Required Elements of a Curriculum Unit or Other Document

The main audience for the curriculum units will be teachers who have practical concerns about using and implementing the TIP units. These concerns should be addressed in each section of the document. What follows is a list and description of the final narrative curriculum unit.

1. An index that lists each section:
   1. Overview
   2. Rationale
   3. Objectives
   4. Strategies
   5. Classroom Activities
   6. Annotated Bibliography/Resources
   7. Appendices-Standards
2. Overview: A narrative description of the unit that is comparable to a synopsis or a guided entry. This gives readers an idea of the whole unit curriculum to enable them to have an idea if a unit suits their purposes, grade level, or subject area.
3. Rationale: A narrative description of the curriculum writer's reasons for creating the curriculum. Here is where material concerning the content of the seminar could be introduced. It is comparable to a lecture or background content for the lesson. Include the skill base necessary for the students who will be receiving the instruction, as well as the age or grade of the students who may benefit from the instruction. Explain how the newly created curriculum will fit into the existing curriculum prescribed by the School District of Philadelphia.
4. Objectives: A narrative description of what the unit seeks to achieve expressed in behavioral terms. In addition state how the standards will be incorporated into the unit. Do this briefly, but in narrative form. A list of standards addressed in the unit will be placed in an appendix.
5. Strategies: This is a narrative description of a variety of ways the curriculum writer will achieve the expressed objectives and assist students to reach the standards.
6. Classroom Activities: This is a narrative description of more detailed classroom activities that it will take to bring the unit to fruition. There can be detailed examples of teaching methods or two actual lesson plans in narrative form. A day-by-day description of activities may be used.
7. Annotated Bibliography/Resources: There are three annotated lists of materials in this section.
   1. An annotated bibliography for teachers. This is in the form of a Works Cited or Reference list. Any form from a style manual will be acceptable. Seminar Leaders provide a list of resources. Following the style presented on their list should be acceptable. Each resource must have an explanation of the reference as part of the entry.

      NOTE: Writer's Inc. has good examples of a research paper with both Modern Language Association and American Psychological Association styles. Each includes how to cite a database or an Internet resource. Today the preferred term is "Works Cited" because of the citations of databases and Internet sites. The term "Bibliography" is still used to convey the idea that works were read as well as cited as the basis for the research. Another very complete manual is entitled Keys for Writers: A Brief Handbook, Second Edition, by Ann Raines. It was published in Boston by Houghton Mifflin in 1999.

   It is important to remember that it may be necessary to use the protocol of writing a research paper for some sections of your paper. The use of a style manual is required to use citations correctly within the text and to correctly construct the annotated bibliography. Formats change; however, some examples of citations within the text based on the modern Language Association (MLA) of Style follow:

   MLA author/page style (more than one page) for in-text citations:
   In her book, Singing the City, Laurie Graham describes Pittsburgh’s landscape as she sees it from the floor to ceiling windows of her apartment high on a bluff overlooking the city of Pittsburgh (2-7).

   MLA author not named in text:
   Pittsburgh is a city of beautiful and striking city vistas (Graham 3).

   Examples of entries in an annotated bibliography follow:
   Graham, Laurie, Singing the City. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1998.
   The story of Pittsburgh after the steel industry’s decline.

   Bell, Thomas, Out of This Furnace: a Novel of Immigrant Labor in America,
        Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, 1976, Originally published in 1941.
   The story of an Eastern European family’s immigration to Pittsburgh. The story concerns a variety of travails of a steelworker and his family.

   For additional examples refer to the “Citing Sources” handout in your orientation folder.

   2. An annotated reading list for students.
   3. An annotated list of materials for classroom use.
8. Appendix-Content Standards: In addition to any appendices, a list of content standards addressed in the unit or document is included. Letters and numbers should be accompanied by the verbal description of the specific content standards addressed in the unit or document.

The Completed Document

Final papers must be printed in a form according to the Mechanical Specifications and submitted to your seminar leader by the date specified on the schedule. They cannot be accepted in the Institute office. The printed document must be accompanied by the cover sheet and proposed indexing form. Within two weeks, seminar leaders will review and forward this material to the director, indicating whether each Fellow has participated fully in the seminar and the writing process. Your document and guide entry on disk and your written evaluation should be submitted directly to the Institute office.

Upon successful completing of the seminar and the unit or document—and after the Institute has received your disk and evaluation—Fellows who are in good standing will be mailed a stipend. (Individuals who do not fulfill all Institute requirements for full participation cease being Fellows, receive no stipend, and must return their University of Pennsylvania identification.)