Sometimes as educators it is difficult to separate the terms curriculum and instruction when it comes to their use in our everyday teaching assignments. Put quite simply, curriculum is what we teach while instruction is how we present it. As teachers, we have a great deal of flexibility in how we deliver a lesson but curriculum is important in making sure every student is taught all that is needed and in keeping our courses vertically aligned from year to year and course to course. In today’s tip, I want to focus on curriculum and particularly on the idea of guiding questions.

In its broadest sense, curriculum starts with the courses we teach. Each of these courses have prerequisite knowledge that is assumed and often even other courses required prior to beginning a new course. Most of this is set by the state or local policy and is already in place before we as teachers begin preparing to teach a course.

As teachers, the first big curriculum task is determining the big things that must be taught and organizing those things into units of study. We can then put those units in a logical order, set priorities and create a timeline for each unit. This is our first step toward making sure everything necessary for a student’s future course needs are met. But, curriculum planning cannot stop there.

Jim Knight, in his book, High-Impact Instruction [Knight, 2013], describes the next step of the process using the term guiding questions. These questions break down each unit into the learning targets that students must know in order to successfully complete a unit and be prepared for the next unit and even future courses. Guiding questions, which I have often referred to as driving questions, are key to good vertical alignment. Each question is one thing that a student should be able to answer as part of a unit of study. These questions may be fairly broad and it may be helpful for a teacher to have several sub-points that are necessary to fully answer each question. The questions should be worded in such a way that students will understand them and ultimately be able to thoroughly answer them. These questions are posted at the front of the room and students are challenged to answer them. The questions also act as the basis for both formative and summative tests for the unit. Using guiding questions not only improves teaching through preparation but serves to put learning ahead of activities by first considering what students must learn before deciding how they will learn it. Good guiding questions place proper emphasis on the most important content and provide learning targets for students as well as teachers. The use of guiding questions can actually make lesson delivery easier and more concise by targeting only those things that need to be taught for a particular course and leaving other items to other courses where they are targeted. Guiding questions also support formative assessment and differentiated instruction. (Knight, High-Impact Instruction, 2013)…