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PRESENTATION Efforts have been made in recent years, to reform educational practices,
especially at the elementary and secondary levels.
Authorities and teachers at Colegio Maya, realizing their
responsibility to provide a quality, broad basis education for the students
at the school, undertook the task of seeing that a Curriculum Guide
for the Spanish Department was made.
Thus, this project was initiated.
The idea that curriculum is not only a product but a
process that provides the opportunity to be continually perfected has
been central to this effort.
The purpose of this document, therefore, is to present
to Colegio Maya a Curriculum Guide for the Spanish Department based
on the Spanish Language Arts Department Philosophy and the student profile.
Keeping with the school’s practices, the guide reflects
the ways in which students from the different grades are grouped. Thus, Standards of Content and Performance Expectations and Perspectives
are presented for beginning, Intermediate, Low and High Advanced students
in first and Second , Third through Fifth, Sixth through Eight, Nine
and Tenth and Eleventh and Twelfth
Grades.
Standards and Performance Expectations and Perspectives
are also offered for students attending literature courses in grades
Ninth through Twelfth. In all
of the documents items on bold letters
indicate benchmarks for the level.
A Scope and Sequence Chart follows as an orientation
to the content included in the curriculum guide.
CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK
The conceptual model for this project was derived, in a large part, from
models existing in the country but modified to meet the demands
of Colegio Maya. Fundamental
for the design is the relationship among the different components of
Language teaching. It is considered
important to keep in mind that the educational environment is composed
of more than just those variables directly associated with the school
setting. That the social and
cultural context in which the school is situated influences the goals
and means of education is a fact known to all professionals in the field. The backgrounds of the participants in the
school center represent an important set of variables that influences
an individual’s educational outcomes.
Even more, the actual school´s arrangements contribute to the
achievement of the students.
The variety of factors that make up de educational environment
can be understood from the perspectives of the three levels of curriculum:
the intended, the implemented, and the attained.
The conceptual model proposed, acknowledges the variables influencing
education as situated in a series of contexts starting from the most
global and moving to the more personal.
These more narrow contexts are influenced by the broader ones,
but they are not subsets of the broader ones.
The Intended
Curriculum is the content of the Spanish
Language as defined by the Spanish Department of the Maya School, as
embodied in the textbooks being used, in the curriculum guides, in the
content of tests and in policies and regulations generated to direct
the educational system. As it
is situated with the larger context of society it is influenced by the
goals and expectations, and the values the society holds for the school.
It is described in terms of concepts, processes and attitudes.
The Implemented Curriculum is the Spanish Language content as it is interpreted
by teachers and made available to students. It is not identical to the intended curriculum
but it is influenced by it; and it, too, can be described in terms of
concepts, processes and attitudes.
It is set in an educational context that consists of institutional
arrangements made at the school and classroom level. Includes decisions about teaching practices, aspects of classroom
management, use of resources, teacher attitudes and teacher background.
The attained
Curriculum consists of the outcomes of schooling: the concepts, processes and attitudes
towards Spanish Language that the students have acquired in the course
of their schooling years. What
the students learn will be influenced by what was intended for their
learning and the quality and types of opportunities made available to
them. The attained curriculum consists of the institutional
arrangements the student makes for his or her own learning, the amount
of homework the student does, the effort he or she makes, the student´s
behavior patterns, and so on. While
these factors are greatly influences by both the system and classroom
level arrangements, they differ in that the individual student has some
direct control over these arrangements.
CURRICULUM COMPONENTS
For the purposes of this project, the curriculum consists of concepts,
processes, and attitudes of the Mayan School Spanish Language Department
that are intended for, implemented in, or attained during the student´s
schooling experiences. The curriculum
may be Characterized in terms of three parameters:
subject matter content, performance expectations, and perspectives
or context. Therefore the adoption
of the three dimensions or aspects of the TIMSS frameworks were adopted.
Figure 1.
ASPECTS
OF THE TIMSS FRAMEWORKS
Figure
2. The three Aspects or Major
Categories Of the
Spanish Language Curriculum
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