Scope and Sequence
Sharon Pinkerton
Summer 2009

What A Child Needs to Know and When

Have you ever wondered what is considered a “distinctive” course of study at a particular grade level? Documents called “scope and sequence” charts endeavor to answer this question. Basically, a scope and sequence spells out the complete content of a particular curriculum (scope) and the order in which the curriculum presents that material (sequence). There is nothing particularly mysterious about a scope and sequence document, though it may be couched in more “educationese” than necessary.

What is scope and sequence?

• Scope and sequence is a curriculum plan, usually in chart form, in which a range of instructional objectives, skills, etc., is organized according to the successive ...
• Scope and sequence is a content overview of all the units taught throughout the year, including the length of time to be spent on each unit.
• Scope and sequence is a document that allows students, staff and parents to see what foundational pieces are being taught within a curriculum at specific grade levels.
• Scope and sequence is used to assure that students are taught the appropriate skills and concepts in a sequence that is logical and systematic

What is the difference between scope and sequence

• Scope
  The breadth and depth of content to be covered in a curriculum at any one time (e.g. week, term, year, over a student’s school life).All that you do in a given period.
• Sequence
  The order in which content is presented to learners over time and the order in which it is presented.

Together a scope and sequence of learning bring order to the delivery of content, supporting the maximizing of student learning and offering sustained opportunities for learning. Without a considered scope and sequence there is the risk of ad hoc content delivery and the missing of significant learning.

Is the Framework a scope and sequence?

The new curriculum framework is a scope of learning. You might want to add to that scope in terms of the worthwhile learning your school wishes to include.
The framework also offers a sequence of learning developed across four bands of development.
The task of schools is to decide which part of the scope of learning happens at what point within a band of development, i.e. what content is for what year level or group of students. Teachers must decide the sequence of the learning within years, courses and units of work.
There is also nothing sacred about a scope and sequence chart (although some state legislatures, enamored with outcome-based educational “content standards,” would like to think otherwise). Like a formal curriculum, the scope and sequence document should be considered only a tool to help educators, not an end in itself. You should always do what is best fora child; some children need a different curriculum or a different sequence entirely from what a purchased curriculum presents.

Where can you find scope and sequence?

Scope and sequence materials encompass a variety of different kinds of documents. These are the most common:

1. Publishers’ scope and sequence charts: These scope and sequence documents present the content and sequence of a particular textbook. Almost all publishers will provide you with a free copy of the scope and sequence for a textbook you are interested in purchasing. Some are available online.
• Saxon Math (http://www1.saxonpub.com/school/SS_NCTM.html%20)

2. Public and private schools’ scope and sequence documents: Most public schools and many private schools maintain a curriculum committee that periodically reviews and updates the school’s scope and sequence for each subject area. Many schools publish these documents on their Web sites, while others are available in paper form by contacting the school. If you are interested in reviewing a public school’s scope and sequence document, this is considered public information to which you are entitled by law, even if the document is not posted online. You can locate most American public and private schools by using the link below:
• American School Directory (http://www.asd.com/). This is a searchable database of all U. S. public and private K-12 schools’ contact information and Web sites. Search the school’s Web site, or contact the individual school directly for its curriculum scope and sequence document.

3. State and national scope and sequence documents: State scope and sequence documents are sometimes called “state standards,” and exist for every state except Iowa. National teacher organizations have also created national standards for each subject area. In most, but not all, cases, these documents are heavily weighted toward outcome-based education. In addition, they represent the requirements of government schools only; in most states, private and home schools are free to determine their own content standards and curriculum scope and sequence.
• Complete links to both national and state education standards may be found here: http://www.education-world.com/standards/

4. International scope and sequence documents: Unlike the United States, many countries have an official national curriculum. These scope and sequence documents can be helpful to international home schoolers who are only in the United States for a short period of time and wish to keep their children up to date in their own country’s curriculum. International scope and sequence documents can also be helpful to American home-schooling families who want to compare what they are teaching with the content and skills presented to children in other areas of the world.
• Links to national curriculum documents from 20 different countries: http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/standards.html
• National Curriculum of England Online (http://www.nc.uk.net/home.html) (It’s amazing to see the British perspective on teaching about the American Revolution!)

5. Private organizations’ scope and sequence documents: A few private educational organizations have published their own versions of a typical curriculum or course of study. Two popular ones are listed below:
• Core Knowledge Foundation Curriculum Sequence: http://www.coreknowledge.org/CKproto2/about/overview.htm
• World Book Typical Course of Study (Pre-K to Grade 12): ttp://www2.worldbook.com/students/course_study_index.asp

6. Individuals’ scope and sequence: Some individuals have also published scope and sequence documents. These range from the multi-volume What Your (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) Grader Should Know, by E. D. Hirsch, to individual home-schooling families who have developed a scope and sequence for their state home-school application or notification, or posted their own home-school’s scope and sequence on the Internet.

What is a scope and sequence document?

• is a map
• focuses on the interrelated strands of learning
• shows development
• is related to stages of development and/or to a particular stage of a student’s schooling.
• shows the range of knowledge (texts, language and learning processes)
• shows progression in student development throughout the bands of schooling

How is a school’s scope and sequence document best developed?

A school’s scope and sequence is best through a process of negotiation, reflection and consensus. It is an invaluable and practical tool for ensuring continuity across the grades and bands of schooling when it:

• guides grade level and whole school planning so that the same texts, topics and activities are not repeated year after year with the same student ( e.g. the structures and features of fairy tales might be explicitly taught as a particular text type in Year 3, and then form a base for work on fairy tales and gender, or contextual understanding, or heroes/heroines in other years.)
• makes links between the learning, strategies and texts used in different grades or stages.
• assists the smooth transition of Records of Development and other information about students’ experiences and achievements between grades or between classes.
• sets a local context which frames teacher’s planning of their class’s
• guides efficient resourcing of rich and balanced programs.
• provides contexts for monitoring, auditing and evaluating programs and resources.
• is a part of new teachers’ induction to the teaching at the school.
• is revisited to plan collaboratively.
• acts as a catalyst for whole school and/or individual professional development.
• is available to parents and students to assist the setting of learning goals, negotiation of appropriate learning activities, and monitoring of breadth and balance in the program.

What will scope and sequence do?

• support the work of teachers and school administrators to continue to learn more effective ways to fuse curriculum and powerful tools of technology in new ways of doing things in the classroom.
• enable teachers to more easily link common curriculum outcomes with outcomes.
  support the instructional leadership of school-based administrators to work with staff to implement the outcomes.
• support the development of Teacher Professional Growth Plans and mentoring programs.
  support work to create teaching plans, materials and assessments which infuse technology within social studies, science, mathematics and language arts.
• support professional development programs that focus directly on teacher instructional development work with lesson and unit plans as well as student activities and assessment.

Should a scope and sequence document be revisited?

A school’s scope and sequence document should be revisited to ensure that it:
is meeting the practical requirements of the students, the teachers and the school
includes new resources accommodates developments in the teaching

How should you use a scope and sequence document?

Remember that the content, pace, and sequence of the materials recommended vary widely from document to document, curriculum to curriculum, and publisher to publisher. Not all fourth grade math curricula teach the same topics in the same order over the same time frame as others, and in areas such as science and social studies, there is usually even less agreement between publishers, states, organizations, and individuals about proposed content. Like any other curricular material, a scope and sequence chart should be used only as a tool.

References:
http://www1.saxonpub.com/school/SS_NCTM.html%20
http://www.asd.com/
http://www.education-world.com/standards/
http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/standards.html
http://www.nc.uk.net/home.html
http://www.coreknowledge.org/CKproto2/about/overview.htm
ttp://www2.worldbook.com/students/course_study_index.asp