Avoiding the One-Size-Fits-All Curriculum: Textsets, Inquiry, and Differentiating Instruction

Childhood Education, Fall 2004 by Murray, Rosemary, Shea, Mary, Shea, Brian

In this era of high-stakes testing, many teachers feel forced to aim instruction toward what will be assessed and ignore what students really want to learn. Publishers create materials guaranteed to boost students' test scores, but they neither broaden students' understanding nor increase their interest in learning. When the textbook becomes the only source that teachers use, they recognize that this "one-size-fits-all" curriculum does not really meet students' needs. In their hearts, teachers realize that they are not teaching the way they should, but feel unsure about what they can do about it.

What would happen if teachers approached learning in a different way-a way that encourages in-depth questioning, rather than one right answer? Or a way that provided time for students and teachers to explore, investigate, and delve into a topic they selected? One means to support inquiry as well as differentiated instruction is through theme explorations supported by textsets.

In an inquiry-based approach to learning, questions of wonderment become the driving force in designing the what and how of instruction. As members of a classroom community, the teacher and the students collaboratively compile these questions. Together, their collective knowledge (schema) is identified. Then they clarify what individuals, teams, and the whole group "wonder" about. Next, they discuss how to gather information. Finally, the teachers and students negotiate the processes for demonstrating learning (assessment). These "wonderings and wanderings" (Harste, Short, & Burke, 1988) can be webbed or schematically organized into theme explorations.

As learners wander, they use the disciplines to gather information, which usually leads to further wonderings. Integration is not contrived, but rather a natural outcome as learners apply the most appropriate tools in seeking to know. The same topic of study collaboratively theme-webbed by teacher and students in different classrooms creates dramatically different results while maintaining the core of district curriculum mandates. Thus, when a 5th-grade teacher compared her students' planning web for a study of Canada and Mexico with those of two of her fellow teachers, none of the planning webs was identical. Student ownership in the curriculum and sense of responsibility are enhanced when they realize the uniqueness of classroom experiences that have their signature.

The benefit to the teacher is that each time the topic is studied with a different class it is fresh and new, personal and exciting instead of rerun after rerun. If we are to create classrooms that truly are learning communities, the instruction that accompanies students' explorations of a topic must scaffold their learning in ways that address individual needs and interests; resources used must authentically lead successful searches for answers; and students must work in a variety of grouping formats, appropriately matched to tasks. With a lot of listening, focused feedback, and patience, the teacher guides students' wondering and wandering.

It is important that the time set aside for wanderings is not hurried, for it is within this hub of activity that genuine learning occurs. Students need to "muck around" or wallow in their learning. During this "simmering" time, learners are immersed in multiple ways (e.g., art, music, drama, print/non-print forms) of coming to know and share their knowing in multiple ways (Harste, Short, & Burke, 1988). They share information in all stages of the evolution to "experthood," getting feedback, support, and purpose for continued work as learners. During the stage of "coming to know and the showing your knowing," wonderings continue to erupt. These are encouraged and give shape, direction, and new twists to ongoing research. Some wonderings spin off into lives of their own as extension themes. The cycle is endless-much as natural learning occurs in the world outside of school. The objective is to uncover the curriculum with students, rather than cover it. Evaluation of students' learning is multidimensional, collaborative, and ongoing throughout the study. It operationalizes current theory on authentic assessment.

To meet the need of such expansive inquiry, classrooms must work beyond a singular textbook. "Most textbooks belong in the reference category along with encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses" (Daniels & Zemelman, 2004, p. 36). The textbook furnishes learners with a succinct overview on a topic-a base of common knowledge to build bridges to many areas of personal or group interest. Sets of related texts, or textsets (Harste, Short, & Burke, 1988), augment the textbook as print/non-print resources in the classroom. These include primary and secondary sources in the form of trade books, magazines, newspapers, pictures, videos, charts, Internet sources, and other media and art forms.

Textsets reveal many views of a point, stimulating critical discussions and perspective sharing. "When we rely on a single source for all of a course's content, we are teaching students to accept one view, one authority" (Daniels & Zemelman, 2004, p. 39). Textsets are compiled with a focus on specific questions posed in areas of the thematic study. Research has shown that students' acquisition of facts and understanding of concepts is greater when they use an array of multigenre resources in content areas (Guzzetti, Kowalinski, & McGowan, 1992).