Curriculum Design

Editor's Notes

1. Suitcase curriculum
2. Have realized that curriculum development should not be teacher-based and should not be designed by each teacher in each classroom. It must be articulated and transparent. Tools have been developed to help the process.
3. Will not discuss Atlas Rubicon today
4. Tool #1Heidi Hayes Jacobs used the term “Curriculum Maps”.
5. Her concept of a curriculum map was based on a timeline.
6. Curriculum timeline example – with slight modification, the curriculum was readjusted to make the curriculum more meaningful for students and so students saw the articulation of knowledge across the curriculum.
7. They don’t all look alike.KGLA unit - Reading
8. They don’t all look alike.Grade 2 Science unit – Earth Science and Dinosaurs
9. Not just topics on a timeline, but also include standards
10. Most state standards are contest basedUnderstanding by Design addresses the design standards
11. What does this mean? Many dinosaur units & Many weather units. – OK if the standards are appropriate!!
12. Sample science contentstandards and benchmarks
13. Tool #2Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
14. Familiar problem – the activity-oriented curriculum. May be theme based w/ interdisciplinary connections. But … what are the enduring understandings and important skills to be developed? Do students understand the learning targets? What evidence of learning reflect worthwhile content standards? What understandings will emerge from the unit and will endure? (p. 3)
15. Curriculum should lay out the most effective ways of achieving specific results. It is analogous to travel planning. Our frameworks should provide a set of itineraries deliberately designed to meet cultural goals. Rather than a purposeless tour of all the major sites in a foreign country. In short, the best designs derive backward from the learnings sought. (p. 14)
16. Please look at the blank template as we discuss the 4 stages of UbD.
17. “This backward approach encourages teachers and curriculum planners to first think like an assessor before designing specific units and lessons, and thus to consider up front how they will determine whether students have attained the desired understandings. When planning to collect evidence of understanding, teachers should consider a range of assessment methods.: (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998, p. 12)
18. Get out the sample Health Unit.
19. Sample Health unit
20. Health Unit:
21. Health
22. (Animal Farm)
23. (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998, p. 12)
24. * Note that if this is a new unit you have never taught, then start with the understandings then go on to the other sections.