Revisiting and Growing from Grade to Grade

 

In relation to yesterday's post, I must say that the writing curriculum discussed reminds me of a spiral curriculum. A spiral curriculum refers to “a course of study in which fundamental ideas are repeatedly presented throughout the curriculum, increasing complexity in lessons and reinforcing previous learning” (Structural Learning, 2023). It has many benefits for example: it promotes progressive learning by revisiting topics and skills across grades, gradually increases in complexity, reinforces information – helping students to remember and master skills taught, builds independence through scaffolding, connects across grades and helps teachers plan lessons strategically; building on students’ prior knowledge while still introducing new methods or challenges.  

Although the curriculum is different for each grade, students have some sort of previous knowledge from the grades they were at before.

The Spiral Curriculum was introduced by the theorist Jerome Bruner who has the Constructivist Learning theory. He thought that it was possible for any subject to be taught at any stage of development once it is presented in accordance with students’ readiness or level of understanding. Bruner thought that concepts should be introduced consistently while increasing its complexity, making it more advanced each time. Overall, I believe that this theory implies that teachers should build on students’ prior knowledge in order to promote meaningful learning and to encourage cognitive development, creating a very strong connection between writing curriculums for all grades.

An example of the spiral curriculum would be a grade three (3) student learning to construct complete sentences and basic paragraphs, focusing on topic sentences and simple supporting details. In grade three (3), they practice writing short narratives or descriptions, with teacher guidance to help organize their ideas and in grade four (4), those same skills are revisited, and the complexity of the content grows stronger as students now write longer paragraphs and multi-paragraph pieces, including essays, letters, and more detailed narratives. In this higher grade, they build on their earlier knowledge of sentence structure and paragraph organization, adding complex vocabulary, transitions, and more descriptive elements.

 

References

Structural Learning. (2023, January 25). The Spiral Curriculum: A Teacher’s Guide. https://www.structural-learning.com/post/the-spiral-curriculum-a-teachers-guide