Curriculum Blocking

Today in my Instructional Design class we learned about curriculum blocking. As we have been nearing the end of the semester and I keep hearing about our Unit plan key assignments (key assignments go into our senior portfolio) I've been nervous about it. My biggest question has been: How do I know the best order to teach my students in the limited amount of time I have and align it to the state standards? Today that question was answered.

Here are the steps I've learned to outline my semester or school year around a standard:

• First thing you do is pick the topic (for my class I picked Marketing Introduction)
• Next you have to define your global objective. My teacher said that global objective should be a few sentences describing what you want your students to get out of your classroom that semester/school year. It could even be why are you here as a teacher. 
• Then, you need to describe your sequencing rational. In this section you are just explaining why you did your unit in this order. 
• Now you block your course
• For example, the topic I picked is only a semester long class. So lets assume that I am only going to be able to cover 2-3 units per quarter (that is 4-6 units total).
• You then will title each of your units. This is your title system and does not have to be word from word from the standards.
• Last you will identify the standards and objectives to be covered in each of the units. Just an FYI this is not indicators. We want this to be broad.

When we get back from spring break we will be picking a unit and then developing lesson plans (with the indicators) for the unit then. I'm getting excited to see how this is all pieced together!

Here is my curriculum block that I created for my class:

Curriculum Blocking - Marketing Introduction by Karin Dunaway-Petty