I recently came across an article entitled ‘ Communication to Curriculum’ by Douglas Barnes. In this article he seeks to explain that curriculum cannot simply be what is planned in advance for students to learn. He says that language and learning are crucial elements of curriculum and that it is also a meeting of the minds between students and teachers that takes place within the walls of the classroom.
Sometimes we teachers believe that the curriculum is that pre-planned shopping list of goals and objectives to be achieved at all cost. It is the ‘bible’ or yardstick used to measure whether we have done what we set out to do. But is it really just that? What of the interests of our children? Do they have a say with regard to what is learned and how it is learned? Do the stakeholders in education hear and respect their voices?
Barnes postulates that curriculum is a dynamic entity. It is the talk and the body language by which meanings are explained. It is imperative that teachers encourage students to take ownership of their learning and structure learning in such a way that curriculum becomes a form of communication.
If you can’t feed a hundred people then feed just one
Mother Theresa
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ReplyDeleteI believe that teachers need to assess students in order to properly plan to meet the need of individual students. Teaching is about meeting the needs of each child. It is not about finishing the work set aside in the curriculum guide. We must remember we are teaching our kids and not the curriculum.
ReplyDeleteClevia, I agree with Lynette. We should be teaching children, not a syllabus. We need to meet the children where they are, and then move them from that point upwards. They will improve at their pace, not ours. Additionally, we need to conduct interest inventories, so that we can use what the students like in order to catch their interest and manipulate it to teach key concepts.
ReplyDeleteI used a pupil's love of Hannah Montana to help her to learn to love reading and to get her onto the path of individual reading. I bought her books and CD's on Hannah Montana and she was just bursting to read, so she kept trying and trying. She is not an excellent reader today but she is on the way and she is very far removed from where she was originally. She has moved onto other stories besides Hannah Montana, but at the end of last term she was reading the lyrics of Montana's song.
I have used interest inventories fairly regularly and they have worked each time.