Thomas Pyne

Curriculum on Purpose
Curriculum on Purpose
Content Choice:
The walls of the classroom will contain posters from multiple perspectives. The seating
arrangement will be a semi-circle one row deep. The desks will consist of the desk/chair combo
featured in numerous classrooms around the country. The teachers desk will be a large office
desk in a front corner of the room next to the chalkboard/whiteboard.
Curricular Losers:
Motivational posters, timelines, famous people, famous buildings, unknown people,
unknown places, quotations, tables with chairs, pod arrangements, square arrangements,
arrangements greater than one row deep, and teacher desk placement in unusual locations.
Rationale:
Using multiple perspectives for the posters on your walls is related to culturally
responsive pedagogy. Teachers must think about how culturally responsive teaching
would involve considerations to the classroom environment (Intime, 1999-2002). The
choice to place certain things on should reflect how the teacher has spent time thinking
about the impact the displayed perspectives may have on a students ability to learn. This
should not be confused with avoiding the difficult conversations, but creating a
welcoming space for content on race, gender identity, and culture to be discussed and
explored (Gay, 2002, 109).
The classroom is a place where every student should feel welcome. In a social studies
classroom, the list of possible figures to be placed on the walls is long and will
undoubtedly contain controversial figures. In order to cover the entire spectrum of
student identities, the walls would become cluttered and be quite possibly more
controversial because someone is bound to dislike one of the figures there. Thus, it is best
to avoid the situation and present a clean and uncluttered room with a thematic focus
from multiple perspectives.
The one row deep seating arrangement was chosen in order to create a classroom where
class discussion is not limited to discussion between one student and the teacher. In a
semi-circle, all students are able to see the faces of other students and engage with them
directly.
The single row arrangement is also dynamic as it can easy be adjusted to promote group
work, [and use] flexible grouping (Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, August
2008, 4).
The desk/chair combination was selected because it makes this arrangement feasible.
The teacher should not be consigned to the desk. If it is in the corner, they are not able to
interact with the class easily due to the shape of the desks. As a result, the teacher is
forced to constantly be aware of their position in the classroom because they cannot sit
stationary in a corner.
Content Choice:
In a 6th grade social studies course, I would choose to include Portuguese conquest
alongside the content covering the Spanish Conquest of the Americas. During the weeks when
conquest material is covered, I would teach several lessons devoted to understanding Portuguese
colonization. During this time, students would spend time comparing and contrasting English,
Spanish, and Portuguese motivations for, and practices and consequences of colonization. The
goal of this unit will be to help students understand Spanish and Portuguese conquest alongside a
colonizing force they are more or less familiar with (England). The final assignment will be a
project where students choose a theme of colonization and demonstrate what they have learned.
The benefit of this kind of coverage is the inclusion of the birth of one of the worlds largest
countries, Brazil. Moreover, students learn about how European countries employed different
methods during colonization, which shaped the sociopolitical environment in unique ways.
Curricular Losers:
Content: French colonization of North America and the Caribbean, Dutch colonization of
South America, and Spanish colonization.
Curricular: In place of a more in-depth coverage of Spanish conquest, entire lessons will
be used to explain European expansion into the Americas and culminate in a comparison of three
main groups. Moreover, lessons on Portuguese conquest will further limit coverage of Spanish
conquest.
Rationale:
Social studies programs prepare students to identify, understand, and work to solve the
challenges facing our diverse nation in an increasingly interdependent world (Colorado
Department of Education, 2014, 2). Not including Portuguese conquest and the effects it
has on the culture and politics of Brazil cannot adequately prepare students for a world
where the Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC countries) are actively vying for power
and status.
Sixth Grade social studies students are expected to know the historical eras, individuals,
groups, ideas and themes in regions of the Western Hemisphere and their relationships
with one another (Colorado Department of Education, 2014, 8).
Open-ended projects allow students to select a forum they believe will cater to their
learning style and best demonstrate what they have learned.
Social studies is about developing new perspectives and trying to make sense of the
world around us. Thinking about all the experiences of the conquered is one way students
are able to develop a new perspective and add this knowledge to their ever expanding
base.
Ultimately, many Americans tend to think of Latin America as a homogenous region of
shared culture and history. This is not the case. Learning about how these countries all
have specific experiences is an important step at better understanding the world we live
in.
This also relates to the key question of who should decide what is taught in a social
studies class. I believe this decision should be left to the teacher to decide what content is
a part of their curriculum.
Content Choice:
Assessment in my course will reflect the practices of liberation pedagogy. The process
will involve establishing the grading system at the beginning of the semester as a class. Students
will vote on whether they wish to a standard point based system be used, a curve scale be
employed, or whether some other system altogether be drafted. Regardless of the method chosen,
students will have opportunities throughout the semester to present evidence in favor of why they
believe they deserve specific grades on assignments based on the established rubrics drafted by
the class. These sessions will always have the opportunity to improve a students grade, but never
lower it. Moreover, students will always be allowed to redo assignments to make up points and
further demonstrate how they have learned the material.
Curricular Losers:
The losers in this case are any of the systems of grading not selected by the class, no
excuses policies, and the additional time needed to re-grade assignments turned in for more
points. I will also be giving up time to meet with students about their grades and expectations.
Additionally, class time will be taken up to set up the overall rubric at the beginning of the year
and for each major subsequent assignment.
Rationale:
In order to assist students to think critically, they need to feel they are learning for
themselves and not the teacher (Miller, 2008, 160).
Inviting students into the grading process is empowering for them and helps challenge the
dictatorial teacher/student relationship (Miller, 2008, 161).
Grades in the humanities are subjective and assessment should reflect the connections
made between content the world perceived by the students. (Miller, 2008, 161).
This type of assessment is aligned with my constructivist roots. I believe everything
should be questioned and critiqued. We need to look at the origins of specific practices
and unpack where the power is located and if this situation is just.
Summative assessment requires broad questions which emphasize shallow
understandings of the content being tested (Samuels & Farstrup, 2011, loc. 8022). By
allowing students into the assessment process, they have greater investment in their
learning and will work to gain a deeper understanding of the material covered (Miller,
2008, 166).
Changing the standards-based grade system to something chosen by the students
mitigates the chance grading becomes detrimental to the relationships among students
and to the relationships between teachers and students (Guskey, 2000, 21).
In any educational setting where the central purpose is to have students learn, grading
and reporting should always be done in reference to specific learning criteria, rather than
in reference to normative criteria (Guskey, 2000, 22).
Grading requires careful planning, thoughtful judgment, a clear focus on purpose,
excellent communication skills, and an overriding concern for students (Guskey, 2000,
27-28).
Anti-Content Choice:
I will not teach any content with the purpose of indoctrinating students via civics based
education. There is a difference between preparing students for life in a democracy and the
philosophies found in a civic education. Civics courses limit ones perspectives to that which is
socially acceptable and proper based on the ideology of others. One is taught to operate within
the norms of the system and rarely challenge the established political order because it goes
against tradition. As a constructivist, I believe we must recognize how everything we do is
related to historical traditions and social constructions. In this system, nothing can simply be
chalked up to human nature or best practice. If students are to be prepared for life in a
democracy, they need to be taught to think critically and question everything. They need to learn
to identity their relationship to power in society and how they can interact with it and improve
their situation regardless of established norms. By teaching civics, we create single minded
individuals unable to adapt and change in a global environment. National and international
politics is dynamic and requires individuals who employ outside of the box thinking, something
not taught in an indoctrinating civics course.
Curricular Loser:
By choosing to not teach civics in my courses and teach critical thought in its place,
civics is the curricular loser.
Rationale:
Teaching civics requires selecting civic values which representing civic virtue. Not only
is this entirely subjective, but teaching these values also undermines the purpose of
education and is detrimental to our system of public education (Murphy, 2004, 221).
Civics education requires the selection and emphasis on partisan values (Murphy, 2004,
221-222).
There is significant evidence that shows schools are poor providers of civic education and
the best, and most agreed upon, concepts of civic values are rarely taught effectively
(Murphy, 2004, 225).
Civic education always has its own agenda which can run afoul of students identities and
cultures.
Diane Hess argues that students need to be made aware of their rights and obligations as
members of a democratic nation (2008, 374-375). This is good up until one must decide
what these obligations are and teach them as a part of the curriculum. These obligations
will be very much a part of ones own ideology. Teaching this way runs afoul of
culturally responsive teaching where all students cultures, beliefs, and values are
respected in the classroom.
Joseph Kahne and Ellen Middaugh argue that emphasizing skills such as literacy, critical
thinking, and labor market skills rather than skills, knowledge, and thinking specific to
civic participation and deliberation is problematic (2008, 34). This type of thought is
foolish. Without the skills they believe to be overemphasized in our schools system,
citizens would never be able to accomplish the things they desire be taught in the first
place. Moreover, learning the former skill set better prepares students for life after
secondary education than the latter skill set.
 Bibliography
Colorado Department of Education. (2014) Colorado Academic Standards: Sixth Grade Social
Studies. Retrieved from http://www.cde.state.co.us/CoSocialStudies/StateStandards.asp.
Geneva, G. (2002) Preparing for Culturally Responsive Teaching. Journal of Teacher Education,
53(2), 106-116.
Guskey, T. R. (2000) Grading Policies that Work Against Standardsand How to Fix Them.
NASSP Bulletin, 84(620), 20-29.
Hess, D. (2008) Democratic Education to Reduce the Divide. Social Education, 72(7), 272-276.
Intime. (1999-2002) Culturally Responsive Teaching. Retrieved from
http://www.intime.uni.edu/multiculture/curriculum/culture/teaching.htm.
Kahne, J. & Middaugh, E. (2008) High Quality Civic Education: What it is and who gets it?.
Social Education, 72(1), 34-39.
Metropolitan Center for Urban Education. (August 2008) Culturally Responsive Differentiated
Instructional Strategies. Retrieved from
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/uploads/005/120/Culturally%20Responsive
%20Differientiated%20Instruction.pdf.
Miller, S. (2008) Liberating Grades/Liberatory Assessment. International Journal of Critical
Pedagogy, 1(2), 160-171.
Murphy, J. B. (2004) Against Civic Schooling. Social Philosophy & Policy Foundation. 221-265.
Retrieved from http://sites.dartmouth.edu/jmurphy/files/2013/04/Against-Civic-
Schooling-Murphy.pdf.
Samuels, S. J. & Farstrup, A. E. (2011). What Research has to Say about Reading Instruction (4th
ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Kindle Edition.