Marie Cox

October 19, 2010

CIE 685
Curriculum Guide Critique

Curriculum Critique
The curriculum guide I have chosen to review is Harcourt Trophies. A Harcourt
Reading/Language Arts Program for first grade. The programs senior writers are Isabel L. Beck,
Roger C. Farr, and Dorothy S. Strickland. The copyright date is 2007.
Trophies is set up as a spiral curriculum and is composed of multiple components. The
components include: reading, writing, and grammar. Each week in the reading component new
skills and books are introduced, however, skills from last week are reviewed and there is a brief
preview of the next weeks skill. The reading portion is very structured. Each day you start with
a Morning Message, followed by sharing literature, phonemic awareness, building words, apply
phonics, spelling, High-Frequency words, and a reading component. As the stories develop
through the year the components remain the same, however the skills become more difficult.
The grammar section follows a similar sequence. Day 1 always introduces the skill, Day 2
through Day 5 is a review of the skill. The writing portion has a similar sequence but it is not as
structured and each day is not always the same, it depends on the writing skill covered.
The Harcourt Trophies program for first grade is very structured and in sequence.
Through the year the skills and concepts become more difficult and new more information is

given to the students. The first grade trophies series in meant to be used in order, there is no way
to skip around and use a story out of sequence. The program also follows the first grade
benchmarks very well over the course of the year. They even provide you with an assessment
and planning guide to keep you on track.
Harcourt Trophies is based on the essential philosophy. The structure of the program is to
be taught by subject: reading, writing, and grammar. The program also asks students to conform
to their whole group teaching. However, it does give books and examples of how to vary your
instruction after the 40-minute whole group time. The biggest essential component Trophies
follows is the assign-study-recite-test. This is in each of the subjects written into the Trophies
teachers manual. When the writers developed this program I think they followed the Saylor
Alexander and Lewis model. A group of instructors and reading researchers designed the
curriculum. The developers found experts in phonics, early literacy, comprehension, vocabulary,
instructional assessment, and more. These people were the senior authors. Following the S.A.L.
model the manual has many suggestions for using alternative resources and media. It suggests
other ways to group the students, and encourages flexibility among grouping. It doesnt allow
teachers to make the instructional modes, but allows you freedom in how you teach each
component. The teachers resources include assessment guides. After giving the assessments,
the manuals encourage you to use the students test scores to group your students and plan
instruction. There is a section in the beginning of each manual that helps you diagnosis your
students performance and where to go from there.
When developing Trophies the following Axioms were taken into consideration. Axiom
2, a school curriculum not only reflects but is a product of its time. Harcourt takes the best
practices from the current program and updates them. This does not have to be done except

every 7 years. This gives the publishers time to reflect and make necessary changes. They have
developed a new edition of Trophies called Story Town it spirals even more. It also follows
Axiom 3. The developers and authors saw how curriculum was changing and were able to make
concurrent changes to add more interactive components to modify for the future. Axiom 5,
cooperative endeavor was used when building this curriculum also. Harcourt used people from
different groups with different backgrounds to work together and develop this program. Axiom 6
is a multi-part axiom. The following portions were followed: choices among disciplines, choices
among competing viewpoints, choices of emphases, choices of methods, and choices in
organizations. The curriculum planners are making these decisions for the teachers, they are
deciding what the most important information is, and what the best way to organize and teach
that information. Axiom 9, systematic development; Harcourt Trophies was systematically
developed and there is an established set of procedures to follow.
Trophies does not allow for use of teacher created assessments. The program supplies a
pre-assessment and a post-assessment for each of the five themes. Each story also has an end of
selection test, and you give spelling tests. The manuals suggest you use the end of theme tests to
create small groups and drive instruction for your below, on, and above level students.
Harcourt Trophies provides numerous materials for both the students and the teachers.
Aside from the manuals some of the materials included for the teacher are: leveled student
books, big books, overheads for the reading and grammar portion, leveled student work pages,
and an online component. For the students there is write-in workbooks, decodable and leveled
readers, they also have the opportunity to use the website to browse. I do not know if my school
bought all of the materials separately or if they were included with the program when it was
purchased for the first time.

Overall I like many of the components Trophies has to offer. It helps me plan my reading
and put the phonics skills and word families in an order that makes sense to me and to the
students. I have the freedom to use Trophies as my base program, but I can pull in other
resources to give my reading program a boost. I also like how the grammar section is set up. It
is very closely aligned to my benchmark standards for each trimester. When I use the Trophies
grammar section I dont forget any of the grammar skills I need to teach for the year. When
using Trophies from year to year, the students have some idea of what to expect during reading
time. I realize this may get boring to follow the same routine from Kinder to Fifth, but it also
allows for students to build on what they learned the previous year. It also allows for the
teachers to stay on task. Many teachers will put in the extra time it takes to build a curriculum,
however, many will not. Having a program like Trophies puts teachers and students on more of a
level playing field. Its also wonderful when every school in the district uses the same reading
program. This helps students transition from school to school (especially in our transient areas).
It also makes it easier on the teacher; they know what that student has been learning and can
continue helping them in the learning process. By far one of my favorite components is the big
books. I like the shared literature portion of the program because it allows for students to build
background knowledge and explore the books in a little greater detail. I also like the books they
chose for the shared literature. You can do so much with them, they repeat and are predictable.
Students can look for words, and they can create books with the same patterns. Another great
part of the program is the leveled and decodable readers. These books are also very versatile,
and can be used out of sequence to teach advanced students new skills, and can be used to teach
the below level students review skills. I dont think Trophies is a perfect program. I often notice
that my students get bored with the same routine day after day. I know the routine is needed but

it would be nice if there could be a way to change it up a bit. Some days I have students use
letter cards or their white boards, we may do it verbally, but it can still get very repetitive.
Another big complaint is that I dont think the program advances enough in the phonemic
awareness skills as the year goes on. At the beginning of the year we are identifying the
beginning sound of a word and at the end of the year we are still identifying the beginning
sounds. The stories in the books also progress really fast. It is often way too drastic of a jump
for many of the students. The program is really good at covering many of our reading, writing,
and grammar skills. It also tries to tie in science and social studies, but does not do a good job of
covering the benchmarks in those areas. I do not use the Trophies writing portion, but often use
the stories in the anthology as ideas for our writing.
I would encourage any teacher to use Trophies, as needed. The program is made to have
wiggle room. This program is also made for whole group instruction to last 40 minutes, leaving
50 minutes for small group and independent practice. If you alter the program to fit your needs
and the needs of your students, it can be a very successful program to use.