Curriculum Compacting: Solving the "What Now?" Problem
The essence of curriculum compacting is to streamline curricular goals for advanced learners so they can have time for more challenging and interesting work (Renzulli & Reis, 2004). The form below was created by gifted researchers Joseph Renzulli and Linda Smith to document and manage curriculum compacting for student learners.
Compacting Curriculum in Three Easy Steps
1. Defining Goals and Outcomes: Look at your scope and sequence, curriculum guide or state standards to determine the purpose of your current unit of study. What information or skills are new? What is repetition of something previously learned? What must a learner master to be able to move on?
2. Identifying Students for Compacting: Now, identify which of your students have already mastered the objectives of an upcoming unit. You probably already know who your advanced learners are, but you may want to look at their standardized test scores to give you a hint of who is ahead. Next, give your identified students a pre-test about the upcoming unit to determine what they already know and what they still need to work on. Be sure to provide the assignments or practice necessary to bring them up to an advanced level on all goals. Then, create a learning contract to specify what students will need to complete to determine mastery, as well as the specific amount of time they will have to complete it. This may include answering end-of-chapter questions from a history text, writing an essay or completing a unit exam. "Underachieving students often regard compacting as a bargain because they may [be] able to compact out of a segment of material they already know" (Renzulli & Reis, 2004, p. 94). Be specific!
3. Providing Acceleration and Enrichment Options: "The final phase of the compacting process can be one of the most exciting aspects of teaching because it is based on cooperative decision making and creativity on the parts of both teachers and students. Time saved through curriculum compacting can be used to provide a variety of enrichment and acceleration opportunities for students...when some previousy bright, but underachieving students realize that they can both economize on regularly assigned material and 'earn time' to pursue self-selected interests, their motivation to complete regular assignments increases; as one student put it, 'Everyone understands a good deal!'" (Renzulli & Reis, 2004, p. 94). Projects could include the exploration of new topics and ideas, creative and critical thinking activities or opportunities for advanced independent or small-group creative projects.
2. Identifying Students for Compacting: Now, identify which of your students have already mastered the objectives of an upcoming unit. You probably already know who your advanced learners are, but you may want to look at their standardized test scores to give you a hint of who is ahead. Next, give your identified students a pre-test about the upcoming unit to determine what they already know and what they still need to work on. Be sure to provide the assignments or practice necessary to bring them up to an advanced level on all goals. Then, create a learning contract to specify what students will need to complete to determine mastery, as well as the specific amount of time they will have to complete it. This may include answering end-of-chapter questions from a history text, writing an essay or completing a unit exam. "Underachieving students often regard compacting as a bargain because they may [be] able to compact out of a segment of material they already know" (Renzulli & Reis, 2004, p. 94). Be specific!
3. Providing Acceleration and Enrichment Options: "The final phase of the compacting process can be one of the most exciting aspects of teaching because it is based on cooperative decision making and creativity on the parts of both teachers and students. Time saved through curriculum compacting can be used to provide a variety of enrichment and acceleration opportunities for students...when some previousy bright, but underachieving students realize that they can both economize on regularly assigned material and 'earn time' to pursue self-selected interests, their motivation to complete regular assignments increases; as one student put it, 'Everyone understands a good deal!'" (Renzulli & Reis, 2004, p. 94). Projects could include the exploration of new topics and ideas, creative and critical thinking activities or opportunities for advanced independent or small-group creative projects.
"Products crafted for an audience that is important to the student generally seem much more compelling and the work that goes into them much more important than when the teacher is the sole audience" (Tomlinson, 2003, p. 72).