GSS Curriculum and Differentiated Instruction

One important component of differentiated instruction (DI) is differentiating the content. Deciding what is important to teach determines the content that will be taught. Certainly the state standards guide teachers, and the National Science Standards (NSS) provide a good path to follow. It is still up to the individual teacher to determine what content will allow the students to understand these broad objectives. For example, in the NSS, the 9-12 themes for earth science include:

• energy in the earth system
• geochemical cycles
• origin and evolution of the earth system
• origin and evolution of the universe

For a teacher teaching earth science, she would also need to implement the themes from Science and Technology, Science in Personal and Social Perspectives and History and Nature of Science. Then, she would cross reference these themes with the objectives from the Florida Sunshine State Standards for Earth and Space Science (or her state standards). This would allow her a framework to decide what content would be most beneficial in addressing the objectives and standards.

Often, as teachers, we allow the textbook to direct what our content and order of content will be, and use other resources to supplement the textbook. After all, for most teachers, this is how they were taught and humans generally model the behavior that they have experienced.

So, how do science educators take that leap and design their own curriculum? How will I know if the order and content that I choose will not only meet the standards my students are required to know, but also be developmentally appropriate for my students both in the reading level of materials and in the background knowledge required by the content? I am by no means an expert in writing content-rich, age appropriate curriculum - if I were, I probably would be a publisher or author of a textbook series. Yet, I am expected to leave the textbook behind ("doing old things in old ways"), and embark on a path, a direction in my teaching in which I develop the curriculum from multiple resources based on the state and national standards ("doing new things in new ways").

As I discussed in my earlier post, Differentiated Instruction: Redefining How I Think about How I Teach, I do feel like I am ready to take that path and try a year of "new things in new ways". I have not been successful this year in teaching this subject so my students are interested and see the value in knowing this subject. I have depended upon the textbook to be my path and I know this has not worked. I used a couple of the teaching boxes form the Digital Libraries of Earth Science Education and found more interest by my students as we studied earthquakes.

I have been doing a little research on other curricula for Earth and Space Science. One site that shows promise in providing some direction is the Global Systems Science site. "Global Systems Science (GSS) is an integrated, interdisciplinary course for high school, consisting of nine student books, teacher guides, and Interpreting Digital Images software. Each GSS book deals with a societal issue that requires science for full understanding." What I find encouraging about this site is the fact that they have taken important earth science content and applied it to real issues, issues that are and will continue to be important to my students. Additionally, they have included much digital imaging of satellite photos for students to "play with", and interpret. Also, embedded in the curriculum are many inquiry-based labs and authentic writing assignments that I think will interest my students.

Although this curriculum is not the answer to how I can become a better teacher who utilizes differentiated instruction, it is another excellent resource for my toolkit as I "redesign" who I am as a teacher and how I teach!