Provides an overview of Scope and Sequence concepts

1. Sequencing the Curriculum
A Differing Approach to
Scope & Sequence

2. Typical Scope & Sequence
Provides a linear march through the
curriculum
Detailed and patient explanation
Two other (beyond linear) logical
organizational structures for
curriculum:
 Narrative
 Application

3. Student Misunderstanding
Curriculum is often derived from the
one-stop, one-way march through
textbooks
To teach the textbook only (without
other resources) may exacerbate
misunderstandings

4. Form Follows Function
The Spiral Curriculum: A spiral of
big ideas, important tasks, ever
increasing complexity
Using engaging problems and
sophisticated applications to deliver
learning experiences

5. A Natural Unfolding of
Lessons
Traditional (linear) curriculum
delivery is so natural and familiar
that we have a difficult time seeing
its weaknesses.
 Read about it, learn basic definitions, basic
elements, axioms, parts, and then build in
a clear sequence
 And yet, this is not how we best learn many
things

6. We Typically learn:
Just enough to accomplish a given
task
When is the last time you read an
entire software manual before using
the software?
We learn by failing a few times
When is the last time you allowed
students to fail first?

7. The Narrative Curriculum
Consider curriculum as a story
Stories rarely lay out all facts and
ideas in a step-by-step fashion
Although they are sometimes
illogical and incomplete,
stories are much more likely to
engage the reader

8. The Power of a Story
We do not easily remember what
other people have said if they do
not tell it in the form of a story
 During learning: We hear in the form of a
story things that we have personally
experienced

9. An Example
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a
narrative-based curriculum
Students are thrust into problem
situations immediately
 Much like a reader is thrust into the middle
of a story, from which they must find their
way out
In PBL, students meet an ill-
structured problem before they
receive any instructions

10. Narrative Curricular Design
(continued)
People don’t need the whole
subject laid out to master a
challenge
A step-by-step series of lessons
explaining each piece of the
automobile and its function prior to
ever touching the car is not the best
way to understand how it works or
how to fix it!

11. Narrative Curricular Design
(continued)
Much important teaching occurs
after, not before, students attempt
to perform—when students are
ready to hear and grasp its value.

12. Narrative Curricular Design
(continued)
The presence of a mystery or
dilemma
The most basic feature of all
compelling stories (or problems)
We are placed into an
environment that has to figured
out

13. Narrative Curricular Design
(continued)
Storytellers are great teachers
Instead of presenting a
straightforward sequence of events,
the storyteller deliberately raises
questions and delays answering
them

14. Narrative Curricular Design
(continued)
Think of a course designed to
provide drama, to offer surprises,
twists, and turns
Think of how your curriculum might
be designed by Stephen King or
Steven Spielberg
Can you think of examples

15. Narrative Curricular Design
(continued)
What drives a story, what makes it
worth telling is trouble:
 Some misfit between the characters, their
actions, the goals of the story, the setting,
and the means.
A good story centers on what is
essential—a big idea

16. 3 Questions Answered in a
Narrative-driven Curriculum
What do we know?
What do we need to know?
How can we find out?

17. 5 Essential Elements of a
Narrative Curriculum
1. Identifying importance
• What is most important about this topic?
• Why should it matter to students?
• What is engaging about it?

18. 5 Essential Elements of a
Narrative Curriculum
2. Finding binary opposites
• What opposites best catch the
importance of the topic

19. 5 Essential Elements of a
Narrative Curriculum
3. Organizing content into story form
• What content most dramatically
embodies the opposites

20. 5 Essential Elements of a
Narrative Curriculum
4. Conclusion
• What is the best way of resolving
the conflicts between the opposites
• How do we solve the conflict

21. 5 Essential Elements of a
Narrative Curriculum
5. Evaluation
• How can one know whether the
topic has been understood, its
importance grasped, and the
content learned