Characteristics of Curiculum and Instruction

     The book Fulfilling the Promise uses the metaphor of the Clockwork of Three Cogs.  Previously, I have discussed the first two, what students seek and teachers response.  Todays blog will cover the characteristics of the third cog, curriculum and instruction.  The last post served as an introduction to curriculum and instruction while this post will break down the characteristics effective curriculum and instruction.  The text covers five characteristics, they are: Curriculum that is important, focused, engaging, demanding, and scaffolded.

Curriculum that is important
     There is so many subjects out there and so many demands placed on teachers to teach it all and teach it effectively that the task can seem overwhelming.  It is the charge of the teacher to find what information in each subject is critical and teach that information.  Teachers are often caught up in we need to cover this fast so we can get to the next subject, which we will try and cover fast.  Reasearch, pointed out in the text, shows that students who gain a deapth of knowledge versus a width of knowledge are much better off.  So how do teachers transfer the deapth of knowledge in the short amount of time they have on each subject.  Teachers must ensure that students are learning the skills needed to solve the problems presented.  We will not be able to cover every problem, but if skills abilities, and knowledge are learned by the students they can apply them to solve a multitude of problems.

Curriculum and Instruction that are focused
     Focuses curriculum acknowledges that student's time is valuable and in order to assist each student in becoming the best they can we must make the mist of every learning opportunity.  Focused curriculum leads us to let every student know what is expected up front.  Teachers should make it clear as to what the student will know, understand, and be able to do after every block of instruction.  For teachers to be able to transfer this information to the student we must have it clear in our minds before we begin.  Our goals for learning must be precise and at the end of instruction students need to be able to demonstrate what they have learned.

Curriculum and Instruction that are engaging
     My favorite saying during this section from the text was "every lesson plan should be, at its heart, a motivational plan."(p.62)  This makes sense to me.  If we can develop instructional method that gets our students engaged in the lesson they become much more likely to learn the material at a deeper level.  The lessons that are engaging allow students to see the meaning of the material, find it interesting, see the value, and can make connections to them and the world they live in.  We must find the magic to deliver curriculum in a way that is irresistible to our students.

Curriculum and Instruction that are Demanding 
     Students want to challenged.  They want to be challenged and then overcome that challenge and feel that success of completing a demanding task or project.  It is the teachers mission to come up with lessons and materials that demand students put in effort, hard work, and perseverance to stay with it until completed.  To give tough assignments is one thing, but we must ensure that their is a way for each student to meet a standard.  I said "a standard" as each students standard may be different depending on their starting point.  It is important that each student reaps the rewards of their hard work and newly acquired skills or they will give up and have negative feelings toward the lesson, subject, matter, or the teacher.  In short we would not be meeting their needs.  As teachers, we must set the standard and then provide multiple pathways to get to the standard.  The reason that we have demanding curriculum is so that all students will be able to reach a new personal best and will have grown from their individual starting points.

Curriculum and Instruction that are Scaffolded
     High quality teaching is demanding as mentioned above and it sets goals that are just out of reach of the students current ability level, but then it ensures that every student has a way to extend or increase the current ability level or knowledge to meet the goal.  After one has the knowledge, acquired the skill, or has proven the ability we set a new goal that is just higher.  We must teach our students how to grow by requiring growth and then provide a support system to help them grow. The support system is referred to as scaffolding.  Scaffolding is simply providing to pathway to reach a point that was at one time impossible for the student to reach alone.  In order to provide quality scaffolding we must know each of our students and where they need the support at.

     In conclusion we must provide quality curriculum that will build our students into better students and people and we must remember that all students are different and the starting points of knowledge, skills, and abilities are not the same.  Even though, students are the same age they are different and we must teach taking that into account.  It is not enough for us to teach to the best of our abilities, but we must get to know our students and teach to how they learn best.