Thinking about curriculum

Idea #1—The Dewey Decimal System, short story unit, photosynthesis, long division. These were a few of the opening of school units in various subjects and grades during my stellar K-12 career. Memorable? Nope. Engaging as initial units at the beginning of a new school year? Not really. Did they contain answers to questions that I had asked. Are you kidding? John Arnold, a university colleague once commented, "The middle school curriculum consists too much of giving our students answers to questions they never ask." A very powerful idea. He was right...and this idea applies to elementary and high schools as well, I'm sure. Children, young adolescents, and older adolescents have many interests, but those interests are not necessarily what the curriculum dictates when we don't give them time to ask and answer questions they have about their lives and the world.

Idea #2—For three weeks we have been reading about a variety of innovative schools and programs that sometimes look very different from the typical schools we all know. The question I wonder about is why we have so few examples of schools doing other than the traditional things we all know? Yes, there are a number of teachers doing other things and occasionally an entire school (King MS and expeditionary learning), but typically most schools have one model that all students must fit into. Why is that? Why can't any school try out different ideas to meet the needs of students (first), but also use the strengths of their teachers. A short example...why can't high schools or middle schools use different ways of organizing students and teachers...some self-contained, different sized teams, maybe even a team that crosses grade levels...all in the same school? Or, a combination of F2F and blended classes instead of all F2F?

Idea #3—Some thought-provoking ideas from all of you in our shared Google Doc in week 5 and our discussions about what we expect from young adolescents by the end of middle school. (Again, this list applies to elementary and high school students as well, don't you think?) Here are some of the ideas...limited because of space. Our middle schooler will be...self-reliant, a risk-taker, open minded, one who accepts responsibility, is independent and can work and think independently, learns from her/his mistakes, self-sufficient. Others said that schools should be places where students are motivated to continue to learn on their own; places that are fun, safe, and experimental, allowing students to explore their own possibilities; where education is connected to doing, and; where students learn empathy for one another. Lots more, but this is an excellent start, don't you think?

Don't throw these away

We are studying so many different ideas in EDC 533, reading critiques about what doesn't work, and trying to balance the old and the new. I honestly believe that one of the biggest barriers to improving schools as we know them...is that we know them so well. When anyone makes a suggestion about doing something different, the immediate reaction is to back up (and almost always defensively) and dig our heels in. The assumption that we make in this situation that what we were doing was wrong, ineffective, or harmful.


We know there are all kinds of helpful and positive practices whose value should continue. Here are several of the things that I think work well in classrooms and schools...and why. Remember, you read it here first.


1. We will continue to need gathering places for teachers and students (let's call them schools) for the opportunities for human connections. Between students and students; teachers and teachers, and; students and teachers. We need to learn from each other because with more and more technology, we need what Alvin Toffler called, "High tech, high touch." In this digital age we need more opportunities for human beings to work together...one of the most critical skills of the future.


2. A good part of learning is developing a sense of community. Having shared experiences. As good as Skype and other video conferencing systems are...they do not take the place of all face-to-face interactions. We need to learn from each other and we need to have an audience for our work that is safe, respectful, and welcoming.


3. Finally, nothing will take the place of a caring, committed, knowledgeable teacher who has taught her students to think deeply. Especially from pre-K through 8th or 9th grade, we need to have teachers who facilitate the learning of her charges...and even beyond that age level. Guiding, prodding, suggesting, encouraging...are only the beginning of what a good teacher does to her students.


These turned out to be more big picture items that I first anticipated, but I am sure that grammar, long division, and knowing how photosynthesis works is not what we will want to keep around for 21st century school...at least not in the form they are in today.


But, maybe, just maybe, there is something else I should have mentioned here. If so, I will be back!

Why don't they teach us more about technology (and learning)?

"I would use more technology in my classroom, but my school/district doesn't provide enough training for me to learn how to use all the tools available to us."

Have you heard that before?

Do you believe it?

This post came from my response in a recent Moodle forum and frankly, it was too good not to share more widely (he says modestly!).

Jon D. hit the nail directly on the head in his response...and I pick up from there. When MLTI started in 2002 or so, Bette Manchester and crew did an outstanding job of "mass educating" middle level teachers about the laptops, how they worked, and most importantly, how they could be used by students and teachers as learning tools. Before giving out brand-new laptops to every 7th and 8th grade teacher and student in Maine, they needed to have a massive professional development program like never seen before. The PD had to be thoughtful, engaging, multifaceted, and it had to be done fast! Preparing for initial MLTI implementation had to be done at that time and in that way and ultimately it was very successful. But as Jon notes, there is no way that we can provide personalized "service" to everyone. Mass education just doesn't work anymore (and maybe that goes for our work with our students as well)!

There is a reason why manuals that used to be book size are now on 3 x 5 inch cards; in addition, many tutorials, podcasts, and written explanations are readily available online. Once past a certain level of "technology savvy-ness", we simply need to spend some time with a new device or tool (like VoiceThread) and learn how to use it. Perhaps a major problem is that we don't take time to learn something by playing with it.

Let's deal with the elephant in the room. Why don't we use the expertise/knowledge of our students? Why doesn't every Maine school have an iTeam with tech-learning savvy kids who can not only set up and fix the machines...but more importantly, can help us figure out how to use them to learn? Let's take this even further. I suggest that every elementary, middle and high school have an iTeam whose members are knowledgeable about how the technology works, how it can be used to help students and teacher learn, but are also knowledgeable about using it safely, responsibly, and ethically. Call this digital citizenship if you like. And then we teach every student and teacher in the school how to use digital media in this responsible way. Possible...of course! Probable...only if we have the will to make it happen.

So, whose responsibility is it for us to learn more about technology and learning...and why aren't we using the expertise of our students who are willing and eager to help us learn this stuff?

The yellow brick (curriculum) road

I didn't have a clue...when I participated in my first curriculum development experience. Still a graduate student in an M.A.T. program, I was preparing to do my internship (student teaching) in a school with no full-time English teachers. My fellow interns and I were the English Department and we inherited absolutely nothing in the way of curriculum—except the kids themselves and some used books. Zero, zip, zilch in the curriculum department. And this was 25 years before anyone even started talking about the standards movement! I'm not sure how effective we were with those kids that year, but we certainly learned a lot about what did and did not work in curriculum development. In a word...know your clientele!

Experience number two occurred in my first two years of teaching in a large, suburban high school (2200 students in grades 10-12) where I had a wonderful experience designing all kinds of interesting curricula for a "phased elective program" that was all the rage then. English and social studies departments in particular were building six-week elective courses on all kinds of high interest topics. Remember, this was 1971-1973 and high schools were in the "if we build it they will come" mode. In this progressive era, I taught film, film-making, consumer reading, science fiction, and a host of other topics that WE thought would be engaging for our students. This was an interesting time for curriculum development and was followed shortly by the usual cycle...back-to-basics.

During the next 10 years, I had almost total free-rein in developing curriculum for my middle school and high school classes; also, many opportunities to work on a new school program for both levels. Heady times...exciting...and very challenging.

What did I learn from all of this? Lessons learned will be described in a subsequent post.

What a week!

It’s been an interesting week…proposed national standards in English and math were released on Wednesday while the cover of Newsweek magazine suggested that firing teachers was the way to "save" education in the U.S.

Sounds like it's time to call the psychiatrist! Middle school guru, John Lounsbury, suggests that when we are faced with vexing curriculum issues, we should call the psychiatrist rather than the curriculum coordinator. Why? Because many of the issues that pop up as curriculum related are really about our inability to think about things in new ways.

Keeping the old models as Heidi Hayes Jacobs described in her new book, Curriculum 21...structures like schedules, grouping patterns of both students and teachers, and how we use space and time. Most high schools, for example, use a traditional class schedule that dictates what and how any content will be delivered. In similar fashion, why don't more schools (including middle schools!) use the middle school team as their model for organizing professionals?

Time to call the psychiatrist...to get us to think about more than adding or dropping a course...about more than changing the length of class periods...about more than typing papers on computers instead of typewriters...and calling that curriculum development.

In the meantime, take a look at the proposed national standards linked above to see what you think, particularly about the standards in your area of expertise. And take a look at the Newsweek article as well...and some of the lively discussion that is taking place about it online.

What I Learned About Curriculum from 17 High School Students This Week

For the second year during the February school break, my wife and I accompanied area high school students to help rebuild New Orleans. This year we took 17 students from Old Town and Orono High Schools (and one each from Bangor HS and Hampden Academy) to help rebuild two houses under the auspices of the St. Bernard Project in St. Bernard Parish (southeast New Orleans).

On one house, we began the tedious but important work of "mold remediation" where for a day and a half, 14 of us scrubbed the invisible mold spores from every inch of the studs, rafters, walls, and beams. Wearing respirators we scrubbed our hearts out...not glamorous work, but critical in the 8-12 week cycle of rebuilding a Katrina-damaged home. Later in the week, all 22 of us spent a day out in the country on the bayou, replanting Cypress and Oak trees to provide wind cover and prevent erosion, replacing the trees killed by the flooding.

Spending one week with 17 high school students is quite the experience and I loved (nearly) every minute of it. (Ok, except for the last two hours in the van listening to hip hop on the way home from Logan Airport...but that was my problem!) As I reflected on what I learned by this year's experience I couldn't help but see the connection with EDC 533. Here is what I learned about how adolescents learn and what is important to them. Do you see a connection to our discussions about curriculum and learning? What do these issues have to do with what our curriculum is and how we make it work?

• Adolescents want to do things—physical things...and they want to do them now.  No one minded steel-brushing mold off every surface of a house because they knew how important this first step was in rebuilding a house for someone who didn't have one. And also, because they were working side-by-side with their friends.

• Teenagers want to change the world and they want to do that now too. Not when they are older...they recognize how much they can accomplish and they are anxious to get on with it. Conversely, they have too much tolerance for wasting their time, when they could be doing something useful.

• Adults are absolutely critical in the lives of young people—as role models, mentors, friends, and yes, as adults. Kids need people to fulfill parental roles (whether mom and dad or other caregivers), but they also need opportunities to learn from other caring adults.

• Young adults are amazingly tolerant and understanding of others. They are empathetic and caring about the life situations of others.

• And, of course, they are just plain fun to be around!

How hidden is the hidden curriculum?

In the late '50s (that would be the 1950s, thank you) I attended a new neighborhood elementary school in my hometown of Tecumseh, Michigan.  Small town America in the 1950s. School was nearby and we walked our rode our bikes; we went home for lunch and someone was there to make it for us; and we went home after school, changed our clothes and went out to play with friends until we were called in for supper. It sounds a little like an old episode of Ozzie and Harriet (please look it up if you don't know what this show was).

School was predictable and engaging enough, I suppose. I don't remember much about the curriculum of the elementary years outside of several soundbites that even 50 years later are vivid: Making Easter baskets in 4th grade; spelling bees in grade 4 and higher; naps in kindergarten. That's about it, but I do remember exactly what I learned in fifth and sixth grades.

In fifth grade, my teacher, Mr. W. was a veteran. While I must have learned any number of other things, what I remember most about fifth grade was his many war stories...which he told us every day. The single most vivid recollection of sixth grade was the time our entire class had to hand write, copy really, a paragraph about not acting up and getting in trouble when our teacher was out of the classroom. Mrs. G, our teacher, thought she was teaching us a great lesson by making us copy that paragraph 50 times...and she did. But after the numbness in my fingers wore off, I realized that my classmates and I did learn a life's lesson...but sadly, not the one Mrs. G. intended. The lesson we learned was that you shouldn't tell someone to do one thing and then not model that behavior in your own life. Why did we learn that lesson? Because as a teaching principal Mrs. G. was frequently out of our classroom seeing to her principal duties, leaving us, her sixth grade class, to our own devices. Sometimes that worked...but often it did not. If I had asked either Mr. W. or Mrs. G. what they intended to teach us those two years, I'm certain the lessons we learned were not what they intended. The "hidden" curriculum strikes again.

When I think about all the things kids learn in school...as well as how hard teachers work to have them learn those things, I wonder why the hidden curriculum is so strong and powerful. Is it because we don't often consider the unintended consequences of what we don't explicitly teach or because we ignore the real lessons right in front of us. For example, all the relationship issues that exist in an institution like school where so many different people co-exist. How can there not be a number of lessons learned there? This is the heart of the "hidden" curriculum, I believe.

And our students are watching us every step of the way...seeing how adults treat each other; how some teachers treat certain students with less care and respect than they deserve; how some groups (athletes, honor students, students from affluent families) receive favored or special treatment.

What other examples of the hidden curriculum should we be aware of? And how can we move it from hidden to a legitimate part of the curriculum?