Curriculum Writers are Education Champions

February 12, 2016

What are we learning tomorrow?

“Hey Ms. Steffen, can I have the work for tomorrow?”

I never thought that words as innocent as these would make my stomach drop. I was a first-year teacher. I was exhausted. It was Wednesday, and I had already spent 20 hours that week lesson planning. I knew Chelsea was doing the right thing; she didn’t want to fall behind because of an absence. So what was the problem? The problem was that despite how hard I was working I had no idea what I was going to teach tomorrow.

It was evident to Chelsea that I wasn’t prepared for the next day’s class. As any teacher knows, kids are wildly perceptive. And any time I faltered when asked, “What are we doing tomorrow?” or “When are we going to learn about _____ ?”, it was a reminder to my students that I didn’t have my classroom together.

And, worse, it was a reminder to myself that I was letting my students down.

I couldn’t simultaneously teach and write good curriculum.

So, I decided to write a curriculum that I could share with physics teachers in my district. There was no reason that I, or any other teacher, should enter the school year not having a clear roadmap for the course, and someone had to do something about it. Most importantly, I never wanted to leave Chelsea unanswered again.

My primary goal was to create a coherent curriculum that I could use as a base for my physics classes next year. Simple, right? Wrong.

I quickly learned that writing quality curriculum is far more work than a single teacher (let alone a first-year teacher) can handle. Here are a few reasons why I failed:

• I was alone. I didn’t have a content or grade-level team that had the time to work with me to create a scope, sequence, and essential questions. I craved discourse with other teachers to help me turn standards into situation-appropriate units and lessons.
• I didn’t know nearly enough. I had no idea how to scaffold multiple topics and skills simultaneously. I did get better at this, but as a first-year teacher, I no more knew how to do this than I knew how to build a spiral staircase.
• I ran out of time. I was already spending at least 20 hours per week lesson planning. I incorrectly assumed I could re-allocate this time to writing curriculum. But creating a coherent roadmap for the year just takes time. More time than I had then.

While I would be embarrassed to share the physics curriculum I attempted to write as a first-year teacher, I did go on to write curriculum for the school district and other organizations over the summer. I have also seen teachers much more talented than I create quality curriculum while teaching a full course load. But this isn’t the ideal situation, and it shouldn’t have to be the standard. Teachers should not be forced to lay the tracks and drive the train at the same time.

“We believe that curriculum writers are the unsung heroes of the education system.”

Curriculum writers are education champions.

Here at Cc, we believe that curriculum writers are the unsung heroes of the education system. The most successful schools and districts that we have worked with have in-house curriculum writers, and all of the best curriculum writers seem to share these traits:

• They make writing curriculum, not buying curriculum, their priority. Teachers and other admins do not have the time to write reliable, quality curriculum during the school year. In the past, this was often solved through the purchase of expensive curriculum from textbook companies, but that is not sufficient. The best school districts and charter schools now solve this problem now by recruiting former teachers who were great planners to be part of full-time curriculum writing teams.
• They are detailed (but not too detailed). Curriculum writers have to walk a fine line between giving teachers enough content to work with and being so detailed as to be unhelpful. Too much detail and the forest gets lost for the trees. Too little and your teachers won’t feel like they have a solid foundation. It’s a hard balance to strike to say the least.
• They keep one boot on the ground. Quality curriculum writing must include teacher feedback. The best curriculum writers that we’ve encountered spend hundreds of hours observing teachers for inspiration, testing activities in the classroom, and seeking thoughts on the curriculum they’ve written. This creates a feedback loop that allows for curriculum writing and not just curriculum giving.

We cannot overstate the genius of great curriculum writers and think they should play a much larger role in our education system.

Many districts don’t value curriculum writers enough.

Most districts that want to provide curriculum for their teachers simply purchase a pre-fabricated set of lessons and units from a vendor and call it a day. We believe this is the wrong approach. The best districts support their teachers not by investing in resources but by investing in people. They hire curriculum writers (or whole teams) that spend their time continuously writing and refining resources for their schools and teachers. When a district invests in their curriculum department, the message is loud and clear: they care about their teachers.

“We wish more districts were hiring and supporting curriculum writers. We want this for our users. We want this for our past selves. We want this for first-year teachers who don’t know what they are teaching tomorrow. We want this for Chelsea.”

Unfortunately, many districts provide no or poorly staffed curriculum teams for their schools. We’ve seen many charter schools try to circumvent this problem by hiring in-house writers. And while we think local control is excellent, we do not believe that principals should be forced to spend their own precious resources simply because the district has not gone through the trouble of appropriately staffing their curriculum departments.

And in general, we think it is very telling that there are few resources out there on how to better support curriculum writers.

We know the importance of curriculum writers.

Here at Cc, every member of our team has written curriculum either for their classroom, the district, or nonprofit organizations. Plus, we were all former teachers; we’ve been on both sides of this relationship.

We wish more districts invest resources in hiring and supporting curriculum writers. We want this for our users. We want this for our past selves. We want this for first-year teachers who don’t know what they are teaching tomorrow. We want this for Chelsea.

It’s nice to know that more and more districts agree. There is a trend towards hiring more curriculum writers at the school and district level. According to the Center for Education Policy, more than 80% of CCSS-adopting districts are developing curricular materials locally (Note: this includes local teachers in addition to school districts). We think this is a sign of things heading in the right direction. But we want to pressure districts to ensure curriculum writers receive the supports they need most — teams and time — and that the task of writing curriculum doesn’t fall on active teachers.

Above all, if you are a curriculum writer, we want you to know that everyone at Cc loves and appreciates you.

Psst… Curriculum Writers, do us a solid?

We would love to hear your story. Please share it with us on Facebook, Twitter, or by email at support@commoncurriculum.com.

Also, Cc was in-part founded to help curriculum writers build and share curriculum. We naturally think Cc is the best lesson planner with some great school and district-level features, but we’re under no illusions that it’s a complete solution for curriculum writing and distribution… yet. So, if you wouldn’t mind signing up here and telling us what you think about it and what we should build, we’d love to know. If you’re extra spunky and want to tell us what you hate, we’d love to hear that too. Seriously. You can contact me personally at janelle@commoncurriculum.com.

Originally published at blog.commoncurriculum.com on February 12, 2016.