Designing a Curriculum for Learning, Not Exams: Episode 4
These posts document my little journey of discovery when auditing and strengthening our A Level provision to enrich the course and challenge our more experienced students who have taken Media at GCSE. I'm also looking at developing our GCSE to make the most of our three year KS4.
It's been a while since I really got the chance to think about the long term planning of our KS5 Media programme, and things have happened. Namely, our approximate numbers for A level have come in, and they are the highest they have been since I joined the school. Woohoo!
To channel my excitement, I came back to my curriculum map and the next stages of long term planning. I know my students will be engaged with the content of the course, and I want to take it further with them, Now I am confident in the course content, I want to be able to teach further and develop knowledge around the core texts, extending and enriching lessons beyond exam content.
My model for this takes the form of an egg timer: the core text is placed at the narrowest point of the icon, where the most focused and explicit instruction takes place. This is in the middle of the teaching plan. The build to it and from it is where the broad, enriching opportunities take place. The first section allows for general conceptual exploration, and the second section mirrors this but focuses on placing the set text in its contexts. Through planning like this, the focus is places less on exam responses and the mechanics of the exam, and more about exploring and developing a deep and meaningful understanding of the texts and the worlds around them. A example of this for the AS Film section is below:
Now I have included the essential exam information for my planning on here, which feel a little disingenuous. However, we are working towards exams whether we like it or not, so I feel it's a necessary step. I have found this really useful to map out broad ideas and concepts to share, and then focus in to the texts before moving back out to broad concepts, this time using the texts as a case study. This approach means that, by the time students approach the texts themselves, they have a number of additional case studies under their belt to develop an appreciation of historical context, genre, key texts in the field and industry. This means they approach the texts from a more informed standpoint, which will hopefully allow for more developed analysis and confident discussions.
I plan to make these for each section of the course, using them as a loose mid term planning structure. The key part I want to try and stick to is the concise teaching of the texts themselves, and the majority of teaching then being around the texts. Lots of retrieval practice will be needed to make this successful, as well as targeted close reading strategies for key scenes, which I hope to adapt from Reading Reconsidered.
As always, these are just my thoughts thrown on a page, so any feedback or tips are much appreciated! Tune in soon for another installment!