3 Steps to Planning a Course

I remember an education class where my professor placed a large red bound book on the corner of his desk and said - "The curriculum guide is your bible - This should always be on your desk". Being the person I am, I took that to heart and carefully studied the ELA curriculum guide for the Atlantic provinces.

Taking that training forward to today, I knew when planning my own opinions course I needed to properly design it with competencies and evaluation rubrics.

This task was made easier by the fact that I had just finished a year participating in our EPC (English PED Consultants) where we learned how to break down a program to its essential knowledge. In these workshops, we used a tool created to help us break down the competencies of courses.

So here are the steps I took to plan out my course.

1. RESEARCH & BRAINSTORM

I started by brainstorming what it was I wanted my students to learn or be able to do at the end of the course. Much of what I wanted to teach was inspired by research I was doing on motivation, student voice, flexible learning and UDL. Also, I was inspired by a course I took during my Masters in Education that focused on DIY and how people learn. Once I felt that I had a pretty good grip on what the course would be about, I went to the next step.

2. CHOOSE COURSE COMPETENCIES I used the template from the English PED Consultants to write out my competencies. The filling out of this was somewhat easy to do because I had spent so much time brainstorming, brainstorming, and brainstorming - but I did struggle with the wording. Lucking, my PED Consultant Gail helped guide me and gave me feedback during this process and my many drafts.

3. DESIGN EVALUATION & RUBRICS After I worked out the competencies, I needed to decide how students would demonstrate learning. I decided that students would keep a log (journal) that reflected on their learning. Also, students would produce individual DIY projects and a class DIY project. Finally, students would present their learning and projects in a sort of science fair style.

But of course, I also needed to make it clear how each of those assignments/projects would be evaluated. That led me to the designing of rubrics. Actually, it was my ped consultant's questioning of how I would evaluate the students that made me do this. Of course, I was going to... but I had not gotten to that part and the course was going to start....So, while I felt overwhelmed at first, I am so glad she asked the necessary questions.

Creating this tool was honestly the hardest part for me. And, at this point, I have not used or gotten student feedback on the rubrics, so, I suspect they will change.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

Because I took the time to plan my course based on competencies and pre-designed evaluations, I found I had more confidence planning my lessons. I continuously went back to the EPC tool to check if I was, in fact, allowing for the learning and the development of those competencies. It helped me stay focused on what the course was meant to teach.

Overall, if planning your own course, I would highly recommend taking the time to do the planning - in my opinion, it will save you time in the end as it will keep you and the students on track!

The final thing to add is to promote your class (if your class existence depends on people signing up!)