Task One: Curriculum Design Question #2

What model of curriculum do you feel best fits your current role?  What model are you most attracted to?  What would be your preference?

The model of curriculum that best fits my current role is integrative core curriculum.  I feel this model most relates to the needs of my classroom due to its interests in providing students the opportunity to collaborate with their peers.  As a Special Education teacher I understand the importance for allowing my students different means to retaining information presented to them.  Often in writing activities students in my classroom have the opportunity to reflect upon their own personal experiences and work together as a team.  Lecturing to student's in my classroom has not been very successful considering the learning process and their struggles with attention, etc.  When my students are given the opportunity to "think outside the box" so to speak, I feel that they have then been given the rights to their learning.  They are able to connect and then respond and take ownership to their learning.  The article mentions that this approach is difficult to facilitate in a high school setting, however I feel given my population of students its very beneficial in my classroom.  Integrative curriculum focuses on common personal and social problems and gives them the opportunity to reflect and then use it in their own lives.  Wraga states that " students tend to learn better when they perceive a connection between their concerns and what they are asked to learn."  Although it