Title

Writing Curriculum with SCRATCH

Time
&
Collaboration

During Summer 2013, I had several working sessions for the Office of
Instructional Technology. The opportunity was two weeks of collaborating to
develop a scope, sequence, and online curriculum for learning the programming
software SCRATCH.

The Instructional Programming workshop consisted of five Baltimore County
liaison teachers for the curriculum writing position. These working sessions
were a collaborative process; however, lessons were assigned individually. We
each worked on two separate lessons that aligned with technology and common
core standards. Lessons were developed using a digital platform that would be
accessed by both students and instructional technology teachers.

Teachers struggle to invest the time and energy necessary to design rigorous
lessons that not only meet learners needs and curricular demands, but also
prepare students for 21st century skills. The real challenge for educators,
then, is to provide learning opportunities in the general-education curriculum
that are inclusive and effective for all students (Ralabate, 2011, p. 15). So as a
curriculum writer, I used research-based methods whenever possible to
increase the effectiveness of the lessons.

Content
&
Description

My artifact is based upon a professional development/job opportunity as a
curriculum writer in the 553 Instructional Technology Introduction to
Programming Grades 3-5 BCPS workshop.

The two lessons I created were written on Microsoft Word, in a SCRATCH
Project Guide Template created by my employer. Research was done using
Internet Explorer using a desktop and laptop simultaneously. The lessons
consisted of programs that I created through the SCRATCH software to
facilitate investigating and programming skills such as parallelism.

Justification
&
Reflection
The software allowed me to employ STEM skills in real-world applications to
provide students with learning opportunities in cross-curricular content.
Designing and assessing this curricular related instructional activity helps
promote deeper understanding of content, inquiry, problem solving, and
collaboration. The instructional design and content using SCRATCH software
embodies 21st century skills and content,
-
and technology literacy in students, teachers, and curriculum writers.

Engagement is imperative to learning because it enhances internal motivation,
critical thinking, and the investment between students and teachers for
rigorous learning. Teachers need to think about how to make the content in the
curriculum meaningful to the learners, while also providing opportunities to
innovate and develop critical thinking skills for students. Students should be
given a plethora of activities and methods to foster thinking and creativity,
which in turn self-motivates.

SCRATCH promotes innovation and critical thinking by exploring and solving
real-world problems in a digital environment. This is the working definition of
ISTE-T Standard 1.