Shannon Zimmerman Foundations of Teaching for Learning One Peer Assessment One

An Examination of Curriculum with the Three Principles: Connect, Extend and Challenge.

Whats worth learning? David Perkins

The opening quotation by David Perkins asks us an important question about curriculum development and in this essay; I will examine the information presented in week two about curriculum. I will show how the new information presented connects to what I already know and do in my classroom. I will also show how John MacBeath, David Perkins and the Trilogies of Curriculum expanded and pushed my thinking in new directions. Finally, I will present the challenges and questions I now face as I begin to develop a curriculum for my own classroom. Before I examine curriculum using the three key principles: connect, extend and challenge, Id like to describe my teaching environment. Studio de Ingles (an English Language School) is run from my home in Lagoa Santa, Brazil. Classes are one to one or in small groups and the ages and occupations of the students vary. The youngest child I have taught was eight years old and the oldest person I have taught was over sixty years old. Some of the occupations of the students include but are not limited to: engineer, airplane mechanic, sales representative (for an American company), university student, linguist (Portuguese being the native language) and biologist. The reality is that my students normally have jobs, families and are doing other studies at the same time which means study time is severely limited which means learning needs to take place in the classroom. The majority of my students take English classes because of opportunities in the work place, for travel, or to connect with other people around the world. These are all important factors when developing a curriculum. (Photos are included below) Now that you have some background information about my classroom environment, I will move on to the three key principles. The first principle I will discuss is: connect. How do the ideas about curriculum development connect to what I already know and do at Studio de Ingles? Well, during the first week, John MacBeath mentioned in one of his lectures that some of the things we would be learning, we probably were already doing intuitively. I found this to be true. For example, in video four: Thinking of Curriculum, John MacBeath shows us two

slides: Curriculum in Planning and Curriculum in Action. Of the eight principles, I found I was already doing and thinking of many of these things intuitively. By intuitively I mean that I am seriously lacking in formal education on teaching. I graduated with two majors (Spanish and Interior Design) and only took one course on Teaching English as a Foreign Language. So, in the classroom, I am responding to my students in an intuitive way. Needless to say, I am a little insecure in my classroom because I lack formal training. However, after connecting what I have been doing with what I am learning, I feel my confidence on the rise. So, my confidence is on the rise but Im also simultaneously overwhelmed! More than anything, these first weeks of Foundations of Teaching for Learning have expanded my awareness. I now have an array of research paths onto which embark. This is the second principle: extend. So, what new ideas, in regards to curriculum, have extended and pushed my thinking in new directions? There are three things in particular I would like to mention: the trilogies, the Thinking Classroom website and the short but deeply direct interview of David Perkins. I observed from the five trilogies taken from John MacBeaths video four: Thinking of Curriculum, that there is no set curriculum pattern, no winning method its more like Im joining an actively changing process. The video of David Perkins, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, reiterates this idea as he says, Curriculum is one of the most resistant fronts of Education. He asks us, Whats worth learning? and suggests we teach content for the understanding of a wide scope and to educate for the unknown, so that when a student meets the unknown he or she is equipped to handle the unexpected. The challenge is to take these pieces of information and inspiration and observe them from our own disciplines. This brings me to the last principle: challenge. After being exposed to this new and expansive information, what is still challenging or confusing for me to wrap my mind around? What questions, wonderings or puzzles do I now have? Here are some of them: How can I bring the ideas presented by John MacBeath, David Perkins and Mike Fleetham (from the Thinking Classroom) and apply them to curriculum development for language learning and not only for children but for adults too? Whats worth learning? What will equip my students to handle the unexpected? These questions are all very important for language learning and curriculum development. So, after examining the connection between what I used to know and what I now know, I can see my confidence is on the rise because I have been intuitively responding to my students needs in a way that is similar to what John MacBeath has been covering in the first

weeks of Foundations of Teaching for Learning. I have also been exposed to new and fruitful ideas that have expanded my thinking. This process of connecting and extending has brought with it, some very challenging questions. I am left with an overwhelming sense that seeds have been planted and the next stage is to bring them to life.

Here are a few photographs of the learning environment at Studio de Ingles: