The curriculum is an essential element of the learning process. Nothing can be taught or learned without it. Often times teachers will get a curriculum they have to teach, but will have had no part in developing the curriculum and may sometimes find themselves pressed for time when teaching. This article explores an innovative way to get the teachers involved in the development of their curriculum while using technology as a means to make the learning experience a more productive one.
A collaborative team is formed in which the teachers are basically in charge. There are several teams involved with one lead teacher from each grade level represented plus learning specialists, administrators, instructional technologists, and media specialists. This new way of developing curriculum emphasiszes participation and "ownership" of the curriculum by providing multiple perspectives, which help to eliminate redundancies as well as build upon students' skills sequentially. In the beginning stages of the collaboration each team evaluates essential elements that are important in developing a curriculum, while also developing an assessment that will allow the teachers to come back and evaluate the effectiveness of their curriculums developed at the beginning of the academic school year.
KEY ELEMENTS OF THE NEW CURRICULUM PROCESS: (as taken from the article)
- Best practices for instructing 21st-century students in a standards-based school
- Assessment-driven curriculum improvement
- Differentiation for gifted as well as struggling students and various learning styles
- Integrated technology and information literacy skills
- Curricular decison-making documentation to meet the needs of various audiences
- expansion of the Collaboration Team to include learning support, ESL, and other specialists to further design the curriculum to meet the needs of all students
Q1: In reading about this way of devloping curriculum, I wounder how many schools are already doing it? Also, what would it take for the school I'm interested in teaching at adopting this way?
A1: I'm not sure how many schools are using this program, but in order for it to be used at the school in which I will be teaching I'm sure all it would take is informing the principal about the program and convincing him of how efficient it would be in developing curriculum at his school.
Q2: How podcasts be used?
A2: Podcasts are a good tool for teachers to use when attempting to assess from the student's point of view how effective lessons were. At the end of a session, academic year, or term students can be given an assignment to record a podcasts by which they inform the teacher of what worked and what did not work.
No comments:
Post a Comment