I have been wrestling with some questions and ideas regarding curriculum since my last post. After reading Arthur N. Applebee’s article, “Toward Thoughtful Curriculum: Fostering Discipline-Based Conversation in the English Language Arts Classroom,” I decided that I do not know enough about curriculum. I liked his idea that curriculum must be relevant to our students. I think this relevancy must encompass a range of attributes that comprise students. This makes me think that I must always consider my students and who they are (on many levels) when implementing the curriculum. One of my questions that I have is, do administrators and those in power who formulate the curriculum consider the student population? If so, on what level? Just as I want my students to question the world around them, I must question my curriculum and engage in the curriculum as a critical thinker. Please feel free to post any comments relating to this entry.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Nancy McKeand // Sep 13, 2006 at 9:31 pm
As the person who designed the curriculum we use in our ESL program, I can tell you that I thought about the students on many levels. First, of course, I thought about what they need to know and need to be able to do when they leave our program and enter the regular college program. I also thought about what other students had told me over the years about the topics that were of interest to them. I have recently adapted the curriculum slightly because our student population has changed since the curriculum was first established and the interests of the current students are different. I thought about the educational background of most of the students who enter our program and the fact that US-style education is very different from what they are used to, so I had to include some time for orientation to this new system. There may be other things that I am overlooking now, but these are some of the things I thought of.
I would like to think that everyone designing curricula would consider the students at every step of the process. I have been called naive before, though.
2 Vicki Davis // Sep 17, 2006 at 10:20 pm
I am involved in developing our computer science curriculum. I am at a private school so I have more involvement in curriculum than many of my private school counterparts. As we consider the students, I always “begin with the end in mind” to pull out one of the 7 Habits of Highly effective people.
What type of student do I want to emerge from this class? How do I want them to be able to think? Multitask? How do I incorporate various learning styles.
Each year I produce a list of objectives for my courses, and then use a monthly calendar to plot what I will do. I then look and relook at it to make sure I’ve incorporated project based learning a variety of assessments and weekly questions that build higher level thinking skills.
As I plan weekly, I pull out the curriculum plan to see if I am on track or need to readjust.
Like Nancy, I knew that I would have to progresively work through things. Students do need orientation on new skills and progressive freedoms as you use the new Internet. (That is why we have learners permits too!)
Best wishes. I think meaningful posts like this will generate some interesting responses. You are lucky to have had Anne Davis as a guest lecturer, people all over the world read what she does. That is how I found you!
3 Colleen // Sep 20, 2006 at 2:48 pm
This is something I have thought a lot about too. I wonder about administrators who have been in their same job for decades now and are comfortable with teaching the same works of literature year after year. I believe that as English teachers (and pre-service teachers) that we need to know our field and know what books, play, etc. would be beneficial for our students to learn. I think that the nature of our profession obligates us to challenge the administration when we believe that it is not up to date or fulfilling the beeds of our students.