BC Curriculum: Core Competencies

Posted in Blog Posts, Elementary & Middle Years, Learning Design & Planning, Resource | Tagged with Assessment, core competencies, lesson planning, planning, unit planning

Understanding the Core Competencies

According to the Ministry of Education, there are some essential understandings related to the Core Competencies and how they are connected with the other parts of the BC Curriculum:

“The Core Competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need in order to engage in deep, lifelong learning”
“Along with literacy and numeracy foundations, they are central to British Columbia’s K-12 curriculum and assessment system and directly support students in their growth as educated citizens”
“Students develop Core Competencies when they are engaged in the ‘doing’ – the Curricular Competencies – within a learning area” and, therefore, are an integral part of the curriculum.
Even though the Core Competencies manifest in different ways, they are interconnected and are foundational to all learning.
Core competencies are developed throughout the whole students’ life (before, during, and after school graduation, both inside and outside school settings). For these reasons, schools should not only value and integrate students’ knowledge acquired outside school but also give opportunities to students to learn and/or improve these competencies.

Unpacking the three Core Competencies of the BC Curriculum

BC Curriculum has three Core Competencies:

1) Communication:

These are the competencies that students should develop to establish healthier relationships with others. In this sense, students should develop two groups of communication competencies:

1. Communicating: BC curriculum identifies three facets (skills) that students should develop to active a good communication:
  - Connecting and engaging with others
  - Focusing on intent and purpose
  - Acquiring and presenting information.
2. Collaborating: BC curriculum identifies three facets (skills) that students should develop to be able to collaborate with others:

- - Working collectively
  - Supporting group interactions
  - Determining common purposes

2) Thinking

These are the competencies that students should develop to improve their intellectual development and produce new understandings. In this sense, students should develop two groups of thinking competencies:

1. Creative Thinking: BC curriculum identifies three facets (skills) that students should develop:
  1. Creating and innovating
  2. Generating and incubating
  3. Evaluating and developing
2. Critical Thinking and Reflective Thinking: BC curriculum identifies four facets (skills) that students should develop:

- - Analyzing and critiquing
  - Questioning and investigating
  - Designing and developing
  - Reflecting and assessing

3) Personal and Social

These are the competencies that students should develop to help them understand their own identity in the world. There are three facets within personal and social:

1. Personal Awareness and Responsibility
2. Positive Personal and Cultural Identity
3. Social Awareness and Responsibility

The role of each person in progressing through the Core Competencies

BC Curriculum recognizes that Core Competencies are developed inside and outside of school.

Consequently, students, teachers, and parents/ guardians have different responsibilities and roles in the process of developing Core Competencies.

However, BC Curriculum has designed profiles or, in other words, levels in the progression of development of each one of the Core Competencies (See an example here) to guide students, teachers, and parents/ guardians to understand what they should do to become more proficient in the Core Competencies.

Core Competencies in the early educational years

The Provincial Outreach Program for the Early Years (Popey) has some orientations and assessments to support teachers implementation in primary and pre-primary contexts.

How to assess Core Competencies in the BC curriculum?

Assessment is another big challenge related to the Core Competencies but essential to guarantee that each student is developing them. BC Curriculum suggests that students should self-assess their own Core Competencies, but teachers have an essential role in developing strategies and tools to support students in this task.

North Vancouver School District has some suggestions of how to write “I can statements” to the Core Competencies, so the students can think clearly about what they need to focus on.

Surrey Schools has also designed a guide with questions and rubrics to self-assess Core Competencies. Moreover, teacher Kerri Hutchinson from Surrey Schools explains and gives many examples of how she has developed and supported her students to self-assess Core Competencies:

More resources:

If you are looking for suggestions of how to develop the Core Competencies in your classroom, the UBC Education Library has a comprehensive booklist to support teachers in this work.

References:

Ministry of Education (2022, February 25). BC Curriculum Core Competencies. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/competencies

Guest post by Peer Tutor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), Feb. 2022.

Concept Maps for teaching and learning

What are concept maps?

“A concept map is a type of graphic organizer used to represent knowledge of a topic, forge connections between ideas and create visual representations of one’s understandings. Concept maps begin with a main idea (or concept) and then branch out to show how that main idea can be broken down into specific topics” (Novak & Canas, 2006). Visit the Concept Mapping resource post on this blog for a brief overview and links to resources.

Features of concept maps

There are four essential features represented differently in a concept map:

Concepts: are words that try to represent a phenomenon, object, or idea. They may synthesize patterns in events or knowledge produced over time. In concept maps, these are depicted as shapes in the diagram.
Linking words/phrases: are used to connect two or more concepts and express some kind of relationship between them. They may indicate cause, consequences, conditions. In general, are written using a verb or few words.
Focus concept or question: it is the main goal of a concept map. It may be a question, an explanation, or a general idea that conducts your thought and organize all ideas around in the concept map. It is highlighted in the concept map, depending on the hierarchy chosen (top, center, etc.).
Hierarchical and structure: it is how you will choose to organize the main concepts and their connections. It can be hierarchical (the main concept in the top), circle (the main concept in the middle), or other shapes appropriated to the idea you want to express.

Read more on about the ‘concept’ of ‘concept mapping’ in this blog post on the “Inspiration” website and how teachers and their students might use concept maps, mind maps, or outlines to support writing, idea generation, and organization, planning and more. Inspiration is a software commonly found on school district devices.

You can also find a step-by-step construction of a concept map about the solar system in the Lucidchart or in the example below:

When to use concept maps in education?

Concept maps are powerful graphic organizers that can be used in many ways to illustrate and explore connections across ideas. In this sense, concept maps allow students to formulate their understanding in a non-linear way of thinking, showing their process of thinking during understanding a new idea or content.

Teachers can use concept maps to:

Build new knowledge, deepen students’ understanding: designing a concept map provides students and teachers with an opportunity to construct and share their understanding of a topic, theme, concept, area of interest. This Edutopia article provides a good starting point for learning more about the power of concept maps and other strategies to support deeper thinking.
Identify possible misconceptions: during the process of designing a concept map, teachers can understand better the logic used for students to build their knowledge and the origin of misconceptions. Curtis Chandler, a former Kansas teacher of the year has an interesting blog post about how concept maps can be used to understand some students’ misconceptions or not use accurate language.
Designing lessons: concept maps can even be used by teachers as a format for planning units or lessons of instruction, allowing teachers to visualize the logic used to connect several lessons into a unit plan or make cross-curricular connections.
Assessment: concept maps can help students illustrate the connections between their ideas, concepts, or content in meaningful ways and can be used as formative and summative assessments. The University of Waterloo has some guides about what is important to consider when designing rubrics for assessing concepts maps.
Create study habits: teachers can have students create concept maps summarizing the main ideas of a unit, creating the habit of continuum revision of the knowledge learned.
Encourage collaboration and communication: a mind map might be collaboratively constructed in real time or asynchronously (using appropriate apps) allowing students to negotiate, think critically and communicate their ideas and understandings with others.

How to get started?

As mentioned, CMaps, concept maps can be analogue or digital. Teachers might consider providing students with a choice in developing their map using high tech or low/no-tech approaches depending on the objectives. If the objective is to widely share the map, then digital may be preferable (of course, students might also take a photo of a map ‘in process’ and one that is ‘completed’ in order to share as part of a portfolio or published work/project).

For higher-tech options, try:

Mindmaps: it is a tool that allows you to create concept maps without the need for an account. It also allows you to save your map in the cloud or download it to your computer.
Inspiration or Kidspiration as computer based or iPad apps Highly visual concept mapping software that allows the user to easily insert images from a large media folder. School districts commonly license these applications for use on their devices.
Bubbl.us is an online collaborative concept mapping software – each individual with an account can be invited to contribute to a given map being created in the cloud. With a paid educator account, a teacher can invite students using a link to either view or collaborate (students do not need to provide their information or sign up for an account). Paid app with Free trial options for Educator accounts.
For schools using ‘Google Classroom’ MindMup or Miro offer collaborative mindmapping (login required)
- Teachers should always be aware of appropriate permissions in their context/school districts. These might include parental consent, student informed consent or it may not be permitted to have students sign up using gmail or other account information.
Twitter/X can be a great place to search for examples, research, blogs and new mind mapping tools. There are even a few related hashtags you can follow:
Tweets about imindmap

No/Low Tech Options:

Collaborative or Individual drawing on chart paper or using sticky notes on a whiteboard or a table with a group of students are great options for kinesthetic or non-digital mind mapping. A primary teacher might even have students use kinesthetic, solid objects to create their mind map. Teachers might begin helping students develop their ability to connect ideas by providing a skeleton. This will help scaffold learning and introduce students to different ways to connect ideas.

Freeform Concept maps can be drawn by hand or using some of the available draw applications made for smartphones and tablets!

References:

Novak, J. and Cañas, A (2006): The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct Them (Technical Report IHMC CMap Tools 2006-11). Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.

Original post YD 2017 adapted by Peer Tutor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), Feb. 2022.

Know Do Understand (KDU): a starting point in planning

Posted in Learning Design & Planning, Not Subject Specific, Resource, Video & Video Tutorials | Tagged with Assessment, KDU, learning design, lesson planning, planning, Teacher Use, template, unit planning

section header - what is it?

The BC curriculum’s more concept and competency based curriculum, expects that teachers combine Big Ideas, Contents, and Competencies as they plan learning experiences for their students. The purpose is to create clear goals which will guide teachers to design assessments and activities to develop concepts and skills in their students.

section header - why is it relevant

The “Know-Do-Understand” Model (KDU) can provide a simple initial planning structure can can support planning with the end in mind (backwards planning). It allows you to consider the connection with and between areas of the curriculum. Think of it as a cycle – The big idea is what you want the students to ultimately understand as a result of their learning; The Know section is the curricular content… they need to know this in order to develop their understanding of the Big Idea; The DO section is what you want the students to be able to Do by the end of the unit (the skills they will practice throughout the Unit that help them learn the content and develop their understanding of the Big Idea(s)!) Wrapped around all of this are the Core Competencies (more about those in the video below and later posts)

This video titled: KDU Model, was created by Lexie, Peer Mentor 2020-21, provides a very brief overview of how to consider Know Do Understand in your planning.

Here is a blog post from Ariane, peer mentor Winter 2021-22, sharing her approach to planning as she learns more about our BC curriculum.

Planning Templates as starting points:

Here are a few templates that align with this approach. Please remember, there is no ONE approach or specific template that is required. Please feel free to use, modify, adapt & share. Additional samples can be found on our ‘Designing Learning’ blog.

Unit-Plan-Template_Custom co-created with one of our TCs to meet their needs… remember, you can always customize and build what works for you!
Unit Plan Template_differentiation & considerations for varied learners
Adapted T and S say do lesson plan
New-Lesson-Plan-Template-Refillable-Form1
KDU template can support aligning curriculum as you begin planning a unit or lesson.
KDU-Lesson-Plan-revised

The BC Ministry of Education provides some instructional samples including this overview of a primary Math Unit “Patterns and Circles”

Unit Planning: one teacher’s approach

Posted in Blog Posts, Elementary & Middle Years, English, Fine Arts, Learning Design & Planning | Tagged with designing learning, guide, KDU, learning design, lesson planning, math, planning, Teacher Use, unit plan

Guest post by Ariane faria-dos santos, Peer Mentor, PHD student EDCP 2022

The BC curriculum presents some challenges for teachers to plan because it requires that teachers combine Big Ideas, Contents, and Competencies. The purpose is to create clear goals which will guide teachers to design assessments and activities to develop concepts and skills in their students.

However, given the multiple possibilities of combining Big Ideas, Contents, and Competencies, teachers or teacher candidates may feel overwhelmed while planning without understanding how to balance these three elements.

With this challenge in mind, I’ve tried to unpack the steps of planning and propose a possible teacher’s journey through an iterative process of design using the new BC curriculum.

This video titled: Know Do Understand Model provides a very brief overview of the initial stages of the approach noted below (thank you Lexie, peer mentor 2021-22, for included it)

Step 1: integrating Big Ideas, Contents, and Competencies

Source: Adapted from Ministery of Education (2022, January 31). Curriculum Overview. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/overview

One first step to plan might be to select a Big Idea that a teacher wants to develop with their students through this Unit Plan.

For example, if teachers want to develop the Big Idea that “Numbers to 20 represent quantities that can be decomposed into 10s and 1s” (first-graders Big Idea), teachers will need to choose the Content and Competencies aligned with that Big Idea.

The math example beside shows some first-grade Content and Competencies that teachers can choose to develop this Big Idea. In this sense, teachers can choose the contents of “numbers concepts to 20” and “ways to make 10”. Teachers can also choose several competencies that students will do to demonstrate that they have learned the Contents and Big Ideas of this unit planning.

In addition, it is essential to pay attention that any Content or Competence that does not help to develop this Big Idea should not be included to not generate a loss of focus on this lesson planning. For example, the Content “addition and subtraction to 20 (understanding of operation and process)” should not be included because it does not help to develop the big idea chosen as the main focus of the lesson planning.

Step 2: integrating other relevant principles, subjects, and purposes

As a next step, I like to consider other principles, subjects, and purposes that I might include to make this lesson planning richer and more interested to their students.

Are there any first peoples principles of learning that are aligned with step 1?
Are there any ADST skills that I can include in this lesson planning?
Are there other subjects that may be integrated into this lesson planning?
Are there any other important principles to me as a teacher that can be integrated and aligned into this plan?

The only caution is that teachers should pay attention if the other points chosen are coherent with step 1 or if they are changing the main focus of the lesson planning.

Step 3: understanding my students’ prior knowledge, needs, and curiousities

My third step is to understand what students already know about these Big Ideas, Content, and Competencies with the purpose to discover the entry point in planning a sequence of lesson briefs (or, one might call this a pathway).

For example, in the example above a teacher should understand (or learn) their students’ background knowledge related to number sequence, how they count, if they are able to skip and compare numbers, etc. This prior knowledge will be essential to teachers design the more appropriate sequence for students to learn the Big Ideas, Content, and Competencies of this lesson planning. For a teacher just meeting their learners, they will want to incorporate some prior learning assessment during the first few lessons in a given Unit.

As you plan assessment and lessons, it is invaluable to consider the needs of students regarding learning. Teachers should think about the diverse learners in their classroom and plan to attend to their needs which can be related to ELL, modified programs, career, etc. Universal Design (UDL) suggests incorporating multiple ways of communicating and allowing students to represent learning in varied, multi-modal forms.

Finally, I like to consider the particular interests and curiosities of my students, planning lessons that engage students in the teaching and learning process.

Step 4: designing the units of my lesson planning

Now that teachers know the point they should start (step 3) and what they want to achieve (step 1), teachers should divide their lesson planning into several units (step 4) to design a pedagogical path to students achieve the lessons’ goals.

How should I divide the Content and Competencies to achieve the Big Idea?
How many units? How many classes are in each unit?
Which Contents and Competencies should be put together in each unit/ class?
Which are the Contents and Competencies simpler? How do they progress in each unit/class?
How should I start each unit/class?

There are many ways of answering these questions and teachers should consider what will more support their students’ learning process.

If you want some suggestions and ideas, you can visit the Learning Design Blog

Step 5: designing the assessments

The fifth step is related to designing all formative and summative assessments for this lesson planning. Teachers should plan when they need to understand if their students have learned and design assessments to collect pieces of evidence of learning. Teachers should also consider when to choose formative or summative assessments and the format of each of them (written, oral, in a group, etc).

How should I give feedback to my students regarding their learning process?
When do I need formative assessments throughout the lesson planning?
When do I need summative assessments throughout the lesson planning?
What format should they have?
Should I propose performance assessments?
Should I use technology to support my assessment practices?

If you want some suggestions and ideas, you can visit the Learning Design Blog

Step 6: designing the learning activities

My next step in pre-planning is to design an outline of the learning activities that will give opportunities for students to develop skills and knowledge. These activities will ‘lead’ students to proficiency on the final Big Idea, Contents, Competencies in the Unit.

How long do I have for each lesson (may vary depending on your schedule and how much this unit integrates across the curriculum)
What are my objectives for each lesson? How do these link back to the overall unit objectives?
How many activities will my students develop in each class? Should they work individually, peers, in a group? What resources or strategies might I include? What digital tools or other manipulatives/hands-on learning will I integrate?
What kind of assessment will I incorporate? Initially, Assessment as and for learning including formative assessment to help guide the teaching and learning.

Video Overview

Below you can see a wonderful example of Language and Art Unit Planning from the BC Curriculum designed by Janis Sawatzky, Langley School district:

Planning Templates:

There is no ‘one way’ – that said, here are a couple that some teacher candidates have found helpful

Unit-Plan-template-2015 (Backwards Design with prompts)
Unit-Plan-Template_Custom (a unit template I collaboratively designed with a TC from the Indigenous cohort to meet their planning needs)
A lesson plan based on the KDU model (includes ‘teacher says/does’ and ‘student says/does’)
Adapted T and S say do lesson plan (includes teacher says/does and students say/do – more linear than above example)

For more on Planning for BCs Curriculum include examples, templates and tips, please visit:

Designing Learning Blog, UBC, Teacher Ed

Guest post by Peer Tutor Ariane Faria dos Santos (Ph.D. EDCP), Dec. 2021; Edited by Yvonne Dawydiak, Learning Design Manager, Teacher Education

KDU image reference: BC Ministry of Education https://youtu.be/lXyyZql2PZQ

Modified image (shown above with curriculum filled in) courtesy A.F.S Template – BC Curriculum

Gearing up for Practicum: resources & search tips

Posted in Blog Posts, Elementary & Middle Years, Learning Design & Planning, Secondary | Tagged with library, planning, practicum, sandbox session

Handout: Gearing Up Resources for TCs_Dec 23

During our session, we can help you with finding & evaluating resources to support your planning, suggest approaches to planning & teaching or work with your to get started or refine your Unit or Lesson plans.
Before our session, we recommend looking at these resources to get a sense of what you can find through UBC Library. All of these resources can be accessed using your CWL.
Resources marked with the “Open Access” icon ( ) are available to everyone, and do not require a CWL.

If you’re looking for: Planning templates or information about BC Curriculum

This UBC Teacher Ed Learning Design Resource blog includes tips for planning and houses templates & resources developed by local school districts specifically for planning for BC curriculum.

If you’re looking for: Searching Tips

Try: Search Power Hand-out
- The Search Power guide provides you with the preferred key terms to use when searching the Library catalogue (which is based on Library of Congress).
- For example:
  - if you are looking for professional resources, texts or teachers guides about teaching poetry:
    - poetry AND “student and teaching”
  - if you are looking for lesson plans:
    - poetry AND “activity programs”

If you’re looking for: Lesson planning ideas
Try: UBC Education Library’s Lesson Planning LibGuides
• Lesson Planning (Elementary, Middle Years)
• Lesson Planning (Secondary)
• Open Access Repositories are also good places to search for teaching materials, lessons, and research relevant to the K-12 BC curriculum. Since these resources are Open Access, anyone can browse and download the resources for classroom or professional use. Try Teach BC or OER Commons

If you’re looking for: Indigenous resources
Try: Xwi7xwa Library
• Xwi7xwa Library is the centre for academic and community Indigenous scholarship at UBC. Look for their guides on Children’s and Young Adult Literature and Primary Sources for K-12 Teachers

If you’re looking for: Media
Try: Curio
• Curio provides high-quality, Canadian digital learning resources that align with Canadian curriculum and are relevant for K-12 classrooms.
If you’re looking for: Social Studies books, photographs, and other learning resources
Try: KnowBC
• KnowBC is an online encyclopaedia featuring BC content. This includes photographs, booklists, and news articles. KnowBC’s resources are particularly well-suited for a Middle years Social Studies classroom.

If you’re looking for: Picture books, juvenile fiction, YA novels
Try: UBC Education Library Booklists, UBC Library’s Great Reads Collection or UBC Education Library’s Young Adult Literature Guide
• The UBC Education Library’s booklists feature books that are relevant to the k-12 curriculum. Each list features titles about current and historical topics in education, pedagogy, and the BC K-12 curriculum.
• UBC Library’s Great Reads collection features leisure reading including literary classics, fiction, non-fiction and more.
• UBC Education Library’s Young Adult Literature Guide features reading lists for children and young adults. Here, you can also find examples of illustrated e-books.

If you’re looking for: STEAM resources, cross-curric planning resources or resources for remote teaching and digital tech integration
Try: Scarfe Digital Sandbox
• In addition to hosting workshops for teacher candidates, their website also includes resources to support planning & teaching with (and without) digital technologies.

Prepared by the Education Library