Curriculum+Design

Starter:
In your school groups, draw a diagram of what you are doing already in terms of a curriculum structure. What time frames, yearly planner interventions guide this?

Using felt pens, draw up current models (as a diagram or picture form, whatever shape or form)- a concept plan of how the curriculum is addressed already in schools. Rich Concepts document

Facilitation Strategies:
Large sheet of paper, maybe cross syndicate groups.

Let's blue sky this: What could it look like? What is the ideal?
What will curriculum delivery look like (in reference to Vision, values and principles, Key Competencies, Learning areas, Effective pedagogy)? On large pieces of paper, map/draw/diagram this.

**Things to Consider (from the 14 components):**

 * Time frames (holidays, terms, times of the day etc)
 * External influences (camps, athletics annual events)
 * Concept driven contexts negotiated with whom?
 * Who drives the learning content?
 * Structural decisions: subject-based, topic-based, or integrated?
 * Coverage decisions: “mile-wide, inch-deep” versus “inch-wide, mile-deep”?
 * Decisions on how the values, key competencies, and learning areas will interrelate.
 * The why is important.... have a rationale for what you are doing
 * Management is important
 * Focus on LEARNING
 * Give yourself permission to start small. Not every teacher is working in the same space.

Key Questions:

 * ===What are we doing already?===
 * ===Does this meet our learner’s needs? How do we know?===
 * ===What needs to be reviewed?===
 * ===What roles should our teachers, our students, and our community play in the design and review of our curriculum?===
 * ===What vital information can we set out to gather, and how can we use it for curriculum decision making?===
 * ===What kinds of knowledge help our students to understand and interact with our twenty-first-century world?===
 * ===How does our school’s curriculum help students to construct, examine, and use this knowledge?===
 * ===How well does our school’s curriculum reflect the essential nature of each learning area?===
 * ===How does our curriculum enable students to explore relationships of knowledge across learning areas?===

Resources:
School's examples, what could this look like?

//Brooklyn School// in Wellington has spent the last four years deveoping a school curriculum called CHaOS - Children Have Ownership of Schooling. A recent review of the Brooklyn School Curriculum has shown a strong and deep alignment with the NZC. Check out what they have come up with at http://www.brooklynprimary.school.nz/chaos_model.html

From the abstract to the concrete...what could this look like?

http://www.lea.co.nz/ Here is a great integration site for learning about Curriculum Integration from the Wellington based LEA (Learning Enhancement Associates). It aims to provide teachers and schools with information about Curriculum Integration. The intention is to describe, explore, model, and support Curriculum Integration within New Zealand schools.

[|James A Beane and Curriculum Integratio]