Designing curriculum, instruction, and assessments are steps teachers use to help them make sense of the concepts they teach and helps drive instruction. These steps can take on many different forms and drive a classroom in a plethora of ways. These steps, when developed properly, can help a teacher utilize each moment in the classroom and help students gain more insight to the standards they need to become proficient.
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment
Curriculum development is the first step used by a teacher to help them develop engaging lessons. One of the most useful tools to help develop curriculum is backwards design. Backward design helps to maintain a clear focus as to where the lesson leads (Marzano, 2010). Developing a clear and concise lesson not only helps the teacher; it helps the students as well.
The most successful teaching begins with clarity about important learning outcomes and about the evidence that will show that learning has occurred (Marzano, 2010, p. 74)
To make this a reality, a teacher must consider the “big ideas or essential questions” they will address in the lesson. “Big ideas or essential questions” are the priorities of a lesson. These are the driving force to help the students realize what it is that they need to learn. As the teacher uses this important step, the instruction part of the lesson becomes clearer.
The second step in developing an engaging lesson is to focus on the instructional strategies used to help the students understand the material. It is at this point, the teacher decides what activities they will use to help address the “big ideas” or the “essential questions”.
To help answer these questions or understand the big idea, the teacher needs to understand ...
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...d a better understanding of differentiation, I have had several of my students tell me that I am the best math teacher they have ever had. They express their happiness by telling me that I teach math in a way they understand. They state, “You do not stand in front of the classroom and explain how to do the problem, give us homework, and move on to the next topic”. I take pride in this. I try very hard to help each of my students understand the necessary standards so when they leave my room, they are able to take a real-world problem and find solutions to them.
References
Marzano, R. L. (2010). On excellence in teaching. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., & Kuhn, M. (2012). Using technology with classroom instruction that works (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA and Denver, CO: ASCD and Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.
Definitions for curriculum are many and varied. Broad sweeping statements claim that curriculum is what is taught in various subjects and the amount of time given to each. While a more specific view is that curriculum are performance objectives for students that focus on specific skills or knowledge (Marsh, 2010). Marsh (2010, p. 93) defines curriculum as “an interrelated set of plans and experiences” that are completed at school. The curriculum used in education can have various interpretations, it may refer to the curriculum as a plan that encompasses all the learning that is planned and directed by the school. Cu...
Different theories present own opinion of the most effective way through curriculum models. ‘Curriculum models are approaches or procedures for implementing a curriculum’. (Wilson, 2009: 522) Commonly curriculum are described as product, process and praxis. While curriculum as a product depends on the objectives as the learning goals and the measured means, a process model focuses on learning and relationship between learner and teacher. Chosen curriculum model depends on teaching and assessment strategies in some cases determinate by awarding bodies, organisational constrains, funding body and political initiatives. The dominant modes of describing and managing education are today couched in the productive form. Objectives are set, a plan drawn up, then applied, and the outcomes (products) measured. It is a way of thinking about education that has grown in influence in the United Kingdom since the late 1970s with the rise of ‘vocationalism’ and the concern of competencies. In the late 1980s and the 1990s many of the debates about the National Curriculum for schools did not so much concern how the curriculum was thought about as to what its objectives and content might be. (Wilson, 2009)
...m while having freedom to choose how to teach it. This allows the curriculum to become more personable. Teachers currently associate curriculum with government mandates. They believe that curriculum is what they are told to teach instead of what is desired to learn. Curriculum in the educational setting, according to Pinar, is intended to be used to teach us to think intellectually, sensitively, and with courage to prepare us to be individuals committed to other individuals.
Curriculum is the organized framework that explains the content that children are to learn, the processes through which children achieve the identified curricular goals, what teachers do to help children achieve these goals and the context in which teaching and learning occur. The best curriculum for early childhood teacher is developmentally appropriate curriculum that allows teachers to set-up an effective learning environment for children.
In order to become a remarkable teacher, there must be dedication to many things, one of them being passionate about how children learn. Theories are one of the determining things that influence teachers and how they approach teaching. A theory is a set of explanations used to explain how children learn (Morrison, 2009, p.113). Theorists and theories are important for many reasons: 1) theories help us understand how children learn, which helps us teach better; 2) understanding theories and how children learn helps teachers communicate better with parents / caregivers; 3) theories help teachers have a basis of how children learn which helps in evaluation of them; 4) theories help guide program development to enhance children’s learning (Morrison, 2009, p. 114). Theories not only help support teaching, they help guide teachers to become better at what they do.
Definitions of curriculum assume that its body of knowledge-content and/or subjects presenting process in the most effective methods, varying according to the context. It means to embrace the many ways in which learners are enabled to achieve the outcomes offered to them. Teaching, learning support, advice and guidance, coaching, mentorship, peer and collaborative learning, feedback and assessment, personal development planning and tutoring, skills development and practice, and enabling access to curriculum resources are all processes that might be involved. Designing process leads to the production of core programme/module documents such as a course/module description, validation documents, prospectus entry, and course handbook. This involves consideration of the course marketing, learners’ final outcomes and destinations, as well as general learning and teaching approaches and requirements. Relationship between teaching and learning, the way of assessing need to be according to the needs of learners and the availability of resources. It could involves the questions in the process such as: What needs to be learned? What resources will this require? How will this be assessed? (Blenkin, 1992: 23)
Before the lesson is prepared, the teachers must have a clear understanding of the objectives of the lesson to be taught. By having an understanding of what they students will able to accomplish at the end of the lesson, the content remains focused and thorough. The teacher must then express these objectives to the students including the standards for performance. Students can then be held accountable for expectations that are known.
...in more than one way, why the problems are important and how we can use similar steps and strategies in our future classroom.
In his book, Steppingstones to Curriculum, Van Brummelen discusses four popular perspectives on curriculum through curriculum orientations. “A curriculum orientation sets out basic worldview assumptions and how these suggest an overall vision for education, a view of knowledge and of the person, and how these affect classroom learning and teaching, and how we go about planning, and the general aims of curriculum” (pg.25). Curriculum orientations provide the teacher with a clear and distinct sense of direction for an educational program. A curriculum orientation is what a teacher teaches to. Each orientation has a different view on what’s important and gives the teacher clear focus. The four orientations are traditional, process/mastery, experimental, and Christian. When planning out curriculum, the traditionalist approach views curriculum as a conveyor of information and ideas. Their focus is on transmission. They focus on building basic skills and reasoning through gaining knowledge in key disciplines. Process/mastery supporters focus on the process. They view curriculum as a controlled and efficient process. Their knowledge and learning emphasis are on investigating, mastering, and applying data in small, defined, manageable steps. Experimentalist view curriculum as a quest for personal meaning. They focus on constructing knowledge. They’re all about learning through experience. They put emphasis on autonomous creation and negotiation of knowledge and meaning. Christians view curriculum as a reflection/ interpretation of God’s truth. They focus on responsibility. Their curriculum answers questions such as how do we foster students’ positive responses toward God, their fellow creatures, society, and themselves. They put emphasis on understanding and unfolding God’s revelation through experience, observation, conceptualization, and
Waxman, H.C., Len, M., & Michko, G. M. (2003). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning with technology on student outcomes. North Central Regional Education Laboratory. Available online at: http://www.ncrel.org/tech/effects2/waxman.pdf
...ng than in the content of their conclusion. Following these simple guidelines and objectives, I am able to plan engaging and stimulating lessons that not only motivate the students but are also meaningful to their personal and academic development.
Curriculum Differentiation One of the most urgent challenges teachers face today is creating a classroom environment where all students are simultaneously engaged in meaningful activities. Too many times students may either become lost as the teacher continues on with the lesson or the material may not be advanced enough, thus becoming boring for students. The implementation of curriculum differentiation is a sustainable solution to this prevalent dilemma. In some parts of the world, the teacher will come into the classroom, write the title of the lesson on the board, and ask one of the students to read aloud as the rest of the class listens. When the student finishes reading, the lesson is considered to be taught.
A curriculum is a compilation of study materials that are used at all grade levels, classroom and homework assignments and a set of teacher guides. It could also include a list of prescribed methodology and guidelines of teaching and some material for the parents etc. It is generally determined by an external governing body. However, there are some cases where it may be developed by the schools and teachers themselves.
Bork, A. (1991, Fall). Is Technology-Based Learning Effective? Contemporary Education, 63, 6-14. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. EJ 443 831)
Killen, R. (2007). Effective Teaching Strategies, Lessons from Research and Practice. (4th .ed). South Melbourne: Thomson.