“CORE CURRICULUM! GET RID OF IT!” “PLEASE BUILD ME A NEW CURRICULUM!” FINAL EXAMINATION EDF 3417
“There is no generally agreed upon definition of curriculum.” [Wikipedia]
Using the statements below, design a curriculum–core, common, or otherwise–that will satisfy at least ONE school board, one school district’s parents, one k-12 faculty, one state board of education, one k-12 regional accrediting agency, or ONE NATIONAL STANDARD.
Note the following: Curriculum can be envisaged from different perspectives. What societies envisage as important teaching and learning constitutes the intended curriculum. Since it is usually presented in official documents, it may be also called the written and/or official curriculum.
However, at classroom level, this intended curriculum may be altered through a range of complex classroom interactions, and what is actually delivered can be considered the implemented curriculum.
What learners really learn (i.e. what can be assessed and can be demonstrated as learning outcomes/learner competencies) constitutes the achieved or learned curriculum. In addition, curriculum theory points to a hidden curriculum (i.e. the unintended development of personal values and beliefs of learners, teachers, and communities; unexpected impact of a curriculum; unforeseen aspects of a learning process).
Those who develop the intended curriculum should have all these different dimensions of the curriculum in view. While the written curriculum does not exhaust the meaning of curriculum, it is important because it represents the vision of the society. The written curriculum is usually expressed in comprehensive and user-friendly documents, such as curriculum frameworks; subject curricula/syllabuses; and in relevant and helpful learning materials, such as textbooks, teacher guides, and assessment guides. [Wikipedia notes]
BEGIN THE EXERCISE IN YOUR BLUE BOOKS. YOU HAVE 40 HOURS.
The Naming of the Parts
What I Learned in School Today
Using a Typewriter/Keyboard
Why My Signature Is Important
Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey
Making Change, Counting Money
My Handwriting Tells about Me
Rules for Capitalization
Cursive to Be Read
How to Take a Bath or Shower
Eating Well So I Don’t Get Fat–or Throw Up
How to Use Crayolas without Breaking Any
Drawing Trees and People–and Showing the Difference
Columbus Was Here–Somewhere
Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Baseball Diamonds
I Know Where Babies Come From–and Why
Is WISK Better Than TIDE?
Coarse or Fine
Hitler, the Pope, and Abraham Lincoln
The WHO Sing Beethoven’s Ninth
Input, Output, Shotput
“O Say Can You See?”
Domes, Arches, and Spires: What’s the Point?
Sometimes a Dictator Helps the World
R&D
When My Food Enters My Stomach
Do Rainbows Matter?
I Turn the Key; the Engine Starts
“The Play’s the Thing,” He Wrote.
Biology. Reading. History. Chemistry.–Just Words?
Who Really Was Bernoulli?
NATO. USO. UFO. CEO. CFO. MAYO.
Apples Fall from Trees–on Earth
The Man in the Moon Just Smiled at Me
Sometimes I Can’t Breathe When It’s Cloudy
Under Water Scares Me
Condors, Penguins, and Koalas
“Congress Shall Make No Law….”
Is There a Use for Poetry?
Another Plane Crashed in Russia Yesterday
A Hundred-Yard Universe, a Hundred-Meter Dash
“Mind the Gap!”
Whites, Lights, and Darks
Memories of a Time 
and to whom do I hand in my answers?
Drop them in the box as you leave the room. :o)
oh, you think I won’t? muwhahaha
well…i sincerely hope you correct the tests on a sliding scale…and you don’t sue me for anything! LOL
Here’s how it goes. There is NEVER extra credit (though there is a correlation between those female students who sit in the front rows of the classroom. They have higher test scores! ) NEVER take a course from a professor who grades on the curve: someone has to fail, no matter what.
Now I remember (realize?) why I did NOT become a teacher! 😀
Love your list. Lots of room for creativity!
I am ambivalent to this exam list of titles. These are essay questions, I assume, so there should be a list of information that is asked/required to do well on the exam. I can see the basis for criticism on BOTH sides, the right and the left. Each question is open to interpretation, but also the grading of each exam will be up to individual educators.
There is SO MUCH room for interpretation, in fact, that there is room for a myriad of positions. Take the ONE that says “Columbus was here, somewhere.” This question covers such issues as Did Columbus “Discover” America? Which of course can be answered yes or no, depending on point of view. Local school boards could pick and choose among textbooks and teacher-styles, and other criteria. There is room for vast differences in the interpretation of History, of Society, Big Ticket Issues like Creation/Intelligent Design, Evolution…Politics, Racism, International Relations.
As a STUDENT at any level, I would have just LOVED this exam! 40 hours is a long time, but the question for me is if each of the dozens of questions (43) is open to true individual interpretation and thought-processes, OR are their “correct” and “incorrect” answers? Is grading based on issues such as grammar, spelling, common sense, ability to express one’s self in writing, and making intelligent observations or opinions?
These are actually interesting and intelligent exam questions—but the alarm bell that rings for me is WHO will do the grading of the exam questions given by the students?
please excuse the typo, “their” for “there”… I hate making errors in an essay about education norms. 🙂
Is this in relation to an exam of yours? 🙂