Even if you missed the #Oklaed chat last night, you’re not too late to participate in our CHALLENGE. All you have to do is answer the question in the graphic above on your blog, and then tell me about it in a comment on this post. If you’d like to see the entire chat, you’ll welcome to read the Storify archive here.
Q1 What is curriculum design?
I started off the night with a basic question asking our participants to define “curriculum design.” Right away, we had a bit of a controversy, as some people thought curriculum design referred to planning at the school or district level while the term “lesson planning” referred to what the actual teacher did.
Personally, I’m going to side with The University of Manchester and say that curriculum design is a fancy term for planning a “sequence of learning experiences.”
That said, #oklaed, naturally, came up with awesome answers:
#oklaed A1: CD is a plan of action to be facilitated to help students learn; it is NOT a curriculum lesson / script to inform students!!!
— John Bennett (@jcbjr) July 13, 2015
A1: CD is about the Ss we will be teaching. Designing what is appropriate for our Ss. It’s not just about meeting objectives. #oklaed
— Kimberly Blodgett (@KimberBlodgett) July 13, 2015
Q2 What educational purposes do you seek to accomplish in your lesson plans?
Once we had the definition figured out, we discussed what we want to accomplish when we sit down to plan that lesson, or map out a curriculum.
A2 Engagement of students, understanding WHY we are learning the material, and a path towards mastery. #oklaed
— Kelli Anglley (@kellianglley) July 13, 2015
Kelly’s (and later Drew’s) answer really resonated with me because I have always been the kind of student who needs to understand “why” in order to fully assimilate the “what” and the “how.”
@drewprice11 EXACTLY If one can understand the WHY, the WHAT and HOW come so much easier! #OklaEd
— Mrs. Waters (@watersenglish) July 13, 2015
A2: in addition to meeting whtever standard im teaching – I want students to understand the WHY behind the knowledge/skills/ideas. #oklaed
— Drew Price (@drewprice11) July 13, 2015
It quickly became clear that lesson planning isn’t just about the teacher thinking up some random activities that align with the standards du jour.
A2: lesson plans are just a jumping off point. I let the students’ needs as they arise guide what happens in the classroom #oklaed
— Mindy Dennison (@MrsDSings) July 13, 2015
A2: I want my students thinking: cause and possible effects. What did happen? Why? What effect could the outcome have on future, etc #oklaed
— Drew Wesley C. (@DrewC75) July 13, 2015
A2- The lesson plan should be a guide and to an end but shouldn’t be so strict that you can’t deviate from it, #oklaED
— David Chandler (@dbchandler28) July 13, 2015
A2: My consistent learning goal is learn, unlearn and relearn. #oklaed
— Mrs. Telannia Norfar (@thnorfar) July 13, 2015
Administrators and teachers seemed to be in agreement on the answer to the follow split question.
Q3a Admin: Does your school have an overall educational goal?
A3- educational goals should be to prepare students for the life in the real world, NOT JUST TEST! #OKLAED
— David Chandler (@dbchandler28) July 13, 2015
A3 #oklaed District goal is to prepare students so that they have as many options in careers and interests as possible at all times
— Rick Cobb (@grendelrick) July 13, 2015
Q3b Teachers: What is the overall educational goal for your subject area(s)?
A3b For students to become independent readers, writers, and thinkers. #oklaed
— Kelli Anglley (@kellianglley) July 13, 2015
A3: We always have goals. I’m looking forward to when the goals can be children focused and not test focused.😁 #oklaed
— Jennifer Blackshare (@JBlackshare) July 13, 2015
A3b) My overall goal is always for my Ss to understand & question more when we are done than when we started. 😀 #OklaEd
— ChrisParadise (@ChrisParadise) July 13, 2015
#oklaed A3: To get them away from being spoon-fed the information and regurgitating the answer. Time to think, apply, & create.
— Lady Mellott (@lsmellott) July 13, 2015
Naturally, we had the obligatory Monty Python reference…
@JBlackshare @MrsDSings Bah. School grades, test results. I fart in their general direction. Hamsters and elderberries. #oklaed
— BlueCerealEducation (@BlueCerealEduc) July 13, 2015
Then I threw everyone a curve ball, otherwise known as an extra question:
Q3c What needs to happen to merge the school/district mission with the T mission?
A3c) Policy Change #Oklaed
— Scott Haselwood M.Ed (@TeachFromHere) July 13, 2015
A3c: collaboration #oklaed
— Mindy Dennison (@MrsDSings) July 13, 2015
A3c) communication between Ts and goal setters and giving Ts ownership in the goals #oklaed
— Kevin Hime (@coach57) July 13, 2015
Naturally, you gotta love the class clown…
@JennWillTeach And Donuts, you have to have donuts @MrsDSings @edgeblogger #oklaed
— Scott Haselwood M.Ed (@TeachFromHere) July 13, 2015
Q4 What methods do you use to determine the needs of your students?
A4: This may sound trite, but…I listen to them. #oklaed
— Mindy Dennison (@MrsDSings) July 13, 2015
A4: I personally just look at whatever our Governor says and then reteach the topic in which she is mistaken #oklaed
— Dr. Jason James (@James409Jason) July 13, 2015
A4) 1.Ask a question 2.actually listen to the response 3. Respond and Adjust 4. Repeat 1 & 2 #oklaed
— Scott Haselwood M.Ed (@TeachFromHere) July 13, 2015
Q5 What educational experiences do you provide to achieve these purposes?
A5: #oklaed Ss need relevant, authentic activities which causes them to think critically, evaluate, & synthesize a work product
— Dr. Jason James (@James409Jason) July 13, 2015
A5: Give them opportunities to create, perform, and reflect as much as possible #oklaed
— Mindy Dennison (@MrsDSings) July 13, 2015
A5 I’m becoming a huge fan of Ss conceptualizing and then focusing down to the must knows from there #oklaed
— LeeAnne Pepper (@pepmasterflex) July 13, 2015
Apparently, Blue Cereal Education is still home recovering from this question:
A5: Oh, man, @watersenglish – you just busted out an edu-speak trendy term: “educational experiences”. I don’t think I can recover. #oklaed
— BlueCerealEducation (@BlueCerealEduc) July 13, 2015
Q6 What makes a great individual curriculum design, aka lesson plan?
A6) A great Teacher #oklaed
— Kevin Hime (@coach57) July 13, 2015
A6 Lessons where Ss drive the learning and do the heavy lifting #oklaed
— LeeAnne Pepper (@pepmasterflex) July 13, 2015
A6: My turn to buzzword – ideally, as many Ss as possible in Zone of Proximal Devp. Stretched, but doable. #oklaed
— BlueCerealEducation (@BlueCerealEduc) July 13, 2015
A6- A great lesson plan takes into account real world issues that can tie into that lesson. Also the lesson should be engaging.#oklaED
— David Chandler (@dbchandler28) July 13, 2015
Q7 Where do you begin when you’re creating a lesson plan and determine the order of your objectives?
A7: You begin at the end and work backwards – Assessment, learning activities, objective #oklaed
— Dr. Jason James (@James409Jason) July 13, 2015
A7: I usually start with the hands-on activities because that is what is going to interest my Ss. I start with them, end w/me. #oklaed
— Kimberly Blodgett (@KimberBlodgett) July 13, 2015
Q8 How do you determine what teaching methods you’ll use during a particular lesson?
A8- this goes back to building relationships. By knowing your students you will know how to teach them.#oklaED
— David Chandler (@dbchandler28) July 13, 2015
A8 – having a deep toolbox of effective strategies and a strong PLC to discuss is a great place to start #oklaed
— Jason Galloway (@JasonGalloway77) July 13, 2015
Who else is willing to admit to this method?
No one else looks at how Mon/Tues went, measures mood and topics available, and says ‘what the hell – let’s try this!’ ?? #oklaed
— BlueCerealEducation (@BlueCerealEduc) July 13, 2015
Q9 How do you determine what materials you’ll use for any given lesson?
A9 a Research, Pinterest, TPT, district curriculum sites (mine and others), Google #oklaed
— LeeAnne Pepper (@pepmasterflex) July 13, 2015
A9 whatever will engage the students in class on that day for that topic. If we don’t have it lets make it. #oklaed
— Kenneth Ward (@kennethdward) July 13, 2015
Q10 How do you assess whether or not the educational purposes you mentioned earlier are being acquired?
A10) Formative assessment ALL.THE.TIME #oklaed
— Scott Haselwood M.Ed (@TeachFromHere) July 13, 2015
A10 We talked about some awesome informal formative assessment at #EngageOK with @mrjoshflores. Info on http://t.co/1fr6BSHfas. #OklaEd
— Mrs. Waters (@watersenglish) July 13, 2015
Finally, after Blue Cereal Education busted out his Google and Wikipedia tabs…
Hmm… maybe I should have Google & Wikipedia open in various tabs in preparation for this ‘Challenge Question’… #oklaed
— BlueCerealEducation (@BlueCerealEduc) July 13, 2015
…we had our challenge question.
Q11 CHALLENGE
Write a blog post sharing your favorite lesson plan. Include the written plan itself, how you implemented it, how the students responded, what went wrong (because something always goes wrong!), and how you fixed it.
Now that’s the sort of #oklaed challenge I can get behind. Hmmm… I’M ON IT!!! https://t.co/cmmx9xrRj6
— BlueCerealEducation (@BlueCerealEduc) July 13, 2015
A11: Nice challenge. I think I can go down memory lane to do this one #oklaed
— Mrs. Telannia Norfar (@thnorfar) July 13, 2015
A11) I’ll work on that tomorrow! #oklaed
— Joan (@okjoan) July 13, 2015
I’m on it ➡️ “@watersenglish: Q11 CHALLENGE: Write a blog post sharing your favorite lesson plan. #oklaed… http://t.co/Bl5HqfmWIF”
— Mr. David Burton (@APteacherBurton) July 13, 2015
What about you? Are you up for the challenge?