Curriculum Component #2 - Design

In the two prior weeks, I introduced the Saylor, Alexander, Lewis (SAL) model of curriculum evaluation and described the first component of it – goals/objectives. This week's blog will focus on the second component of the SAL evaluation model – design.

The design portion of the curriculum evaluates that teaching activities are planned for specific times during the lesson. This may include an anticipatory set to introduce the topic. Another teaching activity should help students' further gain knowledge and comprehend the content, such as utilizing computers to research in depth information about the topic. Lastly, the teaching activities should then move the students to thinking about the content at a higher level. For example, in science students could compare and contrast the planets of the solar system. In math, they could write their own story problem and then work out the calculation. In social studies, students can hypothesize how the country would be different if the Confederacy won the US Civil War. All of these activities allow students' minds to fully grasp the content and manipulate it in a way that it gets "stuck" in their brain. That is learning!

Planning how and when all of the learning experiences will take place is the foundation of the curriculum design component. Both the "how" and "when" are never straight forward though. The "how" of curriculum design takes creativity and time to create. Also, students' different learning styles should be taken into account. Various teaching techniques that are effective for audio learners will be different than those that work for visual learners. The key for a teacher is to incorporate various activities that will stimulate the minds of all different learners.

The "when" of curriculum design can start out easy, but then becomes a challenge as all students progress a different paces while learning. Introducing a topic is usually the easiest part of curriculum -- it is the building blocks and typically simple. However, formative assessment (assessment techniques that tell the teacher IF the students understood the content) will then guide a teacher to how the other parts of the curriculum will fall into place. Some students may need to review parts of the curriculum, while others might learn it the very first time it is presented. Some students might need to go faster in the curriculum in order to keep them from getting bored, while others might need remediation. All of these decisions affect the design component of a curriculum.

A self-paced curriculum that allows students to move as quickly or slowly as they need to is often the answer to keeping all students motivated to learn. Next week's blog will move into the idea of curriculum implementation and further discuss this option. See you then!