Aligning Instructional Practices with Curricular Practices
Aligning instructional practices with curricular practices (group discussion)
During Weeks 1 and 2 you identified what was alternative education, you thought about what your new innovative alternative education school or program will look like, and you solicited the assistance from peers within this cohort. This week you will establish the type of curricular design needed to establish strong instructional practices for teaching and learning. Now that you have decided to create a new innovative alternative education school or program, how will learners learn in the educational setting?
After reading chapter 7, list the important instructional practices you think are most valuable in the newly designed school or program you and your group are creating. You are to recreate the table below, but add your own programs, research, and outcomes to the table. The instructional practices column, however, will not change. In the peer response phase of this discussion, you and your group members will read and decide which resource(s) fit the new innovative alternative education school or program that is being created and designed by the group.
Note: For best results, create a similar table in Word and copy/paste it into the Discussion Board.
Table 1. Example of Instructional Practices Matrix
| Instructional Practices | Program | Researcher(s) | Outcomes |
| Student Placement | School within a school model | Sarah Dewees | Students are grouped according to track of continuum for learning |
| Classroom Management | PBIS | Sugai, Horner, Lewis | Positive Discipline |
| Teaching and Learning | Success Maker *used only as an example; there are many others |
Pearson Learning | Small group through computer based instruction |
| Student Evaluation | Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) |
Northwest Evaluation Association- NWEA | Measures student growth on a norm scale-formative assessment; percentile based |
Support your statements with evidence from the Required Studies, other research, and experiences. Cite and reference your sources in APA style.
Click here for information on course rubrics.
These are the objectives and reading links for this weeks assignment
CONSIDER THE ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVES
In this course, you are learning how to plan, develop, implement, and evaluate. Imagine and describe how ideal alternative education schools or programs will look in the future. This week you will continue this process by identifying and defining the characteristics or elements of schools that have made alternative education successful. Based on research conducted during the past 50 years, Barr and Parrett (1997, 2008) identified 10 essential elements of successful schools. Although traditional schools have experimented with some of these practices, such as smaller school size, Barr and Parrett (1997) declared that emerging schools would not be successful if the elements are adopted incrementally, but only “if each and every one of the essential elements is carefully considered…these essential elements represent a formula for success” (pp. 32-33).
In a seminal work, Raywid (1994) asserted there must be wholehearted implementation of a new school without a piecemeal approach to restructuring an educational program. Raywid also identified three types of alternatives to traditional schools and clearly advocated for Type I, which are schools described as popular innovations, rather than last chance or remedial programs. Studies by Kleiner, Porch, and Farris (2002) and Foley and Pang (2006) reveal that most alternative schools in the U.S. serve traditional high schools by diverting students who have behavioral and academic problems into inadequate facilities and programs. For this reason, we will refer to the ideal or model schools you are designing as alternatives to traditional schools, alternatives in education, or simply alternatives.
Lange and Sletten (2002) also discovered that clear goals, a student-centered atmosphere, the integration of research and practice in educational programs, and professional development for teachers were significant elements of successful schools. Darling-Hammond, Ancess, and Ort (2002) detailed how one of the elements of an effective alternative in education, small school size, contributes to positive outcomes in redesigned secondary schools in New York City. Smaller school sizes feature a) personalized education; b) collaborative learning structures and small units within schools; c) keeping students together over multiple years; d) forming teaching teams; e) assuring common planning sessions for teachers; f) involving staff in problem solving; g) fostering parent involvement; and h) fostering cooperation between all parties.
This week you will delve deeper into the implementation domain. You will learn how to use curricular and instructional practices, ensuring the curricular practices have courses needed for real-life, 21st-century skills. As you learn how to implement instructional practices, you will embed and embark on teaching and learning, student placement and evaluation, and classroom management.
References
Barr, R. D., & Parrett, W. H. (1997). How to create alternative, magnet, and charter schools that work.Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service.
Barr, R. D., & Parrett, W. H. (2008). Saving our students, saving our schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Darling-Hammond, L., Ancess, J., & Ort, S. W. (2002). Reinventing high school: Outcomes of the coalition campus schools project. American Educational Research Journal, 39(3), 639-673.
Foley, R. M., & Pang, L. (2006). Alternative education programs: Program and student characteristics. The High School Journal, 89(3), 10-21.
Kleiner, B., Porch, R., & Farris, E. (2002). Public alternative schools and programs for students at-risk of educational failure: 2000-01 (NCES 2002-04). Washington, DC: United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.
Lange, C. M. & Sletten, S. J. (2002). Alternative education: A brief history and research
synthesis. Retrieved from http://alternatyvusisugdymas.lt/uploads/2009/12/al…
Raywid, M. A. (1994). Alternative schools: The state of the art. Educational Leadership, 52(1), 26-31.
WEEKLY OBJECTIVES
Through participation in the following activities, the candidate will:
Analyze educational programs for both curricular and instructional practices.
Defining Curricular Practices
Aligning Instructional Practices with Curricular Practices
Implementing Curricular and Instructional Practices
HEADS UP
You have two group discussions this week, due Monday and Tuesday. Peer responses for both discussions are due Wednesday.
REQUIRED STUDIES
The following materials are required studies for this week. Complete these studies at the beginning of the week and save these weekly materials for future use.
Effective Alternative Education Programs: Best Practices From Planning Through Evaluating (Chalker, 1996/2006)
Chapter 6: The Implementation Domain: Curricular Practices
Chapter 7: The Implementation Domain: Instructional Practices
Read
Reinventing High School: Outcomes of the Coalition Campus Schools Project (Darling-Hammond, Ancess, & Ort, 2002) [Web page]
View
Ten Essential Elements of Effective Alternative Schools (Concordia University, 2017b) [PPT] [PDF]
Review
Alternative Schools: The State of the Art (Raywid,1994) [Web page]
Promising Curriculum and Instructional Practices for High-Ability Learners Manual(Nebraska Department of Education, n.d.) [Web page]
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