To ensure the provision of rich learning tasks, we need to have a thorough understanding of each subject area and how students make progress through them. Importantly, we also need to know our learners – their strengths, identities, needs, and aspirations.

Actions and supporting resources

As you plan differentiated rich learning tasks across the breadth of the curriculum:

• 
  Start or continue to review your school curriculum. It’s a challenging but essential process. The guidance in Local curriculum: Designing rich opportunities and coherent pathways for all learners provides effective pathways to curriculum review. Use the curriculum expertise you have within your school or bring in outside expertise if necessary.
• Use the activity from the Local curriculum guide to determine the strengths, needs, and aspirations of your learners. Information gathered from each classroom can be shared and consolidated in a staff meeting.
• At a staff or syndicate meeting, work in groups to "think, pair, share" what you can do in your classroom programmes to ensure you are providing rich learning tasks (either within or across curriculum areas) that meet the needs of your students.
• Use a T-chart to list the learning you have planned for this term in a particular subject. On the other side of the chart, list rich learning opportunities across the curriculum that could be taught. 
• Work in small groups to differentiate the learning outcomes for groups/individuals for a particular subject. The Learning Progression Frameworks are a useful tool for determining the "where-to-next" for student progress. How could you adjust your planning to ensure that the expected progress for each group remains the focus?

School stories 

Keeping children engaged and achieving through rich curriculum inquiries – Teaching approaches and strategies that work (Education Review Office, Nov 2018): Read about the curriculum approaches and strategies that five schools used to keep children engaged and achieving.  

Planning example 

Using a spiral curriculum to build on children's prior knowledge - Read how Papatoetoe North School's curriculum was designed to ensure it included all aspects of The New Zealand Curriculum and was structured so all students had maximum opportunity to learn and achieve success. Page 27 of Keeping children engaged and achieving through rich curriculum inquiries – Teaching approaches and strategies that work . 

Links

• Leading Local Curriculum Guide series
  • Assessment for learning guide
  • Local curriculum guide
  • Information sharing and building learning partnerships guide

>> Expected progress 

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