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High Foundations of Curriculum and Instruction

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Pre Requisites

None required. If taking the course as part of the Principles of Teaching Program of Study, Introduction to the Teaching Profession and Human Growth and Development should be taken first.

Description

Teaching is hard work, no matter what age or grade level you are working with. You need to know how to meet the needs of a variety of learners, unpack standards, write lesson plans, create engaging lessons, and use assessments as an instructional tool, all while maintaining a solution-oriented mindset. 

From teaching reading and writing skills to guiding students to think critically, the task is a big one. This course provides you with a glimpse of the classroom environment. You will continue to develop your portfolio and participate in field observations. You’ll observe children of various ages to see firsthand how teachers carry out lessons in the classroom. Most importantly, you'll better understand the teaching profession as a unique calling.

Foundations of Curriculum and Instruction is the third and final course in the Principles of Teaching program of study in the Education and Training career cluster.

Follow the link below for the Department of Education Career & Technical Education Curriculum Frameworks:

https://www.fldoe.org/academics/career-adult-edu/career-tech-edu/curriculum-frameworks/

Segment 1

Module 1: Factors in Learning

  • Student backgrounds 
  • Student learning differences 
  • Classroom ownership 
  • Building confidence 
  • School relationships—student-to-teacher, teacher-to-student, student-to-student, teacher-to-teacher 
  • Bullying 
  • Behaviorism 
  • Cognitivism 
  • Constructivism 
  • Connectivism 
  • Bloom’s taxonomy 
  • Webb’s depth of knowledge 
  • Fixed vs. growth mindset 

Module 2: Becoming the Expert

  • Steps to becoming a teacher
  • Intentional teaching
  • Professional development
  • Active learning
  • Cooperative learning
  • Hands-on learning
  • Teaching with technology
  • Student-paced instruction
  • Diagnostic assessment
  • Formative assessment
  • Summative assessment
  • Teacher-made assessment
  • Authentic assessment
  • Using data
  • Providing student feedback
  • Collaboration with colleagues

Module 3: Where to Start

  • Standards
  • Curriculum maps
  • Unpacking standards
  • Lesson planning
  • Differentiation
  • Gradual release of responsibility
  • Questioning strategies
  • Wait time
  • Connected learning
  • Types of media
  • Quality of content
  • Fair use
  • Copyright
  • Public domain

 

Segment 2

Module 4: Finding Resources

  • Tools for planning
  • Management applications
  • Assessment applications
  • Tools for engaging lessons
  • Trending tools—gamification, artificial intelligence, 3-D printing, augmented reality, virtual reality, and drones
  • Assistive technology
  • Acceptable use policy
  • Virtual field trips
  • Blended learning
  • Flipped classroom
  • Safety online
  • Finding credible sources
  • Citing sources

Module 5: Launching Literacy

  • Essential components of reading—phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension
  • Phonological awareness
  • Blending
  • Phonics instruction strategies
  • Phonemes vs. graphemes
  • Low-frequency vs. high-frequency vocabulary
  • Direct vs. indirect vocabulary instruction
  • Fluency
  • Prosody
  • Comprehension
  • Decoding
  • Schema
  • Comprehension strategies
  • Scaffolding
  • Writing connection to literacy
  • Selecting a variety of texts
  • Higher-level thinking questions and comprehension
  • Close reading
  • Differentiation for struggling readers
  • Literacy strategies

Module 6: Resilient Teaching

  • School improvement plans 
  • District priorities 
  • Action steps 
  • Classroom disruptions 
  • Individual problem-solving 
  • Group problem-solving 
  • Administrative support 
  • Reflective teaching 
  • Peer feedback 
  • Teamwork 
  • Active listening 
  • Resolving conflicts

Besides engaging students in challenging curriculum, the course guides students to reflect on their learning and evaluate their progress through a variety of assessments. Assessments can be in the form of practice lessons, multiple choice questions, writing assignments, projects, research papers, oral assessments, and discussions. This course will use the state-approved grading scale. Each course contains a mandatory final exam or culminating project that will be weighted at 20% of the student’s overall grade.***

***Proctored exams can be requested by FLVS at any time and for any reason in an effort to ensure academic integrity. When a proctored exam is administered to assess a student’s integrity, the student must pass the exam with at least a 59.5% to earn credit for the course.