Chapter 12 The Big Picture: UbD as Curriculum Framework was very interesting for me to read this week in particular because the CTE department is currently meeting twice a month to work on curriculum maps. While other departments have had this in place for years, we are finally getting a chance to streamline and standardize the priorities in our classes district-wide. We are trying to do this with a UbD mindset (though many teachers in my department have not read or been trained in Understanding by Design). The opening quote that is found in this chapter is one that I was pondering last Friday while debating the importance of fashion history in FACS Exploration:
We might ask, as a criterion for any subject taught ... whether, when fully developed, it is worth an adult's knowing, and whether having known it as a child makes a person a better adult. If the answer to both questions is negative or ambiguous, then the material is cluttering the curriculum.
-Jerome Bruner,The Process of Education, 1960, p. 52
Both the other teacher teaching FACS Model A and I love teaching fashion history and having the students present on different fashion eras, but it is not clearly in the state standards for this course and after reading this chapter, I have been feeling less comfortable with it. I think that after reading this book and taking this course we would be better served spending more time going into more depth with application of core skills in our sewing unit (taking more time reinforcing technical literacy skills or re-teaching fractions).