This ASCD Study Guide is designed to enhance your understanding and application of the information contained in Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World, an ASCD book edited by Heidi Hayes Jacobs and published in January 2010.
You can use the study guide before or after you have read the book, or as you finish each chapter. The study questions provided are not meant to cover all aspects of the book, but, rather, to address specific ideas that might warrant further reflection.
Most of the questions contained in this study guide are ones you can think about on your own, but you might consider pairing with a colleague or forming a study group with others who have read (or are reading)
What year are you preparing your students for? 1973? 1995? Can you honestly say that your school s curriculum and the program you use are preparing your students for 2015 or 2020? Are you even preparing them for today?
With those provocative questions, author and educator Heidi Hayes Jacobs launches a powerful case for overhauling, updating, and injecting life into the K 12 curriculum. Sharing her expertise as a world-renowned curriculum designer and calling upon the collective wisdom of 10 education thought leaders, Jacobs provides insight and inspiration in the following key areas:
* Content and assessment--How to identify what to keep, what to cut, and what to create, and where portfolios and other new kinds of assessment fit into the picture.
* Program structures--How to improve our use of time and space and groupings of students and staff.
* Technology--How it s transforming teaching, and how to take advantage of students natural facility with technology.
* Media literacy--The essential issues to address, and the best resources for helping students become informed users of multiple forms of media.
* Globalization--What steps to take to help students gain a global perspective.
* Sustainability--How to instill enduring values and beliefs that will lead to healthier local, national, and global communities.
* Habits of mind--The thinking habits that students, teachers, and administrators need to develop and practice to succeed in school, work, and life.