Curriculum Development

Spring 2018
Reflection
I was excited for this course because my school greatly needed a curriculum upgrade! I wanted
just a glimpse of how a change in curriculum could benefit my school. At first, I was a bit too
anxious, as I was going to revamp the entire fourth grade Language Arts curriculum. When I
realized this was a very large undertaking for just one semester, I narrowed it down to
developing a writing curriculum. I always appreciate how Dr. Blundell allows her students to
work on projects that are meaningful to them. For years, I was concerned that our current writing
curriculum has been insufficient. This course gave me the opportunity to change and upgrade the
current curriculum, and I was able to be very specific with my objectives and timelines. With a
few tweaks over the years, I have used this writing curriculum with my fourth grade classes with
great success. One part of the curriculum is a poetry unit, and this class let me develop the unit
using multiple kinds of poetry. Our current curriculum did nothing with poetry, so my classes
have really enjoyed writing haikus to ballads!
The data analysis assignment I completed for Scottsbluff Public Schools was eye opening. The
schools were laid out, so it was easy to see where they were lacking and excelling. I did not
necessarily enjoy this assignment, as numbers and graphs are not my strong suit, but I learned a
great deal about Scottsbluff Public Schools and the students being served there. If administrators
used this information regularly, I believe their students would benefit.
Of all my courses, Curriculum Development had the largest number of assignments. I am
grateful that all the activities I completed can be used in my classroom and school.