I've always looked at curriculum as a sort of map of what we as teachers are expected to help our students master. After doing the readings for this module, I still feel the same way. The purpose of curriculum is to put order to the content our students must learn. As a first grade teacher, I feel as though the use of following curriculum is very important, as I am helping to set the foundation of my students' learning. What I teach them will be the base from which they continue from when they move onto second grade, all the way up through twelfth grade and on into higher education.
I honestly feel like the teachers in my district do not have much control over the designing of curriculum. In my five years as a teacher, my colleagues and I at my school have been asked to redesign curriculum for various content areas numerous times. We spend hours doing so and putting together a good plan. Then, when the new school year begins, our suggestions and ideas have been completely ignored in favor of whatever the Board has decided upon (my favorite part of this being that some Board members have no educator experience whatsoever -- note the sarcasm :), and we are never given any explanation as to why our well-thought out plans have been thrown in the garbage. I understand that all members of the educational community must work together to develop the best curriculum for the students we are serving... so why doesn't that happen? I believe that the teachers in my district need to be able to give more input... and that input should be considered. For example, one of the teachers in our building recently met with all grade levels to find out what we all do in the subject of writing, as we are redesigning our district's writing curriculum. As she was writing down our input, she even stated, "I don't know why I'm doing this, no one will probably ever look at this or ask to see it... But I'm doing as I'm asked."
I feel that in my classroom the reading and math curriculum are followed quite well. My students are learning, beginning to show mastery, or showing mastery in these areas. When it comes to writing, science, and social studies, following the curriculum becomes much more difficult. My students do receive instruction in these areas, but usually in during the language arts block, when we are reading a science- or social studies-related story, or when I am working with reading groups and other students are completing a center involving a blend of writing and science, writing and social studies, or writing itself. In this way I don't really feel like I'm covering the curriculum in these areas, and if I were to open our district curriculum guide and look at those subjects right now, I know I would find areas in which I was lacking. I guess my concern is, if these children don't learn how to read first and foremost, how can I possibly focus on anything else?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I understand your sarcasm- I know that sometimes we are asked for our input but really it is a gesture. I also know that this goes for things my district would latch onto and then train us to do only to be replaced by something else the next year. But we are all in this together so I think the best way to combat this is through real communication between the curriculum folks and teachers- we are all under pressure from someone but we are also in the same boat- with the same end goal—educating the students. I think we rally can work together on this one.
ReplyDelete