Expanding the 3 Rs of Curriculum
By: Joshua T. Garber
School curriculum as we know it is making a monumental shift, and Christian school leaders, as part of a growing number of private primary and secondary education institutes, are positioning themselves to lead the way.
Think about it. How much in education has changed since you were trudging through the locker-lined halls of learning?
Now think about how fast that change has taken place. For many decades (ideological teachings aside), school curriculum has remained largely the same. You know…the 3 Rs: Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. We can all take comfort in the fact that the 3 Rs are not facing extinction.
What we as educators do need to consider is adding a new member to the family: C-L for Computer Literacy.
For you math fans, the new phrase can be put into the context of an equation: 3R+CL = Ed. In essence, the product of reading, writing and arithmetic plus computer literacy makes up a successful education in the 21st century.
Educational publishers as a whole, including the company for which I work, have been slow to Hang 10 on the wave of technology that’s available to the masses. That is slowly changing due in large part to the fact that many private institutions realize the value of technology and are demanding it at a more rapid pace than public institutions.
Why should schools be saddled with textbooks and their associated costs when they can buy the same items on a CD, or even purchase a license to use educational materials via school servers or even the Internet?
Publishers are now realizing that technology is worth the investment and risk of becoming obsolete. Books were here to stay for centuries, but such a paradigm shift comes hard for those who purchase ink by the barrel.
However, the risk of a new technology becoming obsolete is cushioned when publishers realize that overhead costs drop significantly when the printing presses are stopped and the shipping is lightened both in weight and the costs of inventory storage.
The demands of better and cheaper content delivery by private institutions are also enabling educators to better respond to their individual students.
With budget cuts and faculty layoffs in public schools in several states, the days of sending special needs students to the resource center are over.
Each classroom is expected to be a resource center for students of all skills levels, including the oft-forgotten above-average students.
Differentiated Instruction, or the process of teaching to varying learning styles in a single classroom, has become somewhat of a buzz word these days in the public sector. But it is mighty hard to reach all of your students when a single day’s lesson plans require hours of research, not to mention the personal financial burden public school teachers are increasingly bearing because districts are slashing supplemental curriculum funding.
Computer Literacy as a component of 21st century education makes Differentiated Instruction an attainable goal for every educator.
One has only to observe students in our nation’s private and charter schools and the technology available to them to see why they regularly out-perform their public school counterparts.
Joshua T. Garber is vice president of Gourmet Curriculum Press, Inc. (Gourmet Learning), www.gourmetlearning.com.
De-Cluttering the Curriculum
By Norma Morris
Everyone is “de-cluttering” these days, from offices, to homes, to lives. Perhaps it is time to take a closer look in our schools to see how we can “de-clutter” our curriculum and our resources.
Curriculum, Scope, Sequence
Curriculum is the instrument the school has developed that sets forth the standards to be taught in each course for every grade. It is comprised of knowledge and skills that build from the entering primary grade to post secondary. The developing entity has (or should have) carefully comprised each grade-level course of objectives that scaffold the learners through concept understanding, application, and evaluation from one level to the next, with serious attention to what is needed for post-secondary success, be it university, trade schools, or employment. There should be a scope and sequence, or “budget” of time that realistically paces the learners through the course or grade objectives. And, of course, the instrument should be a ‘living’ instrument that is re-evaluated each year and adjusted as per teacher’s experiences and concerns.
Curriculum becomes cluttered primarily in two ways. First of all, those generating the curriculum sometimes become too ambitious, placing far too many concepts within a year’s span to cover any one of them to a depth of internalization. We simply have too many concepts taught at each level to allow enough time for students to properly investigate, to become steeped in the concepts so they can use them to become productive problem solvers. The current wisdom is to narrow the scope and to dig deeper into the objectives that are remaining so that students see connections and have ample time to make them their own.
Curriculum Resources
The programs, books, and technology that we purchase or create are the resources we use to teach the curriculum. They should support and enhance the curriculum. Herein lies the second cluttering factor. Education is a serious business, with serious consequences, both positive and negative for our youth. And, educators take their jobs seriously, constantly in search of interesting and enriching activities that will broaden their students’ understandings. Yet, in our search for new and better, often we are cluttering our lesson plans, and thereby our curriculum, with activities that, though meaningful and enhancing, do not address the expectations set forth in the curriculum and therefore broaden the scope rather than narrowing it.
Course Vertical Alignment
So, how do we begin to de-clutter the curriculum? Begin with a course vertical alignment, PK – 12. Assemble independent work groups for each core course comprised of at least two representatives from each grade level. Through dialog and physically cutting apart the curriculum document, teachers begin to line up the curriculum expectations in grade level columns to see how the skills taught scaffold from one level to the next. Often teachers find that what they thought was to have been taught at an earlier grade was actually introduced in their own grade. Or, they ponder over why, if students have been taught a certain concept since elementary school, they are still struggling in high school. It is through these insights and revelations that the curriculum holes are found, that the excesses are found, and that educators begin to understand the tidiness of an uncluttered curriculum.
Curriculum Resources Assessment
Once the alignment process is completed, teams of teachers then begin to assess their resources. Using the alignment document as their guide, the teams struggle to answer important questions that help to alleviate the unnecessary and reorganize what is left.
* What are we providing that truly matches the curriculum expectations?
* What activities can we restructure so that the outcomes match curriculum outcome expectations?
* What can we delete so that we have more time to truly develop the curriculum expectations to a depth of understanding that will help students internalize the concepts?
Informal on-going evaluation throughout the year as well as a formal year-end evaluation of the curriculum document is important to make sure that you have found all of the clutter, and that clutter has not reappeared in the guise of interesting activities. Keeping all educators aware of curriculum needs is essential to keeping the clutter from re-entering.
Naturally, this is just the beginning of the de-cluttering process. As with any change expectation, there is a great deal of support and staff development needed to help implement and continue the process. But, when you look around to see the functional beauty of what you have left and the ease with which you can navigate your daily routines, de-cluttering your curriculum is worth the effort. Educators will find their jobs easier and more fulfilling; best of all, students will learn and thrive in this de-cluttered environment.
Norma Morris, an educator since 1972, is director of staff development for L&M Instructional Resources, Inc., and lead math consultant for grades PK-8, www.mathimagine.com.
Product Roundup
Cambium Learning Technologies
Cambium Learning Technologies, which includes IntelliTools and Kurzweil Educational Systems, focuses on creating educational solutions for students in Pre K-12 classrooms. They believe all children can learn and feel privileged to created products designed to increase student achievement, especially for those students with physical and cognitive challenges. Their software is all research driven, and each product is built on proven principles of scientific research. Their goal is to provide access to all students in order to give them every opportunity for success.
www.kurzweiledu.com
Complete the Picture Math from The Critical Thinking Company
Complete the Picture Math from The Critical Thinking Company develops a wide variety of math, reading, visual, and spatial reasoning skills. Students solve engaging word problems that focus on reading comprehension and mathematical reasoning before completing and coloring an animal picture. This is an ideal product to motivate your student to improve his or her math skills. It includes teaching suggestions and easy-to-follow directions; just add your soon-to-be math whizzes and crayons. Three titles are available for Grades 1-3.
www.criticalthinking.com
InspirEd Educators
InspirEd Educators offers engaging, thought-provoking instructional units for social studies and language arts, with more subjects and topics in development. These affordable resources provide lesson plans with activities that vary daily and include: reading, writing, test-taking skills, research, plays, simulations, primary sources, storytelling, and much more. The new "I Think: Thematic Units" offer an even wider range of topics. All InspirEd materials provide study guides, complete, easy-to-follow lesson plans, graphic organizers, and differentiated assessments.
www.inspirededucators.com
ABC Feelings
ABC Feelings is an interactive line of award-winning feelings communication products that enhance self esteem, relationships, and character development while enhancing vocabulary and reducing stress for both child and adult. They are fun and easy to us and are extremely effective. With ABC Feelings products, days turn into ones filled with more joy, satisfaction, and a sense of love. Products include: carpets, Spanish and English posters, flash/activity cards, feelings storybook, learning/coloring book, CDs, feelings dictionaries, lotto games, placemats, activity booklet, and t-shirts.
www.abcfeelings.com
VoWac Publishing Company
VoWac Publishing Company offers a phonics and spelling curriculum. Their new early learning materials introduce the learning concepts further established in the upper levels of the phonics series. The individual color and sticker book provides a fun and applicable method for children to learn each alphabet letter and the catch phrase. The three Big Books are filled with colorful alphabet illustrations and activity pages for each letter, fun body-actions to teach sound retention, and duplicating masters for the long and short vowels. VoWac offers a mix-and-match book with the letters in uppercase and lowercase format, along with the picture cue for each catch phrase.
www.vowac.com
Teknimedia
Teknimedia, a developer of educational software for computer skills training and certification, is offering free online access to its popular PCIC3-Getting Ready for IC3 courseware to help K-12 teachers prepare for Internet and Computing Core Certification (IC3). K-12 schools are increasingly using the IC3 standard to train and certify their teachers and students in the area of computer technology. For schools seeking effective, cost-efficient ways to prepare their teachers for IC3, having free access to Teknimedia's high-quality training is ideal.
www.teknimedia.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
Writing Intervention Kit from Maupin House
Maupin House Publishing announces the release of the Writing Intervention Kit for High School, a curriculum containing 90 hours (18 weeks) of daily instruction that focuses on informational writing skills central to helping striving high school writers pass state assessment and exit exams. This cost-effective kit can be used in stand-alone or integrated language arts intervention settings. A variety of prompts, activities, and instructional approaches meet students’ needs and increase learning engagement while addressing focus, organization, support, and voice for all assessed genres.
www.maupinhouse.com
Adaptive Curriculum
Combining conceptual learning with state-of-the-art visualization, Adaptive Curriculum offers teachers an interactive way to engage students in learning applied math and science. Developed by Sebit, Adaptive Curriculum offers a rich library of more than 200 Math and Science Activity Objects. Similar to learning objects, Activity Objects break educational content into smaller interactive components that can be used in a variety of learning environments. Teachers can use the content as part of a classroom presentation with a projector or interactive whiteboard. Activity Objects can also be given to students for extra practice, or to challenge students with advanced skills.
www.adaptivecurriculum.com
