I meant to keep updating this blog and keep it as documentation of the process, but the process went barreling ahead, and I needed to attend to it. So this is a post at the end of summer as we are getting ready to launch.

The curriculum is massive and there is still much work left to do. I ended up creating a repository through pbworks to collect, share, link, upload, and work on the hundreds of resources, continuum grids, level descriptions, course guides, curriculum overviews, research, surveys, procedures, and everything else related to the new curriculum. The address is: https://eslcurriculumproject2014.pbworks.com

It has been a lot of work and will continue to be as I comb through each guide making revisions at each look. Right now, I am making sure that the outcomes for each level have, for the most part, six factors:
1) an action word
2) description of what (learning object)
3) clear criteria
4) is measurable
5) is observable
6) is obviously level-appropriate or calibrated to the level it is in

I'm also editing the documents for consistencies and linking everything I can within one document so that it is easy to access the resources that are connected to that document.

My personal goal is to make the new curriculum as accessible and rich as possible without being too overwhelming. This is a tough balancing act. Some instructors feel very overwhelmed by the breadth and depth while others are comfortable with it. Some instructors focus in on small details and get sidetracked there, or worry that the curriculum is a mandate rather than a tool. 

Communication is key to the roll out of a curriculum, and that is very challenging to do when you are really needing to spend every waking moment on the editing and developing. However, I'm trying to take the time and also delegate as many tasks as possible to others.

With that said, I have to get back to work...

Curricular Revision: Baby Steps

This blog is the documentation of our curriculum revision project. We began the revision by using looking at the big picture and then focusing into the center. Myself (Tracy Henninger-Willey), Cybele Higgins and Norm Johnson embarked upon this project during Spring Break 2014 when we attended the International TESOL convention in Portland. We attended a couple of pre-convention institutes that were curricular in focus. We determined our approach at the beginning of Spring Term and began our journey into the "Backward Design" of our curriculum starting with a Faculty, Student and Community Survey.

The results of the Faculty and Student Survey are below:
Faculty Survey (summary PowerPoint)

Student Survey (raw data)

In the next Blog Post, I will be sharing what we are doing with this data and what we are in the process of creating.