Curriculum and Literacy Teams
Learning and developing best practice together
The Hiatt Curriculum and Literacy Teams provide a unique opportunity for arts and sciences professors and education and school faculty to combine knowledge about content, curriculum, and classroom learning and develop best practice. In addition to the Literacy Team, there are the History, Humanities, Mathematics and Science Teams.
Goals
Teams focus on understanding and developing common approaches to "authentic learning" in the subject area of the team. Team members support each other in enhancing, developing and implementing curriculum activities in their own classroom practice. The team as a whole develops examples of authentic learning in practice to share with colleagues, in Hiatt summer institutes, and in the Hiatt teacher preparation program. Specific goals include:
- To deepen understanding of content and the habits of mind and learning of the discipline, as well as corresponding curriculum framework standards.
- To understand, illustrate and support each team member in the development of "best practice," i.e., how content, the disciplinary way of knowing, and curriculum standards are expressed in teaching and learning at different levels with diverse groups of students.
- To provide opportunities for each team member to develop and share curriculum and learning plans, and to discuss student work in light of the effort to develop "best practice."
- To document effective practice in the form of curriculum unit plans, videotapes, student work, etc.
Team Activities
Authentic investigation
Develop a common understanding of how to learn in the discipline through an "authentic" investigation linked to a big idea in the field and curriculum frameworks.
Authentic learning and best practice
Develop a common understanding of developmentally appropriate "authentic learning" and "best practice" in the discipline through one or more of the following ways:
- Reading and discussion
- Identify "challenging concepts" for students to learn and research/develop curriculum plan(s) to enable students to learn them
- Develop and share curriculum and learning plans
- Model teaching within the team
- Examining a videotaped classroom episode
- Co-planning a curriculum unit plan (using CUP guidelines as a reference)
- Participating in a round based on a best practice concept
Individual Support
Support each team member's effort to implement "authentic learning" and "best practice" in one or more of the following ways:
- Co-develop a curriculum unit plan that meets a teacher's curriculum responsibility
- Share curriculum plans (preferably using a collaborative learning protocol)
- Examine a videotaped lesson (preferably using a collaborative learning protocol)
- Share student work (preferably using a collaborative learning protocol)
Documentation
Document work in one or more of the following ways:
- Collect and compile curriculum unit plans with corresponding student work
- Develop a team "portfolio" on CD-Rom
- Develop a team videotape "library" (one or more tapes qualify!)