21st Century Curriculum

Twenty-first century curriculum is interdisciplinary, multilingual, multicultural, project-based,and research-driven. It is connected to the community – local, state, national and global. Sometimes students are collaborating with people around the world in various projects. The curriculum incorporates higher order thinking skills, multiple intelligences, technology and multimedia, the multiple literacies of the 21st century, and authentic assessments. Service learning is an important component.

• Interdisciplinary Learning. The classroom is expanded to include the greater community. Students are self-directed, and work both independently and interdependently. The curriculum and instruction are designed to challenge all students, and provide for differentiation. The curriculum is not textbook-driven or fragmented, but is thematic, project-based and integrated. Skills and content are not taught as an end in themselves, but students learn them through their research and application in their projects. Textbooks, if they have them, are just one of many resources.
• Knowledge Application Knowledge is not memorization of facts and figures, but is constructed through research and application, and connected to previous knowledge and personal experience. The skills and content become relevant and needed as students require this information to complete their projects. The content and basic skills are applied within the context of the curriculum, and are not ends in themselves. Assessment moves from regurgitation of memorized facts and disconnected processes to demonstration of understanding through application in a variety of contexts. Real-world audiences are an important part of the assessment process, as is self-assessment.
• Multimedia Literacy. Media literacy skills are honed as students address real-world issues, from the environment to poverty. Students use the technological and multimedia tools now available to them to design and produce web sites, television shows, radio shows, public service announcements, mini-documentaries, how-to DVDs, oral histories, and even films. Students find their voices as they create projects using multimedia and deliver these products to real-world audiences. Students realize that they can make a difference and change the world. They learn what it is to be a contributing citizen, and carry these citizenship skills forward throughout their lives.
• 21st Century Schools. 21st century schools focus staff and students on ensuring that every student graduates from high school prepared for the option of enrolling in a four-year college or university, pursuing a successful career, and living a healthy life. Students in 21st century schools develop and acquire the confidence, competence and information needed to make positive choices for their future. They demonstrate strength and competence in all areas needed for full participation in the 21st century economic, political, cultural, and intellectual life of our nation and global society. In addition to academic competency, these areas include multilingual and cross-cultural competency; technological literacy; communication skills; aesthetic sensibility; critical and creative thinking, reasoning, and solution-seeing, social, environmental, and civic responsibility, and strength of character.