Curriculum Design
I
Unit: Curriculum
Theme: Curriculum Design
Introduction
Allow me to introduce you to Doug Neill, a curriculum designer who has decided to share publicly his creative process when designing a curriculum. He emphasizes defining and understanding his audience in order to create an empathy map in order to build something useful for them. Based on this, the course material will be not only more meaningful to students, but transforming, consistent and relevant.
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Learning Objectives
III
Main Lesson
1
Based on the ending statements of video "The American Curriculum (Part 2), In the 1970s, the implementation of the SATs resulted in going back to the basics.
The Curriculum Wars by Tom Loveless
https://www.hoover.org/research/curriculum-wars
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Curriculum Design Part 1: The High-Level Planning (9:17)
Part 1 of 4 episodes on Curriculum Design in Doug Neill’s “Verbal to Visual” series.
Part 1 explores the questions that must be considered prior to detailed curriculum planning: Who’s your audience? What is the transformation sought? What is the mode of this curriculum? Using his own thinking about the “Verbal to Visual” series, Neill models how answers to these questions shape curriculum design.
(1:58 - 8:24)
The Verbal to Visual Classroom (Adapting it to the Moving Body)
Pieces to Have in Place Before Designing the Curriculum
1.
Understand who is your audience and what sort of situation they are
currently in, who your students are and where they are in their
particular stage of development.
2. What is the transformation that those students (your audience) will go through as a result of engaging with this curriculum you are designing.
3.
What is the container for this curriculum (are writing a book?; are you
teaching in a high school semester long class? are you producing a set
of online videos? Thus, understand the container or context surrounding
the learning experience.
Question 1
1. When planning on writing your own curriculum:
Who’s your audience?
What is the transformation sought?
What is the mode of this curriculum?
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Curriculum Design Part 2: The Clothesline Method (6:59)
Part 2 of 4 episodes on Curriculum Design in Doug Neill’s “Verbal to Visual” series.
Part 2 shows how Steven Pressman’s “Clothesline Method” can be used to sequence and plan learning activities to effect transformation and support curriculum goals. Neal emphasizes the creative potential and inherent flexibility of this method.
(0:30 - 4:29)
Curriculum Desing / Part 2: The Clothsline Method
Step 1
a. Where students art at
b. Transformation
c.Where you want them to end
Step 2
a. Add some depth (details) to each unit (explain what will happen in each of them).
b. Fell free to move ideas around
c. Plan the mechanics of the course
Question 2
2. In which way is Neill's method creative?
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Curriculum Design Part 3: Producing The Material
Part 3 of 4 episodes on Curriculum Design in Doug Neal’s “Verbal to Visual” series.
Part 3 details a visual note-taking technique for creating course materials based on “empathy maps” of students and their learning needs.
(0:40 - 2:11)
Producing the Learning Materials
Creating the empathy map
Question 3
3. Why are empathy maps important to develop the curriculum?
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Curriculum Design Part 4: Iterate Over Time (8:36)
Part 4 of 4 episodes on Curriculum Design in Doug Neal’s “Verbal to Visual” series.
Part 4 reflects on how to make effective adjustments and improvements to curriculums over time.
Students gather in groups and discuss the article "Elementary Education." (10 main groups: 1) History of, 2) Colonial Period, 3) Early National Period, 4) Public Schools, 5 & 6) The Common School, 7) African American, Native American & Non-Public, 8) Goals, 9) Curriculum & Organization, 10) Standards
Question 4
4. Why are adjustments and improvements to the curriculum necessary?
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A Note to Remember
The curriculum has to reflect the mores, values and principles of the community for which it is developed. The “Clothesline Method” can be used to sequence and plan
learning activities to effect transformation and support curriculum
goals.
One way of putting this into practice is by creating empathy maps,
which allow us to know our students' needs. Since the curriculum is a
living document, improvements and adjustments should be made to make it
current.
V
Case Study
Collaboration Days for Curriculum Design
VII
Discussion Questions
1. When planning on writing your own curriculum:
Who’s your audience?
What is the transformation sought?
What is the mode of this curriculum?
2. In which way is Neal's method creative?
3. Why are empathy maps important to develop the curriculum?
4. Why are adjustments and improvements to the curriculum necessary?
VIII
Activity
Share your work with the rest of the class. Create your group portfolio and create your first post.
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Journaling
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Glossary
mores
empathy maps
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Sources
https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1950/Elementary-Education.html
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Students' Work
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Group 1
Nicole, Chisom, Emilia, Trishika
1st Grade / Basic Dance Movement
https://www2.dadeschools.net/students/cbc/index.asp
Dance
Curriculum
Who is your audience?
Our audience are first graders.
What is the transformation sought?
The children will start off with no basic knowledge of dance and the different types of dance and after taking this class they will not only know the different types of dances but also be able to perform them.
What units do we want the students to learn?
1. Nonlocomotor movement
- Bending
- Stretching
- Turning
2. Locomotor movement
- Leaping
- Jumping
- Crawling
- Hopping
- Skipping
3. Space and Direction
- Moving in stragight lines
- Moving in a circle
- The three levels of space (Low, Middle, High)
4. Patterns
- Performing Alone
- Performing with partners
- Performing with groups
- Repeating patterns
5.Gestures and movement
Empathy Path
Hear: Positive words of affirmation
Think: About how they move their bodies and how they feel when dancing
See: Videos regarding the different types of dance
Say: Positive affirmations about themselves and their classmates
Feel: Confident about moving their bodies
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Group 2
Isa, Yadi, Alex
Special Ed. / Varying Exceptionalities
Department of Exceptional Student Education
https://ese2.dadeschools.net/#!/rightColumn/5736
- Applied Technology
Practical Arts
Communication skills
Human relations skills
- Or Senior Dance Disabled
Curriculum
Group: Isa, Yadi, Alex, Maya
Special Ed. / Varying Exceptionalities Curriculum Plan
Part 1:
Who is your audience?
- who are your students: special education students with varying exceptionalities
What is the transformation that these students will go through as a result of the curriculum we are designing?
- friendships
- motivation
- work ethic
- self- advocacy - independence
- time-management
What is the container for the curriculum? Writing a book? Teaching a high school-level class?
- in our case, it is related to dance
_________ our class will be verbal to visual to movement classroom _________
1.
2. Survey
- ask students what you would like to learn
3. Core Skills
- dance/movement skills
- elements of dance: space, energy, time, force - apply to anyone
4. Customized Process
- we can create journaling activities
5. Container
a. introduction: how to have dance studio etiquette, how to dress, how to relate to one another
b. the process: the warm-up, teaching the content, doing a cool down
c. the point:
d. outro: how are they gonna use what you are teaching for later
- functional, healthy
Part 2:
Verbal to Visual to Movement
Step 1: get the sequence of units in order
Step 2: flesh out the details of each unit
- what are the units you want to teach
- usually 9 units: a unit per month of the school year
Part 3:
Producing the Learning Materials: the content
Empathy Map:
Person: “Student” ● think:
○ that they are able to move ● see:
○ motivational environment ● say:
● feel:
○ make sure student feels safe to express themselves ● hear:
○ words of encouragement
Materials:
- technology
- manipulatives: hands on materials
- blocks
- mats
- scarves
- images
- videos
- written activities/projects
VAKT:
➔ Visual
➔ Auditory
➔ Kinesthetic
➔ Tactual
Iterate Over Time
Make An Adjustment:
- what didn’t go as planned?
- what can you do to fix it?
↓
Is It Better Now:
- yes? keep it. - no? ditch it.
Curriculum
Group 3
Ellen, Katy, Melissa, Megan
9th Grade / Cooking Class integrated with Dance
- Applied Technology: Family and Consumer Sciences
Nutrition and Wellness
IV. Intended Outcomes
08.0 Applied Basic Food Preparation Skills
- Volume III - Dance
9th - 12th grade
Curriculum
The High-Level Planning
(1) Who is our audience?
9th graders who are trying to learn how to cook.
(2) What's the transformation?
Gaining knowledge on different cultures through dance and cooking. Helping an uneducated student become confident in cultures and be able to express knowledge through dance and mastering various cuisines.
(3) What's the container / what's the mode of this curriculum?
The Verbal to Visual classroom
Learner / Maker
Survery
Core Skills: 5 Elements of dance... body, action, space, energy, and time
Customized Process --> Introduction... The pieces... The point... The outro
The Clothesline Method
Where the students are at the beginning?
- Give them an assesment of their current knowledge on dance, culture, and various cuisines + general kitchen skills.
Where will they be at the end?
- Step #1 Get the sequence of units in order... As a teacher, we would decide what the best order / course of action is for the students to take
- Step #2 Flesh out of the details of each unit... We would pick each core skill of dance as a unit. First the students would become familiar with their body, then the next unit they learn about energy, and so on.
- Step #3 Producing the material: What the student thinks, sees, says, hears, and feel
- Empathy Map: Mapping out what the student experiences
- Build the course materials: All of the additional curriculum required, such as discussion questions and practice problems
- V(visual) A(auditory) K(kinesthetic) T(tactual)
Improving Curriculum Over Time
- Make an adjustrment: choose something that did not go as well as planned and change it
- Is it better now?: did this improve the overall learning experience? If yes, keep it. If no, ditch it and try again
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Group 4
Gabie, Ren, Chloe, Kayla
Ages 5-7
Integrating Visual Arts and Dance
- Visual Arts (2nd grade)
Component III (Studio Skills)
- Dance (2nd Grade)
Component 1 (Movement Skills and Underlying Principles)
Curriculum
Who is your audience: Children between Kindergarten and Second Grade
What is the transformation: We hope that children would be able to learn how to connect visual items, physical items, and movement.
What is the container?:
Verbal to Movement classroom:
Learner/ Dance Maker:
Process: warm up, teaching content, practicing, doing a cool down
How will they use what we taught them later?: Use movement to keep them healthy mentally and physically. They can use movement to help with their functionality throughout life. Movement and dance also teaches a lot of life lessons, like how to be driven and goal oriented for example, that are very important qualities to have in life.
Part 2: Clothesline method
start: where the students are starting from
In Between: Transformation
end: where we want the students to end up
units have lessons underneath
step 1. get the sequence of units in order
step 2. flesh out the details of each unit
Part 3: Producing the Materials
empathy map: what the person thinks, sees, says, feels, hears
next- build course materials: lesson plans, record videos, brainstorm discussion questions asked at the end of each unit
VAKT- visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactual (hands on)
Part 4: How to Improve Curriculum Over Time
iterate over time
Make an adjustment (pick something that didn't go as well as it could have and tweak it.) --- is it better now? - yes (keep adjustment) / no (ditch it and take a holistic look and start over).
Keep teaching along the way.
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