Let’s examine what happens in each step of the curriculum development/revision cycle. This cycle is a dynamic system that helps each school re-vitalize and replenish what is taught to its students.
3. Let’s examine what happens in each step of the
curriculum development/revision cycle. This
cycle is a dynamic system that helps each school
re-vitalize and replenish what is taught to its
students.
4. Needs Assessment
For one child in
special education, this
would include his test
scores
For a campus, this
might include
achievement test
data, attendance,
graduation, college-
going rate, and
others
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
1stQtr
3rdQtr
SAT-9
Otis-
Lennon
Gradua
tion
Colleg
e
comp.
5. Types of assessments
Normative such as
Achievement tests
IQ tests, group and
individual
Learning styles
inventories
Adaptive behavior
Criterion-referenced
such as
Brigance for
individual testing
Woodcock-Johnson
can be interpreted as
criterion-related
Individual or
analytical reading
inventories
6. Don’t forget the qualitative information.
For either one child or for a school, interest
inventories can tell a lot, as can opinion
polls.
7. Writing Goals (second
step)
Goals do not have to
be behavioral, but
should be translatable
into behavioral
language
Need enough goals to
point the way
8. Writing objectives (3rd)
Objectives are more
detailed
Audience, behavior,
conditions, degree
In cognitive, affective,
and psychomotor
domains
Assessments should
be written from
objectives
9. Selecting content (4th)
For MRs, keep in mind the mental age of
the person or persons being written for.
Chronological ages are deceiving.
For special ed., keep it very utilitarian.
The content must be useful . . . These will
remember, at the most, one-half of what
normal persons would.
Build on students’ past experiences.
10. Organization of content (5)
Logical sequencing of content always
helps. But for LDs, and most MRs, it is
absolutely essential.
Build in some repetition
Provide for loop-backs for students to re-
visit things that they may have forgotten
Spiral curriculum is one very effective plan
11. Selection of learning
experiences
Learning experiences
do not stand alone--
they must relate to
objectives
Fun!
Interesting!
Multi-sensory
Use technology as
often as possible
12. Adaptation to teaching
situation
For campuses or districts, this seventh section is where teachers
make adjustments to make the new curriculum their own and in
their own ways in their classrooms.
For special education, this is where the related services
sometimes come in; special transportation, special technology,
nurse care, counseling on demand, wheelchairs, medical
assistance.
14. The evaluation at the end of one curriculum cycle
feeds right into the needs assessment of the next.
In this way, the curriculum of the school--or for
one child--is perpetually replenished and
revitalized.