Responsive Pedagogy and Choosing Curriculum

1. Responsive Pedagogy and Choosing Curriculum Mrs. Armstrong

2. If Curriculum is Responsive for Middle Level Learners According to This We Believe, how would it be described?

3. Thinking back • What was the least relevant thing you feel you learned in school? Include the class this this happened in. • Did you succeed in learning the material? If yes, why?

4. Responsive Designs Should consist of …. • Accountability • Standards • Choices (influence them to choose to learn) • Relevant Curriculum • Allowing students to produce knowledge • Allowing students to form opinions and take position • Service • Self-assessment/Self-evaluation • Ambiance (the physical,intellectual, and interpersonal contexts of the school)

5. Choosing Curriculum • Start where the learners are, then build on their strengths • School experiences should be relevant to the learner and his/her felt needs • Children learn by doing and need to be active in the learning process • School is not a preparation for life; it is life, so school experiences should be functional and useful for children while they are engaged in the learning process

6. Choosing Curriculum • Educational activities should be integrated around problem solving and inquiry. • Classrooms should be democratic so that children learn how to participate in democracy and in social groupings • School curriculum should satisfy the personal needs of all learners while it serves the needs of society. It should be diverse yet provide a common, unifying experiences. ~2000 Voices, 1991 page 55

7. What do they (our children) need? • Students need an opportunity to construct knowledge • Want to learn what’s true and valid • Need a balance between needs and external requirements • Covering is not teaching (“a mile wide and an inch deep”) • Need a balance between mastery an exploration • SUCCESS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE • Like intellectual rigor

8. What else is important? 3 R’s + T • Reading- live it and show them how to do it • Writing – we all share this responsibility • Mathematics – should emphasize problem solving and the practical power of math • Technology

9. Curriculum • We must also keep in mind… • Curriculum Standards for each subject level (national and state) • Connections in the curriculum ( including related arts or electives) • Service Learning • We are all teachers of reading

10. Teachers of Reading • You can help increase your students’ reading skills by • Presenting/helping them make sense of print sources • Reading to them • Sharing book experiences with them • Engage them in silent sustained reading • Journal writing daily • Emphasizing expository (content,text) reading strategies • Engage them in different genres of writing

11. Your turn You need to choose three ELA objectives from your standards packet. Looking at your slides, your book and using any knowledge that you have gained from this class, try and come up with a lesson that will include those standards and would be appropriate for young adolescents. If English is not your strength, think about how you would like for this to be done if you were a student.

12. Connecting the Curriculum • Interdisciplinary – subjects are more distinct (thematic web) • Multidisciplinary – subjects blurr ( celebrating differences, solving a crime)

13. Your Turn…. Theme is ………