Curriculum Design was one of my favorite classes in the Seattle Pacific teacher leadership program, particularly because most of the assignments were specifically focused on the curriculum of my AP English Language & Composition course. I took the class over the summer, so the work I did was immediately applicable to the upcoming school year. Each step in the process helped me improve and unify a curriculum that I had compiled from multiple sources over the years.
Two assignments in particular helped me analyze and improve my curriculum. The first was the curriculum assessment types assignment. Through this task I chose eight assessments in a single unit and analyzed the assessment type and purpose, the standard being assessed, and the degree of alignment. While half of my assessments were considered strong, three were considered moderate and one weak. The weak assessment, a brainstormed list of memories being used to develop a personal memoir, was eventually modified to better reflect the standard.
The second assignment was the final curriculum analysis. I analyzed different aspects of my AP English curriculum, including organizational centers, standards alignment, assessment, instruction, and curricular resources. My overall analysis focused on organizing centers, which Lalor (2017) identifies as a “central idea upon which a unit of study is built” (p. 10). I had some of the pieces, but I had done little to put them together into a coherent piece. Before school began, I spent time doing that work, creating a document I shared with my students and parents and which outlined my plan for the school year. My plan outlined in the curriculum analysis is incomplete; I still need to perform more curriculum assessment analysis on my various units, and better alignment with the College Board standards for the course is necessary. I also need to renew my emphasis on improving instruction. I had identified this as a critical weakness of my curriculum, and had focused on the need for a lesson-analysis chart (Lalor, 2017, p. 132) that would allow students to “understand the learning intentions behind the activities they undertake in the classroom” (Wiliam, 2011, p. 55).
References
Lalor, A.D.M. (2017). Ensuring High-Quality Curriculum: How to Design, Revise, or Adopt Curriculum Aligned to Student Success. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded Formative Assessment. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
No comments:
Post a Comment