Franconian International School
Humanities Department

Draft Materials: Do Not Quote

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The humanities department at the Franconian International School has undertaken a project to indentify and develop key competencies of the whole student as means to focus its efforts on what it means to be competent in the humanities.  An organizing framework is the curriculum development process described by Stephani (2004-2005).  This framework has curriculum developers first identify the desired outcomes and then describe how the successful development of those competencies might be assessed.  The next step is to identify the learning processes students would use to develop those desired outcomes and the pedagogical methods teachers would use to guide student learning.  Finally, instruments and methods would be developed to actually evaluate student learning and prepare documentation that can be communicated to interested stakeholders such as the learners themselves, teachers, administrators, board members, etc.

Figure 1. A simplified version of Cowan & Harding’s Logical Model of Curriculum Development (1986). The model places learning outcomes at the centre and includes ‘why’ in addition to ‘what’ and ‘how’, relating to assessment, learning and teaching (Stefani, 2004-05).

Two primary sources were used to develop an initial set of desired outcomes: the syllabi and documentation for the courses taught within the humanities department and the learner profile developed by the International Baccalaureate Organization (2009).  Huitt's (2013) analysis of desired attributes listed in a variety of frameworks showed the Learner Profile to be one of the most complete overviews currently available.  After much discussion the department constructed the following statement regarding desired outcomes:

Humanities learners will be knowledgeable thinkers who can gather and organize information and communicate what they know. 

Standards

• Reading
• Media
• Listening
• Knowledgeable--Departmental Standards
• Thinkers--Think Like A ....
• Writing
• Media
• Speaking

Templates and Rubrics

A variety of theories were used to develop rubrics for each of these areas.

• Bloom et al.'s taxonomy of the cognitive domain
• Revised taxonomy
• Costa & Kallick's Habits of Mind
• Narvaez's components of moral thinking
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills
• Wiggins & McTighe's Understanding by Design
• Huitt's description of the domains of holistic development and materials from the Curriculum Mapping Project

• Reading Text
• A/V Media
• Listening
  • Notetaking
  • Group Discussions
• Knowledgeable
  • Course syllabi, units and lessons in Atlas
  • Bloom et al.'s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain
  • Revised Taxonomy
  • Apps related to Bloom et al.'s levels of knowing
• Thinkers
  • Habits of Mind for Cognitive Domain
  • Think Like A Geographer, Historian, Economist...
• Writing
  • Organization
  • Content
  • Style and Mechanics
  • Extended Writing - 10th Grade
• Media
• Speaking
  • Small group discussions
  • Presentations (Peer feedback)

Sample Lessons and Units

• Lessons and Units (upper elementary - 12th grade)
• Causes of Cold War -- 1945-1949 (11th grade) (analysis)
  • Lesson - Analyse the accuracy of Kennan’s Long Telegram

Presentation at ECIS Conference

• Curriculum Development and Assessment: A Balanced Approach

Referenced Materials

• Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D.(Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.
• Bloom, B.,Englehart, M., Furst, E., Hill, W., Krathwohl, D. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York, Toronto: Longmans, Green.
• Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (2000). Habits of mind: A developmental series. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
• Huitt, W. (2011, July). A holistic view of education and schooling: Guiding students to develop capacities, acquire virtues, and provide service. Revision of paper presented at the 12th Annual International Conference sponsored by the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), May 24-27, Athens, Greece. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org//papers/holistic-view-of-schooling-rev.pdf
• Huitt, W. (2013). Comparisons of attributes across frameworks of possible curricula. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/brilstar/CurrMap/ltr/comparison-of-frameworks.xlsx
• International Baccalaureate Organization. (2006). IB learner profile booklet. Cardiff, Wales, UK: Author. Retrieved from http://www.ibo.org/programmes/documents/learner_profile_en.pdf 
• Narvaez, D. (2006). Integrative ethical education. In M. Killen & J. Smetana (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (pp. 703-733). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Retrieved from http://www.nd.edu/~dnarvaez/Narvaez HMD 09.14.pdf 
• Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2009). P21 framework definitions. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/documents/P21_Framework_Definitions.pdf
• Stefani, L. (2004-05). Assessment of student learning: Promoting a scholarly approach. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1, 51-66. Retrieved from http://www2.glos.ac.uk/offload/tli/lets/lathe/issue1/articles/stefani.pdf
• Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (Expanded 2^nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.