Science Standard 5.5 1

Running Head: SCIENCE STANDARD 5.5

Aligning Curriculum and Instruction:

Science Standard 5.5 and

Effective Instructional Strategies

Ginny Wilburn

The College of William and Mary

Aligning Curriculum and Instruction: Science Standard 5.5 and Effective

Instructional Strategies

Purpose

The educational themes of modern society have gone through drastic changes. High-stakes testing and accountability balanced with support and encouragement reflect the current wave of educational reform. In the past, educational objectives have guided efforts to increase student achievement. In an era of accountability, however, a more systematic approach has been sought to identify “what students should be able to do? (Solomon, 2003). The answer to this question is specifically addressed through the educational standards. Teachers are now required to make instructional decisions using state and local standards as the vehicle for student achievement. This is accomplished through the accountability attached to the local benchmark tests and state assessments. The establishment, implementation, and achievement of academic standardsdrive the daily decisions faced by instructional leaders. “Attention must be given to what is taught, why it is taught, and what competence or mastery looks like” (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000, p. 24).

Curriculum alignment ensures the standards are vertically and horizontally articulated in the effort to increase student achievement. Curriculum alignment is the thoughtful planning required to align instruction with the learning goals, which are directly linked to the curriculum. It is the focus of learning as a system, rather than fragmented concepts, skills, or strategies. Curriculum alignment involves the strategic planning of the curriculum, enabling objectives, enabling standards, and the enactment activities. All of these components work together to create alignment with the curriculum, which in turn, support and enhance the pre-determined learning goals. Herbert et al. (2005) assert that the process, or instruction, must also be the focus, rather than relying solely on the outcomes. Curriculum alignment promotes effective student achievement by emphasizing both process and product. In this paper I will explainhow two research-based instructional strategies could be used to achieve the learning goals of the Virginia Science Standard 5.5 effectively.

The Curriculum

The focus of this paper is centered on the Virginiascience curriculum taught in fifth grade. Science Standard 5.5 will be utilized to demonstrate the alignment between the curriculum, content, and delivery toenhance student learning at the cognitive level identified in the standard. The Virginia Science Standard 5.5 states:

The student will investigate and understand that organisms are made of cells and have distinguishing characteristics. Key concepts include: a) basic cell structures and functions; b) kingdoms of living things; c) vascular and nonvascular plants; and d) vertebrates and invertebrates. (Virginia Department of Education [VDOE], 2003, p. 14)

Mastery of this standard is measured through a multiple-choice Standard of Learning test.

The purpose of the Virginia Science Standards of Learning is to achieve certain goals for students. Students are to “develop and use an experimental design in scientific inquiry” (VDOE, 2003, p. 1). Scientific standards are also written to “teach students the language of science to communicate understanding” (VDOE, 2003, p. 1). Students will “investigate phenomena, using technology,” and “apply scientific concepts, skills, and processes to everyday situations” (VDOE, 2003, p. 1). It is the aim of the Virginia Science standards that students “experience the richness and excitement of scientific discovery of the natural world through thecollaborative quest for knowledge and understanding.” Tapping into these experiences, students will be able to “make informed decisions regarding contemporary issues” (VDOE, 2003, p. 2). Another curricular goal of the science standards is to “develop scientific dispositions” and “explore science-related careers and interests” (VDOE, 2003, p. 2).

Science Standard 5.5 emphasizes a vast array of cognitive levels and falls under the strand of Living Systems. This standard centers on the investigation and understanding of characteristics of organisms. The cognitive levels required to achieve the intended learning outcomes are analysis and comprehension. The cognitive behaviors of the Essential Knowledge, Skills, and Processes, however, range from knowledge to synthesis.

This standard requires the student to gain specific knowledge about the basic cell structures and functions and analyze the role of each and their relationship to the whole. The student is expected to differentiate, or distinguish, between the kingdoms of living things by their characteristics. Another intended learning outcome is to compare and contrast the characteristics of vascular and nonvascular plants and vertebrates and invertebrates.

The concepts addressed in this standard shift from individual plant and animal cells to the interrelationships between them. The cognitive levels begin at the knowledge stage of Bloom’s taxonomy with the acquisition of specific knowledge. This knowledge is then demonstrated through the analysis of the interconnectedness of living systems. The analysis cognitive level is heavily emphasized with skills such as compare and contrast and categorization skills. The synthesis level is also addressed in the intended learning outcome of designing an investigation.

Science Standard 5.5 is aligned horizontally with other Virginia Standards of Learning. Students are required to develop scientific investigation, reasoning, and logic skills (SOL 5.1) through out the Science standards. In science standards 5.1 and 5.2, students are expected to demonstrate how plant and animals had an impact on early civilizations. Aligning with Math standard 5.17, students are taught to collect, organize, and display sets of numerical data in a variety of forms, which could be directly correlated with the content of SOL 5.5. The language arts curriculum could also be used to expand on the Science standard 5.5 through listening, drawing conclusions, and sharing responses. The use of effective nonverbal communication skills and planned oral presentations, Sols 5.2 and 5.3, can also be used to link the language arts curriculum to Science Standard 5.5.

Vertical alignment is also demonstrated between Science Standard 5.5 and other Virginia Standards of Learning. Investigating and understanding that plants and animals go through a series of orderly changes in their life cycles is a standard taught in the second grade, specifically SOL 2.4 (VDOE, 2003). Science Standard 4.4 expands on the anatomy of plants and their life processes. The Life Processes strand is further expressed in Standard 4.5 with the investigation and understanding of how plants and animals in an ecosystem interact with one another and the nonliving environment (VDOE, 2003).

Aligned Instructional Strategies

Although the Virginia Science Standards are specific, it is required that students investigate and understand the concepts therein. Investigation requires the student to be able to analyze the material presented. In order for this to be achieved, it is very important that instructional strategies are chosen carefully. In her Knowledge Construction Curriculum Application Number One, Solomon (2003) states that the curriculum should provide experience-rich environments that provide opportunities for students to learn with understanding as active participants. Solomon (2003) makes reference to Piaget’s constructivism theory, which stresses the importance of interacting with the curriculum. A teacher, or even parent, can not implant information into children that have no prior knowledge of a concept. The information does not carry the same meaning for the student without background knowledge as it does for the teacher that has a rich knowledge base. The information that is being relayed by the teacher is based on their prior experiences, rather than the students.Real-world experiences are necessary to provide a background with which to attach new meanings and knowledge.

Piaget’s learning theory asserts that children must be given the opportunities to investigate, explore, and make connections on their own. This can only be achieved through active learning, or interacting, with the curriculum. Students are able to create schemes based on the connections that are made through learning. Piaget defined a scheme as the mental representation of an associated set of perceptions, ideas, and/or actions. Piaget considered schemata to be the basic building blocks of thinking (Woolfolk, 1987).

Nonlinguistic Representations

Nonlinguistic representations aid student learning through visualization. This instructional strategy helps students create meaning through the use of graphic organizers, physical models, mental or drawn pictures, or kinesthetic activities (Marzano, 2001). This strategy engages students to create a model of their thinking. Creating nonlinguistic representations stimulates and increases activity in the brain (Gerlic & Jausovec, 1999). Integrating drawings or pictures in a visual map along with words creates a rich mental bond within the brain and mind for remembering information (Hyerle, 2009). Marzano et al. (2001) also recommends combining both the linguistic and nonlinguistic systems of representing knowledge. Visual representations help students recognize how related topics are linked. Student learning is further deepened when students then explain their models. Hyerle (2009) asserts that student ownership of visual tools based on thinking skills is a key to high conceptual performance.

Nonlinguistic representations can be used in a variety of ways in the science classroom to enhance student learning. Physical models provide a nonlinguistic representation of student-created meaning. A student must consider the characteristics of the object to be created. For example, Science Standard 5.5 requires students to investigate and understand the basic cell structures and functions. This can be visually displayed by choosing materials, such as clay or play dough, based on their physical properties to demonstrate knowledge of the nucleus, cell wall, cell membrane, vacuole, chloroplasts, and cytoplasm. This provides the student with a hands-on activity in which the student must make decisions based on what has been learned while creating the clay model of a plant cell. Color, thickness, and location of structures need to be considered to accurately depict the object. Another physical model could be constructed to display the essential structures and functions of animal cells. Through the visual representation of physical models, students are able to compare and contrast the characteristics of plant and animal cells. As the standard explains, although plant and animal cells are similar, they are also different in shape and in some of their parts (VDOE, 2003, p. 15). In Science Standard 5.5, students must be able to compare and contrast plant and animals cells and identify their major parts and functions, as well as compare and contrast the distinguishing characteristics of the kingdoms of organisms. The cognitive level described in this section of the standard is at the synthesis level of Blooms taxonomy. The physical model enables the student to synthesize the material learned and provide the teacher with useful information on student learning based on the product created.

Drawing pictures provide another strategy that enhances student learning through nonlinguistic representations. Students can create graphic representations to demonstrate their mental pictures of cells. In Science Standard 5.5, students are expected to draw, label and describe the structures of plant and animal cells (VDOE, 2003, p. 15). This can be easily done to demonstrate their knowledge. Another expectation of the standard is for students to group organisms into categories, using their characteristics. This can also be effectively accomplished through student-created drawings. Students are able to draw and label the organisms. This analysis-level skill, according can be displayed clearly to the teacher as a normative assessment.

Identifying Similarities and Differences

Identifying similarities and differences is an effective, research-based strategy that helps learners see patterns and make connections. Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) found that identifying similarities and differences was the most effective instructional strategy identified, yielding a 45 percentile gain in student achievement. People have a natural tendency to identify similarities and differences in the world around them. The human brain naturally seeks out similarities and differences (Gentner & Markman, 1994). Students compare things that are similar and contrast things that are different. Once this is done, students are then able to classify information into meaningful relationships. Identifying similarities and differences fosters the relationships between concepts and helps make connections to new understanding. Looking for similarities and differences prompts the learner to consider, "What do I already know that will help me learn this new idea?” (Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, 2005).

Graphic organizers, such as comparison matrices and Venn Diagrams, are ways to identify similarities and differences. A comparison matrix describes and compares characteristics of items. It is used to graphically determine how items are similar and different. A Venn diagram is used to show similarities and differences for two different items based on one characteristic. The use of graphic organizers helps the student by writing down what they have learned into categories that make sense to them. Marzano et al. (2001) assert that using graphic organizers to represent similarities and differences has been shown to improve students’ understanding of content as well as their ability to recognize and generate similarities and differences. Students are encouraged to absorb the presented information and create meaning through a visual image.

Using the strategy of identifying similarities and differences is an effective tool with which to teach Virginia Science Standard 5.5, which states, “The student will group organisms into categories, using their characteristics: living things, plants, and animals” (VDOE, 2003, p. 15). Plants are categorized as vascular or nonvascular. Vascular plants have special tissues that transport food and water. Nonvascular plants do not contain these special tissues. Working in cooperative groups, students can brainstorm what they know about the two types of plants and arrange the information in a comparison matrix. The completed graph will show that flowering plants and trees are vascular, or have tissues to transport food and water; whereas moss is nonvascular, due to the absence of the transporting tissues.

A Venn diagram is a useful strategy to demonstrate the similarities and differences between plant and animal cells. Science Standard 5.5 expects the student to “compare and contrast plant and animal cells and identify their major parts and functions” (VDOE, 2003, p. 15). Plant and animal cells contain a nucleus, cell membrane, and a vacuole. Students could discuss with a partner the similarities between the two types of cells through a think, pair, share activity and arrange the shared characteristics in the middle of the Venn diagram in which the circles representing each cell overlap. Plant cells are rectangular in shape, whereas animal cells are spherical. Plant cells have cell walls and chloroplasts. Animal cells contain cytoplasm. Working in pairs, students would place these differences in the outer sections of the appropriateoverlapping circles. The student needs to be able to recall the distinguishing characteristics of plant and animal cells is important since this essential knowledge and skill falls in the analysis level of Bloom’s taxonomy.

The selected instructional strategies align with the broad curricular goals of the Virginia Science Standards of Learning. High expectations reflect an aspiration of continuous student achievement. Fullan (1997) suggests that school improvement is dependent upon the fundamentals of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional culture. This is achieved through the thoughtful alignment of all of these factors. The science standards are intended to encourage students to apply scientific concepts, skills, and processes to everyday situations (VDOE, 2003, p. 1). The instructional strategy of identifying similarities and differences works to achieve this aim through the organization of ideas and construction of relationships. This strategy encourages students to analyze the role of each part of a cell and the relationships among them. Nonlinguistic representations also serve the broad curricular goals of the science standards by encouraging students to create a visual model of their thinking. Scientific dispositions are enhanced and encouraged through the careful planning and implementation of these strategies. The intended cognitive behaviors of Science Standard 5.5, which are geared more toward the analysis and synthesis levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, directly support the overarching themes of the Virginia Science Standards.

There are cautions to consider when using the suggested instructional strategies. Activating students’ prior knowledge is essential when introducing new strategies for learning. Students should be encouraged to explore similarities and differences in their natural environment. When the learning goal is to engage students in divergent thinking, ask them to identify similarities and differences on their own before incorporating the content (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2005). Graphic organizers, such as Venn diagrams, should be introduced with teacher modeling in the initial stages. In order to achieve higher cognitive levels, however, students need to be able to construct the diagram and categorize the information independently (Marzano et al., 2001). Students with disabilities may need more assistance with the creation of the Venn diagram as well as the organization of the information. Modifications should be considered to ensure the highest cognitive levels are achieved for all students.

Instructional Leadership

In order to create the appropriate context to achieve the curricular objectives, instructional leaders must consider enabling standards (Solomon, 2003). Some of the enabling standards to consider are teacher training, time, space, and materials. Aligned instruction is dependent on the availability and consistency in which these standards are offered. In each public school, an instructional leader must make daily decisions as to the most effective ways to train staff, manage time, and provide teachers with the necessary supplies and materials. McEwan (2003) describes instructional leaders as “resource providers who are adept at finding and allocating money, planning and developing programs, and motivating people to become involved with their schools” (p. 34).

Teachers need to be provided proper training to begin using effective instructional strategies in the classroom. Teachers must be taught how to align their instruction with the intended cognitive behaviors through the use of research-based strategies. Professional development must be targeted to the needs of the students and teachers. Teachers must also be given the time and feedback necessary to practice and hone their newly acquired skills. Professional development is often costly and not an option for schools facing financial hardship. Experienced teachers using research-based instructional strategies can serve as valuable consultants to their peers. Opportunities should be given for teachers to observe effective instruction in their schools. Peer modeling is an inexpensive way to offer training and collaboration opportunities to staff. To learn about the strategies of identifying similarities and differences and nonlinguistic representations, an instructional leader could arrange for teachers to observe a faculty member who is effectively using these strategies in her classroom.