Course Title:
EPSY 5199: Curriculum Options for
Gifted Students Using the Parallel Curriculum Model
Course Description:
A general principle of education
is that curriculum should address and thus respect individual learner
characteristics. The major purpose of this course is to study the theoretical
and practical aspects of planning and designing quality curriculum that
respects all learners, including students with advanced expertise within a
discipline. The Parallel Curriculum Model has been selected to assist educators
in designing or redesigning curricular units within the disciplines they teach
using all four parallels of the Parallel Curriculum Model. The model proposes
the possibility of developing appropriately challenging curriculum using one,
two, three, or four "parallel" ways of thinking about course content.
Additionally, knowing that students of a given age will exhibit development
along a continuum of knowledge and skill in a given area, the Parallel
Curriculum Model offers an approach to extending the intensity of challenge as
students develop along a continuum toward expertise in learning. Participants
will apply each parallel's distinct purpose, characteristics, and focusing
questions to create or reshape a curricular unit; incorportate Ascending
Intellectual Demand curricular opportunities within an instructional unit; and
to experiment with these ideas in the classroom. This unit is developed
throughout the course and uses peer editing as a way to provide feedback. At the end of the course, you will have
designed a unit of instruction that incorporates all four parallels of the
Parallel Curriculum Model.
Instructor Information:
Name Jann H. Leppien, Ph.D.
Email jleppien@mt.net
Phone 406-771-0003 (home); 406-868-2757
Textbooks: Please
order this text prior to starting your course.
The Parallel Curriculum Model: A Design to Develop High
Potential and Challenge High-Ability Learners, Carol Tomlinson, Sandy Kaplan, Joseph Renzulli, Jeanne Purcell, Jann
Leppien, & Deborah Burns, Corwin Press, 2002, 0-7619-4559-8
Course
Requirements:
This course has been divided into
14 modules of instruction to guide you toward expertise in designing effective
curriculum. On Mondays, you need to log on and access the appropriate weekly
module. Each module contains (1) an overview of the module’s course content to
guide your reading of the chapters or supporting reference articles; and (2) a
listing of performance tasks that are to be completed to demonstrate your
understanding of the module. The tasks use a variety of instructional practices
that include sharing curricular ideas in the chat room with other educators in
this class to designing or reshaping an existing curriculum unit using the
parallels of the Parallel Curriculum Model. At times, I will ask you to
complete your course assignments and send them in Word document files via email
attachments to me directly, and at other times your files will be posted online
for your colleagues to review and provide additional critiques. In some
instances, you will be given a week to complete the tasks, and for other
assignments I have extended the duration of the readings and performance tasks
to two weeks. I have intentionally designed the course in this manner to
provide you with the necessary time to implement some of the recommendations
outlined in the text to your educational setting. You will want to keep up with
the assignments so that by the end of the course, you will be completely
finished with all your assignments. In essence, we all should grow throughout
the semester as we interact with the course content, apply it to our classroom
(educational) settings, and gain expertise in designing curriculum using the
four parallels.
The approach used for meeting the course objectives is a combination of reading assignments, participation in classroom discussions, and performance tasks that help you to write a unit of instruction that uses the four parallels of the PCM. Models of units are provided to guide your reshaping of this unit of instruction.