TL;DR: Traditional curriculum design involves a focus on key skills, conceptual understanding, and assessment strategies. Identifying curriculum gaps is crucial for student success and requires collaborative efforts. Strategies like SWOT analysis, evidence-based evaluations, and identifying common misunderstandings help bridge these gaps. Traditional curriculum design teams focus on key skills, conceptual understanding, essential questions, formative assessment, resources/materials, and instructional strategies. Most … Read More
Student Voice: The Power of the Experienced Curriculum
TL;DR: The written curriculum and taught curriculum are different from the experienced curriculum. Teachers should find ways to obtain feedback from students on their experienced curriculum. Hundreds of books and articles have been written addressing the curriculum in schools. Teachers and administrators have read books describing the written, taught, assessed, enriched, prioritized, or guaranteed curricula. In addition to these common … Read More
Beyond Curriculum Design: 5 Questions School Teams Should Ask
TL;DR: Educators must reflect on what an empowered learner looks like and how to design learning experiences. 5 questions school teams should ask include: What are the priorities for this course? What is the ratio of compliance/contribution in my school or classroom? Do we have a culturally responsive curriculum? What is the hidden curriculum? How will we measure student understanding? … Read More
Curriculum Design: Are We Creating a Draft or a Masterpiece?
TL;DR: Effective curriculum design teams don’t view their work as a masterpiece but as a draft. Having a draft allows room for reflection, feedback, and modifications to improve the curriculum. Curriculum design teams are often torn between creating a draft document or a masterpiece. Teacher leaders are typically perfectionists, and they strive to create a masterpiece before sharing the curriculum … Read More
Learnability: Consumption, Creation, and Contribution
TL;DR: Learnability may be at the top of the list of skills high school graduates need. Consider what every student should know and be able to do when developing curriculum and standards. Be careful not to just cover the unit plan or standards without considering the student evidence that demonstrates learning. It is important that students are provided opportunities to … Read More
