California has embarked on a major new wave of curriculum reform with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the new English Language Development (ELD) standards, and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The adoption of the CCSS builds a legacy of standards-based education reform in California that began with the…

Offering more practical ideas and a rich description of how their curriculum moved from writing and reading to include inquiry, the first half of this book focuses on the authoring cycle and the ways in which educators have used the cycle as a curricular framework. The second half of the book provides detailed descriptions of "curricular…

This position paper was written to assist teachers and administrators in Oregon in preparing curriculum and setting priorities for kindergarten programs. It begins by asserting that the focus of kindergarten instruction should be on the total development of the child: socioemotional, physical, and intellectual. The need for concrete learning…

Emergent curriculum in early childhood education refers to the process of using the spontaneity generated in the daily life of the children and adults in the program, along with teacher planning, to develop the curriculum. This book presents a story about a year in the life of a fictional child care center as a context for the discussion of…

This article reviews techniques such as bibliotherapy, positive self-talk, and self-concept activities useful in suicide prevention curricula for gifted students. A guidance program designed for the social and emotional needs of the gifted student is proposed, covering such issues as perfectionism, societal expectations, and premature or…

Describes the planning, implementation, and evaluation of an integrated student soil science project. Reports that the course was designed to develop student-centered approaches to learning and to develop transferable skills and personal qualities at the same time. Explains that the project included fieldwork, laboratory analysis, data…

Student needs are often overlooked in textbooks and packaged health curricula in which topics have been assigned by curriculum developers rather than by students. The Nominal Group Technique is a group exercise which can be used to clarify health problems by actively involving students. (JN)

This book is for both teachers in training and those already in the classroom. It covers the underlying skills necessary for curriculum development, focusing on initiating, developing, implementing, and evaluating written lesson and unit plans. In addition, the book presents a wide range of instructional strategies, from the lecture method to…

This book provides research-based, concrete strategies for creating a student-centered curriculum in which every student can learn. It breaks down the Natural Human Learning Process (NHLP) into six stages, providing guidelines and models showing educators how to create learning experiences at each stage of the process for individuals, small…

Principles and techniques important in the integration of real communication skills and practice in classroom activities within a student-centered curriculum are outlined and discussed. The need for a classroom environment promoting real communication is stressed, and materials design principles are noted. The role of explicit grammar instruction…

Teachers at the Dag Hammarskjold School No. 6 in Rochester, New York, developed an interdisciplinary curriculum for fifth and sixth graders that they call the Interesting Questions Approach. Teachers and students choose questions about a topic and plan activities that will enable students to find the answers. (LB)

Curriculum development efforts for English instruction over the past 20 years are reviewed, and an "inside-outside" approach that uses the structure of the discipline, or its inner core, to guide curriculum development is suggested. Three principles--metaphoric thinking, writing as reconstruction of experience, and language in context--would…

The starting point for curriculum planning for second language instruction is the learner, and a curriculum can claim to be learner-centered only if key factors about the learner are made the basis for curriculum design at all stages in the planning and development of learning activities and materials and in the sequencing of learning experiences.…

In recent years, schools have been moving away from centralized decision making, granting teachers the authority to determine course content. This book explores the concept of including students in curricular decision making. Chapter 1 explains why students at all grade levels should be involved in choosing topics of study. Educational research…

Communicative language teaching and self-directed learning is discussed, followed by an introduction of an analytical framework for designing a task using Nunan's framework. A case study is reported from the National University of Singapore with 220 first-year Japanese language students. Suggestions are made for course and task designers. (12…