CURRICULUM PROJECT ASSIGNMENT

This assignment has several purposes:

• it is a concrete embodiment and application of things you will discuss in your rationale paper;
• it forces you to begin thinking about the scope and sequence of content your students should learn;
• it is the beginning of a file of resources (I hope) you will carry with you throughout your teaching career;
• it is your chance to practice modifying materials to better fit what is important to you, as we discussed and practiced in class;
• finally, it is your chance to show your proficiency in finding materials using a variety of sources, including the internet and ERIC searches.

Gather pre-existing curriculum materials or teaching resources. All the examples should be centered on a particular unit--you choose the unit's focus. The curriculum materials should be mostly science activities. The activities should include resources found on the internet, and resources found as a result of an ERIC search. Although I allow a little from textbooks, choose relatively little from this source. This assignment is for you to explore other resources.

Having selected materials, analyze them, with particular emphasis on the relationship between the materials and the goals you discuss in your research-based rationale paper. In the rationale, you provide a rationale for your important student goals, then discuss what the teacher should do to help students achieve each goal. This assignment gives you the opportunity to analyze curriculum materials in light of your goals.

Here's what you should do for the paper, once you have collected resources:

• Tell me the topic for which you've collected resources
• Remind me of your goals (10%).
• On a separate sheet, create a concept map beginning with your topic (10%).
• Write a short rationale for why the topic(s) should be part of your course (one paragraph is fine) (10%).
• Write a paragraph describing common misconceptions related to your unit's topic(s) (10%).
• After doing this, sequence the ten (or more) activities into a connected unit (10%). (We'll discuss what I mean by this in class.) The unit should include a learning cycle.
• Briefly describe the materials you have chosen. The description should be one paragraph long for each item. Include a copy of the item if you can at the end of your paper. Go on to tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of the resources with respect to your goals. Write about how the teacher should use these particular materials to help accomplish the goal. This is the part of your paper where you will most likely be discussing how you will modify the curriculum materials to best suit your goals (30%).
• Write a short test or quiz that would be part of the unit (10%). Create a rubric to accompany an assignment in the unit (10%).