This chapter seemed to be all about the potential problems that might arise when trying to create or change curriculum. With that in mind, I instantly thought of the math curriculum and how that's been changing in LKSD within the 13 years of teaching the subject. I know Renee isn't all into the Saxon math curriculum (just yet), but I thought that was the best math curriculum we've had. Once you get over the line-by-line say what you've got to say situation, it's a really good program for younger kids. What I loved about it was that there was a lot of repetition and review. It's not like Harcourt where you go from one topic to the next (with very little review) and continuity. We had Saxon for a number of years within this school district and when they decided to change to Harcourt, I don't remember a pilot or a bunch of teachers saying, "Wow, this is great! Check it out!" All I remember was we had to re-learn another math curriculum. I don't think a study was done to say how "bad" Saxon was for our students. And if so, Rachael can correct me if she knows, but when it comes to math, it seems we don't have much say. Now the talk is into something called Singapore Math. Rachael and I briefly talked of this, or she brought it up in our class, but I hope our math doesn't change because I'm creating material to supplement Harcourt math now.
Anyway, when I was reading this chapter on situation analysis all I could think of was how I couldn't see what the district was doing about math. I know we have a cool social studies curriculum to follow, which as Kristen pointed out is totally teacher based and driven, but with math? I don't know.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Chapter 3 - Needs Analysis
I’m having a tough time trying to apply the whole idea of “curriculum development” to myself right now. I think because the curriculums we have right now is something we have to do, have to follow anyway. The biggest difference between our school and the other LKSD schools is that we teach Yugtun to grade 6 and not grade 3. In fourth grade on up, we use the Yuuyaraq curriculum which is our social studies/science curriculum. The best thing about the curriculum is that individual teachers and schools can adapt it to meet the regional language/dialect and resources.
I’m not used to being in a position of developing curriculum as this book suggests. I can take the ideas to apply to our school, but I don’t understand why I would need to. How this book best applies to me is in the terms of language maintenance. Already I see the need for Yugtun language maintenance and I do believe with my research I will get the information that I need. Several of the procedures suggested in the book are what I plan on using when conducting needs analysis. I’m going to give interviews, focus groups, and that I’m going to conduct this semester. These area things that pop out when reading this chapter.
I’m not used to being in a position of developing curriculum as this book suggests. I can take the ideas to apply to our school, but I don’t understand why I would need to. How this book best applies to me is in the terms of language maintenance. Already I see the need for Yugtun language maintenance and I do believe with my research I will get the information that I need. Several of the procedures suggested in the book are what I plan on using when conducting needs analysis. I’m going to give interviews, focus groups, and that I’m going to conduct this semester. These area things that pop out when reading this chapter.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Chapter 1,2 & 7
Two things that stuck out from the readings were: syllabus and peer coaching. The way that I read creating a syllabus was to plan out the year for the students. When we did that for math, it made teaching math easier to plan (this will be my second year using it). The district format is called "mapping" and in it we have several maps to teach writing, science and social studies. One of the things I like about mapping is that it gives me a whole year's view on a week by week basis. I'm not too sure that when they say "syllabus" they mean for one subject for one grade level, but that's what it meant to me as I was reading.
There was another section in chapter two about peer coaching. This is something our school has attempted to do, but not very successfully. I think because we feel we need to be in our classroom all the time. There were several new teachers in my room last year who came in not necessarily for peer coaching but for observation. At the start of the school year, we were highly enouraged by our principal to put the practice of peer coaching to work this year. I know at this stage in my teaching career that that's probably a good move. Sometimes we get into the rut of teaching and I believe I've reached that point and need additional points. Having the SIOP class was helpful indeed, but it's difficult at this point to put practice to work. I'm thinking since I've planned out math that it would be easy to use my "essential questions" and turn them into content and language objectives. I think also it would be much easier for me too to try to map out grade 4 social studies/science class also.
It's difficult to think of a "whole" curriculum when you teach one or two classes. I want to ask, are we to look at whole curriculums in this class and not so much the grade level we currently teach? Chapter one talked about the beginnings of teaching and knowing English in the 1950s and the importances of doing so. The Yugtun language doesn't have a global need and I know that the regional need is not the strongest right now. I guess knowing these two differences makes it hard to grasp the idea of "whole curriculum". Help anyone?
There was another section in chapter two about peer coaching. This is something our school has attempted to do, but not very successfully. I think because we feel we need to be in our classroom all the time. There were several new teachers in my room last year who came in not necessarily for peer coaching but for observation. At the start of the school year, we were highly enouraged by our principal to put the practice of peer coaching to work this year. I know at this stage in my teaching career that that's probably a good move. Sometimes we get into the rut of teaching and I believe I've reached that point and need additional points. Having the SIOP class was helpful indeed, but it's difficult at this point to put practice to work. I'm thinking since I've planned out math that it would be easy to use my "essential questions" and turn them into content and language objectives. I think also it would be much easier for me too to try to map out grade 4 social studies/science class also.
It's difficult to think of a "whole" curriculum when you teach one or two classes. I want to ask, are we to look at whole curriculums in this class and not so much the grade level we currently teach? Chapter one talked about the beginnings of teaching and knowing English in the 1950s and the importances of doing so. The Yugtun language doesn't have a global need and I know that the regional need is not the strongest right now. I guess knowing these two differences makes it hard to grasp the idea of "whole curriculum". Help anyone?
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