Curriculum Development
Kindling Wood
During the 2015-2016 school year, my colleague, Lisa, and I created a teacher’s companion to a book of poems by Hal Blakeslee. We were initially approached by our superintendent to collaborate with the author’s son, Tom Blakeslee. Tom and his family wanted to create and sell literature to schools. We were asked to review the children’s book, Kindling Wood, and create a teaching companion that could be sold with the book.
This project was an amazing opportunity for us to create curriculum for second grade through eighth grade students. Collaborating with Lisa allowed me to work with a subject matter expert in music, a much-needed collaboration necessary to create a well-rounded curriculum. Lisa utilized her knowledge of music and poetry to create lessons analyzing the cadence and rhyming patterns of a select number of poems from the book. Additionally, she included expansion opportunities for students to add on additional stanzas to the existing poetry utilizing their analyses.
I focused on the vocabulary and spelling throughout the book. I believe that spelling and vocabulary development is essential for all students, so I really wanted to focus on identifying new words and strategies to help learn them learn each word. One strategy that I put in the book was having students write the word, look up the definition, write it in a sentence, and draw a picture. These steps help students make meaning of the words. I also included suggested uses and themes for the words within the poems. Not including many different lessons on vocabulary was purposeful. I wanted educators using the Kindling Wood curriculum to have some suggested uses, but I wanted them to have the freedom to create lessons that work for their classrooms, as every student learns in different ways. I believe allowing the teachers to change a lesson from year to year will make this curriculum more successful.
Below is a sample from both Kindling Wood by Hal Blakeslee and the A Teacher's Companion to Kindling Wood by Lisa Kattenhorn and Kelli Stowe. These items are subject to copyright, please do not download, duplicate, or distribute them.
This project was an amazing opportunity for us to create curriculum for second grade through eighth grade students. Collaborating with Lisa allowed me to work with a subject matter expert in music, a much-needed collaboration necessary to create a well-rounded curriculum. Lisa utilized her knowledge of music and poetry to create lessons analyzing the cadence and rhyming patterns of a select number of poems from the book. Additionally, she included expansion opportunities for students to add on additional stanzas to the existing poetry utilizing their analyses.
I focused on the vocabulary and spelling throughout the book. I believe that spelling and vocabulary development is essential for all students, so I really wanted to focus on identifying new words and strategies to help learn them learn each word. One strategy that I put in the book was having students write the word, look up the definition, write it in a sentence, and draw a picture. These steps help students make meaning of the words. I also included suggested uses and themes for the words within the poems. Not including many different lessons on vocabulary was purposeful. I wanted educators using the Kindling Wood curriculum to have some suggested uses, but I wanted them to have the freedom to create lessons that work for their classrooms, as every student learns in different ways. I believe allowing the teachers to change a lesson from year to year will make this curriculum more successful.
Below is a sample from both Kindling Wood by Hal Blakeslee and the A Teacher's Companion to Kindling Wood by Lisa Kattenhorn and Kelli Stowe. These items are subject to copyright, please do not download, duplicate, or distribute them.
Based on my experiences creating the teacher’s companion and completing the master’s program at GWU, I would like to create multimedia material to accompany the book material. I would like to create vocabulary exercises and games that are online for students to utilize both in and out of school. Teachers could assign it as part of class work or homework allowing for more practice. I believe the best course of action is to create a website like The Snifflefree Snirds site that my classmates and I created for Tom and his family.
Color Wheel Mandala
At the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year, I began the new position of district art teacher. I also began an Instructional Design course which served the purpose of designing lessons from the very beginning. I decided to create a lesson that I could use in both the class and while teaching my art classes.
The process of creating a lesson is not as simple as it seems. Before I took an instructional design class, I never really understood the time and detail that goes into creating lessons. To start the whole process of creating the Color Wheel Mandala lesson, I started with the end goal in mind and planned backwards. This allowed me to see each step as I was creating them without getting off track.
This lesson creation taught me several things. First, it is important to write each step out. I wrote every step out exactly how I would want to see my students if they were creating the mandala on their own. I also found it important to try out each step as I was writing it down. This allowed me to eliminate any mistakes before I finalized the paper. I also discovered it was vital to have several students try out the lesson, as their feedback was vital to the final version of the lesson.
The process of creating a lesson is not as simple as it seems. Before I took an instructional design class, I never really understood the time and detail that goes into creating lessons. To start the whole process of creating the Color Wheel Mandala lesson, I started with the end goal in mind and planned backwards. This allowed me to see each step as I was creating them without getting off track.
This lesson creation taught me several things. First, it is important to write each step out. I wrote every step out exactly how I would want to see my students if they were creating the mandala on their own. I also found it important to try out each step as I was writing it down. This allowed me to eliminate any mistakes before I finalized the paper. I also discovered it was vital to have several students try out the lesson, as their feedback was vital to the final version of the lesson.
Selecting this artifact is very important to me. It shows the final product of a successful lesson that had several hiccups. Throughout the semester, I never gave up. I sought ways to work with and around the hiccups. For example, when I went to teach the lesson to a group of students, I found that the compasses that I had given them were faulty. As they were creating the circles for the mandala, the compasses kept pushing open, ruining their circles. This problem led me to create notes letting the teacher know to provide compasses that were of good quality and that some students may find moving the paper easier than rotating the compass. It also led me to create a template. This template could be used to save time, to differentiate for leaners, or be used when there are no compasses available. The data collected while others were completing the lesson while I was teaching it led to a successful final lesson. I believe it also shows that I can create and manage tasks on my own. Collaboration is key to a successful employee, but so is working as an individual.
You can also download the PDF by clicking the button below.