Curriculum Conference Summary

As a group of four, we designed a curriculum to address an aspect of

school that we have seen missing in many of our field experiences. The four
of us had all written papers on different topics including creativity, play,
struggling readers, and English Language Learners. Upon discussing our
different topics, we found that a common thread among all four of them was
a general lack of differentiation. For this reason, we chose to create a
curriculum based on the idea and importance of differentiated classrooms.
Our rationale behind the curriculum was that students currently in
schools are all treated as equals, and required to do the same thing, in the
same way. We expressed our concerns with these methods, discussing the
fact that every student is different, comes from a different background,
culture, or knowledge base, and has a different learning style. We found it
illogical to require all students to learn and perform tasks in the same way all
the time. Specific interventions that we suggested within our curriculum
included small group instruction, opportunities for play and exploration,
creating a classroom community, and specific ways to design a classroom to
fit all these needs.
After discussing the specific ways we would implement the curriculum
in the classroom, we came up with three different ways to assess if the
curriculum was working or not, and presented the curriculum to critics. The
curriculum was presented by the four of us at a conference at Miami

University, where we were required to explain the curriculum, and answer

any questions that were posed.