What Curriculum Publishers Want You to Know

As a Christian educator, what do you consider when you are evaluating curriculum? We asked several of the top curriculum publishers for their best tips for educators during the selection process.

Tip #1
Start with the Big-Picture Questions
In evaluating a curriculum, decision makers may find it hard to see the forest for the trees. It can be helpful to start with big-picture questions before checking to see how the content matches standards, whether the teacher manual is user-friendly, what kinds of online resources support the program, or how well the material syncs with other school resources.

Big-picture questions may reflect curriculum goals, such as whether the resource prepares students to be lifelong, skilled, enthusiastic learners. They may also consider school standards, such as whether assessment opportunities are appropriate, significant, and manageable.

But even more fundamental, big-picture questions can go to the most basic function of any book: the ability to communicate with the reader.

First, does the resource speak to students in appropriate language?

Text that is considerate of student reading level is important, but you should also consider additional factors that contribute to the character of your class:

* Text and illustrations evoke a fitting cultural and sociological context

* The design reflects ways of taking in information that match class abilities as well as learning goals

* The content presumes a level of life experience appropriate to your class

Second, does the resource speak to all learners?

Ideas for individuated instruction ought to be included in the teacher manual, but also keep in mind further differences among students:

* Examples and illustrations reflect differences in family situations and experiences

* Presentations of content presume differing degrees of prior knowledge

* The content and design address various learning styles and personal interests

Third, does the resource speak in a way that requires a response?

The teacher will engage the students in classroom activities, but resources can also encourage an active role in the learning process:

* Explanations help students make sense of something in their world

* Content inspires students to seek positive change, in themselves or in the world

* Questions help students review, but also reflect, analyze and create

Finally, and most important, big-picture questions must include mission-fit for your school and your faith tradition. How does the resource communicate key values and beliefs? Look for content and phrasing that is consistently respectful of the values you promote, not only in the treatment of topics that touch on morals or faith, but throughout the resource.
--Saint Mary's Press

Tip #2
Take Students' Education to the Next Level
What is education? Memorizing facts, repeating correct answers, remembering a few principles? As a teacher, you know that true learning goes much deeper than that. Real education is thinking. The thinking student not only grasps concepts and facts, but also knows how to apply them and adapt them to new situations.

But learning on a deeper level takes time, something that most Christian teachers have in short supply. Sure, you want your students to be more than surface learners. You just need the resources that you need to take their education to the next level.

With materials on the market today, training students to think becomes far easier. Select materials that will guide your students to think-to focus, to be persistent, to enjoy a challenge, and to investigate on their own. They'll start enjoying their work, getting a better grasp on concepts, and applying what they learn to their everyday lives.

Choose textbooks that guide your students to think right by presenting facts from a Christian perspective, integrating biblical truths into the lessons, and exposing the faults in modern philosophies. Look for teacher's editions that supply you with a wealth of information and resources, easily adaptable to your own personal teaching style and pace.

Teaching students to think takes passion and persistence. With the right materials, you can expand your classroom's horizon and show those students just how big the world of learning really is.
--BJU Press

Tip #3
Engage Your Students
What really "sticks to the ribs" of our children in the learning feast that school should be? No matter how exciting our lessons, how well-planned or executed, no matter how innovative or hands-on, how scholarly or inspired-the reality is that children remember best what they themselves "produce."

Both teachers and students appreciate colorful, well-designed curriculum with high interest and appropriate expectations. However, the lesson that is teacher-produced can have a short-term effect and less staying value in the mind (let alone the heart) of the child. On the other hand, the lesson that engages the student and requires his response achieves a longer-term effect. The degree to which the student is engaged determines the total impact on his life and heart.

All Christian education aims to form character and scholarship worthy of Christ. Certain curriculum places the burden of learning upon the student, challenging his reason, causing him to research and relate, and thus impacting his life through the formation of Christian character.

The most obvious mark of a leader is the ability to speak confidently, even persuasively, and out of his own conviction before others.

This should be the ultimate curriculum test: resulting in a student who has the character and skill to fulfill the great commission-discipling the nations for Christ.
--Foundation for American Christian Education

Tip #4
Integrate Varied Learning Styles
Children who struggle academically often have dominant learning styles different from linguistic or logical-mathematical, which are the basis for traditional instruction. Effective intervention curriculum for these students presents information through varied learning styles, in accordance to Gardner 's theory of Multiple Intelligences. Students experience success, so the curriculum is motivational for students who have been struggling with mathematics. Once students have acquired math skills, transferring expression to traditional styles is easy, and leads to improved performance on standardized tests.

Certain curriculum is designed to reach students who learn best through kinesthetic, inter-personal, spatial, or musical intelligences. Recognizing patterns in the number system is easy for learners who have strong musical intelligence. Experiencing math with the use of manipulatives reaches kinesthetic and spatial learners. Curriculum should teach mental math strategies that result in acquisition and retention of skills.

Manipulative-rich teaching can be challenging for teachers. Collecting materials adds to planning time. Look for a program that provides all of the materials needed for each lesson.

Manipulative-rich learning is motivational and engaging for reluctant learners of mathematics. Instruction that integrates all learning styles in the Multiple Intelligence model is effective in increasing student performance on standardized tests. When all materials are included, manipulative-rich learning is easy for teachers.
--Camelot Learning

Tip #5
Use the Bible as the Ultimate Basis
Education without morals is a dangerous experiment. Knowledge without wisdom and the fear of God becomes a tool of the devil. One needs only to look at the daily newspaper to verify that point of view.

In reality, instilling moral principles and values in the heart of the child is by far the most important part of his education. The principles of honesty, integrity, truthfulness, contentment, diligence, service, respect, and purity do more to prepare a child for a life of usefulness than his level of education. This is not to minimize the value of an academically sound education. That makes a child even more useful if he is guided through life by sound moral principles.

The best way to train a child to be both knowledgeable and morally responsible is by providing a thorough Bible-based education. Not one that simply gives lip service to Christianity, but one that teaches principles and demonstrates how these principles can be applied.

A thorough Bible-based curriculum must be one that meshes Bible principles with daily living. Therefore, the examples that are used in the math problems, English examples, spelling usage, and the like should be practical and useful examples that give the child direction on how to apply moral principles to the material being studied. When we see a continual fall of the rich and the mighty because they lack the simple values of honesty and truthfulness, it is time we seriously evaluate our educational priorities.

Education is not amoral, even though some public educators would try to make us believe that it is. Education does not take place in a vacuum. This is true because writers of curriculum are not amoral.

Though the value systems of curriculum writers may be cleverly hidden, they are intended to influence your children to the writer's point of view. People who are not interested in influencing your children do not write curriculum. The Bible tells us that children are to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
--Rod and Staff Books

Contributor Directory

Saint Mary's Press
www.smp.org

BJU Press
www.bjupress.com

Foundation for American Christian Education
www.face.net

Camelot Learning
www.camelotlearning.com

Rod and Staff Books (Milestone Ministries)
www.rodandstaffbooks.com

Product Roundup

Urban Ministries
UMI's "Legends of Excellence" Black History Collection celebrates the past and present accomplishments of African Americans who have relied on faith, perseverance, and wisdom to achieve their God-given goals. Ideal for use in a small group setting, the reproducible collection is packaged in a convenient, carryall folder and includes everything you need to lead a Black history learning session: DVD featuring informative profiles, leader's guide with thought-provoking discussion questions for all age levels, biographical poster, skits, poems, and Scripture references.
www.urbanministries.com

Punctuation Playtime
Punctuation is one of the most important parts of writing, but for students, the skills aren't sinking in. In fact, 28 percent of college freshman have to take remedial English! Punctuation Playtime is a program for educators that utilizes interactive games, raps and other activities to teach elementary school kids how to use punctuation properly. The program is designed to engage kids in the learning process-they play games, have punctuation relays and even learn raps to help the information sink in.
www.punctuationplaytime.com

Recorded Books
Recorded Books, a distributor of audiobooks to K-12 schools, is the exclusive publisher of the award-winning SmartPass Audio Guides to Shakespeare. Featuring actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company, Britain 's National Theatre, and BBC radio, these guides have been called the best way to appreciate Shakespeare. SmartPass uses an innovative approach, combining full-cast audio with commentary, scripts, and classroom activities. Students listen to the play performance, with interspersed commentary from Shakespeare scholars. www.recordedbooks.com

Camelot Learning
Camelot Learning is a mathematics intervention curriculum for students in grades 1 - 8. Based on Gardner 's Multiple Intelligences Model of Learning, Camelot Learning teaches math through varied learning styles, including kinesthetic and spatial activities. Manipulative-rich lessons, with all materials included, motivate students to participate. Scripted lessons minimize teacher prep time, and student backpacks include pencils, rulers, counters, connecting cubes, and scissors, with workbooks including game boards, worksheets, and mental math strategies.
www.camelotlearning.com

Reader's Theater from Playbooks
Playbooks, Inc. has introduced a patented Reader's Theater format that increases students' reading proficiency in a fun and engaging way. Designed around the basic principle of increasing reading fluency by guided and repeated oral reading of text, Playbooks, Inc. built upon this premise using the entertaining Reader's Theater format and added color to the character dialogue and multiple reading levels within the story. Having multiple reading levels in the story enables the teacher to assign character roles according to reading ability yet integrate students of all reading abilities together in the same reading group.
www.playbooks.com

GAMCO's Worksheet Magic Plus
GAMCO, a division of Siboney Learning Group, has released an update of its top-selling software title, Worksheet Magic Plus. Easy to use and intuitive, the program provides 15 different types of tests, worksheets, and puzzles to use in customizing instructional activities. Worksheets are generated from a database of words and sample sentences the teacher creates in the Worksheet Magic Plus text editor. Additional highlights of the Worksheet Magic Plus update include a constantly visible, zoomable worksheet preview, an integrated spell checker, and the ability to print answer keys.
www.gamco.com

Principle Approach from FACE
What makes Principle Approach curriculum from the Foundation for American Christian Education different? It is a methodology that teaches mastery of language, to articulate subjects, and causes the child to produce. It is designed around the "Christian Idea of the Child." It puts God at the center revealing His heart for a child, shows the teacher how to draw out what God has distinctly placed in them in contrast to just pouring knowledge in. It is based on the foundation that each child is an individual and has a purpose. It is seeing education as the source for learning to see God in everything.
www.face.net

Summerbook Company
Know it all in the fall with just one book. Summer Books K-7 review math, language arts, reading comprehension, and thinking skills. Parents pay one affordable price, and students do only one page per day during the summer. Studies have shown that summer review will produce higher standardized test scores and better grades in the fall. Parents can order from the Summerbook Company directly, or your school may order as a group. Don't let students forget what they learned during the year. Know it all in the fall with one page per day during the summer!
www.summerbookcompany.com

Living Justice and Peace from Saint Mary's Press
The Living Justice and Peace course empowers students to examine society critically based on values from the Scriptures and on the seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching. After providing students with three foundational chapters on justice and Scripture, Catholic social teaching, and a praxis model, the remaining seven chapters each take one of the themes. The teaching manual fully supports the student text and includes prayers, prayer services, review questions and answers, student activities, discussion questions, role-play situations, suggestions for interviews and guest speakers, student handouts, and more.
www.smp.org

Sadlier-Oxford Progress in Mathematics
Sadlier-Oxford Progress in Mathematics, K-6 2006 is a rigorous standards-based program structured for proficient learners as well as for struggling mathematics students. Count on Sadlier-Oxford's adherence to rigorous standards, so that instruction is complete and effective. Everything essential is there in the colorful, appealing, self-contained program, including a variety of free online resources and professional support. It is proven, practical and affordable.
www.progressinmathematics.com

Pasaporte al español from BJU Press
Both teachers and students will love Pasaporte al español from BJU Press. Teachers will love the flexible lesson schedule as well as the indispensable Teacher's Edition that makes interactive teaching easy and fun, even for non-fluent teachers. Students will love the colorful teaching charts, fun songs, and especially their new friend Choco, a hedgehog puppet who learns Spanish right along with them. Pasaporte al español builds both recall and comprehension, giving students a deeper understanding of Spanish.
www.bjupress.com

Christian Liberty Press
Youngsters in third through fourth grade will fall in love with this collection of short stories that feature famous characters from ancient, world, biblical, and American history. Students will sharpen their reading skills as they learn about people such as Alexander the Great, Martin Luther, King David, Miles Standish, Betsy Ross, and many others. Large type and great illustrations also help to provide readers with a more enjoyable reading experience. Teachers will appreciate the comprehension questions that are provided throughout the text, as well as the answer key that is available.
www.christianlibertypress.com

Blue Skies Ideas
Blue Skies Ideas offers aerospace education products that help teachers, pilots, parents and other adults intrigue and motivate kids by using aviation and space. These "Aerospace Education-Activities and Ideas" CDs each contain more than 100 suggested aerospace activities and are organized by grade level and subject areas. Ideas are linked to the appropriate pages in the corresponding resources, which are included on the CD; no Internet connection needed. Thus, the products are extremely user friendly. In addition, sample lesson plans are included.
www.blueskiesideas.com