Whoa! What a crazy ride. I think the ELA fellowship with DPI had a slightly different approach and experience with the task of curriculum development, since that ‘s really what our whole experience was about from the beginning. Writing curriculum with the purpose of teaching it for your own students, but also in a way that is designed to be used by others is a unique challenge. You walk the fine line between sharing enough information and sharing too much. You don’t want to underplan or overplan. You also don’t want to assume that others know what you mean in a lesson, but you can’t over explain and insult other professionals. When dealing with sharing text for use with students, copyright issues were also a specific challenge.
Overall, I love the idea that something that I worked so hard on can work for someone else to increase their understanding of teaching and learning in a new way. The transition to Common Core State Standards has not been easy, and resources that are reliable and directly connected to our students are not always easy to come by, especially ones that don’t require the purchase of lots of materials. I am super proud of the fact that I have created something that can be used by teachers across North Carolina, and the United States, to increase students’ exposure to high quality text and to a content area that is often ignored in light of reading and math. I would love to know that the unit plan I developed in being shared in classrooms, near and far.
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