Comments for EDU 6500 Curriculum Construction

Comment on Curriculum Development Process by julie klawitter

julie klawitter — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 15:05:57 +0000

The process for adding a new course to the curriculum at BHS is fairly unstructured and informal compared to other area high schools. The teacher wishing to add the course draws up the proposal together with the Dept. Chair which should include the rationale, course description, objectives, costs and information about which population the course is intending to reach. The proposal is then brought before the supervisory committee made up of admins and chairs, who review the proposal and rather casually decide whether the course should be added or not (according to the assistant principal I interviewed). Once approved, the curriculum can be developed by the teacher and the course is added to the course guide. We also use online curriculum mapping to maintain and revise our “blueprints”.

Comment on Research Project by Monica Nawrocki

Monica Nawrocki — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:30:46 +0000

I had a hard time deciding on a topic. When I think of educational reform going on in my school what comes to mind is curriculum alignment across the four high schools in my district. In addition, there has been talk about trying to increase test scores.

Reading strategies are one of the main things that our school is focusing on. They believe that an increase in literacy can result in greater comprehension and in turn raise test scores, which our nation is very focused on. So in short, I think my paper is going to be about reading strategies that can be used in the science classroom and how they can help students achieve greater learning, and in turn result in higher test scores.

If anyone has any suggestions of a different angle that I can take, I will not object to hearing your suggestions. J

Comment on Hidden Curriculum by Tim Kramer

Tim Kramer — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:20:00 +0000

Amen Joe. Very well said—and much more succintly than my entry.

Comment on Curriculum Development Process by Monica Nawrocki

Monica Nawrocki — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:13:44 +0000

Our district is in a state of transition. Our higher administration including our superintendent has been changed recently. With all these changes new administrators come in with their own ideas and agendas. We are continuing to work on our curriculum map but now we are just reorganizing the format a bit. We are still teaching the same information but just rearranging the binders. From talking with a few teachers it seems that the overall curriculum seems to be based on our honors Modern Biology book. Many years ago the teachers met and compared the content they each taught with one another; it was basically the same so they continued to teach in the same manner that they always had. As far as anyone seems to know, that is where our curriculum came from. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that each course had started to be officially mapped across all four schools in our district. The map seems to be based on what has always been taught but now they are outlining not only the content but also the essential questions, skills to be gained, and assessment to be used. I don’t think we make a conscious effort to continually check that our goals are aligned with state standards. However, I looked up the science state standards and our curriculum hits on the standards. So even though our curriculum wasn’t officially aligned with state standards we hit them anyway.

Comment on Curriculum Development Process by Becki Micheletti

Becki Micheletti — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 12:00:43 +0000

With our school district it appears to be at least a 2 year process. (painful, it seems) Our assist.super. thinks the team of volunteers should attempt to write their own curriculum and then hunt for the textbook that is closest to what they’ve written! To me that is way overwhelming when the textbook writers are supposedly ‘experts’ in design. I hope I am never on a curriculum committee in our district under this assist.super (that God she is retiring soon). Once the comm. has their plan in order, they will look at other districts, and then eventually will have reps come or just look at a variety of textbooks.
Dana, if you have that book you mentioned about differentiation I love to see it. See you all tonight!

Comment on Hidden Curriculum by Joe Soss

Joe Soss — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:50:31 +0000

I think Gato is still on an acid trip from the 1960’s. He seems to be overly concerned about “the man” keeping students and families down. I would expect that a person with Mr. Gato’s esteemed credentials would at least have a better grasp of history. The good old days really weren’t that good (I think there was some sort of major economic catastrophe in the 1930’s) It is almost comical that he blames schools for the decaying social and moral values in American society If anything american public schools are one of the few things keeping these values alive.

Comment on Hidden Curriculum by Dana March

Dana March — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:48:23 +0000

LOL…what can I say, Claudine you made my day!! You are a funny girl.

GAT To GO!!!

Comment on Curriculum Development Process by Joe Soss

Joe Soss — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:19:18 +0000

District 158 adopted curriculum mapping about four years ago. The seconday level maps were completed last year and are going to be accessible to parents online. All of the maps are first approved by the department heads, school principal, and then given the rubber stamp by the district’s curriculum director. The teachers in district 158 are given a great deal of lattitude when it comes to designing the curriculum for their subject areas. The teachers are viewed as the “experts” and the one that can best address the needs of the students. It is not going to be difficult to implement a thematic curriculum by next year. The only thing that needs to take place is that the current map will have to be completely overhauled so that it coincides with a thematic approach. The only sticking point is going to be if the district is going to be stingy and not pay me for it.

Comment on Curriculum Development Process by Cindi Vondrasek

Cindi Vondrasek — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:13:22 +0000

I didn’t find any snipes today, but I did talk to someone who had actually used the mystery binder. She said the process is very well laid out (and researched) and that it worked well. She felt it was a good system overall; ideal for a smaller district, but not exactly the best for a district our size. She brought up some of the same issues we discussed in class about trying to fit 3 very different schools into one mold. I hope it doesn’t lead to moldy students

Comment on Research Project by Joe Soss

Joe Soss — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 03:08:47 +0000

My research project is going to involve creating a thematic U.S. History curiculum for District 158. After a number of years teaching history chronologically, I have come to the realization that the only beifit that this type of curriculum has is that it is easy to teach. Students are failing to make connections between the past and present under the traditional chronological curriculum. It is no wonder that history is one of the most hated classes among high school students. I have looked at a few thematic curriculum models online and am even more intrigued. I would like to find some research that looks at the benefits of a thematic curriculum over the traditional chronological curriculum.