ABSTRACT
When curriculum designers develop curriculum, and specifically curriculum that attempts to connect with everyday matters, what do they consider?
Curriculum designers consider what the students will bring. What do curriculum designers believe about what students will bring to a lesson both intellectually and experientially? A curriculum begins with a set of assumptions about where the students are academically, about what content knowledge they bring with them. Designers also take into account, whether consciously or not, how they think the students’ lives and backgrounds impact the types of everyday experiences they might reasonably have had. What experiences does the curriculum designer count on? Have all the students ridden on a roller coaster or are they at least familiar enough with such a ride that this experience can be taken as common? Can the designer assume that all students are familiar with skiing or riding in a boat? And what about the lives of students the curriculum designer does not or cannot know? What kinds of questions get asked in the stories told in their homes? What practices are they accustomed to in their churches, mosques, or synagogues? How does the designer develop curriculum that can capture and build upon experiences that are not known at first? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, in what ways do designers assume that students bring tools that are disciplinary, whether the students are aware of them or not?
