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The Arts In Every Classroom: A Workshop for Elementary School Teachers

Designing a Multi-Arts Curriculum Unit Getting Ready

Getting Ready (25 minutes)

The following information will help you focus and organize your professional development session.

Learning Objectives

  • Identify elements of curriculum design, including enduring ideas/understandings, essential questions, and unit objectives.
  • Analyze curriculum for appropriate and significant enduring ideas/understandings, essential questions, and unit objectives.
  • Collaboratively write the enduring ideas/understandings, essential questions, and unit objectives for an integrated unit of study.

Guiding Questions
These are questions for your group to consider as you work through the session:

  • What is curriculum design?
  • How can curriculum design inform your daily classroom activities?
  • How can this curriculum design process be useful to you as you begin to integrate the arts into your curriculum?

Materials and Resources

Opening Steps
If you have been able to have your own students analyze a work of literature looking for elements of the classic hero’s journey structure, discuss your experiences.

Begin thinking about your own current curriculum design process by discussing these questions:

  • What is the difference between lesson planning and curriculum design?
  • With which curriculum design models are you familiar?

Facilitator: Distribute the Developing a Unit of Study handout.

Workshops