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Icebreakers - Fun Game

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40 Icebreakers Activities

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Keynote Speaker | Feature

The Three Key Literacies

Heidi Hayes Jacobs, is the founder and president of Curriculum Designers, executive director of the National Curriculum Mapping Institute and Academy, and author of the groundbreaking "Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World." T.H.E. Journal Contributing Writer Jennifer Demski recently sat down with Hayes Jacobs, who will keynote this year's FETC, to discuss why educators must embrace curriculum reform, the impact of the Common Core State Standards on her approach to upgrading curriculum, and her goal for the future of K-12 education.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs, is the founder and president of Curriculum Designers, executive director of the National Curriculum Mapping Institute and Academy, and author of the groundbreaking "Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World." T.H.E. Journal Contributing Writer Jennifer Demski recently sat down with Hayes Jacobs, who will keynote this year's FETC, to discuss why educators must embrace curriculum reform, the impact of the Common Core State Standards on her approach to upgrading curriculum, and her goal for the future of K-12 education.
T.H.E. Journal: What inspired you to develop the curriculum plan you set forth in "Curriculum 21?" : Curriculum reform can be an overwhelming undertaking. How did you identify and develop your three key literacies for 21st century learning?
Heidi Hayes Jacobs: In teaching and curriculum design, my focus has always been on choices. It's always been that we, as educators, should be making astute and responsive choices that prepare our students for the future. Unfortunately, it's become clear that the future that many schools are preparing their students for is 1980. Ten percent of the 21st century is over; the question now isn't "whether to," it's "how to." The plan I developed gives teachers and educators a handle on how to reinvent, reboot, and replace aspects of what they teach, and how to modernize and upgrade their curriculum.

Hayes Jacobs: While researching and writing "Curriculum 21," I worked with teachers to explore and identify key areas of instruction that educators should focus on once they've made the choice to upgrade their curriculum. It was immediately clear that new points of articulation and meaning-making had emerged that required students to have the ability to take some of the great classical traditions of print literacy and apply them to new forms of accessing information and articulating response.
: You are noted for your work in curriculum mapping and standards alignment. How do the three literacies you mention relate to the adoption of Common Core State Standards?
There seemed to be three related but distinctive toolsets--digital literacy, media literacy, and global literacy--that had become key in helping students navigate through the curriculum that they need to master and the investigations that they need to make in order to prepare themselves for right now, let alone for what they'll face 15 years from now when they're in the workplace.

Hayes Jacobs: I think they go hand in glove. The Common Core strikes me as a great opportunity for schools to upgrade their practice. There is an absolutely clear emphasis on media and digital tools in the Common Core, and the cross-disciplinary English language arts standards mean that students will be developing critical thinking skills and using new media in all disciplines. I am most definitely going to be discussing the relationship between "Curriculum 21" and the Common Core in my keynote presentation because I think this is great news.

: Curriculum reform. Common Core. What's next for you?

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Heidi Hayes Jacobs, is the founder and president of Curriculum Designers, executive director of the National Curriculum Mapping Institute and Academy, and author of the groundbreaking 'Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World.' T.H.E.