Curriculum, Standards, Benchmarks, and Grading with Kiernan Fiore

About our Guest
Kiernan Fiore has worked as a teacher, administrator, trainer, and curriculum developer since 2011. Kiernan was classically home educated using a Charlotte Mason methodology, and her own educational experience is the inspiration for her work. She holds a BA in English from Hillsdale College and an MA in Shakespeare Studies from King’s College London and is certified in 4-8th Grade ELAR and Social Studies in Texas. After six years of working with the Founders Classical network of charter schools in Texas, she now serves as Dean of Curriculum at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach, CA. She also serves as a consultant on special projects and curriculum alignment with Beautiful Teaching, LLC. She has been married to Jonathan, also a classical educator, for six years and is the mother of three children.

Show Notes
This discussion drills down into to how to help children grow by offering them a living curriculum. The work of teaching is the cultivation of the whole child. As classical educators, we need to think deeply about our curriculum and pedagogy. New teachers often wrestle with what this looks like in the classroom. An understanding of curriculum and its incarnational role will greatly influence the development of the whole child.  Habit training is unpacked as an intellectual virtue at the heart of the entire foundation of a classical education.

Discussion Points:

• How can we best help children grow?
• What is curriculum?-- Is it the books you are reading or is it the standards, benchmarks, and roadmaps that drive the instruction in the classroom?
• How does our definition influence our classroom instruction?
• As Christian Classical educators, is there another way to view curriculum that is centered on an incarnational model?
• What are some challenges with having check lists? Are there helpful checklists?
• Why is habit training so important and in what areas do we need to focus on?
• How can our habit training influence our standards and grading rubrics?

Resources we Discussed:

• Andrew Zwerneman podcast interview has all the resources that will help you with grading: https://classicaleducationpodcast.transistor.fm/episodes/leading-assessing-seminars-with-andrew-zwerneman-from-cana-academy
• Classical Education Rubric Checklist: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VYej2Qw2GrEItZI_wZjAy0hf7OS3oYpz/view?usp=drive_link
• Catholic (virtue-based) Standards:
  https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/educator-resources/resources/academics/catholic-curriculum-standards/#standards-and-resources

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  Credits:
  Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel
  Logo Art: Anastasiya CF
  Music: Vivaldi's Concerto for 2 Violins in B flat major, RV529 : Lana Trotovsek, violin Sreten Krstic, violin with Chamber Orchestra of Slovenian Philharmonic
   
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