The Social Studies department met off campus last Monday to outline the goals of their curriculum as part of a school-wide curriculum review.

The teachers and leaders of this department met on the Saint Louis University campus in a conference room in Jesuit Hall. In the morning, the department focused on specific goals for each individual class and grade level. Each class solidified where they want their students to end up at the end of the year, and what specific knowledge they want to be carried on by those students.

Later in the afternoon, the main focus for the department was deciding what methods they were going to take in order to allow students to use the skills and knowledge they learned in class in the outside world. This is done with a curriculum framework known as Understanding by Design.

This process uses methods of teaching and new topics that will appeal to students to keep them more invested in what they are learning, and therefore lead to them being able to use this knowledge beyond the classroom.

“This process of curriculum writing involves reviewing the current curriculum we do right now, which is pretty darn good, but we always want to be asking ourselves, ‘Is it as good as it can be?’” said Social Studies Department chair Kevin Foy. “We try to make sure if we should change anything, or what we think is really good and if we should keep it. These are the types of questions that educators want to be asking themselves all the time.”

“We worked to write our department under- standings, essential knowledge, and (essential) skills,” said social studies teacher Anne Marie Lodholz. “We’re trying to think, what would a SLU High junior who’s taken all of our required

course—what would they be able to do and what would they know?”

The Social Studies de- apartment was accompanied by Ian Gibbons, S.J., who used to be a social studies teacher himself.

“Since he used to teach social studies and he is familiar with Understanding by Design, it was really nice for him to join us,” said Foy. “It’s also just nice to have another perspective, especially from someone who has a different frame of reference than the teachers.”

Overall, the meeting was used as a way for the teachers in the department to become better organized and well-suited for the upcoming events.

“This is a really nice opportunity for us to be collegial with each other. Of course, we all work in the same office, but when we are here we have 100 different things competing for our time and energy, so to be able to get away and organize is nice,” said Foy.