4: Taught Curriculum Leadership

In the last chapter, we looked at the purposes of the written curriculum and how a systematic approach to it can improve teacher effectiveness and student outcomes (Newmann, Smith, Allensworth, & Bryk, 2012; Squires, 2012). But the written curriculum is not worth the paper it is printed on (or the digital space it takes up) if teachers do not actually use it. In this chapter, we look at how we take the written curriculum and develop systems for ensuring the quality of daily lesson delivery, also known as the taught curriculum.

The Taught Curriculum is generally divided into two parts: lesson planning and lesson delivery. In the best classrooms, each informs the other. For instance, a teacher plans a lesson that is aligned to standards in content and cognitive level and includes a way to formatively assess whether students have achieved the intended learning outcomes at the end of the lesson. The teacher then uses the information from the formative assessment in order to plan the next day’s lesson, determining where to place evidence, what misconceptions to clear up, and so on.