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Curriculum Implementation Philosophy

Cassandra Young

EAD-520

April 7, 2021
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Curriculum Implementation Philosophy

As leaders look at implementing curriculum at their schools it needs to fit the needs of the

school while aligning with the vision and mission of the school. It needs to be focused on student

learning along with enriching teachers pedagogical thinking to enhance the learning in the

classroom. There needs to be focus on the curriculum for teachers to implement interventions

along with differentiation to support needs of students while also being able to challenge

advanced students. 

Curriculum Implementation and Grade

When thinking about curriculum implementation in a future school, I look back at how it

was implemented while I was teaching. During my teaching experience there were a few

different ways I experienced curriculum implementation, several strategies are not ways I would

suggest for my teachers. Teachers should not have to play a guessing game when implementing

the curriculum that is provided for them. Assistant Principals and Principals need to have a clear

understanding of the curriculum that is being implemented inside the classrooms in the building.

“Principals need to understand the content and instructional philosophy behind a curriculum

because they are the ones designing professional development for their building staff”

(HAMMOND, 2017). When we as administration understand what is going well with the

curriculum in each of the classrooms, we are then able to support the teacher. It is important to

support each teacher while also encouraging autonomy for them to implement their own

pedagogical experiences as well. Applying this thought process to the middle school setting,

grades 6th through 8th, curriculum needs to be engaging for all students. Curriculum should be

student centered, where we are focused on the whole student, not just the standards being met.

There needs to be a higher order of thinking built within the curriculum along with ways for
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teachers to differentiate instruction for all students. I want to make sure there is room within the

curriculum for teachers to add their own pedagogical inferences to strengthen student learning

for their subject area. If we allow teachers to add to the curriculum it can become more

personable and a richer experience for the students in the long scheme of learning.

Cultural Inclusiveness

As we implement a specific curriculum as a leader, I need to be making sure that it gives

my staff room to make adjustments for all learners. Also, as a leader I need to seek for

understanding of why changes are being made away from the curriculum if the teacher can

properly express the need to the alteration within the curriculum. Teachers need to room in the

curriculum to be able to include all learners by being culturally inclusive when teaching students.

There needs to be focus on bringing in students' background into subject areas to help make

content relevant to the students along with including real-life examples that they can relate to. If

teachers are not bringing in these needs for the students, we have changes to make because when

a student can relate to a topic, they are able to remember more completely and will remember

more when doing recall later. I believe the more we focus on student backgrounds and we plan

topics within the curriculum framework that allows for including these references, we are setting

them up for a better learning experience.

Differentiation for Learning Needs and Tiered Intervention

Differentiation tends to be a harder concept when evaluating the curriculum, does it set

the teachers up for success in this area or do we need to allow them to diverge away to pull in

these needs. Teachers not only need resources to be able to implement the needs of all students

but depending on how much differentiation there needs to be, teachers might need more support

in the room for this. As teachers are scaffolding the topics they are teaching, they need to create
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small groups based on the needs of each student, which means that there needs to be expectations

for independent learning occurring in the classroom. Scaffolding is occurring during the lesson

by pulling in prior knowledge with examples all the way through your highest student being

challenged past the idea that is being presented to them. When teachers are incorporating small

groups, this allows them to focus their attention on the different scaffolding techniques some

students may need while allowing other learners to grasp the overall idea. If teachers are doing

differentiation along with using the concept of tiered interventions, they “offer different

approaches to what students learn, how they learn it, and how they demonstrate what they’ve

learned” (Epitropoulos, 2017).

When teachers are focused in their small groups the main objective is for there to be

different needs being met for each student. They must focus on what the student needs. Teachers

can ask themselves “is there enough scaffolding during the lesson or do I need to go lower?”, and

“how can I push this group of students to drive towards the next concept?”. As a leader I want to

encourage autonomy on this because what each classroom looks like for a small group might be

different. I must give teachers the ideas of how they need to incorporate this into the curriculum

but not dictate what it should exactly look like in each individual classroom. Tiered intervention

should be teacher selected but based on what that group of student’s needs, it needs to be focused

on how to get them to the topic that is being taught which means pulling in their background

knowledge then moving them towards the new topic. I do not want teachers to feel that small

groups are more planning. Besides that, teachers need to know what each student needs and

where each student is at in their learning.

Technology
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Each classroom should be implementing technology into their curriculum daily. In

today’s day and age, our students are growing up with and around an increasing amount of

technology. Our job as educators is to teach them how to use technology properly instead of just

for social interaction. Each teacher needs to find the appropriate balance for their classroom to fit

in the technology component. Ideally, the technology component has to be more than just for fun

or when they are done with traditional material. For example, integrating technology can provide

a different perspective of the topic that is being presented, students should hear topics from

someone else. This could be a video explanation, an article, other worked out examples, or even

different styles of practice. When students are finishing up work it is a great opportunity for

teachers to use technology as well, there are great online resources for students to continue the

practice of each topic the teacher presented during class. Khan Academy is a great resource for

Math and English Language Arts. As we focus on using technology inside the classroom, “we

want our students to be cognitively engaged, willing and able to take on the learning tasks before

them. Our curriculum choice provides for that cognitive engagement when it is implemented

well” (FRANCIS, 2018). If teachers are focused on implementing the curriculum well, they will

be able to pull in technology components to make it more student centered.

Vision and Mission

When focusing on the implementation of curriculum there must be a specific reason

behind why the curriculum that was chosen fits into our school. Does it allow for teachers to

create or implement higher order thinking? Did it allow for teachers to reach all learners? Also,

did it allow for the teacher to incorporate students’ interest and backgrounds into the teaching

lesson to make it relevant to them? As we ask ourselves some of those questions when we are

focusing on curriculum then we are aligning it to the overall vision and mission of the school.
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The mission statement of my school, “is to offer the families of the Lansing area a 6-8 school

that has a challenging academic program and a culture that values integrity, academic excellence,

and accountability, where each and every student is given the opportunity for success in high

school, college, and beyond” (2020). With our vision statement being “Working in partnership

with parents and the community, the school’s purpose is to challenge each child to achieve. We

offer a challenging, character-based education through a rigorous curriculum with high academic

and social expectations with the vision to better educate more children” (2020). When we focus

on the outcomes, we want a curriculum to provide a way to achieve the goals we have set for our

school. Then, we can base our focus on the curriculum and incorporate the vision and mission

statement of our school.

Focusing on curriculum aligning with the vision and mission of the school means we

should be incorporating the goals of the school. There needs to be student centered learning

occurring with interventions embedded to close the gaps for learners. As a leader we need to

have a deeper understanding of the curriculum so we can provide teachers with proper

professional development and support in the classroom. Leaders need to give teachers some

autonomy within the curriculum to support the students they are teaching but also to enrich the

learning environment with real-life enrichment to make the learning more powerful. Our focus

needs to be on student growth and teachers implementing each part of the curriculum with their

own pedagogical experiences.

Reference
Epitropoulos, A. (2017). 7 Reasons Why Differentiated Instruction Works | ASCD Inservice.

ASCD Inservice. https://inservice.ascd.org/7-reasons-why-differentiated-instruction-

works/

FRANCIS, J. B. (2018). Student Centered: Navigating Curriculum Selection to Maximize

Improvement. Login.lopes.idm.oclc.org. https://web-b-ebscohost-

com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=224a571f-ce87-4e56-

a003-a996b1b80d3f%40sessionmgr102

HAMMOND, D. (2017, November). Are You a Game Changer on Curriculum Implementation.

Login.lopes.idm.oclc.org. https://web-a-ebscohost-

com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=5f3b53fe-49b6-4609-

9a4f-0e00039fadd8%40sessionmgr4006

Lansing Charter Academy. (2020). Parent and Student Handbook. Lansing Charter Academy.

https://www.nhaschools.com/schools/lansing-charter-academy