Dear Colleagues,
Curriculum planning has been part of my school life since around 1999. We had our first curriculum coordinator who gave good directions and inspired everyone in the art of curriculum writing for our district. Although I had experience with curriculum writing from college, the basic template for our district curriculum writing was somewhat different than early college curriculum writing.
We worked on everyone's curriculum, with all teachers assigned to different curriculum committees.I was assigned to the social studies curriculum committee. Last year I wrote a basic 8th grade health curriculum for nutrition, and at this time I am working on a 9th grade social studies curriculum.
Any assistance in the area of curriculum writing would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Sincerely yours,
Jo Ann G. Weatherbee
Sounds like you are having some interesting curriculum writing experiences, Jo Ann. Are you working on this alone or with other colleagues. Do you have a format that you are following or are you creating one as you go? Will this curriculum be online or is it a hard copy?
ReplyDeleteI've learned that curriculum work is ongoing. Our district ventured into curriculum mapping with an online Curriculum Mapper. It was a great way to get started, because the mapper is tied in to our state standards and grade level expectations. With the help of our district curriculum coordinator, our district has written maps for Health, Math, and Reading. Grade level teachers meet periodically to continue work on maps and to make revisions. We will eventually get to other curricular areas, as well. Our focus this year will be to make sure our assessments are aligned to the current standards.
ReplyDeleteAnother colleague and I have been collaborating, and we are in the beginning stages of unit composition. He is good at constructing the "what and why",has years of teaching the subject, and I am better at the "how and when", so we are a good team. This process is fluid, but we have good ideas for units and lessons incorporating integration, project based learning,and eventually expeditions. Exciting times!
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