Create a Scope and Sequence

How Teachers Create a Scope and Sequence for the School Year

Written by Dianne McKinley

A properly designed school curriculum stands on the firm pillars of defined scope and concrete sequence. The statement of scope and sequence describes the content and skills that a student needs to master in progressive order by the end of the session.

The way teachers create a scope and sequence depends upon what they anticipate from their students to acquire from the school curriculum. It is an arduous job that requires a lot of patience and in-depth knowledge of the subject, but it can be boiled down to three simple steps.

Definition of Scope and Sequence

The scope and sequence is a comprehensive list of concepts, ideas, and topics that the school curriculum has to cover through lessons, lectures, and tests.

Scope is the depth and range of the content to be taught at a specific grade level and the development of the content across grade levels. Sequence is the order in which the content should be taught for the best learning within a grade level and across grade levels.

The advantages of scope and sequence include:

• It provides a guideline to the topics that will be taught in the course.
• It helps the parents to determine which level is the best for the child.
• It provides the chronological order of the topics to be taught and discussed during that year.

How Teachers Create a Scope and Sequence

The approach of how teachers create a scope and sequence involves the following steps:

First step:

• Keep the academic goals in mind and take the state, organizational, governmental, and global standards of education into consideration.
• Think of the particular skills and knowledge that the students should be familiar with by the end of the session.
• Jot down the objectives of the course and plan the scope and sequence accordingly. The listing of objectives is a crucial step for how teachers create a scope and sequence.

Second step:

• Prepare a set of note cards where each card will carry an objective that you penned down in the first step.
• Arrange the note cards in a variety of orders and then select the sequence that you think is the most suitable.
• Order the note cards thematically or according to the level of complexity and your sequence is ready.

Third step:

• Write the statement of scope and sequence. Inform the reader about the content objectives and academic skills that the school curriculum intends to cover.
• Give a brief explanation of the arrangement and outline of the course.
• The scope and sequence are now available for implementation.

Conclusion

You must know by now as to how teachers create a scope and sequence for the school curriculum. There are different ways to write the scope and sequence but the purpose is the same, that is, to provide the students and their parents with an insight into the syllabus. For more on curriculum mapping, read Rigorous Curriculum Design by Larry Ainsworth.

INcompassing Education provides on-site, off-site, and online professional development for teachers. Upgrade you knowledge and skills as an educator and earn credits for your continuing education. If you have any questions, contact us.

See Also:

Best Books for Teachers 2020