Frequently Asked Questions

 

 

 

 

 

Curriculum vs. Lesson Plans

2.  The curriculum seems repetitive.

It is–on purpose. A ‘curriculum’ is a course of study unfolded over time based on a pedagogic curriculum map for the subject area. The Edglossary defines it as:

“…typically refers to the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn, which includes the learning standards or learning objectives they are expected to meet; the units and lessons that teachers teach; the assignments and projects given to students; the books, materials, videos, presentations, and readings used in a course; and the tests, assessments, and other methods used to evaluate student learning…”

If you select one of our three curricula (tech skills, keyboarding, digital citizenship), you’ll see that each lesson/unit builds on itself, scaffolds lesson-to-lesson, and gives students time to do and redo. The goal is always to achieve overarching ideas that require a much greater amount of time than one lesson plan ever would.

Lesson plans, on the other hand, provide step-by-step directions for completing a project. Its goals can typically be achieved in much shorter amounts of time because it focuses on one skill. These are perfect for PBL (Project-based Learning).

Here’s an example:

• The 1st grade technology curriculum is here, but you can also find 1st grade lesson plans here
• The K-5 keyboard curriculum is here, but you can also find keyboarding lessons here

3.    Does the curriculum cover broad topics such as decision making, critical thinking, problem-solving?

Those are topics that are thoroughly covered in both ISTE, Common Core, and higher-order thinking needs of the 21st Century student. You’ll find a lot of tie-ins. For example:

• grades K-8–#4 in Scope and Sequence, itemizes skills for Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
• grades K-8–#5 in Scope and Sequence, itemizes skills for Digital Citizenship
• grades K-8–#3 in Scope and Sequence, itemizes skills for Research (and information fluency)
• grades k-8–address ‘problem solving, critical thinking’ as a fundamental skill to be reinforced with every lesson. It is introduced as a unit in 2nd grade and grows from there. In fact, every grade level includes a unit on this subject to reflect its importance in a student’s educational growth. ‘Problem solving’ is a skill that tech is uniquely suited to teaching (as is math). By 3rd grade, students participate in a ‘Problem Solving Presentation’ where they are encouraged to teach each other how to solve problems (the oral presentation also supports Common Core speaking and listening skills). By 4th grade, students participate in an ‘Evidence Board’ to share how they transferred tech knowledge from the classroom to other parts of their life. 5th graders use blogs to write articles that critically think about a particular topic.
• grades K-8– address digital citizenship skills every time students use the internet,. There are 17 topics covered between K-5th (when it is age-appropriate) with a chart for tracking student progress
• Search skills start in kindergarten with a unit on ‘Explore the Internet’. In 3rd grade, students learn the intricacies of internet search/research, as well as how to stay safe in the online environment. In 4th grade, students cover 3 units throughout the year on search/research for classroom educational needs.
• Decision Making is covered throughout the SL K-8 curriculum. Starting in kindergarten, students are expected to think about their approach to a project and decide if that’s the right way and why. The teacher always asks, Why this program and not that one? When students use visual organizers, the teacher discusses this approach–different ways students learn and share. By 7/8th grade, students get options for address projects, sharing information. They pick any of various approaches as long as they can support their decision.
• Excel training (spreadsheets) begin in 1st grade and always includes a discussion on critical thinking, problem solving, decision making
• Presentation skills start in 2nd grade (with PowerPoint) and always include a discussion on how best to communicate ideas, information to listeners. What options might students select? Which is best for what? This includes software, online tools, widgets, graphic organizers, infographics (8th grade)
• 2nd grade–Unit 12 is about Problem Solving
• 2nd grade–Unit 23 is about finding pictures on the internet (search/research and digital citizenship)
• 3rd grade–Unit 4 is on Problem solving
• 3rd grade–Unit 15 is on Search/research
• 4th grade–Units 6/7/24 are on search/research
• 4th grade–Unit 23 is on data analysis
• 7th grade–Unit 4 is all about Problem Solving
• 7th grade–Unit 10-12 is on Digital Citizenship
• 7th grade–Unit 16-18 is on Search/research
• 8th grade–Unit 5-7 is on Digital Citizenship
• 8th grade–Unit 8-9 is on Search/research
• 8th grade–Unit 11-12 is on Problem Solving

If you click this link and scroll to the grade levels, you can select more detail on each grade. On the subpage, you’ll also find a green download box that includes a preview of the book.

Because this is a curriculum (not a project book), these themes are woven throughout the K-8 activities. The teacher is always prompted when there’s an opportunity to reinforce ongoing themes (such as ISTE’s six). Teachers using the curriculum can join a co-teaching wiki, and chat with an experienced teacher using the curriculum on a weekly basis–to be sure all tie-ins are covered. These are free (info in the book on how to access)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s one book that focuses specifically on inquiry in the classroom. Many of the project bundles are inquiry-based. Click this link–page one of the bundles are specific to your question, but then go on to page 2 and further, to the gray-and-blue covers (Lesson Plans...). If you look at these previews, you’ll see they call out which higher-order thinking skills are granular to the lesson.

Overall, the curricula lessons focus on 1) big ideas and essential questions, 2) Common Core Standards–meeting them through technology, and 3) inquiry-based teaching. I think you’ll find that push to get students thinking in all of the lessons.

 

One more place to look: This will show you how to turn any lesson or classroom into an inquiry-based lesson and an inquiry-based class:

• 11 Ways to Make an Inquiry based Classroom
• 11 Ways to be an Inquiry-based Teacher
• How do I teach Inquiry and Research in Middle School

 

 

 

Type to Learn drills students in keyboarding. An excellent tool for that purpose. The K-8 Keyboard Curriculum uses programs like TTL as tools to learning keyboarding, but goes much deeper, differentiating for a wide variety of student learning styles, making keyboard learning more authentic and relevant to students. When they get tired of one exercise, their progress plateaus so we offer many ways to perfect keyboarding–drill, games, online sites, quizzes, challenges, finger exercises, projects, rubrics, checklists of skills, and more. All of these are great tools and we weave them together into a curriculum that will keep students motivated and improving throughout the year.

 

 

 

 

The site license provides 1) a book that guides you through the confusing steps of establishing a keyboarding program for your school, and 2) 15 self-paced one-hour videos taking students through the lessons. Most of the materials are created by third parties–Type to Learn, DanceMat, Nimble Fingers–so must be accessed and managed separately, and paid for separately (in the case of Type to Learn). What the book does is pull all important resources together in one spot for you to make sure you’re using the most effective tools, at the right time, with ideas for integrating them into your core classroom inquiry (for example, Word/Google Docs projects that focus on both typing and a classroom unit). You could compare it to Common Core Standards. They aren’t a curriculum. The school has a curriculum that is enhanced by Common Core. 

With the site license, every student gets:

• a digital copy of the Essential Guide to Keyboarding. This includes K-8 so students can spiral up or down as needed for their personal learning curve.
• the digital Keyboard curriculum includes links to required websites, which they can access from home, the library, a friend’s house, wherever they have an internet connection
• materials like rubrics, quizzes, grade level keyboarding Scope and Sequence where they track their progress
• access to the master Keyboarding wiki (or a YouTube link if you prefer) with 15 video lessons on keyboarding. These are each one hour and can be viewed at the student’s pace. Suggested: every 2-3 weeks. This aligns with a typical school requirement of 30-60 minutes a week of keyboard practice. These are being updated this summer.

What teachers get with the site license:

• print and digital copy of the Essential Guide to Keyboarding
• access to the master Keyboarding wiki with 15 video lessons on keyboarding.
• access to a Master Teacher who can answer questions about your keyboarding curriculum as you progress. She is your ‘guide on the side’, helping you make it happen at your school

Tracking progress is done by you (as teacher). We recommend a wiki for grades 3-8. This can be set to private and is easily accessed with a log-in by students, parents, tutors, other interested teachers. Students each have a personal page where they track their progress for you. You supervise to the level that is appropriate for you. Some of the programs (like Type to Learn and Typing Club) provide tracking for teachers. You can incorporate student progress in these activities in the wiki–have students granularly report on scoring or you add their reports as needed from your teacher dashboard.

 

4. How do I pick between Essential Guide to Keyboarding and 2-volume Ultimate Guide?

• The Ultimate Guide:
  • is Common Core compliant
  • includes more detail/images/how-tos on each activity than the Essential Guide.
  • expanded detail makes it perfect when keyboarding is taught across grade-level classes, often by teachers without a background in teaching keyboarding
  • is aligned with new K-8 Student Workbooks
  • includes enriched assessments (to reflect changes since the 2012 publication date of the Essential Guide)
  • includes a detailed timeline of what to introduce when, by week and/or month
  • includes a slightly-expanded research section
  • responds to reader requests since the Essential Guide’s 2012 publication (which is why it’s over three times as long!)
  • can be enriched with student workbooks and videos
  • can be a student-directed activity when student workbooks and videos are used
• The Essential Guide
  • is more compact (less than a third the size of the Ultimate Guide)
  • covers all essential keyboarding material in one book rather than two, and as such, is more portable and affordable
  • is available in print or digital (Ultimate Guide: K-5 is available in both formats, but the Middle School volume is only available in digital)
  • is perfect for teachers looking for a curriculum map of activities more than how to do them
  • has no associated workbooks or videos
  • well suited when keyboarding is taught by one teacher

 

 

 

 

        We do! Go to AskaTechTeacher.com, Great Websites, and you’ll see our entire collection. These are updated more frequently (but still, the nature of the internet is to have broken links)

 

• are great for PBL
• call out higher-order thinking skills
• are well-suited to a classroom rather than a tech class

 

 

• samples of projects
• assessment, i.e., grading rubrics
• sequence of steps
• list of required elements
• access to interactive links required for the lesson
• encourage them to move at their own pace, solve their own problems
• have background material from prior lessons immediately available
• reference samples and rubrics as they work
• work on projects at home (if you have a 1:1 school with the appropriate license option)