06 - Reid Smith on buiding a knowledge-rich curriculum, collaboration and Ochre Education

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee talks to curriculum expert Reid Smith, founder and co-CEO of Ochre Education and Head of Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction at Ballarat Clarendon College. Reid’s done a lot of research around the importance of knowledge for comprehension and cognitive load theory.

In this conversation, Reid talks about:

The importance of working in teams

What we need to consider when designing a knowledge-rich curriculum

Why teachers need to lose the idea that we need to do it all

The origin story of Ochre Education

The components involved with the makeup of Ochre lessons

He mentioned the quote from Richard Elmore “You learn to do the work, by doing the work, not by talking about the work.” and related it to the importance of actually analysing real lesson plans, rather than just asking general questions

And much more!

Resources mentioned in this conversation:

Greg Ashman

Core Knowledge Foundation

Wiggins and McTighe

Read2Learn

Syntax Project (I spoke to Steph Le Lievre, one of the creators in Episode 2)

Oak National Academy

Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)

This is Reid’s paper that was mentioned:

Reid Smith, Pamela Snow, Tanya Serry & Lorraine Hammond (2021) The Role of Background Knowledge in Reading Comprehension: A Critical Review, Reading Psychology, 42:3, 214-240, DOI: 10.1080/02702711.2021.1888348

You can connect with Reid

Twitter: @Smithre5

Website: ochre.org.au

Nlog: notquitetabularasa.wordpress.com/

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee