Cassie McLemore

Dr. Sylvia Turner

MIAA 360
June 10, 2014

Curriculum Analysis

I. Alignment of the unit to the CCCSSM and MPS
A. Current Grade Level Standards Are Aligned and Identified.
B. Focus Standards
1. Expressions and Equations 8.EE Analyze and solve linear equations and pairs of
simultaneous linear equations.
a. 8.EE.7. Solve linear equations in one variable.
i. Give examples of linear equations in one variable with one solution, infinitely
many solutions, or no solutions. Show which of these possibilities is the case by
successively transforming the given equation into simpler forms, until an equivalent
equation of the form x = a, a = a, or a = b results (where a and b are different
numbers).
ii. Solve linear equations with rational number coefficients, including equations
whose solutions require expanding expressions using the distributive property and
collecting like terms.
C. Supporting Standards
1. Function 8.F Define, evaluate, and compare functions.
a. 1. Understand that a function is a rule that assigns to each input exactly one output. The
graph of a function is the set of ordered pairs consisting of an input and the
corresponding output.1
b. 2. Compare properties of two functions each represented in a different way
(algebraically, graphically, numerically in tables, or by verbal descriptions). For
example, given a linear function represented by a table of values and a linear function
represented by an algebraic expression, determine which function has the greater rate of
change. 3. Interpret the equation y = mx + b as defining a linear function, whose graph is
a straight line; give examples of functions that are not linear. For example, the function
A = s2 giving the area of a square as a function of its side length is not linear because its
graph contains the points (1,1), (2,4) and (3,9), which are not on a straight line.
D. MPS Standards Addressed
1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
a. Pg. 45 Shoelaces this homework assignment requires students to sort out the
number of shoe laces needed to complete the journey and the requirements for each
person on the trip. It is a long problem that students must persevere in solving.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
a. Pg. 38 Planning for the Long Journey requires students to think quantitatively
and abstractly ahead to determine what their families will need to make this long trek
across the prairie. It requires students to come to a decision on what supplies they
will need to reach the next outpost.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
a. Pg. 83 Graph Sketches requires students to discuss what a graphs data and
describe what the graph could represent. It requires students to be able to argue
reasonable about their idea for what the graph represents.
4. Model with mathematics.
a. Pg. 47 The General Shoelace students must create an algebraic algorithm to solve
the shoelace problem assigned for homework on Pg. 45. It requires them to design
algorithms that will work no matter what the family size. An algorithm for each
parameter is needed.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
a. Pg. 88 In Need of Numbers - This exercise asks students to properly scale a
graph so that the information is appropriately represented to scale. Using a graph to
represent data can give details of data pictorially.
6. Attend to precision.
a. Pg. 11 Creating Families each family type has a set of parameters that must be
met. It is important that each family type is configured precisely as outlined.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
a. Pg. 150 What we Needed in this assignment it is important that students
complete the supplies needed portion of the homework. This section demonstrates
the structure that is required to properly calculate the food that was consumed during
a particular portion of the trip.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
a. Pg. 99 Situations, Graphs, Tables, and Rules In this exercise students are using
three different representations to reason about data.

II. Development of learning trajectory from K-HS9.

K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 AL- 1 H.S.
K.CC.4
K.MD.1
K.OA.1
1.OA
1.MD.4
1.NBT4
2.OA.1
2.OA.3
2.OA.4
3.OA.1
3.OA.2
3.OA.8
3.0A.9
3.MD.3
4.OA.1
4.OA.2
4.OA.3
4.OA.4
4.OA.5
4.NBT.2
4.NBT.3
4.NBT.4
4.NBT.5
4.NBT.6

5.MD2
5.OA.2
5.OA.3
6.SP.1
6.SP.2
6.EE.1
6.EE.2
6.EE.2C
6.EE.5
6.EE.6
6.EE.7
6.EE.9
6RP.2
6RP.3B
7.RP.2
7.RP.3B
7.NS.1A
7EE.1
7EE.3
7.SP1
8SP.1
8SP.2
8SP.3
8SP.4
8EE.5
8EE.7
8EE.8A
8F.1
8F.2
8F.4
8F.5
A-CED.1
A-CED.2
A-CED.3
A-CED.4
A-CED.1
A-CED.2
A-CED.3
A-CED.4
A-REI.1
A-REI.3
A-REI.3.1
A-REI.10
A-REI.11
A-REI.12
A-REI.2
A-REI.3.1
A-REI.11

F-IF.1
F-IF.2
F-IF.3
F-IF.4
F-IF.5
F-IF.6
F-IF.7
F-IF.8
F-IF.9
F-IF.4
F-IF.5
F-IF.6
F-IF.7
F-IF.8
F-IF.9



F-BF.1
F-BF.2
F-BF.3
F-BF.1
F-BF.3

F-LE.1
F-LE.2
F-LE.3
F-LE.5

S-ID.1
S-ID.2
S-ID.3
S-ID.5
S-ID.6
S-ID.7
S-ID.8
S-ID.9
S-ID.4
S-IC.1
S-IC.2
S-IC.3
S-IC.4
S-IC.5
S-IC.6

III. Discourse for increasing learning
A. Varied level of cognitive demand
1. Memorization Tasks
a. Pg. 211 California Reflections this exercise requires students to use previously
learned information and reflect on their feelings about what they have learned in this
unit.
2. Procedures without connections
a. Pg. 41 Lunchtime students are asked to make a list of items for lunch and there
must be a main dish, side dish, dessert and beverage. This homework does not
connect directly to the unit.
3. Procedures with connections
a. Pg. 72 If I Could See This Thing this assignment provides needed connections
about the Native Americans that were displaced during the overland journey west. It
also addresses the deaths that travelers encountered on the journey.
4. Doing Mathematics tasks
a. Pg. 29 - The Search for Dry Trails students are required to take three sets of data
from three different routes across the prairie and decide which one is the best way to
travel. Students must provide good reasons why they chose the route they did and
why the other two paths are not good options.
5. Quadrant A, B, and C Pg. 183 Different High-Lows students are asked to pick
numbers of varying length and expand on the knowledge they accumulated in POW 11.
B. Preplanned questions
1. Pg. 20 If the individual bales have these weights, what are the weights when they are
weighed in pairs?
2. Pg. 63 What is a summary phrase for the expression FC? or What does M + W + C
represent in terms of the problems? or What questions can you express using these
variables?
3. Pg. 122 How did you estimate the areas? or What was your prediction for 2020?
4. Pg. 206 How did you obtain the rate for the individual wagon from the rate for the main
group? or Is the relationship linear?
5. Pg. 228 - What have you learned in this unit?
C. Group Configuration
1. Initial group configuration can be found on Day 1 and 2 when groups/families are
established. These groups do not change throughout the unit. However, other smaller
group interactions are available throughout the unit. One example is:
a. Pg. 105 POW 10 On Your Own students are encouraged to work with a partner
that is not in their usual groups.
b. Pg. 41 Homework 5 Have students find a partner not in their group and discuss
their lunchtime homework assignment.
c. Pg. 66 Homework 9 Ox Expressions at Home Have students Compare their
answers with a someone from another group and discuss their differences and
similarities.
d. Pg. 169 Homework 22 Fair Share for Hired Hands Number students off in each
group one through 4 and form new groups to discuss what they felt was a fair wage
for hired hands with experience and non-experience.
IV. Assessments
A. Formative
1. Homework assignments in this unit are designed as formative assessment. They look at
skills learned that day and apply them to real world items or Overland Trail items. Here
are some of the examples I found
a. Homework 20 students are asked to sketch a graph that represents information that
they learned in previous lessons.
b. Homework 26 students are asked to evaluate the viability of taking on another
person based on whether they have enough water for one more if they ration what
they currently have.
c. Homework 2 using the information they learned about family sizes students need
to estimate minimum and maximum numbers of hats needed for all party members.
B. Summative
1. Pg. 221. This assessment asks students to demonstrate mastery of the entire unit by
applying mathematical knowledge gained during the Overland Trail unit to a real life
modern day trip by moving truck across the United States. However this test allows
student to use notes previously taken and therefore results could be skewed. It would be a
better summative assessment if students were not allowed to use notes.

V. Intervention and differentiation for all learners
A. Struggling and English Learners
1. This unit provides additional facts in the teachers manual that can be provided for
struggling students and English Learners that do not have the background knowledge of
this historic overland movement. The book refers to them as the asides and they are
highlighted in pink throughout the teachers manual. However, information is presented in
a high academic language format which could present further access issues for this group.
a. Example. Pg. 4 Most of this trail was originally known as the Emigrant Trail, or
Oregon Trail, and is ended near with what is now Portland, Oregon.
2. More support for struggling and English learners is required.
a. Realia should be presented in lessons to support those without the schema to access
the task.
b. Word Walls or Mathematics Journals are another way in which students can identify
the vocabulary they are lacking.
c. Providing the students with a copy of the text that they can write on to perform
talking to the test, note taking or highlighting would be beneficial.
d. Pull-out and reteach groups as necessary after group work begins.
B. Differentiation
1. The differentiation that I see in this unit is predominantly evident with the multitude of
tasks that students are asked to perform and keep in their journals.
a. Day 1 students are asked to collaborate and form groups and do a short reading that
results in a free-write.
b. Day 2 students in each group pick a family type and design a family based on
preset parameters. After students have their families established they begin working
on a problem with manipulatives that requires them to create a list of possible
outcomes from bales of hay.
2. I do not see much differentiation within individual lessons teaches will need to provide
scaffolding for differentiation.
3. Demonstrate different ways of solving equations if group work does not yield enough
differentiated strategies.
4. Check-in with students that need additional support and reword if necessary.
5. Model the proper way in debriefing.
C. GATE
1. The supplemental problems in Appendix A, starting on Pg. 231, provide some additional
extension activities for GATE students.
a. More Bales of Hay on Pg. 236
b. Pick any answers on Pg. 232
c. From Numbers to Algebra and Back Again on Pg. 233
d. Painting the General Cube on Pg. 235
e. Variables on Your Own on Pg. 298
D. Special Ed
1. No support for special education students is embedded in curriculum.
2. Possible accommodations:
a. Shortened assignments
b. Using more manipulative
c. Realia
d. Partnering
e. Read material aloud to students