Teach Meaningful: Tools to Design the Curriculum at Your Core

(Paperback, Second Edition)

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Description

Teach Meaningful is a practical guide to designing curriculum that meets standards, serves personal and institutional values, and intentionally leads to successful student learning. Identifying which understandings, knowledge, and skills are most important for students to learn is always a question of values, so getting clear on values gives teachers a starting place to design cohesive units, courses, and programs. Written by a teacher for teachers, Teach Meaningful includes:

stories of failures and successes in designing curriculum from across subjects and grade levels

metaphors from everyday life to help teachers understand curriculum design as a process rooted in values and culminating in meaningful learning

examples of essential questions, assessment guidelines, lesson calendars, unit plans, and curriculum maps

exercises and templates teachers can use to create and assess curriculum

protocols designed to encourage inclusive participation and critical reflection when colleagues look at curriculum together

Reviews

Lauren Porosoff challenges readers to rethink their instructional practice and to incorporate their individual values into planning, instruction, and assessment. Without prescribing or presuming, Teach Meaningful: Tools to Design the Curriculum at Your Core provides illustrative, authentic examples from a wide range of content areas that offer steps that guide educators through the process of identifying their own values and using those values to adapt their teaching practices. Teachers from all grade-levels and content areas will find inspiration and guidance to redesign an individual lesson or an entire curriculum. -- Bonnie Nieves, high school life science teacher, Massachusetts
Lauren Porosoff makes a strong case that clarity on our values will ensure meaningful learning for our students. Teach Meaningful: Tools to Design the Curriculum at Your Core gives teachers and schools the tools to discover what is important to them and design curriculum accordingly. Curriculum design books can be boring but not this one. It strikes a nice balance between being informative and engaging. -- Eric Hayes, international educator
In Teach Meaningful, Lauren Porosoff provides a road map for curriculum designers that helps mesh together content standards and individual teacher values. She provides background "mini-lessons" told through story-like examples and then turns to practical exercises to help teachers design relevant, engaging, and value laden curriculum. -- Don Sturm, technology integration specialist, former high school social studies teacher
When we bring our values into our teaching, real magic can happen in our classrooms. In Teach Meaningful, Lauren Porosoff shows how better understanding what's important to us as teachers can transpire into meaningful lessons for students. Taking charge of HOW we teach and reflecting on those lessons makes more meaningful experiences for our students. Porosoff provides a well-thought out step by step inventory to help all teachers begin to Teach Meaningful. -- Susan Kotch, teacher and author of "Casey of Cranberry Cove"

Author Bio

Lauren Porosoff has been an educator since 2000, and she writes and presents about how to design curriculum and professional development that empowers students and teachers. Informed by research and practices from contextual behavioral science, her work also includes the books EMPOWER Your Students and Two-for-One Teaching, and more than 30 articles about how students and teachers can clarify and commit to their values at school.