Developing New Curriculum Documents

Yesterday I was feeling a little overwhelmed thinking about the new social studies standards and all the work that has to get done in order to create guides and assessments that will help support our teachers. Luckily, someone from my team came into my office and asked some really great questions that helped me start thinking about what my next steps should be. As I started brainstorming (complete with color-coded sticky notes), I kept coming back to three main thoughts. And, of course, these thoughts just brought up more questions to be answered...

If we create a curriculum guide that looks like most have looked, then teachers will teach like they have been teaching. Whatever we create needs to have a structure that reflects and supports the shift to inquiry-based learning.

How can we create guides that support both new teachers and veteran teachers?
How can we give examples while avoiding some teachers and admin using those as step-by-step plans that do not take into account the unique skills and needs of their students?

If we create typical multiple-choice assessments, then teachers will continue to teach to the test and focus on regurgitating information. Our “assessments” need to take into account the fact that that inquiry-based learning is messy, and they should, as Holly Clark states, “disrupt the culture of one right answer.”

How can we create assessments that reflect our understanding that all students do not learn or demonstrate their learning the same way?
How do we provide our teachers with the guidance, support, and time to help make this type of assessment a reality?

If we want teachers to understand the benefits of inquiry-based learning, then we need to create PD that allows them to experience inquiry-based learning. It makes no sense to preach about the advantages of inquiry learning in a PD session that has a typical one-size-fits-all, sit-and-get structure.

How can we create effective inquiry-based PD that honors the varying degrees of experience amongst our teachers?
How can we create learning experiences for teachers that model the type of experiences we want for our students?

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Roxi Thompson

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