The idea of actually composing a curriculum is one of the most exciting and terrifying things about becoming a future educator. I've learned a bit about composing unit plans and lesson plans in some of my education classes, but that's fairly easy because I'm not actually applying it to real, walking, talking, breathing children. It's easy to just hand it to a professor and check some stuff off of a rubric... but actually composing lesson plans, unit plans and whole curriculums for people who depend on you for learning is absolutely nerve wrecking. Luckily Jim Burke's piece, "Composing a Curriculum" momentarily gave my anxiety about lesson planning a run for its money.
The idea of beginning with the end in mind, so that you've established a goal to reach has been incredibly enlightening. It reminded me a lot of when we were talking about essay writing in class earlier this semester. We had a whole conversation as a class about how difficult it is to come up with a thesis statement at the start of an essay, and how much easier it is to come up with one once you've written your essay and elaborated on the topic a bit. The same rule applies to unit and lesson planning, and I think that having an end-goal in mind is absolutely essential to making a cohesive unit or lesson plan that actually flows and gets the point across without deviating from what you're ultimately trying to achieve.
Timing is perhaps my biggest fear because I've always been the kind of person who tries to pack too many things in too little a space...but Burke talks the importance of timing, and that more isn't necessarily better. In a standard 45 minute classroom, every second count and time management is a skill that needs to be acquired quickly to maximize efficiency and learning. I know that the first year or so of teaching is always the hardest, because I've had numerous teachers tell me how much they struggled, especially with time management. I may not get it right, right away...but Burke made some suggestions like using the first 5 to 10 minutes of the class to get student's minds into gear, either by asking questions or recapping what they learned during the previous class. Then, ideally, the rest of the class time will be used to focus on actual unit work like reading, a writing workshop, a worksheet group work, etc. Then, the last few minutes of class should be used to make sure that the students understand the work they've done and the purpose it serves them. It is a time for questions or further elaboration. In another one of my education classes, "exit slips" were suggested as a valuable tool for the end of a class, lesson, or unit so that each individual student's understanding of the topic discussed can be evaluated.
Everything I read in this article was just a refresher from the ESC 422 class I took with you (Professor Ochoa).
Here is a sample of a Lesson Plan I made for my ESC 422 education class on Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
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