Professional Practice and Studies in Education
Module 7: Unpacking the Meta-curriculum
Module 8: Teacher Created Materials Assignment
The three suggestions that emerged for a suitable assignment that would unpack the thinking that goes into a curriculum, are:
1. Following the teacher as architect metaphor, create a detailed and effective unit plan
that enables students to access different ways of sense making and world making through a wide variety of materials, tools and resources. The vulnerabilities and deprivations that students would experience because of what is excluded in the choice of codes could be the guiding philosophy for the construction of the plan.The plan must consist of understanding goals, learning outcomes, standards that are being addressed, activities, pedagogical tools and process, materials and resources.
Choose the duration and scope of your unit to match the six weeks that you have to accomplish this task. Whatever the choice, prioritize the accomplishment of the unpacking to the greatest detail possible.
The deliverable must consist of –
• A detailed unit plan with –
o The duration of the lessons and unit clearly planned and indicated
o Instructional strategies that will be used
o Cognitive tools and instructional materials which will accompany and support each lesson
o Alignment between goals, learning outcomes and the learning experience
• Teacher created materials that would enable the unit to be taught effectively and creatively.
• An ‘archeologist’s box’ with all the resources for the construction of the plan and the materials. This box must not simply be a set of teaching aids.
A formal presentation to peers of the plan and the materials created is optional but is encouraged in the spirit of sharing.
2) Deconstruct an existing curriculum to evaluate its effectiveness through the lens of literacy as code, ways of sense and world making, materials, tools and resources and vulnerabilities and deprivations.
This would be accompanied by an ‘archeologist’s box’ with all the resources for the evaluation of the curriculum and associated materials.
3) Develop a code, pedagogy and materials that conform to international standards to create a framework for a new curriculum that serves a band of grades (such as elementary school / middle school / high school). This framework must pay special attention to include ways of world-/sense-making and including the excluded (vulnerabilities and deprivations) that are shortcomings of the existing curriculum.
This would be accompanied by an ‘archeologist’s box’ with all the resources for the design of a curriculum and samples of teacher-created materials.
All teachers will meet their assigned facilitators once a week between October 25th and December 7th when the assignment is due, to discuss ideas and construct the way forward. (Six meetings in six weeks).
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Grading criteria for assignment one:
A An excellent unit plan that will evidence thoughtful and perceptive exploration of processes / tools / materials that will enable effective sense and world making for the learner. The author of the plan should be able to show ‘flow’ and ‘alignment’ in the components of the plan, like the goals, outcomes and standards, the pedagogical processes and activities.
The archeologist’s box will be a comprehensive set of books, quality resources and other artifacts that have clear links with components of the plan.
The teacher-created materials will have a sound pedagogical and cognitive base, and will be innovative and cater to the needs of the targeted group of learners.
B+ An interesting unit plan reflecting thoughtful analysis of processes / tools / materials that link to sense and world making for the learner. The plan should have a ‘flow’ and ‘alignment’ in the components of the plan like the goals, outcomes and standards, the pedagogical processes and activities.
The archeologist’s box will be a set of books, quality resources and other artifacts that have clear links with components of the plan.
The teacher-created materials will be pedagogically sound, will be well organized and cater to the needs of the targeted group of learners.
B A sound unit plan that explores processes / tools / materials that link to sense making for the learner. The link between goals and outcomes, pedagogical processes and activities is evident.
The archeologist’s box will contain books, resources and other artifacts that support the plan.
The teacher-created materials will be well crafted and organised and cater to the average level of the intended learners.
C A fairly detailed unit plan that shows some evidence of processes / tools / materials that link to sense making for the learner. The link between goals and outcomes, pedagogical processes and activities is established to some extent.
The archeologist’s box will contain books, resources that are loosely linked to the plan and teaching aids are used as fillers.
The teacher-created materials are well laid out, but are adapted from existing material without much attention to context.
F A sketchy unit plan that has little use of processes / tools / materials that will enable sense making for the learner. There is hardly any link between goals and outcomes and pedagogies and activities.
The archeologist’s box has a random collection of materials that show very little link with the plan and teaching aids are used as fillers.
The teacher-created materials show a lack of care in organisation and presentation.
The above grading criteria will be adapted to read ‘curriculum’ instead of ‘unit plan’ for the second and third options of assignment.
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