This document provides an overview of curriculum training module #1. It begins by defining what a curriculum is and then discusses some key differences between a conventional ESL curriculum and the INTERLINK curriculum being presented. Specifically, it notes that a conventional curriculum focuses on what content to teach rather than how students learn. In contrast, the INTERLINK curriculum is designed to be student-centered, experiential, pragmatic, interactive, holistic, needs-based, and heuristic to better facilitate learning. The overall goal is to allow teachers to focus on meeting students' needs rather than following a predetermined teaching agenda.

1. CURRICULUM TRAINING MODULE #1 Mark Feder Director Curriculum and Training To advance to the next screen, click the left mouse button. To pause or go forward or back or to a specific slide, click the right mouse button, then click Go , and then Slide Navigator .

2. A curriculum is: a series of planned instruction coordinated and articulated in a manner designed to result in the achievement by students of specific knowledge and skills and the application of this knowledge the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives all the planned learning opportunities offered by the ‘educational community’ and the experiences learners encounter when the curriculum is implemented a plan or program for all of the experiences which the learner encounters under the direction of a school and consists of a number of plans, in a written form and of varying scope, which delineate the desired learning experiences #2 Training Module #1 The term curriculum has been defined in a variety of ways.

3. www.uga.edu/maps/ parking/map.html #3 Training Module #1 For our purposes, we will say that a curriculum is map -- a map to help teachers lead students toward greater knowledge or proficiency

4. #4 Training Module #1 In developing the INTERLINK curriculum, we departed from the conventional ESL curriculum in some significant ways. This presentation is intended to help you understand how and why this curriculum may differ from others you may have used in the past.

11. Lack of transfer of knowledge to usage and overall communicative competence. Training Module #1 #11 The result is that students may test well on elements they are taught, but fail to actually use those elements in their speaking and writing. In other words, the knowledge that students gain in class does not readily transfer to usage and overall communicative competence.

12. Teachers sometimes fail to address students’ needs because they are preoccupied with going over exercises and getting through the textbook. #12 Training Module #1 Textbooks add to the emphasis on material rather than on the learner. The teacher’s focus is on covering the material in the textbooks rather than on monitoring students’ learning.

13. Too much material to cover detracts from concern about what students are actually learning. http://www.pnltc.org/toolspec_data/gal_anigif.html #13 Training Module #1 Because a conventional curriculum focuses on material to be covered, sometimes the teacher is pressured to move on before students are ready. This is somewhat analogous to a train engineer keeping the train on schedule without any concern about whether or not the passengers are able to board or disembark.

17. The needs of the student must come first. The curriculum should help teachers meet students’ needs and not be in conflict with them. #17 Training Module #1 The curriculum has been designed to help teachers meet students’ needs and not be in conflict with them. The goal of this curriculum, in contrast to the conventional curriculum, is to allow the teacher to focus on the learner and not on an agenda of items to teach.

18. END OF TRAINING MODULE #1