Cycle Five: What Constitutes a Successful Curriculum?

Cycle Five: What Constitutes a Successful Curriculum?

            When it comes to thinking of a successful curriculum, many questions arise.  How can this success be measured?  Who is deeming the curriculum as successful?  Who is it supporting?  In reflecting on the question at hand, the readings throughout the semester, watching the news, and the current readings for this cycle, I am not going to attempt to answer all of the questions.  I found three main components I deem as important when answering this cycle’s question however this is my opinion at which you may or may not agree.  Those three components are: Proper organization of schools, support for academics and living environments,  teacher support, and methods of measuring.

            The first mentioned component is having a proper organizational system in place.  The first thing that comes to mind is class size.  I have 27 students and think this is too many.  The Lansing School District has many schools at which contain as many as 28-32 students in a class.  I also think this is too many.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love each of my students and have a very well behaved group of kiddos.  However, could my classroom benefit from a lower teacher to student ratio?  Of course!  Yu cannot expect one person to give adequate time to make sure all students are reaching their full potential when you have so many.  There was a day in November.  I believe it was the day before Thanksgiving.  I had 17 kids that day.  I remember thinking how personal it felt, I was able to help many students, and it just seemed like a more conducive environment.  Another organizational aspect is scheduling.  It is imperative to break apart the day to ensure there is little to no monotony.  You should never have students doing the same subject for more than an hour.  I also think in order to help with focus.  Students should have an hour lunch with options during this time such as athletic, computer, reading, or other areas of interest.  Student should also have two recesses a day.  I am an elementary teacher so my focus is with the little guys.  I think in the hour lunch period, recess should be included.  I also think towards the end of the day another 20 minute recess should be provided.  Students are at school for 7 to7.5 hours a day.  Let’s allow them time to be kids.  I also believe the school schedule should allow for time with a councilor if needed.  One councilor per school is not enough.  Students have many life experiences and most need guidance.    I think one councilor per grade or per two grades would be beneficial.  It also needs to be easy to access the school councilor.  Something that would help allow this could be if he/she pays each class a visit once a week to discuss a topic and at the end of the session students can make an appointment if needed to see him/her privately.  Organization can help produce a supportive curriculum to students and teachers.

            Another component of a successful curriculum is having academic and life support.  Core subjects and values should be taught.  You cannot have one without the other and still be successful.  Academics are important but if you only teach academics you are really focusing on the median group of students and not those from extreme situations.  When it comes to teaching academics, daily objectives should be taught.  In teaching these objectives it should be implemented that the students are aware of these objectives so they must be mentioned during the lesson.  It should also be mentioned how they will learn the objective and how this objective relates to the real world.  We also need to focus on the quality verses quantity aspect of teaching objectives.  I find it quite sad that each year I am told that it is impossible to teach all of the 4^th grade social studies objectives.  Why not eliminate some and spend quality time diving into objectives to the point where students are demonstrating mastery of an objective verses merely breezing through it just to say it was taught.  To go along with the objectives, student work must also be shown in new ways.  Bulletin boards should be achievement boards at which students are active members of. The objectives taught, vocabulary, and student work should be shown.  Students should have multiple forms of work shown that shows their growth in the area being taught.  These are just some ways of providing academic support as well as support for home life.

            My third component can be misconstrued.  Teacher support is a method of producing qualified teachers.  I work at a Charter School where we are given raises based on our abilities, which are assessed, based on weekly observations, parent feedback, and student test scores.  I find this to be a good thing.  I am always trying to put forth my best.  The first reason is for my students, but the second reason is because I will be rewarded for it.  I personally think teachers in public schools should be paid more similarly to charter schools.  I think teachers should be paid on the quality of work they produce just like it is at any other job.  I also think it is the school’s responsibility to ensure that the teachers have all the resources and support possible to do their best.  Training and professional development should be offered via the administrative team and conversations of progress and concern should always be voiced so each teacher knows where they stand and how they can improve.  The teacher’s time should also be valued.  This is a job where you are constantly thinking ahead, on the spot, and having to make thousands of decisions a day.  An hour lunch would help for rejuvenation; planning time should never have meetings so the teacher can accomplish tasks, and staff meetings should be based on teacher need development.  If you take care of the teacher they will take care of the student, which is the reason we are all here.

            The final component of a successful curriculum is measurement.  How do you know it is successful?  Talking about standardized tests could be an entire dissertation in itself.  My take on how to incorporate these are simple.  There needs to be a tangible way to collect data for schools across the nation.  Standardized tests offer that tangible data.  Should this be the only method?  Heavens no.  I believe students need to demonstrate application of what has been taught and standardized tests limits that application.  In real world scenarios, students are not givn a paper and pencil to make decisions.  They apply what they know and generate ideas/concepts.  There needs to be a balance of using the standardized test to get a general idea but also take into account student classroom performance. 

            The last item I want to point out is that successful curriculum should be reflected upon and updated.  What works in 2012 may not work in 2042.  We need to have aim talks and reflection of practices.  This will help reach that goal in  mind which is a successful curriculum.  

Sources

http://www.wickedlocal.com/topsfield/news/x760606811/Tri-Town-School-Committee-picks-new-math-curriculum#axzz1rIiaOg4N

This article is about a school who adopted a new math program. What interested me in this article was the fact that the spokesperson for the new math program advocated that it implements the common core standards at which are being encouraged nationwide.  These standards encourage critical thinking and problem solving.

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/04/05/roy-roberts-reveals-emergency-plan-to-overhaul-detroit-public-schools/

This article hits close to home as it talks about our neighboring city of Detroit.  We all know that inner city Detroit is a sad place and the hardship of this is who is impacted.  The kids.  I was pleased to see how they are restructuring their schools by passing the administrative levels to the schools.  With a big district as DPS it is imperative they do not treat all schools the same way.  

http://www.quickanded.com/2012/04/expanding-learning-time-and-doing-it-well.html

The issue of extending learning time was the topic of this blog.  This would be another organizational piece to the success of curriculum.  I believe this would depend on the district.  My school is implementing what is called a balanced calendar.  The same amount of school days in a year, the same 7 hour time frame each day, but school starts three weeks earlier and therefore 3 supplemental weeks are distributed.  This will close the gap of summer erosion and offer breaks during those long months during the year which will hopefully help student learning.

http://www.kipp.org/

One of our articles discussed a similar school system  which reminded me of the KIPP program ( I believe they were briefly mentioned as well).  As a school, we saw Waiting for Superman and I was impacted by KIPP.  As a charter school teacher for a different company it was interesting to see similarities between us and KIPP.  I am not on thwe charter school bandwagon if you will.  The more I continue my research and reflect, I believe a balance between public schools and charter schools would be the Utopian experience.

http://www.nhaschools.com/Pages/default.aspx

In my reflections I often mention what I know based on my experiences.  I only have experience in charter schools as I am finishing my third year.  Someday i hope to get experience in a public school before venturing off into the world of school restructuring and shaking things up a bit to help our future.  To give you more information about my company and the ideas that have been mentioned in my reflections, I feel this website will be of help to get a view of my background thus far.