Workshop in Education Day 1

Part I     Curriculum

Readings that define curriculum number in the thousands. Since this course is focused on creating a unit of study I will attempt to give you a general overview of curriculum, the process of curriculum development and some of the philosophy behind curriculum design. To do that you will read this Wikipedia entry on curriculum. Information you glean from this reading will give you a foundation for Tyler’s piece “Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction.”

 

Part II   Next Generation Science Standards

NGSS Introduction videos: View videos to get an overview and a sense of why we have standards by viewing the two videos at this link.

Get to Know the Standards

Now that you have a sense of why we have the standards and what the writers hope to accomplish you will now view a video on how to read the standards.

How to Read the Next Generation Science Standards
Alternative video link

Use the printable page “How to Read the Standards” to follow along.

Go to the online version of the document NGSS DCI Combined 11.6.13.
Using that as a guideline, focus on the courses you will teach in the fall as follows.

  1. Create a document titled “Your NAME_NGSS Foundation for Curriculum: Your course name here”
  2. Find and review the standards specific to the courses you will teach in the fall
  3. What are they? List with page number
  4. Skim to get a sense of the scope and depth
  5. Identify the Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCI) that are the match to what you are learning in your lab experience
  6. What are they? Copy & Paste into your document. These DCIs will be the foundation for the curriculum you will develop during this course.

Summarizing Part I: Blog Post

Share your thoughts on the design and content of NGSS in a post of 250 plus words.

How do the standards reflect what and how you are currently teaching? What features of the NGSS do you find particularly useful? Discuss. Do you think the standards as written will be useful as you design and implement your teaching unit? How so? Can you think any other uses you will have for the NGSS? Based on what you now know about curriculum and what you have read in the NGSS what and how should science instruction look in your classroom?