I NTELLECTUAL C HALLENGE B ASED ON C HRISTINE S LEETER ’ S U N - S TANDARDIZING C URRICULUM By: Christina H.

“If they expect that Black children have less potential, teachers probably search with less conviction rather than they should for ways of helping Black children to improve and miss opportunities to reduce the Black-White test score gap”(p. 127).

E XPECTATIONS Maintain high expectations for all students, regardless of race or gender. All students are more likely to succeed in higher tracked classes and fail lower tracked classes. Building relationships with students is imperative for student success.

“If teachers plan and teach challenging and interesting curriculum and provide academic support as needed, students will tend to rise to the occasion” (p. 129).

C URRICULUM P LANNING When planning your unit ask yourself: How does the unit as you have planned it so far, or as you have taught it before, address each of the six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy? How do the curriculum standards for the unit you are developing address the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy? How does the textbook address the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy? Using Bloom’s taxonomy as a guide, if your students were to be prepared for college, what should they be learning to do in this unit that isn’t listed above?

B LOOM ’ S T AXONOMY KnowledgeComprehensio n ApplicationAnalysisSynthesisEvaluation ObjectiveRecall information Explain what information means Use the information Compare and contrast Combine different ideas or concepts Assess value of evidence of supporting ideas Associated Verbs List, define, tell, identify Summarize, describe, interpret Apply, demonstrate, complete Analyze, separate, order, explain Combine, integrate, modify, rearrange Access, decide, rank, recommend

“Too often students from historically underdeserved communities get a curriculum that dwells on lower order thinking, which can become so boring that students simply tune out, thereby not learning even the basics very well” (p.133).

S TRATEGIES Enabling strategies Assist students in thinking Temporary support system Modeling Talk them through the process

S TRATEGIES Scaffolding Build knowledge Model Work with students Student work independently

P OSSIBILITIES Teacher should be the leader and students the apprentices. Build relationships with students Enhances learning process

C HALLENGES Low expectations Train students as consumers instead of producers of knowledge