Teach Meaningful: Tools to Design the Curriculum at Your Core / Edition 2

by Lauren Porosoff

Overview

Teach Meaningful is a practical guide to designing curriculum that meets standards, serves personal and institutional values, and intentionally leads to successful student learning. Identifying which understandings, knowledge, and skills are “most important” for students to learn is always a question of values, so getting clear on values gives teachers a starting place to design cohesive units, courses, and programs. Written by a teacher for teachers, Teach Meaningful includes:

● stories of failures and successes in designing curriculum from across subjects and grade levels

● metaphors from everyday life to help teachers understand curriculum design as a process rooted in values and culminating in meaningful learning

● examples of essential questions, assessment guidelines, lesson calendars, unit plans, and curriculum maps

● exercises and templates teachers can use to create and assess curriculum

● protocols designed to encourage inclusive participation and critical reflection when colleagues look at curriculum together

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781475851175
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.03(h) x 0.47(d)

About the Author

Lauren Porosoff has been an educator since 2000, and she writes and presents about how to design curriculum and professional development that empowers students and teachers. Informed by research and practices from contextual behavioral science, her work also includes the books EMPOWER Your Students and Two-for-One Teaching, and more than 30 articles about how students and teachers can clarify and commit to their values at school.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface: The Values That Guided the Second Edition

Acknowledgements

Introduction: A Case for Values-Guided Curriculum Design

What Values Are—and Aren’t

Values as Qualities of Action

Values as What the Educator Thinks Are Important

Making Values Manifest in a Classroom

How Values Differ from Goals and Preferences

Curriculum as Coherence

Essential Coherence

Social Coherence

Functional Coherence

How to Use This Book

Chapter 1: Discover the Values That Guide Your Teaching

Barriers to Values-Consistent Teaching

Getting Stuck in Self-Limiting Beliefs

Disregarding What Matters Most

Avoiding Uncomfortable Feelings

External Factors

Tools for Discovering the Values That Guide Your Teaching

Rate Your Teacher

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Variation

Three Ups Three Downs

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Extension

Values Rendering

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Variation

Onward

Chapter 2: Discover Your Team’s Shared Values

Values-Conscious Collaboration

Discovering Shared Values

Assume Diverse Thinking

Clarify Decision-Making Processes

Create Structures for Safe and Inclusive Communication

Make the Process Itself the Only Outcome of Values Exploration

Tools for Discovering Your Team’s Shared Values

Learning Timeline

Group Protocol

Reflection Questions

Extension

Assignment Analysis

Group Protocol

Reflection Questions

Extension

Venn Values

Group Protocol

Reflection Questions

Extension

Onward

Chapter 3: Use Values to Imagine Learning

Imagining New Possibilities

Reimagining Content: Connecting to Current Concerns

Reimagining Tasks: Assigning Meaningful Work

Reimagining Resources: Drawing Upon All Relevant Knowledge

Reclaiming the Artistry of Curriculum Design

Tools for Using Values to Imagine Learning

Resource Brainstorm

Group Protocol

Reflection Questions

Extension

Work What-Ifs

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Variation

Curriculum Dice

Group Protocol

Reflection Questions

Variations

Onward

Chapter 4: Use Values to Focus Learning

The Unity of a Unit

Why Teachers Create Heaps

From Heaps to Systems

Inquiry-Based Units: Exploring Important Ideas

Using Essential Questions

Writing Essential Questions

Rehearsal-Based Units: Practicing Important Skills

One Big Event vs. Several Smaller Ones

Authentic Performances vs. Simulations

Project-Based Units: Making Important Things

Project Assignments as Unit Outlines

Teaching Cross-Disciplinary Skills

Approaching Unit Formats Flexibly

Omitting Activities That Don’t Advance Your Purpose

Tools for Using Values to Focus Learning

Unit Title Generator

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Variation

Finding What’s Essential

Group Protocol

Reflection Questions

Extension

Unit Story Quilt

Group Protocol

Reflection Questions

Extension

Onward

Chapter 5: Use Values to Organize Learning

Creating Foundational Experiences

Recalling Previous Experiences

Becoming Familiar with New Material

Renewing Curiosity

Selecting Learning Tasks

Choosing Receptive Learning Tasks

Choosing Expressive Learning Tasks

Balancing Task Types

Sequencing Learning Tasks

Inquiries are Integrative

Rehearsals are Cumulative

Projects are Iterative

Regularly Returning to What Matters

Allocating Time for a Unit

Unit Length and Expectations

Planned Flexibility

Tools for Using Values to Organize Learning

Unit Write-Up

Partner Protocol

Reflection Questions

Variation

Quarters

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Extension

Grading Your Unit

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Extension

Onward

Chapter 6: Use Values to Assess Learning

Learning Tasks as Assessment Tasks

Assessing What Matters

Defining What Success Means

Define Your Expectations but Leave Some Decisions for Your Students

Weight Expectations Based on Your Values

Copy Valued Expectations from Assignment to Assignment

Setting Students Up for Success on Assessment Tasks

Tools for Using Values to Assess Learning

Assessment Task Swapping

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Extension

Assessment Filter

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Variation

Assessing Your Rubric

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Extension

Onward

Chapter 7: Use Values to Design Courses

Designing Strands to Create a Sense of Wholeness

Diversifying Experiences to Create a Sense of Balance

Knowledge Sources

Materials

Group Sizes

Stakes

Sequencing Units to Create a Sense of Progression

Skills Progressions

Conceptual Progressions

Work Product Progressions

Understanding Your Course in the Context of a Larger Program

Filling Programmatic Gaps

Building Programmatic Arcs

Tools for Using Values to Design Courses

Values Routines

Group Protocol

Reflection Questions

Variation

Assignment Mix

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Variation

Unit Connections

Individual Exercise

Reflection Questions

Extension

Onward

Chapter 8: Use Values to Connect Disciplines

Deciding Whether to Connect Disciplines

Interdisciplinary Inquiries

Designing Interdisciplinary Essential Questions

Using Interdisciplinary Essential Questions Across Courses

Simultaneous and Serial Inquiries

Multidisciplinary Projects

Organizing a Multidisciplinary Project

Multidisciplinary Upcycling

Getting Colleagues Interested in Crossing Disciplines

Multidisciplinary Learning Events within Unidisciplinary Units

Tools for Using Values to Connect Disciplines

Finding What’s Essential Across Disciplines

Group Protocol

Reflection Questions

Extension

Assignment Mashup

Partner Protocol

Reflection Questions

Variations

Participation Invitation

Group Protocol

Reflection Questions

Variation

Onward

Conclusion: The Teacher You Want to Be

Appendix A: Examples of Values

Appendix B: Types of Meaningful Work

Works Cited

Editorial Reviews

Lauren Porosoff challenges readers to rethink their instructional practice and to incorporate their individual values into planning, instruction, and assessment. Without prescribing or presuming, Teach Meaningful: Tools to Design the Curriculum at Your Core provides illustrative, authentic examples from a wide range of content areas that offer steps that guide educators through the process of identifying their own values and using those values to adapt their teaching practices. Teachers from all grade-levels and content areas will find inspiration and guidance to redesign an individual lesson or an entire curriculum.

Bonnie Nieves

Lauren Porosoff makes a strong case that clarity on our values will ensure meaningful learning for our students. Teach Meaningful: Tools to Design the Curriculum at Your Core gives teachers and schools the tools to discover what is important to them and design curriculum accordingly. Curriculum design books can be boring but not this one. It strikes a nice balance between being informative and engaging.

Eric Hayes

When we bring our values into our teaching, real magic can happen in our classrooms. In Teach Meaningful, Lauren Porosoff shows how better understanding what's important to us as teachers can transpire into meaningful lessons for students. Taking charge of HOW we teach and reflecting on those lessons makes more meaningful experiences for our students. Porosoff provides a well-thought out step by step inventory to help all teachers begin to Teach Meaningful.

Susan Kotch

In Teach Meaningful, Lauren Porosoff provides a road map for curriculum designers that helps mesh together content standards and individual teacher values. She provides background "mini-lessons" told through story-like examples and then turns to practical exercises to help teachers design relevant, engaging, and value laden curriculum.

Don Sturm