Curriculum Redesign Robbie Blasser 3/6/2020 Staff Development Day Presentation Objectives
•For the proposed curriculum redesign, contained
herein, to be approved by both the English Department and Academic Council of the school where I work. •To fulfill, for my Teacher Leader Project: • NBPTS Prop 5.1 • Teacher Leader Model Standard 4.D • CSTP’s 4.5 and 6.3 Consider:
•How do we succeed in making our curriculum more
diverse, inclusive, and equitable? •How do we also lessen the load for our overworked, overly stressed students? •How do we accomplish both, while also diversifying our writing assessments? •How do we achieve all of this, while still honoring the resources we’ve been cultivating for years? This is a lot, I know...
•But with the mandates coming down from
administration, as well the need for a proper departmental response to changing times, it is obviously necessary. •And I don’t think it’s that difficult, just as I do not think we need to overhaul EVERYTHING. •Just some tweaks, here and there, will be more than sufficient. Tweak 1:
•We consolidate all the work we do with the Greeks
into one, four to five week survey course, which will also serve as an introduction to the course as a whole, covering: • Archetypes • Mythology • Epic poetry • Tragedy • Informative writing on the further impact of Greek Culture This will free up:
•The weeks we spend fall semester on Greek
mythology. •The weeks we spend fall semester on both reading Oedipus Rex and the literary analysis essay we have the students write for it •The weeks we spend spring semester on the Trojan War and The Odyssey. What do you think we could do with this time? •While still covering the Greeks, we’d now have up to nine weeks of instruction freed up, so just speculate for a moment on what you could do with that freedom. •Would you want to spend more time on a unit you usually rush through? •Are you already thinking about the projects or units you could add? Possible Addition #1: •For fall semester, I propose we add a World Mythology unit, focusing on the myths and legends from anywhere that in NOT Europe. •This would address the diversity/inclusivity/equity mandate, while also staying aligned with the themes and concepts we develop all year. •Instead of writing as essay, students would then write their own mythic story, thereby diversifying our writing assessments a well. Tweak #2 •We revisit the poetry unit and develop it with much more intentionality; it becomes a priority, instead of something we get around to at the end of the year as best we can if we have time. •Within that process, we seek out and infuse the curriculum with diverse, global voices, again cultivating that greater diversity/inclusivity/equity mandate •Students would write their own book of poems, further diversifying our writing curriculum What voices are you now considering for the unit? •With this greater, and more diverse commitment to teaching poetry, what styles and cultures would you want to see reflected and taught? •What forms of poetry would you like to share with our students? •What projects , or performances would you want to add? Possible Addition #2
•To further diversify both the representation within
the texts we use, as well as the kinds of texts themselves, I net propose we adopt the graphic novel Persepolis, by Marjane Saptrapi, and Iranian woman •It is an archetypal coming of age story, that also happens to bring in one young girl’s experiences during the Iranian Revolution This would provide us:
•A text that is centered around personal narrative
writing, setting up the Personal Odyssey writing assignment. •A text that features a female protagonist of color •The possibility of bringing in artistic projects to couple our writing assignments. •A brand new unit that we could develop from scratch! And most fun of all...
•By this point, all other writing standards will have
been met through other assignments, meaning we would be truly free, as individuals, to teach this text as we see fit! •This would be an opportunity for us to design, instruct, assess, and reflect in the ways we prefer! •What would you do with your students, being given this kind of autonomy? Where would you take them? Feedback?