

1-2

Building deep familiarity• Intent

- why are we learning this

• Terminology

- the importance of a common language

• Curriculum mapping activities to audit

current and/or build new units

- connecting content descriptions and

achievement standards

- working with the curriculum and the continuum

Unit Planning

Planning for “Sammy on Monday”

Differentiation

Goal banks

Differentiation• What is this difference we talk about?- same age,

same learning context, but - different abilities,

different achievement levels

• What does the research tell us:

o 5-6 year gap in all classes

o quality teaching includes differentiation and caters for

the majority of students i.e. 80%

o Response To Intervention (multiple tiers of support), is

the framework that supports classroom differentiation

to support 100% of the class

• Catering for all- responding to individual difference/s

– planning is key!

How to differentiate according to

age/interest and abilityUsing the Victorian Curriculum to meet the learning needs of all students

• Teachers refer to the Victorian Curriculum content that aligns with their

students’ chronological age (nominal level) as the starting point in planning

teaching and learning programs.

• Teachers take account of the range of their students’ current achievement,

abilities, interests, and personalised learning goals (where necessary),

through adjustments to the teaching and learning program, according to

individual learning need, by:

‒ drawing from learning area content at different levels along the A to 10

sequence based on student achievement

‒ aligning personalised learning goals with age-equivalent learning area

content

‒ assessing students’ progress through the Victorian Curriculum in

relation to Achievement Standards A to 10

Activity

• How will I ensure differentiation is evident in my

school, level, group, class?

• Is there anything I need to learn/understand to do

this?

• What does Response to Intervention look like

when it is working well?

Goal Banks• PASS, DET and curriculum experts in specialist schools have

collectively developed the Goal Banks

• They provide finely-grained goals for teaching and learning

planning and Personalised Learning Plans working towards

the Achievement Standards of the Victorian Curriculum

• While English, Mathematics and Science are complete the

remaining learning areas will follow

• They support all teachers to attend to the mandated

curriculum and assure students receive the curriculum on the

same basis as….

• They are available on the PASS website

Elements of curriculum planning

In the students’ shoes

Curriculum area sequence

A unit of work

Whole school

Whole school

• Set the themes

• Set the time allocations

Curriculum area

• Sequence the learning

Unit of work

• Reflects the themes and time allocations

Whole school

• Set the themes

• Set the time allocations

Curriculum area

• Sequence the learning

Unit of work

• Reflects the themes and time allocations

Top down

Bottom up

Importance of curriculum planning

http://curriculumplanning.vcaa.vic.edu.au/sat/self-assessment-tool

Does your current unit

template include all

the essential

elements?

Where do you start?• Schools are not expected to be starting from a

blank page

• Documentation at the curriculum area layer and the

unit/lesson layer is often the most comprehensive,

although there may be gaps

• Schools are advised to use this ‘stock-taking’

opportunity to bring already existing materials

together in a coordinated manner, ensuring the

essential elements are included, and that there is

consistency within and between the layers.

Whole-school curriculum planning

• Is not the responsibility of the

individual teacher – it is a team effort

• Recognises that we are educating

the whole child across many years of

schooling - curriculum is designed as

a continuum of learning

• Without the “what” students should

learn, pedagogy is a process without

purpose

• Deep familiarity with the curriculum

is essentialhttp://curriculumplanning.vcaa.vic.edu.au/home

Curriculum mappingWhy?

• Mapping identifies the extent of curriculum

coverage in units of work and clearly links

teaching, learning and assessment while

working with the curriculum continuum.

How?

• Mapping templates support teachers to identify

where content descriptions and achievement

standards are being explicitly addressed within

the school’s teaching and learning program.

Step 2 – Analysing the findingsPrompts for the analysis process:

• Are all content descriptions equal? Do you think they all take the

same amount of time to teach?

• Is anything being over taught?

• Is anything being missed completely or given insufficient

attention?

• Is there sufficient “time on task”? Are you allowing enough time

to develop knowledge ,understanding and skills that are included

in the curriculum and thus enable students to progress along the

continuum?

• Does the unit/sequence of lessons cater for a range of students

abilities? Does the unit/sequence of lessons provide access and

challenge for all students in the cohort?

• Is it easier to teach in depth or more broadly?

• Is there a logical sequence?

Unit PlanningTake a look at this school’s example and see

how they have utilised the Victorian

Curriculum to support a school-based program

• Discuss your observations

• What elements would you adopt in your own

planning and why?

Remember: There is no ‘one way’ to do this!

Curriculum planning questions

• Curriculum planning can be based on two-year

bands of schooling rather than each year level.

What are the implications for your school?

• Do you have an agreed approach to

documentation?

• What would be a realistic timeframe to prepare and

review the relevant documentation?

• The curriculum is not the whole-school teaching

and learning program. What are your priorities?

Progressing learning

with assessment

Supporting learning• The most important single factor influencing learning

is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and

teach him accordingly (Ausubel 1968)

• Vygotsky (1978) referred to the ‘zone of proximal

development’ the region of ‘just manageable

difficulties’ where students can succeed but often only

with the support of others for example through

scaffolding activities.

• … learning is enhanced when teachers pay attention

to the knowledge and beliefs that learners bring to the

learning task and use this knowledge as a starting

point for new instruction (Bransford et al 2000)

Classroom assessment

“ .. the fundamental purpose of

assessment is to establish where

learners are in their learning at the

time of assessment.”

Reforming Educational Assessment: Imperatives, principles and challenges

Masters, G. ACER 2013

5 Assessment Principles (Masters)1. Assessments should be guided by and address an

empirically based understanding of the relevant curriculum

2. Assessment methods should be selected for their ability to

provide useful information about where students are in their

learning in the domain

3. Responses to, or performances on, assessment tasks should

be recorded using one or more task ‘rubrics’

4. Available assessment evidence should be used to draw a

conclusion about where learners are in their progress within

the learning domain

5. Feedback and reports of assessment should show where

learners are in their learning at the time of assessment and,

ideally, what progress they have made over time

Activity:

Gathering evidence of learning

What methods (tasks / types of

activities) could you use to gather

information about how well a

student has understood the content

(knowledge and skills) described in

the XX curriculum area?

Shared clarity about learning

Setting learning intentions

• why are we learning this

• know, understand, and be able to do

• developed together (teacher and student)

and can incorporate personal goals

• clear and accessible

• success criteria

• is not the task or learning medium

Activity - Sharing expectations

… I can statements

Curriculum planning

and assessment

• How deeply familiar are teachers with the terrain

through which learners are progressing (the

curriculum continuum)?

• What assessment method provides valid, reliable,

objective, inclusive information and are feasible?

• Is it explicit what is being looked for and valued as

evidence of successful learning?

• Is feedback provided to students and parents in

forms that make clear that progress is being made?

Whole school

Curriculum planning

Whole School Planning

Four interrelated layers:

• School: high-level summary of the coverage of all the

curriculum reflecting the school’s policy, goals, vision and

any areas of specialisation or innovation

• Curriculum area: sequencing key knowledge and skills

across the years of schooling, developing big ideas to

support a progression of learning

• Year level: a coherent program from a student perspective

enabling effective connections across the curriculum

• Unit/lessons: specifying content and achievement

standards, assessments and activities and resources to

ensure students of all achievement levels progress

Whole school plan • Why do you need

this?

• How do you go

about developing

this?

• How detailed

should this be?

• How is time

represented?

• What questions

could you ask?

Exploring your

school plan ..

and others

Whole school planning templates available from:

http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/foundation10/viccurriculum/curriculumplanning.aspx

Analysing whole school planning

• How do you build consistency for the students?

• What are the implications for sequencing the

concepts?

• Is there any evidence of “over teaching”?

• Will areas “over reach” and not explicitly teach the

content?

• How are capabilities being implemented?

Reporting

Question and answer session