Curriculum+project


 * Curriculum project **
 * DUE: 6/19**

This assignment is a required assignment for all students in the master’s program in Curriculum & Instruction. As part of the requirements to successfully complete the C & I 411 course and meet the expectations of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, candidates will undertake and complete a Curriculum Project. The Curriculum Project will include two components and will be assessed both for a course grade and using a program rubric designed to provide data about our Master’s candidates for program improvement and continuing accreditation. The Curriculum Project will allow students in the C & I 411 course an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the subject area(s) they teach and an indication of the student’s ability to develop and choose appropriate curricular, instructional, and assessment approaches in their content area(s).

The Curriculum Project is both an examination of relevant content in your instructional setting and a plan for the best curricular, instructional, and assessment practices for students in your setting. For example, at the early childhood level, an examination of early mathematical skills such as sorting or grouping, counting, number recognition, etc. could be described, and a plan for a newly created unit exploring these topics could be proposed. Recent and relevant research that support appropriate curricula in this area would be included. Teaching and assessment approaches described in the Project must be diverse and effective in helping pupils understand the content in deep and meaningful ways and in addressing any skill gaps or preconceptions that pupils may have related to the content.

So what will this look like? It will be completed in two parts.

Part 1 will be a descriptive paper that outlines the curriculum “problem,” or challenge, that you are trying to solve. For those of you who are practicing teachers, this should be a real-life, practical challenge from your own classroom: A piece of your curriculum that you would like to re-work, re-think, add, or transform. For those of you who are not classroom teachers, it can be a hypothetical curricular challenge in a K-12 setting. This portion of the project should be 3-4 pages, typed and double-spaced.

Part 2 will be a plan for a 1-2 week curricular unit, either in a single subject area or an interdisciplinary unit. Using what you’ve learned about the “backward design” planning process, you will create a unit (5-10 lessons) centered on an organizing curricular theme of your choice. You **will not** be writing full-blown lesson plans for this unit. Instead, the unit plan will be based on the “backward design” principles and will include: 1) A 1-paragraph rationale for why the unit has relevancy for your students 2) The essential question(s) the unit explores 3) The desired results of the unit: the key understandings students will have as a result of experiencing this series of lessons. What will students know, understand, or be able to do //as a result// of the unit? These will not be taken from state standards documents (though you should certainly take them into account), but will be your own goals for the unit, tailored specifically for your students. 4) A written plan for assessing the unit. What evidence will you use to determine whether students have achieved your desired results? Will there be a culminating project? How can you assess their learning in authentic ways that demonstrate what they have learned? 5) A day-by-day overview of the unit’s learning experiences with 1-2 paragraph (or bullet-pointed) descriptions of each lesson. Descriptions should include a learning objective, a brief description of the content of the lesson, methods/activities you will use, and what students will be asked to do. 6) A list of books, poems, videos, or any other resources you will incorporate. Also, a list of any resources you used to help plan the unit.

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