Although long, I really enjoyed the Applebee article. The goal of curriculum is to align materials to best benefit the students in their learning. Curriculum gives us the ability to look what is being taught, how it is being taught and the structure at which it is being taught. Applebee's five features of curriculum was the most relevant of the readings. The first feature, ownership and the last feature, transfer of control were the most important to me. Applebee says that students need to take ownership of their activities, this is a great idea but I wonder how to incorporate it. When I teach I get a lot of, "do we have to do this?" The other feature was transfer of control back to the students where they feel they accomplished something useful. This feature I liked the most and it made sense to me.
The role of knowledge in curriculum I took from the Wiggins article. The role of knowledge is the ability to teach students to continue to question and seek more knowledge. How do you teach that, by making curriculum relevant to the real world experiences. Wiggins explained that teachers need to not always be the only answer that students need to continue to question and explore the truth. Teaching from authority with all the answers stops students from seeking more knowledge.
The goal of education is to teach and prepare students for a life of questioning, seeking truths and exploring what they have learned in the real world experiences that they will have when they leave high school.
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I agree that ownership and transfer of control are really important in curriculum. I am guessing that many of us don't feel that we have control in creating the curriculum but rather that it is just passed down from above. How do you feel about this? Would you rather have a say? If this is the case- what about a national curriculum? How could we have ownership in something like that?
ReplyDeleteI also like the Wiggins article and the idea of having our students dig deeper and question. Not just get it for the sake of being assessed but to truly dig deeper for the knowledge.
ReplyDeleteQuestion, Question, Question! I know from experience that is how i learn and understand things. I really like what you said about students exploring what they have learned in their real world experiences. I have only been teaching for 4 years now, but the most rewarding times in my career is when a student has a self- discovery through the questions they ask, their motivation to learn and the excitement for them. That is very rewarding!
ReplyDeleteI wanted to comment on how you said that so many stduents ask " do we have to do this?" I feel the same way in that so many students ask this questions everyday. I feel that curriculum is one way to answer this question. By explaining curriculum to our students we can teach them that we are responsible for teaching them the specific content of the school and state. We have an outlined image of what needs to be taught to each student from year to year, so yes...we do have to do this. :) By explaining curriculum to students we can show them that from year to year they are responsible for learning specific material as well as us, as teachers being responsible for teaching it to them. This helps to ensure that when they move on to the next grade they are prepared to learn the new material that will be rpesented to them. I am sure that when I was in high school I asked this very same question but now being a teacher it is easier to understand that the stuff that is taught, is taught for a reason.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the ownership by the students. It seems the students get out of everything and the teachers get the blame and have to do more because the students refuse to try. It seems everyone liked the Wiggins' article and how he wants the students to think more and question more. Almost have the students ask the two year old question but have the educated maturity of their age: why? why? why? An authorititarian type of teacher does not work with a lot of today's kids, it turns them off and makes them feel rebellious. Giving them the remote with parental advisory seems to get most kids.
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