Given a very scripted curriculum for my 8th graders, this is how I think of what I do.
I don’t have to rebel against the curriculum. I don’t have to slavishly reproduce it either. I** interpret it, and I contextualize it.**
And there’s a progression underneath this:
- The curriculum provides the framework.
- I interpret it.
- I contextualize it for the students in front of me.
- I use my professional judgment and my imagination and creativity to determine how best to teach it.
- I remain responsible for the learning, not merely for the delivery of the curriculum.
I take the script as a suggestion, not a mandate. I’m thankful for the suggestion, but I’m at liberty to disregard it if I have a better approach for my context.
So I adapt liberally whenever necessary, which is far more often than not. I give myself permission to do this because in spite of the way the curriculum guide is written, I remind myself often that I am not a servant of the curriculum; I am a teacher of the students.
