The Many Paths of Curriculum

Broadly speaking, traditional methods courses like TE 407 and TE 408 are divided into three broad areas: curriculum (the what of teaching), instruction (the how of teaching), and assessment (how we know they learned what we taught).

Throughout the year, we will consider each of these three areas in some depth. But as you no doubt noticed, as we have started the year, we have given our greatest attention to curriculum.

Defining curriculum as “the what of teaching” works for everyday purposes. But it is also helpful to step back and think about curriculum in its broader meaning. The origins of the word come from the Latin, currere, which means “to run.” Its meaning was eventually extended to the track or course on which one runs. Curriculum can therefore be thought of as a journey—as the journey one takes throughout life. 

In the state of Michigan, as in the rest of the world, there is content that is assigned to each year of the schooling experience. For the past twenty-five years or so, this content has been organized into learning standards. Michigan’s newly proposed standards for k-12 social studies can be found here.

When teachers plan their instruction, they begin by consulting the relevant curriculum documents. These include standards documents and the local textbook that is assigned to your course.

What we have been practicing is the art of gathering multiple types of resources (written, visual, online, etc.) that can be used to teach the required content in a way that is both engaging and inclusive of multiple perspectives. But gathering is only the first step!

For it is how we ask questions that “pull out” all that a resource offers that is the true art of teaching. Indeed, one of the most important resources for your students is you! Think about how you can maximize the unique talents you bring to the classroom.

It is a question of how we can open up a space in which thinking and feeling and caring can happen.

Ultimately, as we leave this first unit of TE 407, we want you to understand that all of life has the potential to become curriculum. Indeed, as we prepare to assist Ben and the other teachers from Haslett Middle School on their field trip tomorrow, it is a great time to remind ourselves that true learning happens when the learner is able to organize their life experiences so as to go on growing in the future.

Our job as teachers is to learn how to take advantage of whatever the school day brings—a textbook reading, a guest talk from Mike Lupica, a lockdown drill, a school dance, or a field trip.

Great job through our first unit of the year! Andrew and I look forward to reading your curriculum resource assignments, which are due up on your website by Wednesday, October 5.

TE 407 Course Resources: September

Here are links to the course syllabus, the curriculum resource assignment, and the Michigan Social Studies standards.

TE 407 Syllabus

Curriculum Resource Assignment

Michigan Social Studies Standards

Google Earth Tours Presentation Schedule

Teaching in Ben's Class Schedule