Legacy: Career Connection to Teaching with Technology (CCTT)

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   Exemplary Checklist
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Introduction

The Career Connection to Teaching with Technology (CCTT) Challenge Grant Project seeks to develop world-class, K-12, curriculum content—extended unit of practice plans and lessons—for 21st Century schools. Teachers from CCTT’s six geographically diverse hub sites work with a panel of content specialists appointed by some of the nation’s most influential educational organizations to help them align their web-based content with national content and technology/information literacy standards as well as learning principles and school-to-work competencies, and to address the most timely and important topics of each discipline. Each hub site has a particular core subject focus. e.g., Mainland High School’s focus is mathematics, but each site may develop products in any of the other core subjects. Five of the hub sites are high schools; one is K-8. The following two checklists provide a framework for developing 21st Century content.

Preliminary Checklist

This Preliminary Checklist helps teachers define their proposed plan or idea for an extended unit of practice. The checklist is completed by hub site teachers, sent by e-mail or hard copy to the hub site manager, and forwarded to the content specialists.

1. Extended Unit of Practice Title/Grade Level:

2. What do you want the students to know and be able to do (the fundamental understandings)?

3. Which national standards (content, technology, and information literacy standards) do the fundamental under-standings align with, and how?

4. What is the relevance and significance of these fundamental understandings?

5. What is the context for this learning? (Prior and future understandings as well as developmental appropriateness.)

6. Assessment—how will you know that the students have learned?

7. What are the components of your extended unit of practice and how will each component contribute to the learning of all students?

8. URL where currently located.

9. Workforce competencies.

10. Cross-curricular connections.

11. Acknowledgments.

Exemplary Products Checklist

The Exemplary Products Checklist helps teachers strive for excellence as they continue to develop their extended unit of practice plans. The checklist is the basis for determining the potential value of the materials to classroom teachers nationwide, and for deter-mining whether products should be included in CCTT’s "national collection" as judged by CCTT’s Expert Panel (content specialists).

Introduction (written to teachers)

Your proposed content project can help move classrooms from traditional learning environments to technology-based, career-related, 21st Century learning centers. Millennium schools will have student learning front and center, and a broad array of rich technologies that foster new and seemingly inexhaustible resources for information, data gathering, synthesis, analysis, interpretation and evaluation. "New" schools will emphasize collaborative and inquiry-based learning where student projects and products proliferate; there is frequent discussion and debate about issues and concerns; students teach and learn from one another; and, teachers are guides and facilitators of learning. The focus will be on what students are learning rather than on what teachers are teaching; on using effectively, the technologies that dominate the greater society; on information; on cutting-edge content; and, on customized curriculum extended units of practice.

The "new" curriculum will reflect the multiple forces of educational reform: standards; multiple assessment approaches; technology infusion; what we know about learning—about how students think, learn, and use what they learn; and, global and career connections. It follows, then, that what you plan and do in the development of your content project, must be accomplished within the context of this massive, ongoing, educational reform and change, and must respond to, and help lead, these many and varied forces of educational reform.

The Checklist

• The "exemplary products" checklist that follows is directed at fostering the development of standards-based, technology-rich content for 21st Century learning centers.

• It is directed at ensuring that essential concepts of the core disciplines—what students should know and be able to do—form the basis for what you do.

• The checklist is organized around several components: general considerations; student learning, assessment, and technology.

• This "guide" has two important purposes: a) to consider the full range of educational attributes that are desirable in an exemplary content product for the 21st Century; and b) to decide whether or not a proposed product should be included in CCTT’s national collection.

• Much of what you will find in the checklist may be what you already do. It may not be dramatically new or different for you and other leaders in educational reform. Its use will provide a more substantive and consistent context within which to develop new content and within which to influence the behavior and direction of those using the materials.

• The checklist has been deliberately made more comprehensive in order to ensure that high-quality classroom extended units of practice and lessons are developed that respond to, and reflect, the multiple forces of educational reform.

• As you continue to develop your project, see how many items included in the checklist you can address. Try to infuse most, or all of these items, as you proceed in the full-scale development of your product.

• Hub site managers, colleagues, teachers from other hub sites, and the content specialists are available to help you, along the way.

The Extended Unit of Practice Plan
Exemplary Product Checklist

Content	Please check yes or no. Brief comments relating to your selection are encouraged.	Yes	No
1	The extended unit of practice plan as a whole clearly addresses (and demonstrates a clear understanding of) all or part of one or more content standards
2	The extended unit of practice plan’s fundamental understandings/skills and objectives are aligned with the substance of the content standard(s) (and not merely with their topics).
3	The content reflects significant, high priority, state-of-the-art concepts and/or topics within the discipline.
4	The content of the extended unit of practice plan addresses understanding of concepts and emphasizes depth of understanding (rather than facts and breadth of coverage).
5	The content encompasses several key aspects of a single discipline and is also integrated across disciplines.

General Considerations	Please check yes or no. Brief comments relating to your selection are encouraged.	Yes	No
1	The extended unit of practice stresses a variety of teaching strategic and multiple approaches to learning.
2	The extended unit of practice plan adequately describes prerequisite knowledge (if any) and skills that are necessary to the learning.
3	The content, materials and resources, and technology are fully and smoothly integrated into the extended unit of practice plan.
4	The extended unit of practice plan facilitates the development of higher order thinking skills including critical thinking, problem solving, abstract reasoning, and decision-making.
5	The extended unit of practice plan clearly articulates scope and duration, and recognizes reasonable time allocations.
6	The extended unit of practice plan suggests ways to differentiate for special populations of students (provides for student options based on ability, interest, and learning goals).
7	The extended unit of practice plan activities are attainable by a variety of students with appropriate hard work and persistence.
8	The extended unit of practice plan displays knowledge of cultural heritage and special needs of all students; is multi-cultural, gender-fair and disability-aware.
9	The extended unit of practice plan includes opportunities for students to learn and apply the learned knowledge and skills to new (a variety of) situations.
10	The extended unit of practice plan promotes the development of connections with business, industry, and the community (career connections).
	• Business and Industry
	• Community Organizations
	• Government Agencies
11	The extended unit of practice plan provides clear instructions for replication by others, specifying the conditions and resources needed for implementation.

Student Learning	Please check yes or no. Brief comments relating to your selection are encouraged.	Yes	No
1	The fundamental understandings/skills and objectives of the extended unit of practice plan are student centered.
2	The extended unit of practice plan engages students in meaningful learning (e.g., are consistent with research on teaching and learning; are identified with successful classroom practices).
3	The extended unit of practice plan engages students in active/inquiry learning experiences when appropriate and possible.
4	The extended unit of practice plan is likely to be interesting, engaging, and effective for all students.
5	The unit’s fundamental understandings are appropriate, challenging, and relevant to students’ experiences, interests, and levels of comprehension and grade level.
6	The extended unit of practice plan attends to students’ prior knowledge and commonly held perceptions.
7	The extended unit of practice plan actively involves students in a connected sequence of activities that build toward their understanding.
8	The extended unit of practice plan displays knowledge of students’ learning styles.
9	The extended unit of practice plan provides opportunities for each student to express, clarify, justify and represent his/her ideas.
10	The extended unit of practice plan promotes student collaboration and teaming, and provides multiple opportunities to get feedback from peers and the teacher.

Assessment	Please check yes or no. Brief comments relating to your selection are encouraged.	Yes	No
1	The assessment is congruent with the achievement of the expected outcomes of the specific standard(s) and fundamental understandings/skills or objectives.
2	Multiple means of assessment are used, reflecting what students know, how they think, and what they can do.
3	The assessment is appropriate and designed to inform (provide feedback) on students’ progress and guide teachers’ instructional decisions (e.g., to plan appropriately differentiated instruction).
4	The assessment is an integral part of instruction, and embedded in the extended unit of practice, along the way.
5	The assessment relates to authentic/real-world learning experiences, and requires students to use knowledge and skills outside the classroom experience.
6	The assessment enables students to check their own progress (and in teaming, that of their peers).

Technology	Please check yes or no. Brief comments relating to your selection are encouraged.	Yes	No
1	The unit plan incorporates the effective and appropriate use of technology, and describes how technology is used throughout the project (e.g., to access, compile, synthesize, produce and disseminate information; to communicate with peers and teachers; to design, develop, and present projects).
2	Multiple sources of information—from the Internet and other rich resources—are used to create the core content.
3	There is evidence of accessing, compiling, organizing, analyzing and synthesizing information.
4	The extended unit of practice plan includes the achievement of one or more ISTE technology standards for teachers, if relevant.
5	The extended unit of practice plan includes the achievement of one or more ISTE technology standards for students, if relevant.

Copyright © 1997-2003 Career Connection to Teaching with Technology USDOE Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Marshall Ransom, Project Manager All rights reserved.