Alberta's Program of Studies
Alberta's Curriculum/Program of Studies are derived from Western and Northern Canadian Protocol For Collaboration in Basic Education (the Common Curriculum Framework). It is important to note that the Mathematics component slightly differs from that of the WNCP (click here to discover the differences).
Whilst undertaking an analysis of Alberta's Curriculum/Program of Studies, it was heartening to see a curriculum authority (Education Alberta), create a more user-friendly curricula when compared to Australia and England. Naturally the curricula is again present in black and white text, however, when compared to the curricula documents from Australia and England, progression/differentiation is much easier to detect (particularly in The Alberta K-9 Mathematics Program of Studies with Achievement Indicators) as the curricula is presented in tabular format (pictured below).
Whilst undertaking an analysis of Alberta's Curriculum/Program of Studies, it was heartening to see a curriculum authority (Education Alberta), create a more user-friendly curricula when compared to Australia and England. Naturally the curricula is again present in black and white text, however, when compared to the curricula documents from Australia and England, progression/differentiation is much easier to detect (particularly in The Alberta K-9 Mathematics Program of Studies with Achievement Indicators) as the curricula is presented in tabular format (pictured below).
It was also great to see that approximately 70% of the Mathematics Specific Outcomes are aligned so that on the most part, a statement relating to the same or similar mathematical area can be found for the preceding or following Grade by scrolling left or right.
The Progressive Curriculum Frameworks For Alberta's Program of Studies
The Progressive Curriculum Frameworks For Alberta's Program of Studies is a word-by-word replica of the current English and Mathematics curriculum documents that contains a colour-coding and physical alignment/augmentation of the specific outcomes that identifies progression/differentiation.
A screenshot of each of the two derivations of The Progressive Curriculum Framework for Alberta's K-9 Program of Studies for English Language Arts & Mathematics (one with Achievement Indicators, one without) and then download the documentation from the downloads section below.
Note: Each document can be downloaded or viewed in a larger manner by clicking on each image below.
A screenshot of each of the two derivations of The Progressive Curriculum Framework for Alberta's K-9 Program of Studies for English Language Arts & Mathematics (one with Achievement Indicators, one without) and then download the documentation from the downloads section below.
Note: Each document can be downloaded or viewed in a larger manner by clicking on each image below.
How Can 'Progressive' Curriculum Frameworks Be Implemented in Canadian/Alberta's Schools?
Regardless of country or province, the concept of 'Progressive Curriculum Frameworks' can be used in schools for a variety of ways, including:
A variety of online tutorials explaining and demonstrating how educators can use curriculum documents that contain a progressive analysis (as outlined above) can be accessed here.
Examples of how various schools in Australia have implemented The Progressive Curriculum Frameworks can be accessed from here.
- Curriculum Tracking: Teachers/Coordinators can use the frameworks to track taught content
- Curriculum Queries: Teacher can use the easy reading frameworks to quickly answer student, parent and staff queries about the curriculum
- Curriculum Capital: Principals, Coordinators and Leadership Teams can lead a school-wide approach to have each year level team annotate upon the frameworks to effectively 'map' how each year/grade level within a school meets each of the required curriculum areas, essentially capturing the approaches to curriculum that make school x 'great'
- Curriculum Planning To Show Differentiation: Teachers can copy and paste the colour-coded curriculum into curriculum planners to plan and show differentiation (see an example here).
- Curriculum Delivery: Students can use the frameworks to set/choose the areas of Mathematics they wish to learn about (also applies to 'Flipped' classrooms)
- Curriculum Capital: Teachers and coordinators can hyperlink quality lesson materials that address the areas of the curriculum, essentially creating a school-wide knowledge base containing excellent teaching resources and significantly reducing time spent planning and designing lessons
- Assessment (Teacher-led): Teachers can use the frameworks to track student achievement of the required outcomes/content areas
- Assessment (Student-lead): Students can create hyperlinks within the frameworks to open samples of their work, which can then be used by the teacher to assess student competency/achievement of standards
- Assessment: Teachers can eliminate Pre and Post Tests by using Progressive Capacity Matrices.
- Reporting (Teacher-lead): Teachers can use the frameworks to show student achievement via highlighting and annotating on frameworks during parent/teacher interviews
- Reporting (Student-lead): Students can create their own hyperlinks within the frameworks to open student work samples during student-led conferencing.
A variety of online tutorials explaining and demonstrating how educators can use curriculum documents that contain a progressive analysis (as outlined above) can be accessed here.
Examples of how various schools in Australia have implemented The Progressive Curriculum Frameworks can be accessed from here.
Downloads
Permission has been given by Alberta Education to reproduce and distribute the following content under the conditions that the outcomes are not altered; that appropriate credit/citation is included and that the material is used solely for non-profit,
educational purposes.
The downloads are available in PDF format. If you would like to have free access to the editable Excel files, please email Effective Curriculum Ideas.
Mathematics
English
The downloads are available in PDF format. If you would like to have free access to the editable Excel files, please email Effective Curriculum Ideas.
Mathematics
- Alberta's Program of Studies - Progressive Framework - Mathematics - Number - Strand (K-9)
- Alberta's Program of Studies - Progressive Framework - Mathematics - Number - Strand with Achievement Indicators (K-9)
- Alberta's Program of Studies - Progressive Framework - Mathematics - Patterns and Relations - Strand and Sub-strands (K-9)
- Alberta's Program of Studies - Progressive Framework - Mathematics - Patterns and Relations - Strand and Sub-strands with Achievement Indicators (K-9)
- Alberta's Program of Studies - Progressive Framework - Mathematics - Shape and Space - Strand and Sub-strands (K-9)
- Alberta's Program of Studies - Progressive Framework - Mathematics - Shape and Space - Strand and Sub-strands with Achievement Indicators (K-9)
- Alberta's Program of Studies - Progressive Framework - Mathematics - Statistics and Probability - Strand and Sub-strands (K-9)
- Alberta's Program of Studies - Progressive Framework - Mathematics - Statistics and Probability - Strand and Sub-strands with Achievement Indicators (K-9)
English
- Alberta's Program of Studies - Progressive Framework - English Language Arts (K-9) - Sample 1
- Alberta's Program of Studies - Progressive Framework - English Language Arts (K-9) - Sample 2 - With "W" Indicators (Identifying specific outcomes that directly or indirectly related to Writing, Reading, Speaking and/or Listening).
The Presentation of The Progressive Curriculum Frameworks For Alberta's Program of Studies @ InnovateWest
I was asked if I would like to attend and also present at InnovateWest, a conference for innovative educators hosted by Connect Charter School in Calgary on 23-25 May, 2014.
The focus of the presentation was based on:
The attendees discussed that regardless of their province or school scenario (e.g. generalist/specialist or elementary/middle/secondary) that:
The focus of the presentation was based on:
- The Excellence in ICT and Web 2.0 in Schools section of this website
- The origins of The Progressive Curriculum Frameworks for Australia, England and Canada
- How various schools in Australia are using The Progressive Curriculum Frameworks
- The introduction of how a progressive analysis was applied to Alberta's Program of Studies and how this analysis technique could then be freely applied to any country or provincial curricula.
The attendees discussed that regardless of their province or school scenario (e.g. generalist/specialist or elementary/middle/secondary) that:
- They could identify progression in a few seconds without reading pages of documentation
- They wished that they were taught how to analyse and colour-code the curriculum in this way during their teacher training/university studies
- The concept of The Progressive Curriculum Frameworks could be used within their schools and provinces in a variety of scenarios
- That they were glad that I had not fully completed a progressive analysis of the English Language Arts documents as they intended to completing the rest of the analysis in an effort to (i) learn their curriculum in more depth, and (ii) learn how to analyse curriculum documents to identify progression/differentiation
- Specialist teachers in secondary school scenarios could use a modified approach to using colour to identifying progression/differentiation based on the approach that I had used when analysing Australia's Science (P1, P2, P3), History, Geography, Digital Technologies (ICT), Business & Economics and Civics & Citizenship curricula.
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Note: The above Creative Commons License only applies to the typed content on this page and does not apply to any text or images contained within Alberta's Program of Studies (which is protected under different copyright laws).