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**Emily Fried, Elisa Resendiz, Erica Sierra, Gabriela Menchaca, Orhan Simsek****﻿** **__Philosophy__** In designing a curriculum it is important to provide an educational experience that is in alignment with the learner, society and the subject matter so that the overall school experience translates to the teacher’s instruction and students development (Hlebowitsh, 2005). In analyzing Northside Independent School District’s third grade social studies and science curriculum, we will be looking for whether or not the curriculum aligns with the goals of the learner, the foundations of society, and is relevant to the lives of the children being taught.

Social studies and science are crucial elements in understanding previous history and how purposes and experiences lay the foundation of the democratic society in which students are a part of. This curriculum was developed by the Social Studies and Science Curriculum Specialist as well as by a group of teachers, specifically designed to meet the Texas Educational Knowledge Standards known as the TEKS, combining direct instruction and constructivist approaches. By combining these approaches, instruction is tailored to students’ skills and needs offering multiple representations of interaction that is relevant to student’s lives, and prepares them to function as part of society. This curriculum allows the teacher to be flexible in instructional strategies and provides numerous opportunities for critical components to be taught.

The philosophy of the curriculum is a combination of perennialism and experimentalism as students are able to reconstruct their own experiences to form meaning, but at the same time the learning is tied to the subject matter of social studies and science. The philosophy begins with the understanding that exploration causes change and that scientists and diverse individuals contribute to the global change that is seen in social studies and geography (NISD, 2011), assuming that students have been exposed to the concept of community. This curriculum explores tools and people that have made inventions and discoveries that have shaped and changed communities, asking students to work in groups to explore problems in depth and learn from one another allowing students to build understanding and transfer knowledge and skills across concepts. The curriculum does not, however, offer the same multiple learning modes for evaluation and assessment. Students should be encouraged tobe innovative in demonstrating their knowledge as to parallel what they just learned about inventors and scientists who thought creatively to make a difference in their community.

**__Curriculum Design__** The curriculum design presents the information in a logical manner that builds on student’s previous knowledge of communities detailing for the teacher objectives, expectations of the students, and various modifications of assessments to meet a diverse range of students. The curriculum unit utilizes the Five E Model; Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate within each lesson giving clear guidelines and instructions for the teacher. Beginning with a unit inventory introducing concepts and materials used, and ending on how scientists and inventors contribute to communities. This spiral curriculum provides a framework for the teacher to articulate how to effectively integrate social studies and science, giving the teacher general and modified assessments to ensure all topics are being taught as well as a “unit at a glance” page to brainstorm the entire unit into a web giving the teacher direction for where the unit is going. The curriculum explains in detail how to effectively integrate social studies and science by giving the teacher a lesson overview with goals the students will achieve and detailed procedures on how to carry out the lesson. The TEKS are given for each lesson as both a goal and an expectation for the student as well as the teacher. Although the curriculum is scripted, giving new teachers a better idea of how to logically organize and teach material, a great deal of flexibility is given for new or seasoned teachers to implement personal pedagogy.

**__Content__** The content is developmentally appropriate for most students, providing room for the teacher to embellish or elaborate lessons, although it does not offer teaching modifications throughout the unit to accommodate for English Language Learners or students that do not have the previous knowledge required on communities, inventors or explorers. The curriculum content is accurate in covering appropriate standards and learning objectives based on the TEKS for this grade level, and are clearly stated and referenced to within this curriculum.

In relevance to the values and aims of society, the curriculum uses primary sources of pictures and documentations of the specified content, allowing students to identify authentic information, making the connection between explorers, inventors, and communities, however subject matter and knowledge is at the center of this curriculum, leaving little room for the societal values of the curriculum. Tyler, as cited in Helobowitsh, argues good curriculum has content relevant to the lives of school children living in a democracy and presents subject matter and knowledge in ways that contribute to learners who may not specialize in specified fields of content (2005) and this curriculum does not provide many opportunities to wholly educate the child, connecting the material to their own lives, interests and experiences. The macrocurriculum is often not centered on the learner and has limitations, as evident in this particular curriculum. For example, the question, “How do explorers change communities”, (NISD, 2011, p.4) allows the teacher to implement ways to conect the curriculum to the learner (Hlebowitsh, 2005) however leaves room for teacher’s own personal opionions to affect the delivery of content.

The materials are presented in a logical sequence, teaching according to the goals and aims described at the beginning to help students’ construct conceptual understanding through multiple learning opportunities. The unit goes through the inventory an introduction to the community, followed by inquiry, inventions, and finally exploration. The curriculum allows students to first manipulate the materials to gain a better sense of what the tool looks and feels like, and what the tool or object is used for, as the teacher introduces and explains the vocabulary and background knowledge needed. The strategies and content of this curriculum are bias free and promote fairness among students, as the goals and objectives covers appropriate standards and learning objectives.

In conclusion this particular curriculum relates to the nature of the learner, the goals and aims of society, and subject matter. However, to implement this relation, the curriculum is dependent on the instruction and pedagogy of the teacher in the classroom. If the teacher is able to present the curriculum to the students in an engaging, relating, and critical manner, the students will encounter an exceptional educational experience.

References: Hlebowitsh, P. S. (2005). //Designing the school curriculum//. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Northside Independent School District, (NISD). (2011). //Third Grade/Science and Social Studies:// Retrieved from Northside Independent School web site: https://intranet.nisd.net/