By: Megan Prats

11/23/2013

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” – Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin, the author of the Origin of Species and the individual who is credited for popularizing the Theory of Natural Selection, intimately understood the importance of adaptability in order to survive in the harsh environment that Mother Nature has bestowed upon all living creatures on Earth. Survival in learning really functions no differently. What the student wants and needs to learn constantly changes as the student responds to our ever-changing world and as you and the student learn more. Thus, it is imperative that you provide the student a customized curriculum from the beginning and continue to evolve the customized curriculum along the way so that the student consistently learns what the student wants and needs to learn in every lesson.

The Evolution of the Customized Curriculum starts at the beginning, which in your case is in the first lesson.  The first discussion that you should have in the first lesson should be about what the student wants to learn and to achieve as a result of attending the lessons. You can think of what the student wants to learn as the end point of the student’s journey of learning (even though learning has no end). This should go before evaluating the student’s level (or the need part) because if the student is not learning what she wants to learn, she will learn less and be frustrated with her learning experience. Then, you should begin to evaluate the student to see what level the student is at to determine what the student needs to learn to achieve her learning goals (which is the road that leads to the end point of the student’s journey of learning). Thus, for instance, if you are providing a language lesson, you should evaluate the student in all aspects of communicating in a language – reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Or, if you are providing a music lesson, have the student jam to a song to see how the student plays by ear, or read sheet music to see how the student reads, etc. It is best to dedicate at least half of the first lesson to evaluating the student because the more information about the student that you have, the better you can customize the student’s curriculum.

After the first lesson, the customized curriculum should evolve as new information is revealed to you through the lessons about the student’s changing wants and needs.  For instance, a Spanish student of mine came into one lesson and said that she was going to Puerto Rico the following week so she wanted to learn specific vocabulary that she could use on her vacation.  Therefore, we deviated from the previous track and devoted the lesson to this new learning goal of hers because in the moment, that’s what she was interested in learning.

As Charles Darwin eloquently stated, success in survival is more so about adaptability than anything else. The adaptability aspect of learning pervades in the student’s customized curriculum. Just like all life on Earth must evolve to survive, the customize curriculum must evolve for learning to survive. Thus, it is imperative to customize the curriculum from the beginning and to continuously modify it to best fit the student’s wants and needs over time.

© Megan Prats 2013