The purpose of Critical Content is to make known the essential learning for each grade level and subject area. Those objectives are aligned vertically. We used the District’s competency objectives and the state standards to create each Critical Content Outline. Teachers have expressed that these more streamlined documents are useful for setting teaching priorities and developing classroom assessments to monitor student learning. Of course, the Critical Content Outlines are not complete Curriculum Guides, but they do provide all of the required mastery objectives by grade and content area in one location. By using the Outlines from prior and future grade levels, teachers are able to differentiate instruction as students demonstrate needs for review or extension. The Competencies and Standards provide additional learning objectives to round out the curriculum.
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