Chapter 7

The Curriculum of Identity Parallel

What does the Identity Parallel mean for students?

● The focus of this parallel is on the student and how to help them concentrate on their sense of self (identity), by using curriculum components.

● Students receive feedback from teachers, teaching and learning activities, and experts in a targeted field.

● Students reflect on their knowledge in a discipline,their preferred ways to work and communicate, their goals, and where they fit into a discipline, now and in the future.

The three way mirror metaphor

● Side one Knowledge of the Discipline: feedback about what a student knows in a targeted field of study.

● Side two Knowledge about Myself as a Learner and Worker: allows reflection from a different perspective about the student's abilities, preferred ways to communicate, and goals.

● Center section Reflections of Possible Self or Selves: a composite of the student using both side mirrors which allows him to see the possibilities, now and in the future.

Why is Identity important?● All students have interests, preferred modes of

expression, and learning and working preferences.● According to Jensen,” we learn more effectively and

efficiently when learning is associated with personal feelings.” (page 196)

● Students need opportunities to learn in their preferred modes of learning: students learn more effectively and perform more capably when allowed to learn and demonstrate that learning in their preferred mode.

● Teachers can assist students by nurturing student identities through the curriculum and instruction.

Benefits to teachers

● Reminds us that the focus of our work is students● Makes teaching more enjoyable● Provides specific techniques for learning about a

student's identity● Illuminates critical learning differences among students● Pinpoints where teachers need to adjust curriculum● One size fits all curriculum less likely● Helps student”s learning to become more effective and

efficient

Benefits for students

● Encourages exploration and mastery of curriculum in motivating context

● Decreases anonymity● Reduces student alienation● Encourages the student to examine and reflect on

her learning strengths● Helps a student to identify with a field and see

possibilities for themselves by encountering experts● Offers opportunities for the student to compare his

learning strengths and all of the aspects of a discipline

Benefits to students continued

● Shows student progress and development in affective and cognitive domains

● Highlights areas of student growth, targets possible next steps

● Clarifies over time and at increasing levels, the degree of fit between learning and work profile to the targeted field

● Informs decision making● Increase the likelihood of creative productivity

across the lifespan

Content

● The Identity Parallel draws from documents developed by state departments of education, state Codes of Professional Responsibility, and national publications for information about character education.

● Goals for students include:

self-esteem

sociability

self- management

List of standards for the Curriculum of Identity

Students will be able to:● Understand components of a learning and work profile,

(abilities, interests, learning-style preferences,skills, goals,etc) and document these over time

● Reflect upon their learning and working profiles● Develop a sense of what the daily lives of practicing

professionals are like● Assess the degree of fit between their ideas of day-to-day

living with the actual day-to-day life of the practicing professional

● Identify how their learning profiles align with practitioners in one or more disciplines

Assessment

1.Teachers should select and generate a list of assessment formats that require student reflection.( Text references figures 4.4 and 4.5)

Examples include:

Conversations; essays; concept maps and performances; goal statements; reflective essays; photographic essays that chronicle the student's change from novice toward expert; journals; a log of insights, discoveries and/or thinking: and longitudinal portfolios.

Assessment continued

2. Address the need for students to have choice in assessments and products.

3. Look at the role of self assessment for students in

their work and learning.

4. Use longitudinal rubrics to address growth and talent development over time.

Figure 7.6 page 209

Introductory activities

Four main components ● Focusing questions to address the role of the

student and elicit a personal response● Hook or teaser will have introspective or personal

focus● Rationale makes the importance of the topic clear to

students● Performance standards that relate to self knowledge

Teaching methods

Best methods provide students opportunity to ● Take on or closely examine the role of a practicing

professional● Reflect on and construct self knowledge. Examples

include coaching, demonstration/modeling, role playing, cooperative learning, inquiry-based instruction, independent study, visualization, simulations Text references figure 3.7, chapter 3.

Learning activities and grouping

● Students need to develop executive processing skills of goal setting, formulating questions,developing hypotheses, generalization, problem solving, and planning, This will allow the student to feel what it is like to be a practicing professional.

● Grouping : one on one, small groups based on interests, preferences, goals, and ideas. Peers for editing, large groups for guest speakers, discussions and overviews.

Resources

Exemplary Resources are human and nonhuman that will allow the student to see revealing glimpses into the personal and professional lives of practicing practitioners. These resources provide students from all ethnic, economic, and language groups, and from both genders to see themselves in the materials and resources used in the unit of study.

Products

Students should be given regular opportunities to choose the format of their products. Products must:

● Align with the targeted learning● Have the capacity to reveal the targeted skill or

knowledge ● Reflect the work of a practicing professional● Invite student reflection in ways that might produce

insights about personal traits,goals,preferences, values, and ways of working compared with those same traits in those who work in or are reflected in the discipline

Extensions

● Extensions provide compelling glimpses of who students are and might become. Examples include:

● Individual and small group investigations● Opportunities to interact with practicing professionals● Reading journals, diaries, internet sources,

biographies, autobiographies● Examining work samples and critiques of the work of

experts● Introspective writings

Differentiation

● Students need to move on a continuum, from novice toward expertise.

● Students who struggle may benefit from”opening a window” which allows them to view themselves in relation to topics from within the discipline as a means of self reflection.

● Special attention must be paid to the reading levels of the students.

● Using a longitudinal rubric will to locate a student's level of proficiency.

● Student developed rubrics

Lesson and closure

Some suggested ways to close lessons include:● Class discussions of teacher observations about

students● Student journals● Building a classroom matrix of strengths,

preferences and insights about class members● Developing concepts and principles about

motivation, diverse perspectives, ethics, persistence, and creativity

Question

● Considering the Common Core and Essential Standards for your grade level or subject area, where does the Curriculum of Identity belong ? How would you begin to implement it?