Haley Gray, Megan Layton, Stacy McCracken, Jessica Nieman, Janea Van Natta

EDL 318, A
Spring 2015

Inquiry-to-Curriculum: Part III

Curriculum Writ Large: A Strengths-Based Approach
to Embracing the Whole Child
Introduction/Abstract
Our school was formed around the belief that all children should have a meaningful
education that incorporates their life experiences both inside, and outside of school. Each student
is complex and dynamic, a three-dimensional creature with a heart, a spirit, an active,
meaningful-making mind, with hopes and aspirations and dreams that somehow must be taken
into account (Ayers, p. 154). Our school aims to encourage these aspirations and to use them as
resources in the classroom instead of discouraging or labeling the whole child. We want our
students to come to school not only with their minds completely focused on the day at hand and
the information that they will learn, but also for them to be excited to partake in this learning. We
felt the best way to create an environment conducive to this would be to strive to address the
needs and concerns of the families within our school community, while at the same time also
valuing their strengths and assets.
Our school will be a pre-k through 5 grade school along with the inclusion of a daycare
for children ranging from infancy to 3 years. All of our students deserve to receive one-on-one
and individualized activities, and the best way we can provide opportunities for this in the
classroom is to cap each individual class at no more than 25 students per room. This will allow
the teacher to get to know all of the students and to form a personal relationship with each of
them that will in turn enhance instruction. Our school will have three to four different classrooms
per grade level.

Another strategy that we are implementing in our school to help form lasting, positive
relationships between the students and teachers is looping. Each group of students and their
teacher remain together for two consecutive years. This means the preschool three-year and fouryear-old classes will loop together, as will kindergarten and first, second and third, and fourth
and fifth. Our school realizes that individual students learn best in a variety different ways, and
we want to encourage this by focusing on Multiple Intelligences throughout our curriculum. The
students will have opportunities to select the extracurricular activities of their choice and those
that best fit their unique learning styles. For example, if a student thrives when expressing
themselves through movement or working in a team setting, they could participate in a sports
activity, while a student who loves drama and music could partake in musical theater. Additional
opportunities for students to participate and deepen their interests in these extracurriculars will
occur during our extended school days, which are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until 5 pm.

Sorted and Categorized Educational Tensions

As a result of our collective research over the course of the semester, as well as our
observations throughout our field experiences in schools in the Hamilton area, we have
identified a list of tensions that we feel are most prominent in todays schools. We have
designed our own school and curriculum to comprehensively address each tension. The tensions
that we have chosen to focus on throughout the process of creating our school are: the
separation between home and school, health issues and medical care, unmet family needs, child
care, Internet access, lack of consistency at home, school supplies, language, and financial
literacy.

The first tension our group identified was that many families, especially those living in
low-income areas, have few opportunities to become involved in the school community and in
their childrens classrooms. We saw a separation between home and school, and, as a result,
often a lack of family involvement. These tensions, if not appropriately addressed, can result in
barriers to student learning. Therefore, we have devised numerous ways to alleviate the feelings
of separation and alienation between home and school that many families experience. This is so
that our school and the families it serves can become unified partners in the education of
students, and can utilize one anothers strengths, resources, and areas of need in order to
promote the best possible learning outcomes.
The second group of concerns that we identified stems from a possible lack of resources
available within the community that are needed in order to fulfill families most fundamental of
needs. Some of these needs include lack of access to health and medical care, food, shelter,
clothing, childcare, and transportation. When these basic needs of families are not met, the
result could potentially be students arriving at school each day with empty stomachs, lack of
sleep, unwashed clothes, and unfinished homework. Not all families are able to put food on the
table each night, despite parents working multiple jobs, let alone take their children to the
dentist or doctor. All of these were issues we felt could potentially have a negative impact on
the student and cause stress that interferes with his or her education. As a result, we have
focused a significant amount of energy while creating our school to ensure that these needs are
met.
A third group of tensions that we have identified involves more materialistic, but still
essential needs that are issues for families. These needs include a possible lack of school
supplies, lack of Internet access, and the scarcity or absence of books at home. As a

consequence of these potential areas of need, some students may not have the tools at home that
are necessary in order to for them to successfully complete homework and other school
assignments. This will only further contribute to a possible sense of alienation to and separation
from the system of schooling as a whole. Therefore, in addition to providing families with
crucial resources such as food, clothing, and healthcare, we as a group also wanted to provide
them with the tools needed to be successful when completing academic tasks and remaining
connected to school officials, one another, and the larger community.
The fourth and final set of tensions we have chosen to address concerns setting students,
as well as their families, up for success in all of their future endeavors. For example, we have
designated the area of language proficiency as clear tension that we wish to address. This is
because not knowing the language of instruction can result in an enormous barrier to learning
and acclimation to the school community. With the number of non-English speaking students in
todays schools reaching an all-time high, we have decided to design a school that not only aids
non-native English speakers in their acquisition of English, but also dually benefits English
speaking students as well as they embrace new cultures and languages. Another area of potential
need that we have identified in our schools surrounding community is the possible demand for
parent education in addition to childrens education. By providing a wide array of adult
education classes, we hope to help build community knowledge when it comes to topics such as
child development, English proficiency, and financial literacy.
By addressing the potential needs of families and the tensions they may face through a
comprehensive, multilayered approach, we are responding to the current strengths and resources
of each family. In addition, our model also provides them with additional resources and support
to meet all their needs. In this way, our students will be able to learn, thrive, and grow to reach

their full potentials.By designing a school that addresses each of these incredibly important
tensions, as well as by placing a high value upon the unique experiences, strengths, and values
every individual family possesses, we feel confident that we will be able to create an
environment that is embracing and nurturing toward all learners.
Addressing Each Tension
Tension #1: Separation between home and school.
The first tension that we as a group chose to address while planning our school is that of
the separation between home and school, which often results from a lack of understanding
between the two, in terms of the purpose of schooling, as well as the amount of parental
involvement that is appropriate. According to Baker in Teacher-Student Interaction in Urban
At-Risk Classrooms, At-risk students often report a sense of alienation and disenfranchisement
from the culture of the school in addition to academic problems and school failure (Baker, p.
58). This disconnect between the home and school cultures can often lead students and families
to feel a sense of isolation from and even aversion to the system of schooling as a whole. In
order to ensure that the families within our school community do not experience such feelings,
we have devised a variety of strategies that aim to make communication and collaboration with
families as positive and mutually beneficial as possible. This can be accomplished through
simply broadening the avenues of school-to-home communication, assessing community and
family needs, or by emphasizing the unique strengths each family system has to offer.
One way in which we strive to make our school as welcoming and inclusive to all
families as possible is by promoting a school-wide open door policy. This means that family
members will have the opportunity to visit the school and speak with administrators and
teachers at any time involving questions or concerns they may have. Additionally, all school

staff, including administrators, will demonstrate a willingness to travel to families as well,

should transportation ever become an issue when it comes to parent-teacher conferences or
meetings. We have also incorporated frequent opportunities for family involvement through
school-wide math, literacy, and game nights that will be available for students and their families
to partake in on a monthly basis. This allows families to get involved with the school, and helps
to create a sense of community as both the school and the families that it serves work together
to promote the best possible outcomes for students.
Another way in which our school will strive to meet family needs and to help them feel
more connected to and involved with the school community is by making it a priority to hear
what they have to say through surveys and community forums held throughout the year.
Through these means, we will ask each family to identify the most convenient primary, as well
as secondary, modes of communication for them, and we will send school newsletters home via
these routes on a weekly basis so that families are always aware of school news and activities.
The school-to-home surveys and community forums will not only allow the faculty of our
school to pool community, school, and additional outside resources together to meet the needs
of families, but will also provide them with opportunities to communicate exactly what their
needs are, rather than school officials assuming what they need. In an even further effort to
connect our families to resources and social service agencies throughout the larger community,
and to provide them with yet another network of support when it comes to potential stressors
they may face, we will also have a social worker onsite at our school every day throughout the
course of the week, as well as both before and after school.
Finally, we recognize that not all families within our school community will be
proficient in the English language. As a result, some families may feel even further disengaged

from the school and may be reluctant to get involved in school activities. In order to combat
these feelings and promote the highest levels of family involvement possible, we will actively
seek out members of the surrounding community, as well as parent volunteers, who speak the
diverse languages represented throughout the community. These community members will
become an incredible asset to our school as they help to translate school newsletters, parentteacher conferences, family literacy nights, and other forms of school-to-home correspondence.
Having translators readily available will not only help us create a welcoming environment for
English Language Learner (ELL) students and their families, but will also help make them feel
more comfortable in the school setting because language will no longer be a barrier.
Another way in which our school will work to increase family involvement will be by
aligning what goes on in the classroom to activities that families engage in at home. This can
occur by providing parents with educational activities and materials that they can use with their
children, such as math games or children's literature, or simply by providing them with ideas of
how to engage their children in academic thinking during everyday tasks, such as visiting the
grocery story and comparing prices. Additionally, a Family Resource Center will be established
in the school to provide a space in which families can come together, as well as to give them a
safe place in which they can access the resources such as Wi-Fi, books, GED classes, a laundry
room, and free daycare, all of which will be available for them to access at any time throughout
the day and during our extended school hours on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Finally, teachers and administrators at our school want to communicate to families that,
as a school, we view the unique knowledge, experiences, and skill sets that they have to offer as
exceedingly valuable and as an asset to student learning. We will emphasize this belief by
inviting students family members into our classrooms to share their knowledge and talents with

our students. As a result, we feel that we will be able to successfully combat the marginalization
and alienation that many families feel from the system of schooling, and will also in turn expose
our students to diverse perspectives and careers. As a group, we believe that all of these
intertwined components will work together to increase family involvement, preserve their
dignity, emphasize their strengths, and create a community atmosphere in which collaboration
and active learning are able to thrive.
Tension #2: Health Issues and Medical Care.
Another tension that we chose to address in our school was the lack of opportunity for
families in the community to receive health and dental care on a regular basis. We decided to
combat this issue by partnering with doctors and dentists in the local community. Our school
will have an onsite medical and dental clinic where these professionals can donate their time pro
bono. This facility will be housed in a special room located within our school, and these
professionals will be available there once a week. Along with this partnership, we will also take
the initiative to provide opportunities for all students to brush their hair and teeth each day
during both the morning and afternoon. We have the opportunity to help to create a classroom
or school that is genuinely defined by childrens needs and...ideally the help comes from
supportive colleagues and administrators (Kohn, pg. 19). With the ability to create our own
school, we can take these extra measures to help our children be fully prepared for the school
day by ensuring that all of their physical needs are met.
Along with the clinics attached to our school, we are also going to teach our students
how important it is they eat a healthy diet through in-depth discussions and learning activities.
This will become even more meaningful to them when the food that they eat it is obtained from
their own school garden and they learn to use the crops to make healthy recipes, as well as

recipes that are important to them both culturally and personally. This gives our school the
chance to show through its multicultural education [that it] acknowledges the legitimacy of the
cultural heritages of different ethnic groups, both as legacies that affect students dispositions,
attitudes, and approaches to learning and as worthy content to be taught in the formal
curriculum (Gay, p. 2). Students will receive this supportive message on a daily basis as we
integrate both home and school values throughout our schools curriculum.
Tension #3: Possible Needs of Families
After examining the results obtained from the exploration of our research questions, we
found that an additional tension that needs to be addressed in todays schools is the insufficient
amount of resources that families have at their disposals when it comes to meeting their basic
needs. We have brainstormed numerous ways to collect and distribute resources throughout the
community using the school as a base to help meet the needs of the family. One of these ways is
conducting food drives throughout the year. During these food drives, family and community
members can participate and donate food that we can then disperse to families who need the
extra assistance. Soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, and toothbrushes are all things that you cannot
buy with food stamps, and this creates a situation in which many families are unable to obtain
amenities that we take for granted on a daily basis (Huffington Post). In order to help families
access both the food and non-food items they need, our school will partner closely with Kroger
and other major companies for donations. We will also send home backpacks containing extra
food with students whose families may need the extra assistance each weekend. We do not want
hunger to be a limiting factor when it comes to students success in school, and these are all
ways in which we can combat this issue in our school district and local community. During
these food drives, we will also provide soup kitchens for members of the community so that

everyone involved will have the opportunity to get a hot meal whether they need it or not. This
not only ensures that the families who need the extra assistance are receiving it, but also works
to eliminate some of the stigma that could potentially surface for families.
Another method we decided to use to help address the possible needs of the families
served by our school was to build a laundry room that is available to the public during our
extended school hours. During these days, any member of our school and the surrounding
community are welcome to use the laundry machines offered to wash and dry their clothes with
no fee. While it may seem like a small aspect of families needs in the community, having clean
clothes can make a huge difference in many aspects of their lives. If parents are able to come into
the school during these hours, this could mean the difference between them being considered for
a job that could improve their socioeconomic status or being set aside because they were not
considered professional-looking enough. Having the opportunity to do laundry is just one step
we can take as a school to limit the amount of times that families in poverty are sabotaged
because many doors open for certain people through no virtue of their own (McIntosh, p. 2).
It may seem unrealistic to expect to be able to donate all of these resources to the
community when we get little in return, but we feel that these actions would work out for
everyone involved, especially if we are able to partner with major companies located within the
area of our school. Such companies could include those like Kroger or Sams Club. These
partnerships will not only benefit the school and the families it serves, but will also help to create
positive publicity for the companies involved as a result of their engagement in community
work.
Another idea that we had when it comes to addressing the needs of our families was to
have an onsite thrift store attached to the school which can be used by anyone in the community.

Using the store as a foundation for forming a sense of ownership for families, we can create yet
another positive asset located within the larger community. Families will not pay for the items
present in the store, but will instead trade items that they no longer need for new items that they
do need. In this manner, items will be donated for the use of other families throughout the
community, while also giving them a way to access items that they have a need for. This
reiterates the idea that we are bound together through the common influences we share, through
work, and through trying to understand others and have them understand us, and perpetuates an
opportunity for understanding, ownership, preservation of dignity, and belonging within all
members of the community, no matter what their socioeconomic status may be (McCutcheon p.
148). The onsite thrift store will be a resource that all families can use without fear of being
ridiculed or judged for their situations.
The last major need that we addressed in our school district was the lack of transportation
that many families experience.We plan on addressing this need by using a combination of public
transportation and school buses. We will help families to understand the bus routes that are
nearest to them, as well as arrange school transportation for families and their students so they
are able to attend school events. We want to encourage all families to use the bus system,
because we do not want to there to be any negative stigma regarding its use. These bus routes
will be a public service that is provided for everyone, whether they have need for it or not.
Families should not feel like they cannot use all of the resources available to them because of the
fear that they will be judged by others or lose their sense of pride. In all of these solutions, we
have tried to incorporate approaches that will be sensitive to, as well as work to preserve the
dignities of our families and to show them that no matter what they are experiencing, they have
something positive to bring to our school that is an asset and not a deficit.

Tension #6: Child Care

Another tension that we found when researching and brainstorming ideas for our school
was the frequent lack of access to childcare for working parents with young children. This was
especially true for parents who work shifts outside of typical hours. Parents need childcare that
is open and and affordable to the public, but that still coincides with their childs school hours.
As we delved deeper into the demographics of those currently living in poverty in the United
States, we found that 42 percent of the children in poverty consists of infants and toddlers
(Fellsmeth, p. 2). This is an enormous portion of this population, and is a definite outside
stressor that needs to be addressed if our students and families are to feel supported and ready to
learn when they come to school.
When we were looking at this problem, we decided that the best solution would be to
provide free childcare to all of the families with students in the school district. This childcare
will be offered before the beginning of the school day and will be extended after the school day.
Doing this allows for families in poverty with children younger than kindergarten age to have
somewhere to place their kids when they are working. It will also be a place that is safe and
promotes learning and enrichment. It can also free up parents who want to take GED classes,
English acquisition classes, and attend parent-teacher conferences. All of these are critical to
eliminating the perpetuation of poverty that many families experience. If parents want to escape
poverty they need the time to take these classes and obtain an education that will get them get
ahead of the cycle of poverty.
Child care will help to establish an environment where kids can start to grow and
cultivate interest, excitement, and passion for learning which leads the students down a path
where they grow along with an atmosphere for caring for students and each others lives

(Poetter, p. 68). In our school, we see education as a key factor in reducing and preventing
poverty in future generations. The solutions created for this issue are just one element of the
whole school that will help support and encourage families and children starting from a young
age, because the first five years have so much to do with how the next 80 turn out.(Thrive
Washington).
Tension #7: Internet Access
According to the 2013 U.S. Census, 83.8 percent of U.S. households reported computer
ownership, with 78.5 percent of all households having a desktop or laptop computer, and 63.6
percent having a handheld computer. The likelihood of owning a computer is also positively
correlated to household income (American Community Survey Reports, p. 2). Because our
school will be situated in a lower-income, urban area, we anticipate that a number of our
families may not have the Internet access necessary in order to complete the many out-of-school
assignments that are required in todays technological society. As a result, we have selected
Internet access as the seventh tension that we chose to address. We have chosen to provide
computer and Internet access not only for student use, but also for their families via the Family
Resource Room at our school. With these measures put in place, we feel that students and
families will have a much better time when it comes to completing out-of-school assignments,
conducting research, locating resources and jobs, and communicating with one other
technologically now that the tools that they need are much more accessible. Families will have
unlimited access to our schools computers and Wi-Fi throughout the school day, as well as
during our extended hours and on weekends.
In order to further promote home-to-school communication, in addition to sending home
weekly newsletters via families preferred modes of contact, we will also provide the option of

both schoolwide and classroom-specific group text systems. As a group, we wanted to find a
way to quickly and efficiently communicate with the families that we serve, and we feel that
connecting the entire school community through a group text is one way in which this can be
achieved. In this manner, school officials will be able to inform parents and caregivers of
important information or changes to the school day through one single text. In order to address
the circumstance of some families not owning cell phones, our school will also partner closely
with the government-funded Lifeline Assistance Program, through which families that qualify
will be provided with a free Obama phone with pre-loaded minutes for emergency use and for
correspondence between home and school. Copies of school newsletters will also be sent home
in paper form in addition to the school-wide text, in order to ensure that families are receiving
information via more than one route, and are thus more likely to be informed about school news
and events.
Finally, we will also work to promote awareness of and access to resources within the
larger community that further provide our families with Internet access, especially for the rare
occasions in which the Family Resource Room is not open. For example, every year each grade
level within our school will take a field trip to local libraries throughout the community so that
students and their families can register for library cards. We will also promote the communitys
libraries at other events, such as Family Literacy Night, so that families are able to fully utilize
this great resource, not only when it comes to Internet usage, but also when it comes to finding
books for the whole family and a host of other resources.
Tension #8: Lack of Consistency at home
According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, More than 16 million
children in the United States- 22% of all children- live in families with incomes before the

federal poverty level (NCCP.org). As a result of this knowledge, another tension that our group
decided to address while designing our school is the lack of consistency at home that some
children, particularly those in poverty, experience. This inconsistency can be attributed to a
variety of factors, including moving often, couchsurfing from house to house, or instability
within the family system itself. We recognize that sometimes it is difficult for families to
provide consistent shelter for their children in the face of financial issues, and this can in turn
contribute to situations in which couchsurfing becomes a way of life. Moving often or
otherwise inconsistent conditions at home, however, often disrupt the flow of academic
achievement and positive relationships at school as well.
We want the children that attend our school to have a safe place to learn and grow,
despite outside factors beyond their control. We hope to promote the message to our students
that, Just because today got off to a horrible start doesnt mean it has to stay that way
(Watson, p. 32). We will accomplish this type of comforting atmosphere by making our school a
school of choice. This means that, regardless of where a child happens to move, they will still
have access to the same school and have the same teacher. We will make this consistency a
feasible option for our families by providing students with free transportation to and from
school as long as they live within our districts radius. By having the opportunity to attend
school uninterrupted, we hope to increase the likelihood that our students will form lasting and
meaningful relationships with their teachers and peers, and will work to create an inclusive
setting in which the only thing the children we serve need to focus on while at school is doing
their best and broadening their learning.
Tension #9: School Supplies

At our school, we want all of our students to have the supplies they need in order to
succeed during the school day, as well as at home when completing school assignments.
However, we recognize that not all of our students may have things like crayons, glue, or
scissors at home. This is why we as a group have decided to ensure that all of our students are
provided with the school supplies they need, so that nothing stands in their way when it comes
to feeling confident and prepared when completing schoolwork, whether during the school day
or at home. In order to accomplish this task, our school will partner closely with Crayons to
Computers, an organization that provides over 600 schools in the Cincinnati area with new and
gently used school supplies and other educational tools (crayons2computers.com). We will also
use our partnership with Kroger and other major companies to broaden the range of donations
provided and to ensure that all of our students have a full backpack of supplies at the beginning
of the school year, which will in turn replenished when needed as the year goes on. By
providing our students with all of the tools needed for academic success, we believe that they
will become all the more engaged in school activities, and that we will see vast gains in their
academic achievement.
In order to further meet the needs of our families, we will arrange a school-wide coupon
bulletin board in the schools Family Resource Room in which various types of coupons will be
organized into folders, such as Baby, Produce, and Toiletry items. This bulletin board
will not only provide families with numerous coupons to take and use based on their needs, but
will also help to build a sense of school community as the coupons that one family does not
need and adds to the board in turn assists another family. The entire school community,
including administrators and staff as well as families, will continually add coupons to this
collection so that a wide variety are always available and all families can benefit. As a result, we

want to demonstrate to families that our school staff truly cares about their growth and well
being, and that we are there as partners and allies for them when it comes to connecting them
with the resources and tools they may need.
Tension #10: Language
It is becoming more and more common for todays schools to serve English Language
Learners (ELL) students that speak multiple languages, as part of the school community. ELLs
are the fastest growing segment of the student population... and now comprise 10.5 percent of
the nations K12 enrollment, up from 5 percent in 1990 (National Council of Teachers of
English, p.2). Because ELLs now make up such a sizable portion of the school demographic, we
as a group want to communicate to ELLs and their families that we see their language as an
asset and valuable resource in our school. We do not want them to see their language as a deficit
because it is an important part of a student's identity and culture, and we do not want to create
an environment where this self-protective split of personhood from practice is encouraged by
academic culture that distrusts personal truth (Palmer, p. 72).
We felt that one of the best ways to combat these feelings of alienation would be to
create immersion classrooms throughout our school. These classrooms will put a strong focus
on bilingualism for all students. This means that all of the students, regardless of their native
languages, will learn in Spanish in the morning and then in the afternoon they will learn in
English. We realize that it is not possible to cover all students languages through this approach,
and that there will likely be multiple languages spoken throughout the larger community.
However, because our school will be a school of choice, families will be informed when first
enrolling their children that English and Spanish will be the two languages of instruction. This
is beneficial not only to ELLs, but also to the native English-speaking students that attend our

school. As a result of the bilingual instruction, both groups of students will come to acquire a
new language, and this will create a deeper understanding of what their fellow classmates feel
when trying to learn in a language that is not their native tongue. This will also serve to show
the ELLs in our school community that their language is just as important as English, and
further promotes the multicultural education that we strive to incorporate into our curriculum so
all students can grow up maintain[ing] their ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, and primordial
identities (Banks, p.4).
To help staff our bilingual classrooms, we will use members from the community who
speak these languages as their first language. We would have these community members
volunteer their time to translate for teachers, as well as to help them to learn the new languages
outside of school so they can become fluent along with their students. By incorporating both
English and Spanish into our schools daily instruction, as well as by actively involving
students families and other members of the community in the process, we feel that our school
not only meets the needs of a wider population of students, but also views the cultural and
linguistic diversity of the community it serves as a priceless asset.
Tension #11: Financial Literacy
As a school, we wanted to make it a priority to instill financial literacy in our students.
We have come up with a variety of programs that we believe will help our students understand
the fundamental skills of economics and money management. We want to give our students
practice with managing money as well as investing. An investment of 5,000 dollars will be
given to each incoming first grade class a whole. The students will work to manage, save, as
well as invest this money. In many cases poor children are more likely to become poor
parents (Children Defense Fund p. 1) and we want to decrease this trend by helping introduce

money management skills to students at a young age.We plan on partnering with local banks to
receive the donations and to work with people in this field to teach the students how to save,
manage and invest money. Once the students graduate they are the ones who choose what they
want to do with the money that they have left over. They could potentially split it up evenly
between all of the class members for college funds, invest it, or re-gift it to another first grade
classroom.
Along with bank partnerships, we also want to incorporate the Junior Achievement
program into our curriculum. This program has volunteers from the community or local high
school students come into the school and introduce and teach economic lessons to students. All
of this combines to give students the financial literacy they need to stop the cycle of poverty
that they could potentially stay in without additional resources and support.
Curriculum:
Our curriculum is entirely centered around the everyday, lived experiences of our
students. This priority is also echoed by Ayers, who states that educators and school officials
must spend some key energy figuring out how [their students] think, experience, and make
sense of the world (Ayers, p. 154). By making the lives and experiences of our students the
focal point of all instruction, we feel that the result will be more engaged and thoughtful
students, students who may have never enjoyed going to school before, but that now are excited
to learn because they feel that their lives outside of school walls, whatever they may look like,
are valuable and meaningful opportunities for further learning. This will be done by having
teachers critically witness each and every student and discover the unique strengths that he or
she possess, as well as ways to use these strengths to to support and build upon areas of
weakness or difficulty. Our teachers will work hard to deeply understand the lives that their

students lead outside of school. This will be accomplished through home visits, family surveys,
community forums, and meaningful discussions with the students themselves that are based
upon a strong foundation of trust and positive teacher-student relationships. Teachers will use
what they learn about their students to incorporate student experiences and interests into
everyday instruction, using the larger community as a source of curricular inspiration and
making learning all the more meaningful and relevant to them. After all, what we teach will
never take unless it connects with the inward living core of our students lives (Palmer, p. 73).
Our school curriculum is also going to be driven by the principles of integrated,
problem-based learning, which we feel goes hand in hand with making academic content
relevant to students lives by blending all of the key content areas and meeting state standards
while also providing students with meaningful and long-term projects that are guided by their
own interests. According to Ayers, Children in all classrooms need a project (or several
projects) to pursue during some part of each day (Ayers, p. 69). One sample project that we
envision our students partaking in is named, Ground, Plate, and Participate. In this project,
students will work throughout the school year to plant a community garden in a vacant lot in the
vicinity of the school. Throughout the project, students will explore the needs of different types
of plants, will discover how to organize a garden for optimal plant growth, will discover what it
means to plan a nutritious meal, will hone their writing skills as they communicate what they
have grown to the larger community, and will learn valuable business skills as they market and
sell the fruits and vegetables that they grow. Throughout this project, we will also heavily
involve students families as we encourage their participation in preparing and maintaining the
garden, as well as invite them to use the produce that is grown as they share personally
meaningful and cultural dishes with our students. This is but one example of what integrated,

problem-based learning would look like in our school, and we as a group truly feel that it is the
best option for our students when it comes to supporting their individual interests and curiosity
while also engaging them in meaningful learning.
While designing our schools curriculum, we also chose to emphasize Howard Gardners
seven multiple intelligences as we communicate to students that each and every one of us is
smart in our own way, and that everyone learns differently. However, rather than making our
students view these differences as a negative, we will instead promote the perspective that
everyone has something unique and wonderful to offer, whether it is through movement, words,
pictures, music, and more, and that these differences only make us stronger as a community. In
order to incorporate students varying multiple intelligences into the daily school curriculum,
we will not only differentiate instruction during academic activities, but will also build our
school specials around each different type of intelligence, offering students a wide variety of
options when it comes to what extracurricular activities they choose to engage in. This could be
anything from theater, sports, or even journalism. Students will have opportunities to delve
even deeper into these areas if they so choose, and this extra time for specials will be built into
our schools optional extended days. By incorporating students unique learning styles and
diverse interests as a regular part of each school day, we hope to give our students a reason to
feel excited and passionate about school, and to view education as something that will allow
them to further explore and develop their interests and skills.
Another core aspect that we as a group wanted to deeply integrate with all curricular
activities is multicultural education. We plan to achieve this not only by exposing our students
to multicultural literature, but also by providing them with opportunities to learn about diverse
cultures from around the world through skyping international classrooms and through becoming

pen pals to students in other countries. We will also communicate to students that diversity does
not only exist in different countries, but also closer to home within their own communities. One
way in which we will accomplish this is by incorporating a series of activities in which we are
able to illustrate to students that although there are many differences present between them,
whether in terms of race, socioeconomic status, or life experiences, they also have many things
in common, and that these similarities and differences interact in a way that makes us much
stronger together than if we were all exactly the same. Finally, we will also strive to bring
diverse perspectives and cultures into our schools classrooms by inviting families and other
community members into school to share their experiences and skills with our students. In this
way, we will communicate to families that everyone, no matter what, has something valuable to
offer when it comes to imparting knowledge to future generations, and that these strengths are
an irreplaceable part of our schools curriculum.
The final aspect of our schools curriculum can be summarized in terms of our discipline
and classroom management policies. Our school will not enforce suspensions or expulsions of
any kind, and will instead take an approach of meeting student needs and building a strong
foundation of mutual trust and respect so that such occurrences do not happen in the first place.
In order to create this type of safe and nurturing community, we have chosen to design a school
that runs entirely upon the Responsive Classroom philosophy, in which each of our teachers and
staff members will be trained. Responsive Classroom is an approach to teaching, learning, and
classroom management that, as a result of positive and trusting student-teacher relationships,
students are taught how to effectively solve conflicts and monitor their behavior, rather than
punishing or publicly humiliating students. Teachers pull students aside and speak to them
respectfully on a one-on-one basis to discuss misbehavior and work together to brainstorm

possible solutions. By adopting this philosophy, we feel that our school will be able to provide
an environment that is truly inclusive, welcoming, and accepting of all students, and that will
help them to develop positive self-concepts, as well as social and problem solving skills, which
will in turn result in better learning outcomes for all students.
Rationale
In the first initial stages of our individual Inquiry-to-Curriculum projects, we came
across a quote in which Ayers likens curriculum in many of todays schools to fast food,
available and a little addictive, filling, in a disappointing kind of way, and you get hungry again
soon after youve finished and begged for teachers and school officials to pump some
substance and fiber into those greasy burgers (Poetter, p. 99). The more involved we became in
designing our own school and in examining our own philosophies as teachers, the more we
resonated with this quote as we neared the final culmination of our work in EDL 318 this
semester. As a result, we combined each group members strengths, research base, and talents,
and through much deliberation, feel that we have finally arrived at a school design and
curriculum that accomplishes exactly this.
As a group, we collectively chose to put the whole child, and all of his or hers
overlapping spheres of experience, knowledge, and culture, at the center of our school design.
This was the driving force that we continually referred back to throughout our deliberation
process, and we feel that this unifying thread really ties together all of our efforts to address the
listed tensions and potential areas of concern we identified when it comes to todays urban
schools. We chose to design a school that truly addresses curriculum writ large, or a childs allencompassing experiences both within and without school walls. We did this by using the larger
community as a source of curricular inspiration, by making academic content meaningful and

personally relevant to the everyday, lived experiences of our students, and by pulling all of these
aspects together into integrated, long-term projects that we feel will truly spark students
imaginations and allow them to succeed like never before. We also strove to emphasize that
there are numerous ways in which a person can be smart, and that all types of learners are
welcomed and embraced within our school community. Finally, we made a focused effort to
reach out to our students families, communicating to them our belief that all families,
regardless of educational attainment, socioeconomic status, race, or native language have
valuable strengths to offer and are viewed as an immeasurable asset to our school community
when it comes to expanding student learning and optimizing positive outcomes for all students.
Meier states in the article What Does It Take to Build a School for Democracy? that the
inequities of race, gender, and class that persist in our nation will surely grow worse unless civic
equity is nourished by a publicly funded system of schooling with exactly that as a prime target
(Meier, p. 2). Through our multilayered and extremely varied approach to addressing the tensions
we identified at the very beginning of this process, we feel that we have finally been able to
create a school that Meier himself would have been proud of: One that takes into account the
diverse experiences of every child, and works to truly understand and value the whole child and
the assets that he or she, as well as his or her family, has to offer. As a result, we feel proud to say
that we have truly created a school that places curriculum writ large at its heart, one that really
does, without a doubt, utilize a strengths-based approach to embracing the whole child.

Concept Map

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