NaCCA explained: strands, sub-strands, content standards and indicators

The NaCCA curriculum uses four words for four levels of detail: strand, sub-strand, content standard and indicator. Every lesson note leans on them, and once you can see how they nest, the whole document reads more easily. Here they are from the widest to the narrowest.

Strand

A strand is a big theme in the subject, the largest bucket the curriculum is divided into. In Science you will see strands like Diversity of Matter or Systems. A subject usually has a handful of them, and they stay the same across the year.

Sub-strand

Each strand is broken into sub-strands, which are the topics inside the theme. Under a Systems strand you might find Human Body Systems. The sub-strand is the level most teachers think of as the topic of the week.

Content standard

A content standard states what a learner should know and be able to do by the end of the sub-strand. It is the goal, written broadly, not the day's activity. Think of it as the destination the lessons under it are heading towards.

Indicator

The indicator is the specific, measurable thing you teach and assess in a lesson. It is narrow enough to plan a period around and to check at the end. Each indicator also comes with exemplars, sample activities and questions the curriculum offers as illustration. When a lesson note cites an indicator, this is the level it is pointing at.

Reading a code like B7.3.1.1.1

The dotted code is just those levels stacked left to right. Read B7.3.1.1.1 as: B7 is the class, Basic 7. The next number, 3, is the strand. Then 1 is the sub-strand, the next 1 is the content standard, and the last 1 is the indicator within it. So the code walks you from the whole class down to a single learning point, one segment at a time. Once you see that, any code becomes readable.

We transcribed every one of these, subject by subject, from the official documents, because there is no API for NaCCA. And when you draft in teache, the codes come from that same map, so they are real by default. Every weekly lesson note is built on one.