Curriculum Framework

Ensure both foundational skill development and learning process are assessed and evaluated across program blocks

Foundational skills and the learning process are interdependent; they develop together over time and continually support one another to enable deep learning in content areas and beyond.

Deep learning must be built on foundational knowledge and skills. Too often, the act of “learning the basics” is set in opposition to inquiry and exploration, leading to a pendulum that swings from procedural to conceptual learning and back. The reality is that learners need both automaticity and application for their learning to advance – across program blocks and learning areas.

Whether learning to read, write, play an instrument, or speak a new language, explicit instruction, practice and processing through relevant learning opportunities are all essential for deep learning (Hattie, 2009, 2023; Rosenshine, 2012). With very young children, building the schemata or framework necessary for wiring the brain for reading, writing, and mathematical proficiency is foundational to the learning process. As children grow and advance through the program blocks, foundational learning enables deeper learning in content areas and beyond.

Wabanaki Principles of Learning connection:

• Learning is strengths-based.
• Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on a reciprocal relationship, and a sense of place).

Enacted in Practice

Educators assess knowledge and skills to ensure learners’ readiness for curriculum expectations and identify learning gaps. Educators choose assessment practices that centre the learning process as learners move beyond foundational skills. Educators proactively design assessments to reduce barriers for all learners to demonstrate what they know.  Designing assessments with learner variability in mind minimizes the amount of individual accommodation required. This provides multiple opportunities for every learner, including multiple means of engagement, representation, action, and expression.

Educators use ongoing formative assessment to monitor accuracy, automaticity, and transfer, as well as learners’ use of strategies, independence, and responsiveness to feedback. Educators embed these practices to track progress, differentiate instruction, and align explicit teaching with purposeful practice and increasingly complex applications. Educators support confident and flexible skill development across content areas.

Educators may focus on skill acquisition through relevant pedagogies such as Direct Instruction during the early stages of learning a new skill. Learners demonstrate evidence of growth in automaticity and flexible application of the skill as they progress towards mastery. Learners demonstrate mastery through the accurate and adaptable use of skills and knowledge (Haring & Eaton, 1978; Jiminez et al, 2024).

Assessment and Language Learning

Educators teach foundational skills – such as academic language – alongside curriculum as “language is infused in all curricular content” (Cummins & Early, 2015). Educators select assessments that measure intended Skill Descriptors rather than language proficiency (Hyunh & Skelton, 2023). Equitable assessment of learners reduces language barriers.

In practice, this:

• looks like direct instruction for foundational learning with the collection of triangulated evidence (Davies, 2011; DEECD, 2023) of skill development and ongoing monitoring of the learning process; language scaffolds for content access are visible in instructional materials.
• sounds like educators and learners sharing ongoing conversations about strategies, growth, and next steps as learners apply foundational skills to different contexts; learnersts using home languages to access and express knowledge and skills (Lemoine, 2012).
• feels like a purposeful and supportive environment where prior knowledge and home languages are valued and assessment is understood as a tool for recognizing the development of foundational skills and the flexible application of learning over time.