Contextualized Curriculum Guide

1. Contextualized Curriculum Guide Basic Skills Conference, August 3, 2010 Pat Phillips & Melanie Knier Davidson County Community College Lexington, NC

2. Research Indicates • Students do not necessarily view math as applicable to their daily lives • Students want to make connections between what they learn and what they experience in real life • Effective learning requires active application of knowledge, skills, and processes • Learners need to acquire content knowledge and learn how to apply what they have learned

3. Research Indicates • Transfer of learning is likely to occur when the student understands the facts and the big picture • The learning environment should be community-centered, learner-centered and knowledge-centered • Contextualized learning helps students make these applications

4. WIA Re-Authorization • OVAE defines contextualized learning as “a conception of teaching and learning that helps teachers relate subject matter to real world situations” • Current information indicates that new WIA Title 1 & Title 2 re-authorization will require closer alignment with work skills and tie learning to those work skills • Contextualized curriculum is one method of making this alignment

5. Preparing to use contextualized curriculum • Requires a shift in understanding of what it means to develop curriculum • Begins curriculum instruction with tasks learners need in their daily lives; then begins instruction of knowledge and skills required to perform these tasks • Encourages teamwork and collaborative learning. Students often find comfort and success when working with a partner or small group

6. Key Questions to be answered in Contextualizing Curriculum • How do you infuse contextualized content? • Which instructional strategies work best? • How do we engage students as active learners? • How do we sustain the effort? • What are the implications of contextualization on curriculum design?

7. How did we infuse contextualized content into our curriculum? • Methods • Contextualization using career fields or clusters (Toolkit, page 4) • Contextualization using specific occupations (Toolkit, pages 4 & 5) • Contextualization Using Career Exploration (Toolkit, page 5)

8. Common Charatceristics • Page 15 of Contextualization Toolkit

9. Planning Stages • Met with appropriate staff and instructors to begin planning • Achieved buy-in from key people (administrators and those developing the curriculum and those teaching it) • Set up advisory team to review curriculum and give feedback • Piloted the first few lessons with a group of students and solicited their feedback for curriculum improvement

10. Steps to Develop Contextualized Curricula • Identify career pathways in which the curriculum is needed • Identify credit staff & faculty who will work with you in the areas curricula will be developed • Interview faculty to determine key concepts and teaching and learning objectives needed to be taught in each subject in the pathway • Identify subjects and skills needed to be taught based on feedback from faculty in the area

11. Steps to development (continued) • Identify faculty & staff who are interested in developing the curriculum • Identify resources needed to develop the curriculum • Do a readability level for credit textbooks • Determine number of units to be developed in each pathway • Develop lesson plan for each lesson to be developed and begin curriculum development

12. How we selected career pathways at Davidson County CC • Identified faculty and staff and trained them to develop the curriculum • Developed curriculum in areas of health, transportation and early childhood initially. Added HVAC, Business, Computers and are currently identifying others to add • Identified short-term certificate and diploma programs that could be completed in 1-3 semesters • Met with college faculty and representatives from business and workforce development to determine areas where employment was obtainable

13. Examples of contextualized pathways at Davidson County CC • Nurse Assistant • Medical Office Assistant • Pharmacy Technology • Early Childhood

14. Instructional Strategies Used in Curriculum Development • Choose the best answer • Find These Words • What Would You Do? • Complete this Chart • Multiple Choice • Fill in the Blank/Word Bank • Crossword Puzzle • Memorizing/mnemonics • Common Bonds • True/False • Cell Word Chop • Matching • Context Clues • Magic Square Reading Reading (continued)

15. Instructional Strategies to Use in Curriculum Development (cont.) • Single-step word problems • Multi-step word problems • Chart/graphs word problems • Hands-on activities using math application, manipulatives, etc. • Students are provided content and write their own work problems • Short answer situations • Topic Sentence placement • Grammatically Correct • Pick 5 key statements and write a summary • Statement re-write • Research and create a 3 minute oral presentation on topic of research Math Writing

16. A few things to think about when creating word problems • Initially, begin with single step word problems until the student becomes more comfortable doing them • Working together often makes students more comfortable and they can solve the problem together • May give the students the answer to the problem in initial stages to lower anxiety in solving the problems • Students get more out of problems that are interactive • Problems that are relevant to their lives are important • Key words, phrases, or topics you want students to use need to be very clear in the problem • Work through the problem as the instructor before giving to students to prevent any surprises

17. How Do We Engage Students as Active Learners? • Use instructional strategies that leverage contextualized learning approaches • Scaffold learning • Use hands-on/active learning • Apply learning in a variety of contexts • Address varying skill levels in the same class • Use group/pair work • Make explicit how class activities develop skills for career paths • Tap into student motivation • Develop a screening process to determine skill level • Lower assessment barriers to enrollment

18. Learners Can Be Engaged By… • Identification of the student’s learning style and making sure that instruction touches on each student’s learning preference • Conducting a Career Aptitude/ Interest Inventory and connecting the results to each student’s learning • Varying activities in the classroom (example: Use 4-MAT Learning Wheel to design lesson plans) • Using problem-based learning

19. Learners Can Be Engaged By… • Participating in activities such as projects, solving real world problems, conducting interviews, creating charts and graphs, creating presentations and other activities that reinforce real-life situations • Increasing the student’s motivation to learn and fostering student independence in learning • Use of MECA or other hands-on activities

20. How do we sustain contextualized learning? • Implement processes designed during the planning phase • Use management or advisory team for review and program improvements • Support and retain faculty • Implement data and cost-tracking systems • Promote contextualization throughout your programs • Assess the costs benefits of contextualization

21. Implications of Contextualization on Curriculum Design • Does integration of contextualized content change the scope and sequence for academic skills that are being taught? • How can we insure that students are learning the underlying concepts? • Can students apply the skills outside of the context? • What are resources that you can use for curriculum development?

22. Lesson Plan Template

23. More examples from other community colleges: GED Bridge to Health Career Profile Writing Project Reading Curriculum Math Curriculum

24. Here’s what they are • doing in Illinois: • CNA to LPN class • 3 hours/week X 16 weeks • Contextualized medical vocabulary • Based on National League of Nursing Exam • “Reading Smart” “504 Absolutely Essential Words” • Exit exam – Compass Reading, English, Math • Fast Track Allied Health Class in Arkansas • Contextualize developmental level reading and math • Move students along quicker through career pathway

25. Where are we going ??? • More hybrid classes – • using Moodle, Blackboard • Use SoftChalk to easily convert contextualized curriculum to engaging, interactive lessons on the web

26. Sources • sites.wiki.ubc.ca • EFF Research Principle: A Contextualized Approach to Curriculum and Instruction • mcli.dist.maricopa.edu • www.teachforever.com • Contextualized Teaching & Learning: A Faculty Primer developed by California Community College • Breaking Through Contextualization Toolkit

27. Sources http://www.laguardia.edu/uploadedFiles/T2/pcap/home_content/GED%20Bridge%20to%20Health%20Careers%20Reading%20Curric%20Session%203.pdf http://www.laguardia.edu/uploadedFiles/T2/pcap/docs/Geometry%20Overview.pdf http://occrl.illinois.edu/files/Projects/promising_pratice/2010/Promising_Practice_Oakton_CC_Curriculum.pdf http://www.aatyc.org/about-us/archive-news/181-aatyc-newsletter-july-2010.html

28. Contact Information Pat Phillips patp@davidsonccc.edu 336.224.4570 Melanie Knier mgknier@davidsonccc.edu 336.224.4584