Tips For Developing Curriculum

**Come up with compelling questions**

My first task when coming up with a course is developing good essential questions. It seems easy but its not always the case. Often you might find a story of a historical event particularly intriguing, but that does not mean that it will make for a great inquiry course. Great essential questions need to be complex and non deterministic. What I have found time and time again, is that questions that can be applied to multiple events or moments in history are often the most powerful essential questions. Like, What makes a strong society? Can violence lead to positive change? What compels people to join a movement? or What makes a great leader?

**Start with Current Events**

I often begin a course with a few activities and readings about the current state of a country or an idea. When I taught a course I called "One Island", comparing Haiti and the Dominican Republic, I had students do a gallery walk of photos taken after the Earthquakes in Haiti and Chile in 2010 and take notes on the differences between the damage and aid response. Throughout the rest of the course we investigated why Haiti, as a country was in the position that it was in as far as infrastructure and economy as well as politically. I open my course on Transitional Justice by looking into the case of Phoebe Prince who committed suicide after excessive bullying in school. By looking at this one case, the class began to look into the critical questions around how to pursue justice and how to determine who or what is to blame for such a tragedy. 

**Cater your sources**

If the purpose of a lesson or a unit is not research, its important to take the time to find good sources for your students, especially if they struggle with long readings. When I taught a unit on the Conquest of Mexico and asked students to write a historiographic paper on La Malinche they were able to accomplish what is seemingly a very difficult college level task, because I had made sure that they had a wide range of sources of different types with different points of view. Giving students a range of voices will only help them find their own. 

**Have a final task in mind**

Backwards design. The Understanding by Design is by far the most important methodology I have followed in the course of my teaching career. You simply cannot get where you are going if you do not know where you are going to. Whether its an essay, a lawyers opening statement, a full debate, art project, children's book, letter, or video, know what it is ultimately that you want your students to be able to do. The lessons and units are also about the substance of what they learned, but you should know from the get go how it is that you would like for students to demonstrate what they have learned. 

**Differentiate by offering choice**

Whenever possible offer students options. Options can come in several forms; students can be offered choice in terms of their process, content or final product. Process: Allow students to choose how they want to read or write or conduct the activity at hand. Content: This is not always possible, but if the option is available, allowing students to choose the topic of study of text(s), is very empowering and helps students take ownership of their work. Product: Allow students to decide how they want to represent their learning. When for example essays are not mandatory, allow students to take more creative approaches to presenting their learning. This can come in the form of letters, posters, role plays, websites, maps etc.