Updating curriculum doesn’t have to be this big project that you spend your whole summer on. Whether you are looking to update your curriculum for this upcoming year, or trying to prepare, I have tips for you.
The first thing you are going to want to do is check out your lesson reflection journal. If you’ve kept up with that, then you know a good amount of the things you’ll want to adjust for your next go. You will probably also want to check out the End of the Year Student Survey. This will help you to see what your students would want you to change.
But let’s say you haven’t been around very long and didn’t think to do these things already. There’s a few things you can do with your memory and anecdotal evidence that can help you with updating curriculum.
Using Anecdotal Evidence to Update Curriculum
Ask yourself what went well and what didn’t. I’m sure you are somewhat mortified by a lesson or two (that’s not just me, right?) Use your own opinions to decide what to do more of, and what to do less of.
Ask yourself what was fun and what was boring. I really hate teaching organic chemistry so that’s the thing I’m always trying to upgrade. If it’s not fun for me, it really can’t be fun for any of my students. Teaching should be fun. Fix anything that makes you feel like you want to play hookey. Recall the things that are fun for you (and the students) and do more of that!
Check out your unit order. Make sure things are in working order. Get this list of questions to ask yourself to diagnose your unit order.
Check out your lesson order too. If you have just one lesson out of place, your students can be super confused. This confusion of course means you spend time “unconfusing” the kids by reteaching. This could possibly be avoided by moving a lesson or two. In my case, I taught electron excitation and ions at the same time. My kids were horribly confused. When I moved ions to my bonding unit, there was no confusion at all. The move probably saved me three days of instruction.
Check on your observations too. You’ll want to see what the adults visiting your room during the year think. Of course, they only see a small portion of what you do each day, but their opinion will have some value. Use that when updating curriculum.
Don’t forget to grab the End of the Year Student Survey! I like to use mine at the quarter or semester mark as well.
