Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum | Page 142

Designing the Classroom Curriculum
consideration’ or remedial teaching in that area. Conversely a student performing well above such minimal
standards also requires special consideration to ensure the classroom curriculum also meets their needs. The
standard of student performance is reported in terms of national assessment sc ales where each student is
assigned to a ‘student performance band’ for each NAPLAN ‘learning domain’ (e.g. ‘Reading and Viewing’).
See Figure 11.3. The logic follows that those who meet these standards are progressing ‘as expected’ and
thus the classroom curriculum for them should continue as planned. A cautionary word however is that
NAPLAN is a ‘snap shot’ of student performance at a ‘point in teaching time’ and thus the teacher has to
rely on other data sets to make more accurate and global teaching design decisions. This is where ‘teacher-
generated data’ comes into its own. But NAPLAN is effective at providing the teacher with an overview of
how well their students are performing nationally, in like schools and within other classes in their school, at
a given time in the ‘standard’ curriculum. The data is presented in an easy-to read analysed format.
Figure 11.3: Minimum Standards and Common Scales for NAPLAN Results for all Year Levels
Using Classroom Data in Your Teaching
The student learning performance data that teachers collect in their classrooms through their designed
assessment regimes are the most valuable to the classroom teacher. They are most valuable because they
offer a ‘global’ and ‘cumulative’ perspective of their teaching and their individual student’s learning
performance and importantly are specific to their designed classroom curriculum. But how does the teacher
use such data?
As you will recall in Chapter Eight, five key design things are important in ensuring your assessment regime
will be effective. In other words these are the precursors for an effective assessment regime and thus must
be factored first and foremost for effect:
1. Develop explicit and appropriate learning outcome statements (LMQ2) --- Instructional
Learning Outcomes as components of a Syllabus Learning Outcome create this framework (See
Chapter 5).
2. Consider validity, reliability, authenticity, fairness and the impact on students of assessment
methods
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