Curriculum and Theory

Understanding by Design is a theory created by Wiggins and McTighe. In this theory, teachers plan lessons with the end in mind. They identify the content or skills they want the students to learn from the lesson. Next, the teacher decides how the students will be assessed on the content or skill they will have learned. Now, the teacher can plan the lesson and content delivery, so that the students will be able achieve the assessment criteria. This is an effective theory to utilize when planning elementary lessons because it ensures that the lesson being taught aligns with the content or skills the students should have learned by the end of the lesson. I like this strategy because it is a very systematic way of planning lessons. This strategy allows the teacher to know exactly what the students should know at the end of a lesson, so that the teacher can plan a lesson that will help the student achieve the lesson goal.

To the right is an infographic about the benefits of teaching reading and social studies in an interdisciplinary method.

Link to Infographic: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fA5wa8DdH1jt-yseTgu5ZEkqZ5pJovGH/view?usp=sharing

The Zone of Proximal Development is a theory developed by Lev Vygotsky. The Zone of Proximal Development is characterized as what the students cannot do, what students can do with support, and what students can do without support. As students learn, the progress through their Zone of Proximal Development. To help students progress, teachers offer scaffolding, or supports, to help the students learn, so they can reach the point where they do not need assistance on the skill they were learning. This is effective because students must be provided with assistance with skills before they can do it on their own. I will use this in an elementary classroom by providing students with the scaffolding they need as the progress through their Zone of Proximal Development. I like this theory because it allows teacher to support their students in the ways that they need most.

Games based learning is using games to teach content. These can be in the form of tangible games or video games. Through games students are making choices that progress them through the game. The choices they make affect the game, and the students learn from these choices. The games used in games based learning must have measurable outcomes, so that learning can be assessed. I can use this in an elementary classroom because children learn through play, so I can provide stimulating games that the students can play. Through these games, the students will be learning while they play. I like games based learning because it is very engaging for students to participate in. There are also a lot of different games they can play to learn.

This is a document filled with various games that could be used in games based learning. It goes through trivia games, simulation games, role-playing games, and inquiry based games. It also gives an explanation as to why each game would be useful in the classroom.

Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that says knowledge is developed by the interaction between experiences and the person’s ideas. John Dewey is a prominent constructivist theorist. Constructivism is a very interactive way of learning because it reveals that people learn by doing. In a constructivist classroom, teachers should act as a guide for learning as the students actively participate in the activities, so the students can build experiences and ideas to help them learn. I would use this in an elementary classroom because students can gain valuable knowledge by engaging in meaningful learning experiences. I can provide engaging experiences where students can test different outcomes, so they can build ideas about concepts based on the experiences. I like this approach because it is very student centered and engaging.