Ashley Claire

EEC 610: CURRICULUM THEORY PAPER

Curriculum is a hot topic across schools in our nation. What is the right kind and how should it be used and set up in the classroom? Throughout my educational background, I have learned about many different theorist, approaches, and focuses that have helped to mold me into the educator I am today. My belief is that curriculum is the knowledge and experiences gained by students; this includes age appropriate subject content, social development, achievement goals, and independent life skills. Curriculum is so much more than just want is taught through a state standard. I believe curriculum should be taught by both educators and the students so that it shows how we are all learners and can always learn something new. How much a student learns and how it is used by the student depends on many different factors including the school and home environments. The purpose of my own curriculum based on my beliefs would be to educate and develop the whole student with the goal of understanding the world around them, how to think and build understanding of subject content areas, and how to interact with other in their environment. When curriculum is referred to in this paper, I am describing how curriculum should cover the entire scope of learning in the classroom. It can be applied to each content area and across elementary grade levels.

My curriculum approach would include a school environment where students are the focus. Teachers would be expected to closely assess the needs of all students in subject content areas, social and behavioral developments. I want the teachers in this environment to be able to help students to have authentic experiences to construct knowledge, build peer relationships, and reflect on behavior with a focus of making positive choices. Most of all, I want the students to come to school and feel safe and secure and that they can trust that the teachers are there to help them to grow. In the classroom, the students should feel safe to ask questions, to practice what they are learning, and to share with the teachers and their peers in the classroom. To create this environment, the teachers will focus on planning activities that allow for peer discussion groups, for students to explore different learning topics, and make mistakes and learn from the mistakes made. Lessons will include hands-on discovery by students, student success mapping so the students will be involved in setting and achieving goals, lessons planned to build upon student strengths, and clear expectations of what is expected in academic and behavior inside and outside the school. All of these things together will help the students to recognize each of their purpose in the class, the school, and the community. The classroom will be organized and set up so that the students will have access to all materials needed. All materials will be set up in a way that students can locate materials and use them as part of their learning process.

The instructional techniques that I will use in my classroom would include many parts. First I will share the expectations of the lessons we will be working on so the students can better understand the goal and purpose of what is being learned. I will have the students to map their own understanding using organizers and charts when necessary. Second, I will use informal assessments to guide the lessons so that I am able to teach the students where they are at in their understanding. I will have students to use graphic organizers, use manipulatives, and use technology to extend parts of the lessons. Students will use binders and notebooks to keep up with practice, questions, and answers to help them to self monitor throughout learning process. Textbooks will be used in a way to help guide discussions and as a resource but not the only way for students to gain knowledge because it is not best for all students (based on reading levels). The lessons will be taught using music, art, projects, research, and discovery work. The teacher will introduce lesson goals and purpose and help to relate prior knowledge into what is being learned, but the students will lead discussions and to give them an opportunity to explain their own thinking and reasoning. This will help the students to hear peer thinking and either defend or add to their own thinking. I want to include activities that involve community and family members to build relationships and understandings of the different people make up our community and their cultures and experiences.

The lesson plans for my curriculum would follow state standards (as mandated by my district) but not for the purpose of standardized tests. I want my students to be able to understand and apply knowledge for the purpose of gaining knowledge, not for just a test score. The curriculum would follow state standards but not district guidelines of when to teach or for how long. I want the students understanding and mastery to be what guides the time line of how long content will be taught. There will be areas of content that will need to be taught longer or shorter based on the needs of the students.

The learning process for my curriculum approach will include students learning and giving feedback, experiencing and applying content, and discussion and reflection. I want the students to have authentic experiences that give them the chance to build on their knowledge, apply the knowledge they have obtained, and discuss and reflect. The lessons planned should include opportunities for students to participate in these activities and used to guide instructional time. Each of these processes will allow the teacher to perform an informal assessment on student thinking and understanding and can help in planning the next step in the lesson. Students will also have other activities to be assessed for learning content such as interactive notebooks, exit slips, organizers, and more. The students will be assessed at the end of a unit to determine mastery. The end of unit assessment should be catered to the activities that were practiced and assessed through the informal observations to show if the understanding improved. Lessons in math, social studies, and reading will be taught using mostly inquiry, where students will have the opportunity to build upon prior knowledge and have activities to help them to construct new knowledge. Science lessons will be taught using both inquiry and transformation to build knowledge. Lessons in grammar and spelling often include rules of application and will be taught using transaction to give the students the rules and help them to practice using the rules correctly. The transmission lessons will be much shorter than the inquiry and transformative lessons since it is mostly teacher led and I want the lessons to be student led as much as possible.

In the classroom, there will be many important roles. The teacher will help to lead instructional time by giving the purpose and goal for learning, he/she will observe, perform informal assessments and prepare instructional time based on assessments, and plan for lessons and activities that are age and developmentally appropriate and moderate discussions within the students. The students will lead the discovery, hands-on, and most of the discussions between the students as well as self assess/map their success. Parents and families will be encouraged to participate in activities occurring in the classroom to bring different cultural experiences to the students and build relationships with the teacher and students. Parents and teacher will communicate with each other about success and improvements needed so that all have a goal of helping the student to be successful. To help facilitate the home-school connection, I will make sure to communicate with families about all experiences, giving praise for successes and sharing plans for improvement when a student needs more support. I want parents to be part of the learning process and extend content to the home environment. I will send out weekly newsletters so parents can stay informed. These newsletters will include information on what types of activities we will be working on, examples of strategies being used, and resources on who to extend study to home. I want my parents to feel that they have a way to stay in touch and help their student to be successful.

I have built my understanding of a curriculum approach based on many different experiences in my educational background. My belief about the curriculum that should be used in the classroom is derived from many, one of which is Piaget. Piaget believed that children needed many different opportunities to learn because “children learn best when they are actually doing the work themselves and creating their own understanding of what’s going on instead of being given explanations by adults” (Mooney, 2013, p. 79). Also, Vygotsky’s theory about how children interact helped me to see the importance of social interactions between students. Part of this theory “shows that social and cognitive development work together and build on each other” and “the world children inhabit is shaped by their families, communities, socioeconomic status, education, and culture” (Mooney, 2013, p. 100). This helps to remind me that I have a large part in building the values and beliefs that will impact the development of the students as well as their families and the community around them and that is why it is important to me to build a strong home-school connection with the families of my students.

Below is my curriculum theory representation organizer:

Works Cited Mooney, C. G. (2013). An introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget, & Vygotsky. St. Paul: Redleaf Press.

School & community Values Respected

Clear student expectations

Student Success Mapping

Students Strengths Built Upon

Summative Assessment Instruction

Enriching instructions & use of strategies

Hands-on, real world, student led discovery

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