How do you make your curriculum meaningful to students?

Pupil voice and connection . Making it relevant and current to todays children and young people. Listening to them . Preparing for adult hood and real life

Reverse engineer the “so what?” Why should they care? What’s in it for them? 10 years later, if they only remember three things, what would it be?

Knowing your students is the first step.Motivate them through meaningful inputs. Find out if any distractions or difficulties which make them attempting fearful.Changes in evaluation methods and positive feedbacks at all times.

Here's the thing: If you relate how the curriculum has been meaningful to you, then ask them how it can be meaningful to them, THEY take on the responsibility of finding the meaning. You cannot tell them how it works for them because you cannot get into their heads. If, however, you have not "stove-piped" your content, then you involve subjects outside of your particular area to get them used to looking for applications. "Why is it good to understand sentence structure? Let's use it on this math problem!" "How can we use math to build a siege engine for our game?" "How can we use game theory to write a short story?" They don't CARE how it will be used 10 years from now, they want it tomorrow.

Best advice I heard from a colleague is that "we teach students not subjects" ... so with that in mind ... then it must follow that designing a curriculum should be about adjusting unit plans, lesson delivery and skill development strategies to suit the students that you are currently teaching NOT recycling curriculums and forcing all your students to adapt and adjust their learning styles to your pre-designed curriculums. Also, Teacher Training programs need to overhauled and re-adjusted accordingly.

World dynamics is changing rapidly on context of business as well as technology. Always align your current to handle what is coming. What is relevant today might be totally irrelevant in next 3-5 years. Make it inclusive and participative. Align curriculum to encourage continuous learning. Continuously update and upgrade to handle the current as well as future market and industry demands.

Culturally responsive teaching is KEY! When I taught high school, I decided against a set textbook. Instead, I went about the year pulling out resources from what was happening in the world - current events. Weather it was an impeachment, the death of a famous basketball player, or even the Super Bowl, the children were engaged when they were able to connect the skills they learn in class to understand the world world around them.

Problem-Solving and concept-based learning are examples of ways I get my students to relate to the curriculum requirements. Backward mapping from assessments creates a fluid learning process.

Making learning relevant is so important. If students don't understand why they're learning something, it is so much less valuable to them. Teaching mathematical operations? Explain the importance of mastering these skills through real world examples - grocery shopping on a budget, tracking your debt to income ratio so you can decide if you have enough for a weekend trip or night out with friends. Making connections to real life application is paramount when teaching skills to students!

What I have found is that teaching and training are very subjective .Different children learn with different skills.Find them out. Going from easy to difficult tasks helps. A taste of success prods the child onwards.

We MUST stop thinking only of our own curriculum! Ask the students how else the information can be used. When they come up with the answers, they will remember longer, and (big tadaaaa) they will learn to transfer information from one subject to another on their own. THEY integrate the curriculum in a unique way that works for them.

Crafting a curriculum by integrating subjects is like creating a captivating mural. If you approach it with only one color, it's like a two-dimensional image. But if you blend various hues, each representing a different discipline, the mural turns into an immersive experience. The canvas of learning expands, and students explore the rich tapestry of knowledge, seeing connections, and understanding the world from multiple dimensions.

Linking concepts across subject-areas and unit areas allows students to synthesis their learning and look at the big picture overall while using specific examples as evidence.

Integration is something often misunderstood in in curriculum design. Teachers are over whelmed with what MUST be done and reaching certain targets that is tricky and uses alot of mental load to integrate in meaningful ways. Integration is not useful when two subjects are just stuck together for the sake of it. Identifying the 'big picture' concepts behind topics/themes can really help with branching and linking and finding the "buy-in" for students. Concepts allow teachers to use the curriculum in a way that not only integrates subject content but, also meaningful real life personal connections for students.

This is where an effective PLC comes in very handy! I liked to work with other teachers, finding out what they were teaching so that we can align our content to create a plan for students that integrated our different curriculums. The outcome was usually very interesting, and students learned that everything is connected in one way or another.

One thing that helps learners with additional needs is choice and allowing them to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. It gives them the confidence they need to be able to work through the curriculum. It also shows them and the rest of the class that differences are appreciated and celebrated. Differentiating your curriculum for special needs learners may also look like making provision for shadow teachers in your school and classroom.

One thing I've found useful while really implementing differentiation is to consider that this is not SOMETHING EXTRA but something that we are SUPPOSED TO BE DOING. Every student is a different learner. While it can be fun and enjoyable for the learners doing differentiated activities, it can be equally rewarding for the teachers to see their learners getting empowered.

In providing the material, you make it accessible visually, auditorily, and kinesthetically anyway. 3 impacts are better than one. Then the student gravitates to to the approach that works the best. The process after the information is gathered, however, is the same for all students: Find out what they know, and what they don't. Examine and analyze what is new, and make use of targeted practice, Integrate the new material into the existing and make use of it. Differentiate the outcomes based on the strengths of the students. If they have a choice of how they express the outcomes, they take ownership and retain the material longer. In addition, because you are reinforcing their resourcefulness, THEY make it more meaningful.

Students will switch off if not challenged to level that suits them. Providing high achievers with freedom in their learning and then scaffolding and providing greater context to learners who need that extra bit of help is ideal. Creating tiered assessments can motivate many students.

Anecdotally I always picture differentiation as menu options at a specific cuisine resturant. The resturant: teachers lessons within curriculum. The menu: all the different types of modalities and activities for lessons. Learners enter into the restaurant/lesson all to recieve the same thing - something delicious but, with freedom to make their own choices. Choices a teacher has carefully constructed for each type of learner/interest (within reason of course ??) Setting up differention can be time consuming and overwhelming at first but, as time goes by you learn what is "picked off the menu" more often and can refine your activities and modalities.

While you can't personalize the entire curriculum, you can definitely personalize several aspects of it...and this is where student choice comes in handy. You can very much have students choose from a list of different selections, all meeting the requirements and benchmarks of the lesson. You can also personalize the tasks, activities, and projects by having them choose their tasks from a list you create, which was mentioned earlier in this article. So while the objectives and benchmarks remain static, most everything else can be personalizable.

Financial information has to be relevant to be helpful, so we do personalize every Gifting Sense workshop, albeit in a universal way: Students calculate the DIMS (Does It Make Sense?) SCORE for an item or experience THEY are interested in purchasing. Asking and answering simple questions about typical childhood purchases, before anyone spends a dime, naturally reveals to young learners that thinking before buying isn't hard, or boring, but rather quite straightforward, and rewarding. Because when you know, for example, how much something really costs, as well as how much you are likely to use or appreciate it, before you buy it, you're able to avoid disappointment, reduce waste, improve family harmony, and protect the planet, all at once!

This one I disagree with. There is no way in the world you can personalize it to every single student in the room. That is not a job for the teacher, it is for the student. Present the information in 3 different ways (visual, auditory, and tactile) and let the students take the lead to personalize the input. Ask Questions! "How can we use this material now?" "How can we explain it to someone who has never heard it before?" "How can we change it into a story people will remember? "In what way can you use this information personally?" "How can we present this in a way that others can use as well?" (By asking THEM the same questions!) There are dozens more questions we can ask them, but the purpose is to let them be creative.

Having student led conferences using the portfolios and goals as tools is great a way to ensure each student is meaningfully engaged and they are leading their own learning.

In an international school with many diverse backgrounds, personalising curriculums to individuals is difficult. I much rather promoting perspectives and empathy to guide learning.

Align the curriculum to help build certain core skills like communication, creativity, problem solving etc. This help the learners to grow in their confidence and be articulate when expressing themselves verbally or in writing.

This was always my favorite part of the lesson: the final product! By giving your students flexible choices, based on their interests, learning profiles, etc...they'll enjoy doing the tasks, and thus create something that impressive and sometimes surpasses your expectations. Then I'd showcase it in class and have the class applaud the great work. It was indeed a celebration of their good work, effort, and learning. Projects/products varied from traditional poster that I'd out on my classroom walls, videos, and I sometimes dabbled in digital media, like creating a mini website.

Build positive relationships with their families. Invite them to school events, call home with positive news, call home to find out why the child was not in school, send home activities that involve collaboration between your student and parent, send home some positive news about something that happened in school and also, when you do have a concern, where possible have a face to face meeting with the child's parents. All this influences the child's motivation and contributes to the curriculum being meaningful.

Ask yourself if the shelf life of what your students learn in the classroom is only good until your students leave your room. Can they apply their learning to their community? The onus is on us, as leaders, to avoid going on ‘auto-pilot’ to the schools we serve. We must understand the ethos of where we serve. Community wealth should fuel our educational goals.

In my years in the class room I have learnt that it is absolutely important to build positive relationship with your learners and make them understand how their learning and application of what they have learnt can impact the world around them positively. Connecting your learners' learning to the real world in such a way and how their knowledge can impact their world drives them to take charge of their learning and contribute a lot more meaningfully during the teaching/learning activities.