WIT 2003 Passion Module

Read the Teaching Guide!

Introduction

Welcome to the Passion Curriculum WIT classroom!

To jump right in, click here

Many teachers feel a profound connection to their students and want nothing more than to engage their interest in learning activities. Furthermore, we know from cognitive science research and from motivation research that when learners are interested, they retain more knowledge, they persist longer and put in more effort, and they connect what they are learning to their prior knowledge.

The traditional design of schools can make it challenging to create engaging learning activities. This course will introduce two important frameworks to support curriculum design. The interest-driven learning framework provides a way of understanding how learners are motivated, and the passion curriculum provides specific strategies for activity design to serve learner motivations as they really occur.

This page offers you several different ways of getting around the passion curriculum module: A Virtual Classroom (next section), a list of links, and a design rationale. Any of these will take you wherever you want to go in the module.

Navigating the Passion Curriculum "Classroom"

We have set up the passion curriculum module like a design studio for teachers interested in designing passion curricula. The red icons represent design stations -- each links to a lesson that guides you through the development of some element of your passion curriculum. The Resources icon connects you to theoretical ideas, examples, advanced techniques, and links. The presentation and communication icons don't work yet: they would be links to information that you would put up

To get around this classroom, simply click on the stations you are interested in. We recommend that you walk through the design stations in numbered order, but you may find that particular stations are more useful for you at different times. Feel free to move to different stations as you wish. If you prefer to use a list, click here. The last section on this page describes how the passion curriculum module was designed.

Return to the top of the welcome page

List of Stations

The passion curriculum WIT section includes seven design modules to support the development of a passion curriculum web.

• Choosing interest-based themes
• Aligning critical learning objectives with interest-based activities
• Creating interest-based projects
• Creating certifications
• Techniques for initiating and maintaining engagement
• Organizing a "professional life" in the classroom
• Classroom infrastructure for passion curricula
• Instructional practice in passion curricula (this link allows you to download a paper written by three passion curriculum researcher/teachers, for a research audience).

In addition, we provide resources to support your learning as you work on your passion curriculum web.

• What we know about motivation, cognition and learning
• The Interest-Driven Learning Framework
• Exploring passion-based curriculum designs
• Advanced ideas in passion curriculum design
• How to develop your design in terms of "spaces"
• Finding telementors (lots of good information here. Warning: some of the links are broken)
• Links to similar work
  
• Getting Certified in the Passion Curriculum WIT section

Return to the top of the welcome page

How the Passion Curriculum Module is Designed

This module is set up just as if it were a passion curriculum in a K-12 classroom. This means that:

1. The curriculum is designed to engage your interest, because research shows that this is the most powerful motivator for learning. Since you're using this module, we can assume you are interested in creating powerfully engaging curricula for your students. Every activity, object, and opportunity we offer in this module is designed to connect with your interest. We also invite you to bring in your own interests. Are you a film buff? A fiber artist? Consider organizing your curriculum around your deepest passions.
2. The curriculum is designed to make sure that if you don't see how the work connects to your interest, or if things get tough and your interest wavers, there are other ways for you to engage -- there are rights and responsibilities you may want to earn, gameshows to take part in, and when it comes right down to it, we're making sure that you have obligations to your fellow students.
3. We have organized the activities in the curriculum into Projects, Certifications, and Professional Life -- your curriculum will make use if these ideas, too.
4. We have laid out our on-line classroom, to help you see what there is to do here, and help you find the resources you need to do your work. You may wish to set up your classroom in a similar way

Return to the top of the welcome page