Session 2: Target Core Ideas
Goal for this session: In this session, you analyze a short sequence of learning experiences within your curriculum through the lens of a Disciplinary Core Idea (DCI). You’ll identify learning goals that build toward the target core idea, and eliminate learning goals and experiences that don’t.
Study Guide
Download pdf version of this Study Guide.
Prepare – To prepare to analyze your classroom learning experiences, review an Example Target Core Ideas Planning Tool for Investigations 10-12 in the 5th grade curriculum Investigating Water Transformations.
a. This curriculum focuses on the DCI Matter and Its Interactions. Use the Example Planning Tool to find which of the components of the DCI were identified as targets for the 3-investigation sequence. The components of the DCI addressed in grades 3-5 are listed in the NGSS under the 5th grade standards for Matter and Its Interactions.
b. With the core idea targets in mind, the next step is to identify learning goals that contribute to students’ understanding of the DCI– and omit those that do not. On the Example Planning Tool, find the learning goals that we found in the Teachers’ Guide for Investigations 10-12.
Use the Planning Tool
- Find the standards for the DCI that your curriculum addresses. (See the NGSS.)
- Complete the Target Core Ideas Planning Tool (docx).
Note: You can look at a single lesson, one or more sequences of learning experiences, or an entire curriculum unit through the lens of a DCI.
Discuss in Your PLC
With your colleagues, share your filled out Target Core Ideas Planning Tool.
Grapple with questions. Provide feedback and support. Plan your next steps.