Remote Schools Curriculum and Assessment Materials
The Remote Schools Curriculum and Assessment Materials (RSCAM) is a comprehensive suite of school and classroom level curriculum and assessment materials and resources that assist remote schools to provide rich programs for students from Pre-school to Year 9. The suite of materials aim to provide continuity of curriculum for students and support for school leaders and teachers to plan, teach, assess and report using approved NT and draft national curriculum, providing a starting point for whole school planning and a common reference point for teachers to:
- Plan teaching and learning programs;
- Interact about the curriculum teachers are teaching;
- Interact about the quality of student work; and
- Monitor the effectiveness and impact of teaching and learning programs on student achievement and progress.
Materials
The project includes teaching and learning programs with appropriate resources for each stage of schooling. The stages of schooling are:
- Ignition Years (Preschool and Transition)
- Early Primary (Years 1-3)
- Primary Years (Years 4-6), and
- Middle Years (Years 7-9)
For each stage of schooling, the curriculum and assessment materials are layered to include:
- Program Outlines to identify the foundation, connected and specialised programs developmentally appropriate
- Program Overviews to describe the curriculum and assessment requirements in each program area
- Teaching and Learning Cycles to map the curriculum and assessment foci for each term, of each year
- Curriculum Packs that package together targeted resources, to support the required teaching, learning and assessment for each term of each year. (Years A, B, C & D). The resources are packaged using a learning design framework, strategies known to make a difference to student learning and include diagnostic tasks and tools, scope and sequence of exit outcomes, teaching routines, digital resources and units of work linked to student work samples.
The curriculum and assessment materials are accessible to Northern Territory teachers only.
Learning Design
The materials are underpinned by the existing research and evidence about what makes a difference to student learning, engagement and wellbeing, drawing from the body of research relevant to teaching and learning across the stages of schooling in the Northern Territory context. It is also envisaged that, where appropriate, there will be a connection made to the Central Australian Literacy and Numeracy Standards being developed.
Field-testing the materials
The rigorous processes used to develop and field-test the curriculum and assessment materials include:
- Partnerships within and beyond DET to build the quality of the projects outputs and implementation in schools - Remote Schools Improvement Teams, Early Childhood Services, Strengthening Classroom Practices Team, e-learning Team (TIPS), Distance Learning Teams, Stage of Schooling Teams (TL&S), Literacy and Numeracy Teams (TL&S), Group School Leadership Teams, Charles Darwin University and the Catholic Education Office;
- Collaboration with classroom teachers to collate ideas and resources that could be used to develop the materials;
- Onsite and virtual field testing of the materials with school leaders and classroom teachers to ensure relevancy and currency of the materials as well as build capacity within schools to develop whole school processes for mapping and monitoring the quality of curriculum and assessment within the school;
- Multi-modal systems to ensure the curriculum is available at the point of need including online/internet based systems, portable digital modes (e.g. external hard drives, mp3 or mp4 players, memory sticks) and printed modes; and
- Qualitative and quantitative data tools to track the levels of use of the materials by schools and teachers as well as the impact on student achievement.
Uptake of materials and resources through field testing schools has been extensive across all regions of the Northern Territory. The materials are being developed and implemented concurrently to ensure relevance and currency. It is anticipated that development will be completed by end of 2010.
Contacts
t: (08) 8999 3727
e: christine.street@nt.gov.au