Creating Curriculum with Meaning and Purpose

I have come to realize when it comes to curriculum, nothing is more important than the child, and the willingness to remain flexible with the planning process. This creative process is art, and contributes to what Seth Godin refers to as becoming indispensable in his twelfth book, Linchpin.There is not one right way to do this.

“Here’s the truth you have to wrestle with: the reason that art (writing, engaging, leading, all of it) is valuable is precisely why I can’t tell you how to do it. If there were a map, there’d be no art, because art is the act of navigating without a map. Don’t you hate that? I love that there’s no map.” Seth Godin

Be indispensable. Create meaning. Be purposeful. Do important work. Do work that’s bigger than you.

The most rewarding teaching happens when I create the curriculum myself. Why? Because the process of creating is messy and valuable and teaches me the most. According to Grant Wiggins, this teacher planning is “one of the most vital elements of the enterprise.” He discusses it in a blog post titled, “How do you plan? On templates and instructional planning.”  I always ask myself — ‘Why am I doing what I am doing?’ I use Backward by Design because by starting with the end, the unit project, and focusing on big picture questions while incorporating foundations, my students and I are able to make connections and see relevancy. In teaching, I create a map, but do not have a chosen pathway. Great teachers are content experts who can go where their students need them to go in order to accomplish what they hope to accomplish. Each student creates their own path.

So, what’s in a unit?

Here is what is in one of mine — In our district, there is not a 9th grade History course, so in order to create an online, integrated 9th grade ELA course, we needed to very much tap into the Common Core State Standards, and include elements of Humanities, and Historical Thinking/Literacy. This in itself increases meaning and purpose for our students. Each semester of my 9th grade ELA course is comprised of four Units. Our students work through the curriculum online, and at their own pace, but come in for weekly meetings to discuss progress, get assistance, and present projects. I do not claim to have things all figured out. There are plenty of innovative ways to create and deliver online curriculum. I accept that in sharing my work with you, I am vulnerable. Although that is not easy, it is necessary — I share because I believe I have something to contribute, and plenty to learn. After reading Grant Wiggins’ “The Futility of Trying to Teach Everything,” I realized what I have to teach is what is important to the students. This led to developing the essential questions for my 9th grade class units.

Big picture questions for the first semester of the course –

Unit 1: Why is an education important?

Unit 2: What is the role of a citizen in a democracy?

Unit 3: What are the roles of violence and compassion in a democratic society?

Unit 4: Is service learning important in a democracy?

Unit 1 Essential Questions –

1. When and where do learning take place?

2. Who can and should be educated, and why?

3. Who should have access to college? Should it be open to all?

4. What is your educational philosophy?

5. What is an appropriate metaphor for learning/education?

Unit 1 Project –

Students are asked to create an individual learning plan, complete with their philosophy of education, and metaphor for learning. It is important to me that this ILP is the students.’ I do not edit it, or make changes. I listen. I read. I guide. Students are always encouraged to look at the project first. This guides not only my work, but the work of my students. I want them to know why I am asking them to do what I am asking them to do.

If you’d like to see more, watch my video below!

What guides you work? And, why do you teach what you teach?

In my last post, Why do you teach? And, why do you stay?, I hoped to start a conversation about teaching — why in the world are we here, and what keeps us here? I now want to look at what guides our work, and why we teach what we teach. For most of my teaching career, I did not know why I taught what I taught, or I thought I knew, but didn’t. My experience as a student-teacher, and then beginning teacher, led me to answer the above questions with one of the following answers — ‘It’s in the standards, on the pacing guide, will be on the test, or because I love it and want to share it with my students.’ These are wrong. I teach people, not English. My job is to create citizens — good, local, global, digital, compassionate people — people capable of self-governance and scholarly work. The content is a means to do this. The literature I incorporate is a foundation, rather than the end all. Curriculum must be bigger than us, must be guided by a solid framework, and must be part of the big picture plan. Sure, this is a tall order, but I know we can do it.

What guides my work now?

One thing that guides my work are the ESLRs (Expected Schoolwide Learning Results) for the Riverside Virtual School. All students will become an effective communicator, a skilled problem solver, a proficient technology user, an informed career planner, and an engaged community member. I admit that for a long time these were something I had posted on my wall, and discussed during a WASC review, but did not fully embrace with much meaning or purpose. Another thing that guides my work are Art Costa and Ben Kallick’s 16 Habits of Mind. As a teacher, I must strive to practice these habits myself. I wrote about this in a past post titled, The 16 Habits of Mind and Online Curriculum. I now also ask myself the ultimate question, What does it mean to be a good person, living a good life, in a good society? Once I started to make connections between education, democracy, citizenship, leadership, science, art, mathematics, etc., I realized everything is connected, and that I needed to teach students how to think, not English. Another thing that guides my work now is transformational leadership. My responsibility lies in guiding citizens as they face conflicting values, helping them to clarify their collective vision, making difficult decisions, and leading others to higher moral ground. When I look at this list I see very little that has to do with literature, per se. In my next post, I will share a unit from my 9th grade integrated English course where you will see how I incorporate traditional literature with projects and historical literacy in order to address these guiding principles.

Why do I teach what I teach now?

In Ronald Heifetz’s book Leadership Without Easy Answers, he makes it clear to me that teaching is a leadership activity, not a position. As an English teacher, how can I use literature to teach people? Let’s look at the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Why did I used to teach this novel? I used to teach this novel because it was a great way to cover symbolism, characterization, plot, setting, imagery, and foreshadowing. Sure we discussed big picture themes such as good and evil, and I did my best to make the book come alive for students, but it was still very on-the-surface work. What has changed? Now, I use the novel to uncover what Grant Wiggins refers to as Essential Questions. Now, I embrace John Dewey’s notions that self and education are a continuous process. Now, I ask myself, What do I want my students to remember about this unit 20 years from now? I know their answers will have nothing to do with plot, setting, and characterization, but rather with confronting difficult and essential questions such as:

What is leadership?

What makes a good leader?

Where do leaders come from?

Do the ends justify the means?

How can you become a better leader?

Now, when I ask my students in an online discussion board to, “List the ten greatest leaders the world has known (past or present), and explain why they appear in your top ten list,” I respond with more questions, and I weave in the story: Is leadership based on influence or moral activity? Does a good leader lead with fear or love? Does a good leader contribute to the common good by making compassionate decisions? Does a good leader influence the community to follow the leader’s vision or influence the community to face its problems? These are the powerful lessons they will remember. Now, when Hitler and Gandhi appear on a student’s list of the ten greatest leaders of all time, together, I know how to respond. How would you respond?

SMART Idea — Teachers should see themselves as transformational leaders. Not all opinions are equal. As teachers, our job is to help move students to a higher moral ground. That is why this question guides my work — What does it mean to be a good person, living a good life, in a good society?

Why do you teach? And, why do you stay?

We all have our reasons for becoming teachers.

Some enter the teaching profession because of an amazing teacher, or several amazing teachers. Some feel teaching is simply what they were meant to do. Some become teachers to contribute to the common good. Others become teachers because of one, or many, bad experiences. Some want power, to always be right, to stand at the head of the class, in control of young, impressionable minds and destinies, armed with red ink, and the desire to “teach kids a lesson” when they attempt to submit late or poorly done assignments. Some want summers off, or to read the newspaper in the back of the room while students work quietly at their desks. It happens — so do many other things you see in movies, hoping it is fabrication and stereotyping, rather than truth. Teaching, like other professions, has good and bad.

Many good teachers leave our profession.

Many good teachers leave our profession to work at coffee shops, city jobs, open their own business, or go back to school. Many good teachers are made to feel that they are not professionals capable of making decisions, in spite of their qualifications, credentials, and degrees. Teachers can be made to feel as though they are replaceable numbers, required to ask permission to use supplemental material in their classrooms, implement curriculum they do not believe in, and harm students with test prep and standardization. Plenty of good teachers feel as though they do not have expertise. By expertise I do not mean authority, but rather knowledge, skill, even intuition. Many good teachers do not have the opportunity to become content experts. Unable to collaborate authentically and hone their skills, much of the required professional development they are asked to complete lacks meaning and purpose. Can you imagine if teachers were “allowed” to choose their own professional development, pursuing passions, modeling curiosity and life-long learning, while receiving “credit?” If teachers simply deliver a set curriculum designed for credits and grades rather than learning, accompanied with answer keys and scripts, then what is so special about what we do? Whether we mean to or not, we do to teachers what we do to students — make top down decisions, punish the good because of the bad, and give them very little choice. My goal is to provide students with meaningful and purposeful work.

The world is at our fingertips, just as it is for our students.

We can, through blogging, Twitter, and other social media resources, connect with teachers all over the world — many do this every day. Teachers are encouraged to take risks, not be afraid to try new things, be the linchpin, question the status quo, rebel, and use technology, only to find themselves sitting in meetings discussing outdated ideas, implementing policies without knowing why, being reprimanded for teaching a novel or chapter in November instead of in April like the rest of the department, and using curriculum they know is irrelevant and unengaging, but  is “approved,” and aligned with the last textbook adoption. Is this what we have to work with?

I know there are many who are losing faith in our profession.

Recently, I presented at the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference and e-Learning Strategies Symposium to showcase some of the work we are doing at The Riverside Virtual School. Many colleagues hear and see what we are doing and say, ‘That’s great, but… we can’t do that.’ I recognize that I am lucky. Lucky to work with a leader who challenges me to challenge myself. Lucky to work with like-minded, tech savvy, go getter colleagues who want to pave the way and do difficult work. That’s why I teach here. Many colleagues find themselves envious of teachers who are able to spend their time creatively teaching, and trying new things. It is important for us to share our stories — good, bad, and ugly. It is through this collaboration that we try to ensure we do the right thing for our students even if it seems impossible — It is through this dialogue that we create good teachers, and encourage them to stay.

“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”

Noam Chomsky
Why do I stay?

Why do we continue to do what we do? How do we stay committed to doing important work in spite of opposition? Like many of you, I stay to create inquisitive scholars, and to assist students in developing a deeper awareness of who they are and how they fit into this crazy world. Like many of you, I considered leaving our profession to pursue other things. I couldn’t leave. I didn’t leave. Instead, I surround myself with smart people. I collaborate with other educators interested in innovation and questioning why we do what we do. I listen. I read. I interact. I seek out — online, face to face, globally, and locally — those who are doing amazing things, and I learn.

The role of the teacher has changed.

Some of us are willing to change, and others are not. Some say they are willing, but don’t. Many think they have, but haven’t. Students do not need us for answers. They need us to guide them on a journey of investigation, assist them in their unique development and understanding, ask difficult questions, and offer support as they draw sound conclusions. They deserve us at our best, positive and persistent, and although exhausted, present. For them. We know teaching is more than content, that teachers frequently are asked to take on the role of counselor and parent, and that for many of our students, life outside of school is unpleasant and unsafe. Good teachers know that nothing is more important than the well being of young people, and that until and unless they feel safe, they cannot grow. Good teachers know that their role is to find the balance between child, curriculum, and teacher, and be trusted to change the plan at any minute for their individual students.

How in the world do we do all of this?

We do this by knowing our students, creating purposeful and meaningful learning opportunities for them, asking ourselves difficult questions, and trusting — ourselves, colleagues, and students. To know what makes learning purposeful and meaningful, one must know what makes learning useless and boring. How do we define purposeful and meaningful? One place to start is with the classics, the education pioneers of the past, like John Dewey.

“Abandon the notion that subject-matter as something fixed and ready-made in itself, outside of the child’s experience; cease thinking of a child’s experience as also something hard and fast; see it as something fluent, embryonic, vital; and we realize that the child and the curriculum are simply two limits which define a single process.”

John Dewey — The Child and the Curriculum
SMART idea — Next time you have a meeting, set the agenda aside and start a conversation — Why do you teach,? And, why do you stay? 

Seven Teacher Questions About The Common Core Standards

The Riverside Unified School District is taking a collaborative approach in the transition to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) by bringing together teachers from different levels and disciplines to serve as Common Core Ambassadors.  These ambassadors will work together to discuss ideas, and to provide input regarding district-wide implementation. We have our second meeting next month, and I am looking forward to the process.

Here at the Riverside Virtual School, the English and History Departments started this transition last year with the creation of blended, project-based, integrated middle school curriculum which incorporates both ELA standards and historical literacy. Currently, Dave Dillon, the RVS History Department Chair and I are working on 9th and 10th grade online courses, allowing for vertical articulation for grades 7-10 (eventually 7-11).

The CCSS have liberated us to do more authentic work, and in doing so, hone in on the three factors to consider in a purposeful and engaging educational environment – technology, curriculum, and people. Technology is a tool, but without the standards and theoretical framework guiding our work, the tools are not as powerful, or purposeful. We are able to collaborate across disciplines, providing that valuable, guiding framework that is so often missing, and leads to what we all hope for our students – whole student education, connection, engagement, rigor, and relevance. Not only is this extremely rewarding as an educator, but most importantly it has added value to the learning experience of our students.

7 Questions that I continue to struggle with as someone who has started this transition to CCSS process:

1. Will we transition to CCSS without increasing standardization?
2. Will we explore all that the CCSS have to offer while remaining flexible, allowing teachers to meet students where they are, and without making coursework prescribed and constraining for our students and teachers?
3. Can we continue to create purposeful and engaging learning experiences for our students?
4. Can we create opportunities for students to enjoy the learning process rather than simply see what they are doing at school as a series of hoops to jump through and credits to obtain?
5. Can we ensure that the standards guide our work, rather than determine our work, keeping in mind that planning is more valuable than plans?
6. Are we using technology successfully?
7. How will we prepare students for ever-changing assessments?

Our Philosophy

Open Letter to Students:

Welcome to Riverside Virtual School.  If you are a returning student expect some changes that will hopefully enhance your educational experience.  If you are new to RVS, we are looking forward to helping you engage in a new educational experience that will certainly be different from your past experiences.

We love helping students to become inquisitive scholars, and develop and hone their academic skills.  A few thoughts on that so you can think about the journey you are about to undertake:  our purpose is to help students develop a deeper awareness of who they are and how they fit into this crazy world.  Our studies in history, the social sciences, and English Language Arts will lead us to ponder questions that have intrigued mankind since the dawn of human existence.

Much of our time as students and then as a teachers has been focused on the question, “How do we create the good person, living the good life, in the good society?”  As you will see this leads not to answers, but to more questions to ponder.  What is a good person? What is a good life? What is a good society?  As you move through your educational experience at RVS expect more questions than answers if we are doing things right.

Our roles are to be partners in an investigation of eternal questions, the answers that have been posed, developing our own understanding of the questions and answers based on rigorous academic work.  We will ask questions, identify and analyze sources, piece together evidence from multiple sources, and draw our own sound conclusions.

To start you thinking about the journey, we would suggest that one way to define the good person, living the good life, in the good society is that it is an educated person, who uses their knowledge to help create a more just and fair society.  So, what would that look like and how does that relate to your experiences and educational studies?

Our job is to help you become a literate person capable of being “the good person, living the good life, in the good society.”

Respectfully,

Mrs. Courtney Hanes - English Department Chair

Mr. David Dillon - History Department Chair

“It is only this more expansive and demanding meaning of literacy, or what Dewey calls “popular enlightenment," that can inform and animate a vital democracy. Indeed, Dewey reminds us, a successful democracy is conceivable only when and where individuals are able to “think for themselves,” “judge independently,” and "discriminate between good and bad information.”

John Dewey Quote from The Child and the Curriculum

"Abandon the notion of subject-matter as something fixed and ready-made in itself, outside the child's experience; cease thinking of the child's experience as also something hard and fast; see it as something fluent, embryonic, vital; and we realize that the child and the curriculum are simply two units which define a single process. Just as two points define a straight line, so the present standpoint of the child and the facts and truths of studies define instruction. It is continuous reconstruction, moving from the child's present experience out into that represented by the organized bodies of truth that we call studies."
John Dewey - The Child and the Curriculum

The Road to Online Teaching and Learning - Student Spotlight

Those who make a difference in their school, community, and world are those who do things differently than everyone else, those who do not simply follow the ways of others, or settle for the way it has always been. Those who make a difference question, rebel, create, collaborate, and change. Sometimes this gets them into trouble, and sometimes it makes them heroes, or at least really good at what they do. The most innovative teachers are the most innovative learners... they are the ones who dare to lead, in spite of the challenge, in spite of the fear, and in spite of the possibility of falling flat on their faces.

I have always done things a little bit differently than everyone else. In my family, there are not many teachers. Major in business, I was told... that's where the money is. I wasn't looking for money-I was looking for purpose. The reason to become a teacher is different for everyone. All teachers start somewhere, and everyone has teachers. The road to teaching can arise from one or many bad experiences. Teaching can be a profession or a calling. Some may be drawn to teaching because of an amazing teacher, or several amazing teachers who they wanted to emulate, and "be" when they grew up. Some feel teaching is simply what they were meant to do, and they really had little or no choice in the matter. Others try many other things before teaching tries them.

I am intrigued by the various roads to teaching, and learning. I became a teacher because I wanted to share my love of literature, to explore with my students, encourage them to find their powerful and unique place in this world, and because I wanted to continue to evolve. Teaching is a profession that is constantly changing, but after ten years, I felt like it wasn't changing enough. I was restless. I wanted more for myself and my students. I needed to mix things up.

So, in the fall of 2008, I began teaching and learning online. Teaching online is intense and invigorating. It has rekindled my passion for the profession. Teaching online and in a blended learning environment is the most challenging and rigorous experience thus far, which means that it has taught me the most. The goal of teaching is to guide our students in learning, inspiring them to think, take creative risks, and lead compassionately. One of my students does this on a daily basis, and today I want to share his story.

Zachary Dorson came to the Riverside Virtual School as an 8th grader. He was in private school from Kindergarten through 2nd grade, and then home schooled from 3rd through 7th. When his mom decided she wanted to return to the workforce, they began searching for a place that would meet their needs. They wanted rigor, yet flexibility. Initially, RVS was going to be a transition to face to face public school. That was three years ago, and Zachary, now a junior, has experienced great success as an online student.

Zachary is an introvert who admittedly used the internet very little before entering an online school program. "The irony is that learning online has allowed me to be more social, and enabled me to create an online presence," Zachary says. He has come a long way. As a freshman in my English class, Zachary preferred paper and pencil, and was not at all interested in social media. This year, he has flourished with his blogging, is opening up to new things, and follows several favorites on Twitter. Learning online allows Zachary to reflect and critically think, "When my teachers and fellow students post in discussion boards, I do not have to respond right away, quickly, out loud, and on the spot. I can think about things, create rough drafts of responses, and edit a few times if needed before publishing to the class. I like that." Zachary explains that, in his experience, extroverts look down on introverts, and view socialization in a traditional sense. He says with online learning the interaction is there, it's just different. "It is more thoughtful, and that has given me more confidence." When Zachary and I do meet face to face, our meetings are purposeful. It is here that we are able to continue the conversations started online, and work together on his questions, insights, and goals.

Last summer, Zachary joined a discussion forum for young people interested in politics and science, he continues to blog and use Twitter, and has pen pals from various places around the world. What is the biggest challenge for Zachary and many online students? Time management. "Learning to be self-sufficient and organized are very important lessons to be learned right away."

I am beyond proud of Zachary and many online students who dare to do things differently, and who challenge themselves on a daily basis for the love of learning, technology, and growth.