Curriculum Design 1

Do your homework: A practical guide to designing your curriculum.

Jennifer D. Smith

Prescott College
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Do your homework: A practical guide to designing your curriculum.

There are many factors to consider when designing the curriculum for your

classroom. The information that teachers impart to their students forms the very

foundation of their intellectual base that they build upon throughout their lives. This base

is second only to the foundation parents give their children before they enter school. One

must consider the cultural diversity of their students in order to design an engaging

curriculum that is inclusive and sensitive to multicultural backgrounds. There are tried

curricula that have proven to be beneficial to students’ repertoire. Teaching the rules of

grammar and writing mechanics, sharing classic literature and training students in

thoughtful reflection, educating students about people, places and things of historical

significance and imparting to them how these things apply to them are just a few of the

factors to consider when developing an engaging curriculum that is worthwhile for your

students. The best piece of advice a teacher can follow is to “do your homework” in

order to seek out the curriculum programs that will best suite their class.

Factor #1: Not all children are raised equally. Plato once said, “The most

important part of education is right training in the nursery” (Bennet, Finn and Cribb,

1999, p. 21). One cannot deny the powerful effect of our upbringing. In the book titled

The educated child: a parent’s guide from preschool through eighth grade., Bennet et al.

assert that children must be taught such personal traits as “responsibility,

self-discipline, and perseverance” in order to achieve their greatest potential in school

(p. 67). The authors conducted a study of many teachers and schools and recorded that

the majority of teachers told them much of their class time is spent “raising children”.
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Due to shortcomings in the home, teachers are finding themselves teaching hygiene,

manners, rudimentary respect to the rights and property of others, counseling children of

divorce, teaching the facts of life, teaching conflict resolution, etc… all the while that

they are expected to be teaching the fundamentals of reading, writing, multiplying and

dividing (p.16). It is the stand of the authors that since students only spend 10% of their

life from birth to age 18 in school, it is not enough time to teach both basic socialization

and basic academics within the school setting; therefore, it is up to parents to bring up

their children with a set of moral values that will prepare them to meet their education

with enthusiasm and the skills necessary to succeed (p. 17).

It is true that a teacher’s time in a student’s life is limited, and that the teacher’s

primary responsibility lies with the teaching of academics; however, it is equally true that

if success is to be found in the school both for the teachers and for the students, some

social skills are going to have to be taught within the school because in today’s homes

more often than not, these values are not being taught. In their book entitled How to talk

so kids can learn at home and at school, Adele Faber, Elaine Mazlish, Lisa Nyberg, and

Rosalyn Anstine Templeton explained that we have an “additional responsibility to

today’s generation of children.” (1995, p.16). They further explained that:

“Never before have so many young people been exposed to so many images of
casual cruelty. Never before have they witnessed so many vivid demonstrations
of problems being solved by beatings or bullets or bombs. Never before has there
been such an urgent need to provide our children with a living model of how
differences can be resolved with honest and respectful communication. That’s the
best protection we can give them against their own violent impulses. When the
inevitable moments of frustration and rage occur, instead of reaching for a
weapon, they can reach for the words they’ve heard from the important people in
their lives.” (pp. 16-17)
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It is clear that we are not dealing with an ideal world. The audience for Bennet et al’s

book (1999) are parents who actually are taking an active role in their child’s education

and therefore would benefit from the advice to train their children in social values. The

rest of the children of the world may not be so lucky as to have parents that are as

involved in their educations. It is therefore wise for teachers to assume that role of social

trainers as well as academic trainers if all children are to be given the opportunity to learn

the social values and skills necessary to be successful in school and ultimately in life.

Curricula Resolution #1: Teach social values.

Factor #2: Children come from various ethnic, socio-economic, and cultural

backgrounds. In the book entitled Teaching American Indian students, the author, Jon

Reyhner (1992) stated that “Good teaching requires that teachers understand and respect

the individuality of all children. Neither appreciation nor respect are possible without

knowing the children’s cultural and environmental backgrounds” (p. 14). There are many

social influences that shape a student’s perceptions and learning styles. For example,

research indicates that many of the Native American populations from the Southwestern

United States are predominantly visual learners (p.84). This population also tends to be

more cautious learners who will be inclined to study a problem out rather than jumping in

and taking a risk (p. 83). These tendencies stem from the social mores that exist in their

culture where one would be ridiculed if they took a risk and failed. It is imperative for

teachers of children with varying cultural backgrounds to familiarize themselves with the

differences that exist in order to be more sensitive and inclusive of students who may

perceive the world from different standpoints.

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Another crucial point for teachers to be aware of as they plan their curriculum is

the fact that some textbooks were written with language that would express a bias for or

against a particular culture. When describing the travelers’ encounters with Native

American tribes along the Oregon trail some textbooks may use potentially offensive

terminology such as “filthy savage” and the like which could cause harmful stereotyping.

It is not only important to be aware of the language used within your textbooks, but it

would be helpful for teachers to explain the diversity of cultures and the differing view

points each culture may have had as it encountered the other for the first time. The

important thing to remember as a teacher is to stay away from categorizing one culture as

being dominant or more right than the other (Reyhner, 1992, pp.157-167).

When addressing the issue of economic differences Reyhner asserts “Although

they cannot control poverty, teachers can equip themselves with the knowledge that

education… can be a liberating force in students’ lives. Teachers can empower their

students to use creative intelligence to break free from the bindings of poverty” (1992, p.

30). Horace Mann once wrote: “Education… is the great equalizer of the [human

condition]—the balance wheel of the social machinery … This idea… gives each

[person] the independence and the means by which they can resist the selfishness of other

[people].” (1992, p. 14). (The words in [ ] brackets were used in place of the words from

Mann’s original quote in order to carry out the continuity of this paper to be non gender

biased.) Understanding the social mores and the cultures of the students we teach and

focusing our curriculum to the utilization of our students’ strengths as well as the

development of new abilities utilizing those strengths as a catalyst is critical for the
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development of a curriculum that is inclusive to all students of varying backgrounds.

Curricula Resolution #2: Plan a curriculum that is multicultural and inclusive.

Factor #3: There is so much information out there that we can teach our students,

how is one to know where to focus our curriculum? What are the crucial elements an

effective teacher must include to be of the greatest benefit to their student? Bennet et

al.’s book discussed this very topic in great detail. Beginning with the preschool and

discussing all the grades through eighth grade, the authors described at length the

curriculum an effective school should be teaching their students. From giving lists of

literature classics that should be read at each grade level, to emphasizing the importance

of sticking to the tried and true methods that have proven over the years to be invaluable

to the learning process, to listing very specific details as to what elements of the core

subjects should be taught, the authors left no stone unturned. They broke all the core

subjects into their own categories and then mapped out their idea of the most important

elements that were crucial to the development of an effective curriculum. For example,

in the category of fifth grade English the authors suggest the students should:

 “write reports, summaries, letters, descriptions, essays, stories,

poems, etc.
 use different resources (e.g., atlases, glossaries, the Internet) to
write reports
 practice organizing, drafting, revising, and proofreading
 write reports that address a specific audience; define a main idea;
provide an introduction and conclusion; use organized paragraphs;
illustrate points with good examples document sources in a simple
bibliography” (1999, p. 133).
The list goes on. This list was drawn from the Core Knowledge Sequence. The

categories of Math, History, Geography, Science, Art, Music, and Language Arts are all

mapped out in just as much detail. The simple message here is that there is a wealth of
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information out there that should be researched. One must study all the tried curricula

and their effectiveness in order to make an educated decision as to what would be the best

information to include in ones curriculum. Curricula Resolution #3: Include the long-

standing fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic.

When considering what curriculum to include in your classroom there is such a

wealth of resources and information at your fingertips. You might already have a pretty

good idea of what you will be teaching based upon the materials that are provided to you

by the school you will be teaching at. However, it would be well worth your time to do

some independent research to collect the data on what has been tried and what works.

Even more important than implementing a long standing curriculum, be mindful of the

particular demographics of the students you will teach, and be sure to seek out those

resources that will assist you in the planning and implementation of various curriculum

that will serve your students best. Some of the best changes that have come about in

recent times in the field of education are the ones that have awakened our sense of the

diversity of the students we teach. Each student has a unique background, a unique

learning style, a unique capacity to “grow where they are planted”. It is our

responsibility to seek out the best of what is out there and to adapt it to enhance the

curriculum in our classroom. It is then that we can plant the seeds of the quest for

knowledge within our students and watch them grow.

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References

Bennett, W.J., Finn, C. E., Jr., & Cribb, J.T., Jr. (1999). The educated child: a parent’s

guide from preschool through eighth grade. New York: The Free Press.

Faber, A., Mazlish, E., Nyberg, L., & Templeton, R. A. (1995). How to talk so kids can

learn at home and at school. New York: Rawson Associates.

Reyhner, J. (1992). Teaching American Indian students. Norman: University of

Oklahoma.