A curriculum only really comes to life when it comes into contact with pupils. We can have all the fancy words on websites, we can have exquisite curriculum plans and we can have the whole curriculum mapped to within an inch of its life.
But if this isn’t translated into really great material in the classroom, then we can’t really say that the implementation is living up to the intent.
Too often, implementation is the dowdy cousin to the glamourous intent. And yet they should be like conjoined twins. If the implementation doesn’t live up in some way to the ambitious intent, it’s a bit naff really.
Fortunately, there are some really useful insights from the research that can help to bridge this gap.
One of them is that we know more and remember more if we’ve heard it in a story: Dan Willingham’s insight that ‘our brains privilege story’. There’s a short recording on some of the background to this in the series ‘Helping pupils to learn the curriculum’ (£/free trial)
There are some great takeaways from this:
When we’re planning a new unit, if we want pupils to know more, remember more and do more, then let’s underpin it with a text which has a narrative element.
An example from science - DT Willingham: Make science tell a story
An example from religious education - Joseph Kinnaird: Karen Armstrong’s A History of God
An example from history - Richard Kennett
To support this work, there’s The Teachers’ Collection. It’s a new website which has draft planning units, vocabulary lists and links to the national curriculum programmes of study. It’s free to access and we’re adding more books and planning units all the time. Currently, it’s just for primary, but let us know if you think these resources would be helpful for key stage 3.
Until next time
Mary
And when you’re ready, you might find these helpful for curriculum development in your school
Huh Curriculum Leaders Course: UPDATE: Bookings now open for the next cohort January - February 2023 More info here