1st Edition
Place-based Curriculum Design Exceeding Standards through Local Investigations
Place-based Curriculum Design provides pre-service and practicing teachers both the rationale and tools to create and integrate meaningful, place-based learning experiences for students. Practical, classroom-based curricular examples illustrate how teachers can engage the local and still be accountable to the existing demands of federal, state, and district mandates. Coverage includes connecting the curriculum to students’ outside-of-school lives; using local phenomena or issues to enhance students’ understanding of discipline-based questions; engaging in in-depth explorations of local issues and events to create cross-disciplinary learning experiences, and creating units or sustained learning experiences aimed at engendering social and environmental renewal. An on-line resource (www.routledge.com/9781138013469) provides supplementary materials, including curricular templates, tools for reflective practice, and additional materials for instructors and students.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
PART I: PLACE-BASED EDUCATION: THEORY AND PRACTICE
Teacher Portrait #1: Kate Toland
Chapter 1. What is Place-based Curriculum Design?
Chapter 2. How Does Place-based Education Work in Real Classrooms?
PART II: ELEMENTS OF PLACE-BASED CURRICULUM DESIGN: PURPOSE AND FUNCTION
Teacher Portrait #2: Sharyl Green
Chapter 3. Personal Connections are the Foundation of All Learning
Teacher Portrait #3: Gay Craig
Chapter 4. Local Investigations Deepen Subject Understanding
Teacher Portrait #4: Ellen Temple
Chapter 5. Local Investigations Build Holistic Understanding of Places
Teacher Portrait #5: Jean Berthiaume
Chapter 6. Local Investigations Build Opportunity for Civic Engagement
PART III: PLANNING FOR LOCAL LEARNING: LOGISTICS AND CHALLENGES
Teacher Portrait #6: Judy Elson
Chapter 7. Place as Text
Chapter 8. Planning for Teaching in Local Places
PART IV: MOVING FORWARD: STRATEGIES FOR SCHOOL CHANGE
Teacher Portrait #7: Anne Tewksbury-Frye
Chapter 9: Changing Practice Changes Schools
Biography
Amy B. Demarest teaches standards-based curriculum design, authentic assessment and watershed education in northern Vermont. A central theme of her work, first as a middle-grades classroom teacher and now at the university level, is to find ways to design curriculum that engages students in the stories, questions, and issues found in the places they live (ourcurriculummatters.com).
Winner of the 2015 American Association for Teaching and Curriculum’s O.L. Davis, Jr. Outstanding Book Award!
"What I find especially helpful in this book is the deliberate and repeated way it demonstrates what it means to transform experiences outside the classroom into meaningful ‘texts’ that are worthy of close examination and analysis. It also provides many examples of ways this process can lead children and youth to become the creators of knowledge rather than only its consumers. As educators we neglect this possibility at our peril and the peril of students who learn in too many classrooms to become disengaged and uninvolved. The learning experiences described here serve as an antidote to that kind of alienation."
Gregory Smith, Lewis & Clark College, USA
"An excellent introduction to the many curriculum projects that are available to the K-12 teacher just outside the classroom door. Drawing from a variety of approaches—from service learning, to place-based learning and integrated, thematic instruction—this book shows how extending the classroom into the community is not only possible, it’s potentially transformative for both students and teachers."
Jay Roberts, Earlham College, USA
"A comprehensive and thought-provoking approach to engaged learning that benefits individuals and communities. Through the curriculum planning guides, insightful quotations from scholars, and eloquent narratives of practicing teachers, we see hopeful possibilities for what education and schooling could become."
Christy M. Moroye, University of Northern Colorado, USA
"Demarest is clear and concise with her language and profiles six different teachers throughout her book to highlight and complement her central points. Current K-12 teachers and those studying to become teachers themselves would benefit immensely from the tools provided here."
Matthew Pariselli , Green Teacher (107, Fall 2015)
