Change is Constant

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As an elementary classroom teacher, I thought of curriculum as a checklist. At the start of each year, I was handed a curriculum guide for each subject that I referred to often when planning lessons/activities. Every third grade teacher has the same curriculum guide, but is free to be creative in how the curriculum is taught. In my classroom, I worked very hard to ensure that I was addressing each item on the 'list', as I knew the curriculum reflected the state standards. I was in awe when I realized that not all teachers handled it that way. I discovered there was picking and choosing going on and some teachers would leave out content that they ran out of time to 'cover'.

I'd say that my view of curriculum is more comprehensive after reading Glatthorn's Developing a Quality Curriculum (1994). I have worked in my district to align curriculum to standards, develop a K-12 scope and sequence, and also to write units for the curriculum. What has changed in my view is that the curriculum needs to be more rigorous when it comes to mastery objectives.

Through the curriculum alignment and review process of our third grade health curriculum, I realized that our content (what students will know) and our performance

(what students will be able to do) are written at a very low level of thinking. Possibly, the content column could be redescribed as 'what students will remember and understand' and the performance column could be defined as 'what student will apply, analyze, evaluate and create'.

When the written curriculum is more rigorous and defined, the taught curriculum will be too. This, in turn, will lead students to be better thinkers and problem solvers. This will make for better performance on the tested curriculum.

In addition to these modifications to the written curriculum, I would like to see our curriculum guides make reference to organic and enrichment objectives. At this time, the objectives are written for mastery and are of high importance. (Glatthorn, 1994)

Class discussions have been helpful for me to refine my thinking in the area of curriculum development and implementation. As a teacher, one always has thoughts about how things could be different and/or better. Being able to participate in a discussion where participants have a similar agenda is helpful to clarify and stretch one's thinking.

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Glatthorn, A. A. (2004). Developing a Quality Curriculum. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc..

Image from: http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/hi216/learning/bloom.htm

Tech For Learning

As a school administrator and instructional leader, I would support and expect the use of technology that supports an increase in student collaboration, problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Technology tools that stimulate the creativity of students and allow for reflection by students related to the curriculum while applying these skills are the types I would expect to see embedded in the written curriculum and actively in use in the taught curriculum.

There are many technology tools that can be used to support the written and taught curriculum. The types of tools that students can use to demonstrate learning are blogs, wikis, discussion forums, podcasts and many others. I suggest these types of tools because they allow students the opportunity to reflect on their learning. Thinking about thinking and processing the hows and whys of learning experiences are very valuable for students. When teachers incorporate technology tools that encourage higher levels of thinking for curriculum topics, students will be able to make connections across content areas. Most recently, I have been working to define the learning space for my teachers. They are constantly focused on the physical space and have a hard time identifying which tool to use for which purpose from the digital space.

Learning Spaces on Prezi

With the learning focused schools model, we have a real opportunity for teachers to see that technology must be embedded within the learning activities and not simply something that is used at the end to create a product to summarize learning. In fact, when technology is used that way, it is often a waste of time and effort. A summary report project is not the best use of technology.

Students can use a blog or wiki site to develop a portfolio of their learning experiences and as a place to host evidence of learning. Podcasts can be used to reflect on learning, but also as a way to share learning in a higher order way. Preparing the script for a podcast forces students to think about content in a new way, a way that requires critical thinking and decision making that is not present in a simple summary report. A wiki can be used by multiple students to collaborate on research, by entire grade levels to organize learning or by a global community to share in a learning experience.

Technology tools are not currently present in our tested curriculum, however, it is my opinion that when effectively included in the written and taught curriculum then the skills that are developed when using these tools will result in better results on the tested curriculum. Technology tools can be used to increase critical thinking, problem solving and decision making and these skills will be beneficial to students as test takers.

Technology is an excellent tool for differentiation, when used appropriately. There are software tools that turn text to speech, assistive hardware, and web tools. These tools can help teachers tailor learning experiences to individual needs in the area of multiple means of representation.
Teachers can meet the multiple means of expression with creativity technology tools that promote problem solving, such as Scratch or increase critical thinking, such as when using a digital storytelling tool. Collaboration tools, such as wikispaces, reflective tools, such as blogs and portfolio tools, which can be a wiki, blog, or other reflective environment are all technological tools that are helpful when teachers are trying to provide multiple means of engagement.

Visit my Universal Design for Learning resource links:

CC Image Link

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Post prompts:

• As a school administrator and instructional leader, what instructional technology would you expect to see in the written, taught, and tested curriculum of a school or school district striving to meet the needs of 21st century learners?
  
• What instructional technology would you promote to differentiate instruction for all learners? Consider some of the Web 2.0 tools discussed in Week 3 and some of the tools/ applications suggested in the UDL discussion.