Across the country the No Child Left Behind legislation has lead to high stakes exams for almost all students. This has been accompanied by a tendency toward heterogeneous classes populated by individuals whose needs and strengths are as varied as the number of students in the room. In response, teachers have struggled with how to provide for the growth of all their students in a manner that will effectively motivate yet not diminish the likelihood of success on standardized tests. For many it has been difficult to weave together such strategies as technology integration, inquiry learning, cooperative learning, and teaching to learning styles and multiple intelligences, among many others in what, until recently had become a one size fits all American classroom.
Layered Curriculum developed by Kathie Nunley, Ed., seeks to provide a new model for addressing the needs of today’s students and their teachers. While stressing the importance of reaching out to students’ individual learning styles and strengths it has the critical advantage of taking the mystery out of how to do this. It provides opportunities for all students to be successful in what most find to be an empowering process. Generally a Layered Curriculum unit is divided into three layers or levels. The C level provides opportunities for students to learn basic knowledge and practice essential skills. It is imperative that the teacher finds or creates a variety of C level activities so that the visual, auditory, and tactile learner alike will be comfortable with the work. The B level builds upon the C level by focusing on problem solving activities while the A level requires that students research a current topic related to the unit which provides them with the background to form a defensible opinion. An essential element of Layered Curriculum is the ability of students to choose. At all levels students are provided a list of activities to select from, all of which are articulated to the unit objectives. An oral defense of completed work provides accountability, requiring that each student demonstrate an understanding of the work they have been doing. Layered Curriculum provides a framework that allows any teacher to combine a multitude of strategies and tools in order to differentiate instruction in a manner that makes sense for all.
Another proponent of addressing student intelligences and learning styles, Harvey Silver has developed what he refers to as Thoughtful Education. Silver has defined four basic learning styles that he has systematically integrated into the concept of Howard Gardiner’s multiple intelligences to devise activities that make use of both. The process first describes how each of the eight intelligences is manifested by each learning style. For example someone who possesses a high degree of verbal intelligence might use this ability to describe events if they learn thorough mastery (also called Sensing-Thinking) or might develop logical arguments or rhetoric if their dominant learning style is Understanding (also called Intuitive-Thinking). An accompanying list of applications and vocations that matches each of these learning style-multiple intelligence has been developed to assist the teacher in developing appropriate activities. Those who prefer to describe like the Mastery learner with a high degree of verbal intelligence is doing what a journalist does and therefore the teacher might encourage this student to write an article or develop a newscast. In terms of Layered Curriculum Thoughtful Education increases the likelihood that the teacher will develop a wide range of activities, particularly at the C level, in order to meet the diversity of approaches and strengths used by our students.
At the B level learning through inquiry is particularly appropriate. Inquiry Learning has a long history in education. Based on the ideas expressed by John Dewey as early as 1909 and others before him it is the belief that humans learn best by posing questions and hypotheses, planning investigations, making observations, evaluating new information, and proposing explanations. While this might sound like the work of a scientist anyone with small children knows that it is human nature as well. While earlier ideas about inquiry learning suggested that all new understandings should come about this way, many including groups like the National Science Teachers Association recommend that a variety of strategies be employed. By providing variety within a unit Layered Curriculum seeks this as well. The inquiry model also strongly advocates that students should communicate their findings and be able to defend their arguments. This is a cornerstone of Layered Curriculum as an oral defense is expected of all students for most of the work they produce.
A more recent topic of educational discourse has concerned the proper way to integrate technology into education. Technology can both support different learning styles and assist teachers and students in organizing how learning is presented and how work is created. When used wisely computers can provide an environment for students to learn at their own pace and in their own style. Computers can also provide opportunities for inquiry as they can simulate real phenomenon allowing students to test hypotheses as they manipulate variables. Here again are opportunities for B level type assignments. The advent of on-line research permits students to investigate A level questions from many sources often in the convenience of their own home. In his study of 10,000 classrooms Steven M. Ross of the Center for Research in Educational Policy determined that computers were rarely used by K-12 students, and when they were used the primary type of software was drill and practice and educational games. Clearly Layered Curriculum holds a place for these types of activities as C level work, but at the same time encourages that computers be used as tools for the critical thinking found at the B and A levels. As an organizational tool technology allows teachers to create web sites where links to on-line unit investigations and copies of class activities can be accessed along with on-line assessments and student grades. This also helps students to move at their own pace as they can download class materials as they wish and receive updates concerning their progress at will.
As teachers contemplate how best to meet students where they are and help them to progress toward their individual potentials it has become clear that there are many strategies and tools from which to choose. In-service staff development topics range from differentiation and mainstreaming to constructivist practices and Socratic questioning to technology integration and distance learning and so many more. A recent survey of New York State science teachers supports the unfortunate belief that these initiatives are rarely fully implemented, perhaps in part due to confusion over how to integrate all of these at once. In this limited study cooperative learning and differentiation were seen as a likely strategy for use in the classroom though each was being employed at an average of only once or twice per month. Meanwhile more traditional approaches such as questioning techniques were being used several times per week. Additionally, despite the fact that most were limited to just one computer in their classroom, teachers utilized them far more often than either differentiation, cooperative learning, constructivist practices, graphic organizers, multiple intelligence theory, problem-based learning, or activities that promote reading and writing in the content area. Just as the subtitle to Kathie Nunley’s book states Layered Curriculum is the practical solution for teachers with more than one student in their classroom. Layered Curriculum creates a user friendly framework for both teachers and students, providing logical places for all of these effective strategies to be used in an individualized manner…and it has arrived not a moment too soon.
References:
Morrison, Gary R., and Deborah L. Lowther. Integrating Computer Technology into the Classroom. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2002.
National Research Council. Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000.
Nunley, Kathie F. Layered Curriculum. 2nd ed. Amherst: Brains.org, 2004.
1995. Reinventing Schools: The Technology Is Now. National Academy of Science. 4 Oct 2004 <http://www.nap.edu/html/techgap/index.html>.
Silver, Harvey F., Richard W. Strong, and Matthew J. Perini. So Each May Learn. Alexandria: ASCD, 2000.
Stern, Jon. "A Survey of Staff Development and Teaching Strategies Employed by New York State Science Teachers." OMNI Earth Science Listserve. , October 2004.