Curriculum: The Story Map for Learning, Teaching and Assessment in a Changing World

2. Curriculum: The Story Map for Learning, Teaching and Assessment in a Changing World

3. The Story Map for Learning • Begins with Students (the characters) • The Plot (learning directions) • Setting (contexts for learning) • Theme (overarching mission, vision) Story sources: National and State Standards, Best Practice Research, current practice, instructional materials, recognized and “ghost” authors…

4. Things to Think About … • Why do we (students) have to learn this? • Should we follow a national textbook curriculum? • What knowledge? What are the basics? • Whose knowledge? What course content should we “cover” ? • What are the silences in my curriculum? Whose voices are heard?

5. What is curriculum? • Shared informal folkways and traditions • The stream of thought and activities • A world of adventure, competence… • The taken-for-granted flow of beliefs and assumptions which give meaning to what people say and do (Deal, 1994)

6. Taught Written Tested

7. What is learning? • “It is only when we connect something new to something already understood that we can actually learn” (G. Miller, 1956) • “What we want to see is the child in pursuit of knowledge…” (George Bernard Shaw) • Learning is comparing ideas, seeing connections, finding meaning, relating ideas to your own life, forming opinions… it is personal and it is learning how to think (Dennis Littky, 2004)

8. Teaching is the quest of organizing and managing learning • Teaching means: Understanding the goals of education Understanding how learning works Figuring out how to apply this to students Curriculum is about relationships, relevance, and rigor (Littky, 2004) The American curriculum is “a mile wide and an inch deep.” (Schmidt et al., 1997)

9. Teachers in the US teach 5.5-6.5 hrs. of a 7 hr. school day. In US, interruptions happen about 47% of the average day. Teachers in Asia teach 3-4 hrs of a 9 hr. school day. In Asia, interruptions happen about 10% of the school day. Time is learning’s warden

10. The Minds We Truly Need in the Future • A disciplined mind • A synthesizing mind • A creative mind • A respectful mind • An ethical mind (Howard Gardner, Sept. 2005)

11. How materials are used - Have materials consistent with best practice and research Time for instruction is key—time for teaching, use of time The problem of layering – “schools that look like museums of the history of educational materials” Eisner – Schools see their mission as promoting the development of the intellect Streams of Inquiry: Orientation to Learning

12. Reforms – do you remember when… • Nation at Risk • Discovery learning; Activity-Based Learning (Hands-on); Project-Based Learning; M. Hunter’s; Bloom’s Taxonomy • Skills Management Programs- ESEA • NCTM – focus on content and process • Teacher-centered vs. Student-centered • Essential questions; Understanding by Design

13. Curriculum leader roles • Historian – social and normative past • Anthropological sleuth – current norms • Visionary- value-focused future picture • Potter – shapes rituals • Poet – uses language to reinforce values • Actor – improvises in dramas • Healer – oversees transitions (Deal & Peterson, 1999)

14. The Game of School (Fried, 2005) • “Game of School” – where students’ natural curiosity and desire to learn are replaced with frantic rush to do the work, please teachers, and get grades. • What happened to the “odysseys of discovery” instead of the defining what children do as “work?”

15. Technology and Learning • Pay attention to how students learn • Involve students in designing instruction • Teach students how to filter knowledge (Prensky, 2006)

16. Implementation Frames for Curriculum • Human resources • Developmental Structure • Political frame • Symbolic ceremonies and traditions (Bolman & Deal, 1997)

17. Lessons and Learning • Routines • Initiation, Response, Reinforcement (not evaluation of student’s ideas) One lesson showed: 3 perfect; 14 goods, 10 excellent, 3 thank-you, 38 nice job – low level content focus Teachers – fear interruptions, tend to be disorganized, rigid, and hostile at times with students in their intent to “cover.”

18. Teaching Practices (Kennedy, 2005) • Teachers’ beliefs and values influence their decisions about what content is most important to teach. • Teachers’ concerns: lesson momentum, efficiency, and accommodating students. • Less concerned about the quality of the content, students’ intellectual engagement, and access to content.

19. Sources of New Ideas for Teaching and Learning • Informal- colleagues, experiences, own materials • Institutional- texts, school district, standards and policies • Knowledge vending sources – university courses, professional organizations, research

20. Thoughts about Testing • Testing has been a part of teaching and learning (ASCD, Nov. 2005) • We need to: involve students • Help them care about learning and not just grade • provide meaningful feedback; and examine how students are thinking • Destination: High Achievement for all

21. Reconsider ways we are educating children (Levine, 2005) • An epidemic of work-life unreadiness • Need practical skills, habits, behaviors, real world insights, work temperament • Growth processes needed: Inner direction, interpretation (not just memorization), tool kits of organizational skills, and how to communicate in an adult world

22. Friends of Change • Concentration • Commitment • Conversation • Collaboration • Caring • Conviviality (Littky, 2004)

23. Social Intelligence (Albrecht, 2006) • Situational Awareness (social radar) • Presence • Authenticity • Clarity • Empathy (SPACE)

24. Boys get the majority of Ds and Fs in most schools. 80% of high school dropouts typically are boys. Males make up less than 44% of college students, Girls tend to spend twice as much time as boys maintaining eye contact with adults. Boys need more time memorizing and prefer lists. An estimated 5.3 percent of children in the US are on some kind of behavioral medication. The Minds of Boys (Gurian & Stevens, 2005)

25. A Whole New Mind (Pink, 2005) • Abundance, Asia, and Automation are moving us from the informational to the conceptual age • 6 senses/aptitudes needed: design, story, symphony, empathy, play, meaning

26. The Curriculum Story Map • Background is important- data • Start with the students • Establish goals • Establish checkpoints for the journey • Review, Revise, Reflect, Revisit