Thanks to some snow and a day home from work I was able to get through both task one and task two. It was a lot of reading!!! Now I will have some time to finish my KTIP!!
The purpose of curriculum is to organize student learning. I really liked the Backward Design approach to writing curriculum. This approach was designed to benefit all students but it seemed to be a great way for students with disabilities to learn. This approach had teachers creating an essential question, know their students prior knowledge, develop assessment and then design your activities. I belive that knowing students prior knowledge is one of the key elements that I liked about this approach. I also thought that developing assessment first before designing activities would allow teachers to know what they expected of the students before they created the activity.
Curriculum is designed for the teachers and the students. In Morey Schwartz's article it states that curriculum is designed for the students but must be designed to engage. This article talked about disjuncture that would leave the students wanting to fix the disjuncture through learning and discussion. I believe that all teachers want some control of curriculum. We like to be creative with our lessons and we also know our students better than anyone else.
For me currently I have very little control of curriculum because I teach an intervention that is designed for me. Whenever I get the chance I enjoy doing some things on my own. My students also enjoy a break for the workbook and reading that we do. We have done some writing and the students really enjoyed the change.
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You and Lesley are my eager students- good to see. I will give you more concrete feedback later on- I like to read and respond to them all at once- but way to stay on top of things--
ReplyDeleteI understand that. A snow day with no one at home helped me get this done.
ReplyDeleteHurray for snow day, those days help get caught up on lots of work.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever get the opportunity to sit in on the curriculum design of a class that you collaborate? Since I teach Geometry resource, I have a little flexibility to add my individuality to the class.
I am in agreement that all teachers want some type of input in designing the curriculum for there classrooms. But my concern is input in designing the curriculum in a collaborative setting. At times I do not feel as competent as the regular ed. teacher due to her depth of knowledge in the subject.
Hey Mindy- good point about not having too much control. I think that as specialized teachers that sometimes we are on the fringes of these types of decisions.I agree with Chandra about the importance to working in a collaborative setting--especially with all of those "other" teachers. I know that as a reading specialist I was often left out of the loop when it came to planning- I was just told what I had to catch them up on- but had no say in actual planning. I think we need to remember how all of these educators need to have a say and have something unique to contribute to this process.
ReplyDeleteHey Mindy,
ReplyDeleteI agree in that snow for sure helps us all get caught up. I have been working on finishing up my KTIP stuff also.
I think since we are both special education teachers it is easy for us to see that we do not have a lot of say in curriculum. This year at my school I have been involved in the curriculum meeting and it is very different to see, but I am happy to do it. I teacher different subjects at all different grade levels so there is so much content and curriculum. Do you teach just one subject and grade level or more? I think it is hard to keep up with so much curriculum but it is also enjoyable to teach so many different subject areas. I agree that curriculum keeps students organized and I also thinks it helps keep teachers organized. :)
Mindy, I love the snow, but hate to make the days up. Seems the backward design curriculum is becoming popular. Trying to find out the students' prior knowledge can be difficult to find when you have huge classes, but knowing this is greatly beneficial. Controlling the classroom seems to be what every teacher wants to do, but we know we can't have everything. To engage the students we have to give up a little of the control to allow the students to grow for themselves. Seems teaching is a give and take position.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is very important to vary your lesson design. Doing the same thing over and over again every day gets boring for anyone, even us. Changing things up avery few days keeos the students engaged, especially if they get to do something they enjoy as part of the lesson.
ReplyDelete