Monday, August 8, 2011

Introduction to Curriculum Alignment Foundations Series

Welcome back blog readers. As I've started on this new professional journey with the Midwest Instructional Leadership Council (aka, miLc), blogging has thankfully been something I can attend to more frequently. At least, for now it is. In the past, my blogging has typically been about something that has come across my radar that I felt compelled to comment on. For those that enjoyed reading about those mini-"inspirations" I plan to continue doing that here in this blog.

But I have also had many ideas lodged away deep in my brain to blog about when it comes to curriculum alignment, but lacked the vision and time to do the work. Well, as I said, that has changed. So, let me unveil the first of these ideas...

I just started a new line of blogs called the "Foundations Series." More descriptively, I plan to regularly blog about foundational curriculum alignment topics and issues. These blogs will occur once a month, and will coincide with the dissemination of the miLc monthly newsletter. You can subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here and fill out the form. Of course, you'll be able to read these blog posts just by coming here directly. But our newsletter will have plenty of other goodies in it, so you should check that out anyway :).

I actually posted my first blog in the Foundations Series last month when we sent out our first newsletter. You can read that blog post here. The Foundations Series will consist of the following topics, in order:

1. What is Curriculum Alignment?
2. What is Curriculum?
3. What is Intended Curriculum?
4. What is Enacted Curriculum?
5. What is Assessed Curriculum?
6. What is Learned Curriculum?
7. What is Alignment?
8. What is Directionality?
9. What is Dimensions?
a. What is Topical/Conceptual Knowledge?
b. What is Cognitive Complexity/Demand?
c. What is Emphasis?
10. What is Level of Analysis?
11. Pulling the Curriculum and Alignment Models Back Together

So, for you math fanatics out there, this adds up to about a year's worth of blog posts, once per month. I'll also have my topical posts and a series of other series I plan to launch soon as well. So you'll have plenty of alignment blogging goodness to enjoy. I'll also always tweet a link to my latest blog, so you might want to follow me on Twitter as well.

That's all for now. Stop back often!