5E Reflection

After completing this research-based curriculum project, I feel confident I constructed a

unit that was based around student-centered methods that offers meaningful lessons that help

students see historical events to be relevant to their lives today. The lessons I created focused on

student engagement through activities that used small-group instruction, simulations, primary

source analysis, and class debates. The research I conducted helped me understand the different

ways to use instructional techniques in the classroom, such as simulations and speed debates, that

I have not dived into before.

My personal narrative can be found throughout the curriculum I created in many different

ways. First, one insecurity I had as a teacher that was discovered through my journaling was my

constant questioning if students were engaged in the lessons. With this in mind, I focused on

creating a curriculum that focused on giving students choice and giving them more autonomy in

the classroom. Another insecurity I dealt with was my pacing, I was constantly behind in our

units. In this unit, I set a goal to have it completed under a month and was able to accomplish

that goal, even with the student-centered activities I embedded in the curriculum.

Secondly, I built a curriculum from the practical knowledge I gained from the class

readings we engaged in. For instance, the information we gained on John Dewey in week one,

was a large influencer in my curriculum plan. Dewey believed that education is about the whole

child, their experiences, and how they interact with all their environments. I wanted to create

lessons that embodied the whole child, by engaging them in activities that had them finding

relevancy in historical topics. Curriculum needs to be built around students’ internal conditions,

such as their interests and desires, but also their prior experiences. This was something I kept in

mind when I designed the final authentic project for the unit. I offered students the chance to
illustrate their knowledge in a way that was beneficial to them and highlighted their interests and

strengths.

Overall, my curriculum was created with students in mind. I wanted to develop a unit that

was familiar to me and revamp it so that it centered around the learners, even if that meant me

being a bit uncomfortable implementing new lessons, I was unfamiliar with. I think that it turned

out well and would like to see how it would carry over to the classroom.