Kim Ruud

Curriculum Action Plan

PART 1: Definition of Curriculum
My definition of curriculum includes many aspects. Curriculum is
what we want students to know. The essential standards that we want
students to meet are determined by research-based strategies and are
then set to be national, state, and local standards. These mandated
standards are what leaders and teachers use as a foundation for what
they will be teaching students. Once we know what we want students
to know and be able to do, (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005) teachers
implement their own practices with resources and tools either provided
or developed to instruct students. Built around a relationship with
students, teachers can do what is necessary to provide for special
needs and accommodations, such as special programming or
interventions. As a portion of the curriculum, students are also
assessed to determine what standards they do know, and in turn
shows educators what students do not know. Based on this
information, leaders and teachers must then make decisions about
what is best for students. It is the integrity of the teachers and the
leaders in buildings to have the integrity to stand by these standards.

As I wrote my definition, I considered what Dr. Barb Jacobson

taught us in class on June 12. She said essentially, curriculum is what
students should know and be able to do, how students learn, and

knowing what students have learned and can do. Something that
stuck from with me from this conversation that impacted my definition
is the idea of having integrity and making sure there is a relationship.
Before our presentation on curriculum on June 12, I prepared by writing
my own definition of curriculum to see how would change. My
definition before was: Curriculum is the national, state, and local
objectives, standards, and assessments appropriately and accurately
given to all students. Though is may differ by age, it is all necessary. I
have always thought of curriculum as something that is very cut and
dry, very black and white, the business side of things. When we
discussed integrity and makings sure there is warmth, I realized that
just like anything else, curriculum needs to be individualized. I have
individualized learning for my students in my three years of teaching;
however, I have never considered that to be apart of the curriculum.
It is this mindset that has changed my definition.
PART 2: Action Plans
My learning goal for the fall practicum is to learn more about
improving curriculum through professional development. I will need
the support of Kathy Fleming (Principal) and Heidi Shaddick (Teacher
Leader) for a writing grant my school is participating in. All of the
resources included in this Grant will be necessary for my
understanding as well. The reason I have decided that participating in
this High Needs Writing Grant is because over the past few years, state

writing scores at Saratoga have dropped. While the school has

implemented some professional development around writing
instruction, the scores remain low. My schools staff wants and is
willing to put time into learning new strategies on how to instruct
writing. From August to April myself and 13 other teachers plan to
devote 45 contact hours to receive instruction on personal writing in
target genres, shared in writing groups; research based teaching
demonstrations, and reading discussion of related resources selected
by the Grants leadership team. This professional development has
shown to work (another high need building participated and worked to
improve writing scores 40% in the first year). This also will provide PLC
time, technology support, and analytic data on success rates of the
students in our classes. The data will be the key piece to determining
how successful this professional development was.
The resistance that I may encounter is that although 14 teachers
offered to participate, I cannot control their willingness while they are
at the bi-monthly meetings. Will they apply their new instructional
strategies? I know I will, but I am only in charge of what I do in my
classroom, not theirs. I will model and give examples of what is
successful in my room, hoping to get all teachers to think of the
students and the benefits for the students. I think the risk is the
resistance. And again, I can only model my best teacher behavior and
show my support my colleagues to do their best. I will encourage

others to take chances and make changes. There is a reason why we

are participating, and it is not because we are all perfect writing
teachers.
I plan to read the provided reading of the reading grant, as well
as Curriculum 21 by Heidi Hayes Jacobs. This was a text I had looked
up before Dr. Jacobsens presentation and was thrilled to see she
recommended it.