Summer Survival Tools: Curriculum That Teaches for Tomorrow

By. Craig Perrier

Creating a meaningful course unit that includes valuable learning experiences requires us to think about the design process.  One starting point is to identify some specific design principles that represent your beliefs about what GREAT teaching and learning looks like. Here are a few design principles that are foundational for any curriculum work I do.

1. An essential or compelling question is used that connects class content with aspects of life beyond school hours.
2. An assessment that demonstrates student learning and provides student choice
3. Students construct their understanding supporting claims with evidence from content resources.

Applying all three of these principles to the design of a unit launched the practice using a “backwards design” approach based on the work Understanding by Design Wiggins and McTighe.  More recent work adding to this type of curriculum work are Teaching for Deeper Learning by McTighe and Silver and No More Telling as Teaching  by Cris Tovani. 

One result, applicable to any content area, can look like this (the red text is to emphasize the areas where students have choices.

Essential Question: How does learning about (course/unit content) impact your understanding of yourself, your lived experiences, a concept, a UN Sustainable Development Goal, or a contemporary world issue/event?

Digital Portfolio: What artifacts/products can I add to my digital portfolio that serves as evidence of my learning regarding the essential question?

The summative assessment, is the development of a portfolio of student work from the unit.  We often use a website, google folders, or a digital tool like Story Book Creator to serve as the digital portfolio format. In turn, artifacts is another layer of choice built into the unit design.  They include:

• Journal entry
• Slide deck
• Audio or video post
• Essay
• Infographic

Starting with design principles in curriculum design creates a culture of thinking and intentionality.  This ultimately benefits students learning and provides a shared professional practice that eliminates collegial ambiguity and unnecessary repeated discussions about pedagogy.  So, what are your design principles?