7.1: Curriculum Development
“My five-year-old started Kindergarten this year. He can tell you the difference between a rectangle, a square and a triangle. He knows how many sides an octagon has, and he can differentiate an ellipse from an oval. He can identify which of two circles is larger than the other. I bet most of you could do the same at about his age. So why is it that we insist on teaching you Geometry in high school?” This is the question I posed to my students when subbing in my mentor teacher’s class a few weeks ago.
When I think about developing a curriculum, my efforts focus on big ideas such as these. I try to identify what the important concepts are that should be mastered by students. Each lesson should invoke reminders of prior knowledge and establish clear vision about where we are headed. This consistent and thematic approach helps direct my search for supplemental materials, organize the schedule of the text and classes, and keep students’ daily focus on the big picture.
Planning is the key to a sound curriculum. Teachers, with their evenings, weekends, holidays and summers off, sure spend a lot of that time complaining about the need for more time. Teachers are hard-working and undervalued, but like all other professionals, they have unresolved biases against the process of planning. But Dr. Mike Armour notes, “When planning is inadequate things inevitably go awry. And we usually spend more time and resources redoing the project than proper planning would have required in the first place.” In his May 15, 2005 LeaderPerfect Newsletter, Dr. Armour continues to analyze why some of these biases exist.
The two tools that most define the curriculum are the standards and the text. Together, they will explain the objectives or “big ideas” of the course. A good teacher can get a lot of mileage out of clear, sensible standards and a well-rounded text, but they are only the destination on the map. Curriculum development should give careful consideration to the roads as well. To expand upon the road trip analogy as teachers, we must carefully consider how we will get to the destination? Will we just proceed the same way everyone else does, ala MapQuest? Do we drive fast or slow, a scenic route or not? How many stops do we want to we make? How much money do we have? Should we allow time to correct for bad directions or unexpected construction? And don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way!
Pace is perhaps the most difficult part of the plan. How fast or slow should you go to get everyone there on time? In the end, that is probably what everyone cares most about. Imagine the road trip as more of a convoy. The teacher is in the lead car with the directions and provisions. Some of the cars you are leading may want to jump out in front of you, and some may be more timid about passing or speeding up. Will you recognize a signal from the ones that require more frequent stops? Some just want to keep pulling up beside you and waving—a playful gesture or a distraction? A teacher’s leadership comes into play here more than any other part of the trip. A sound plan paired by consistent and respected leadership will help keep everyone on schedule.
Anticipating what you may encounter along the way often requires planning to include supplemental materials in the curriculum. Alternative texts, stories, historical/background information, personal accounts, referencing prior knowledge, writing, or creating class-specific materials all incorporate insightful, relevant and engaging context into the content lesson. My development of training materials at PF Chang’s is a good example of having a comprehensive text that needed supplemental materials to address common questions, misconceptions and local options. In addition to the training schedule (syllabus), I created a 30 page document called The Black Folder that every trainee received along with their text at Orientation. The Black Folder information was integrated into the text of the Leader’s Guide (the equivalent of a Teacher’s Edition), so that a Trainer could make timely references to the Trainee’s folder. Likewise, I have researched and assigned supplemental readings for CoT Seminar that sometimes provide field-based or statistical information to support or contradict the text, but still initiate for sound discussion.
So is discussion a part of the curriculum? Absolutely! Everything is instructional, and should be considered when planning. If the path you choose gets everyone to the destination on time by maximizing experiences along the way, the trip will be more memorable and richer in growth opportunities. Teachers should create time for interpretation, exploration, interdisciplinary work and community involvement, and students should be set free to use the capacity they have for understanding and creatively demonstrate knowledge in non-traditional ways.
What about the construction zone? Teachers undoubtedly have days where learning traffic backs up due to scheduling, construction or an accident. Extra time or other considerations may need to be given to a particular individual or group. At PF Chang’s, I created the Bueno! No Bueno! picture book to supplement the Server Assistant Training Program and eliminate misunderstandings created by the language barrier. In Honors Geometry, a visually impaired student requires daily super-sized copies of notes, worksheets, tests, etc. He is also having difficulty with constructions, because the tools (compass, etc.) are too small. I spoke with him about adapting a large ruler with notebook holes in the center or using a cord or string that is easy to handle and mark with knots to preserve distance. Fortunately, Seth is bright and understands what is conceptually happening with most geometric constructions, but I would like to see him be able to make more than a free-handed attempt to demonstrate this.
One of the greatest rewards of student teaching was the opportunity to adjust my teaching throughout the day. Although I carefully planned daily lessons, I frequently made notes or even entirely rewrote lesson plans between classes to adjust for pace, understanding, and anticipated questions or problems. My mentor teacher and I often commented about this opportunity for adjustment, because he sadly missed it in AP Statistics. He first taught the course last year, and when he wanted to make adjustments to his teaching, he was forced to make notes about the class and wait until this year to make the adjustments. My student teaching schedule allowed me the opportunity to plan an entire nine weeks of coursework for Honors Geometry and Algebra 1. Adhering to a block schedule, all of the geometry classes were on alternating days with algebra. Making immediate adjustments to teaching was spontaneous, risky, but also rewarding and fun. I continued the practice throughout my stay at Lawrence North during the maternity leave with my new classes. I think it is an important part of growing as a teacher, no matter how many years you've been doing it, to be able to have a self-reflective approach to every new year, every new grading period, every new day.
Big ideas, exploration, and leadership, these are what I believe to be the fundamentals of curriculum development, but planning is at the core. So then, did I mention why it is that we teach Geometry to high schoolers? That day’s lesson about conditional statements was perfect for the answer, and I proceeded to reveal to them that the content of the course was not about shapes, but about deductive reasoning. Geometry is the only course in the entire high school curriculum that teaches this. Through exhaustive consideration and prior knowledge of algebra and shapes, using manipulatives, associating spatial relationships, interpreting language, invoking logic, and being “ready” (Piaget) for higher order thought, students in high school geometry learn to rely upon truth to create truth. As I began to build a truth table and introduce conditional statements, I told my students to always remember that about this class. I still remind them of that collectively and individually when working with them in class.
