Outline:
Mission Statements
Underlying Goals
Stated Objectives
Eight Week Teaching Outlines
Daily Lesson Plans
System of Evaluation
Mission
Statements:
In order to develop a program-specific curriculum, a program must know why it exists; it must have a mission statement in which the goals of the program and methods for achieving these goals are clearly stated and made available to all participants. Three examples of Mission Statements can be found below. The first is from the JSA, the second from The Pequot Junior Sailing Program, and the third from The Biddeford Pool Yacht Club Junior Sailing Program of Biddeford, Maine.
“The Mission of the Junior Sailing Association of Long Island Sound is to support junior sailors at member programs and to encourage them to experience the joy of sailing and learn about and appreciate the complexities of the marine environment. The JSA promotes ethical behavior among its sailors and encourages the teaching of life-long lessons which seek to build character, foster teamwork, and strengthen respect for self and others. Through its programs and policies, the JSA seeks to support both serious competitors and recreational sailors at all levels of skill and to encourage their sailing in local waters and beyond.”
“It is the mission of the Pequot Junior Sailing Program to encourage junior sailors to experience the joy of recreation and/or competitive sailing and to teach the essential elements of performance boat handling, seamanship, and racing. The program strives to instill in junior sailors a respect for the sea and a realization of the value of team work, cooperative learning and good sportsmanship. Most importantly the program is designed to create sailors who will enjoy and contribute to the sport of sailing for their entire lives.”
Biddeford Pool Yacht Club,
Biddeford, ME
“Our mission is to run a high quality program teaching the children of BPYC and the Biddeford community the basics of boathandling skills, seamanship, and sportsmanship. The program strives to develop competence and confidence in our sailors in a safe and fun environment. The success of our program is not measured in races won but in the legacy of the love of the sport.”
Goals:
Identifying the underlying goals of a program is crucial in curriculum development, for all educational efforts stem from these goals. A list of possible goals is below. Not all of these goals fit every JSA program, and for some programs there may also be goals to be added.
Safety
Fun
Learning
Personal Development
Self-Confidence
Respect for the Marine Environment
Appreciation of Teamwork
Self-Reliance
Sailing Oriented
Boathandling
Respect for Equipment
Seamanship
Racing Skills
Ethics
Respect for Others
Respect for Property
Sportsmanship
Rules Compliance
Considerations:
- No curriculum fits any student perfectly. Rather, a curriculum must be designed to meet the needs, as closely as it can, of as many students as possible.
-A curriculum must be accompanied
by a system of evaluation for the curriculum itself, its students, and its
instructors. This helps ensure that a curriculum is properly serving its
students and instructors and that instructors are doing their jobs as best as
they can. After all, teaching doesn’t necessarily ensure learning.
- A curriculum isn’t worth anything without good or excellent instructors to execute it.
- US Sailing trains instructors to teach with three forms of communication…….
Auditory
Visual
Kinesthetic
…..using…..
Lectures (Chalk Talks)
Demonstrations
Land Drills
Water Dills
Debriefings (Reviews)
All learning should be done in ways that are enjoyable to a program’s sailors. Sailors should end the summer wanting to come back; only in this way might they become life-long sailors.
Stated
Objectives:
The purpose of defining objectives is to identify what a sailor should know by the end of an eight week session. The attached objectives are only a guideline and will not perfectly match the goals or needs of every JSA member club.
Eight Week Teaching Outlines:
The purpose of these outlines is to sort stated objectives into a specific chronology. The attached eight week teaching outlines for each JSA boat class are only examples and will most likely need to be altered to meet the goals and needs of specific JSA member clubs.
General themes are printed in italics.
Daily Lesson
Plans:
Daily lesson plans should be written and noted on by all JSA instructors. They are a necessary item in assessing and following the progress of both individual students and a class as a whole.
System of
Evaluation:
Any system of curriculum should be accompanied by systems of evaluation. They serve to document the progress of students and can be a valuable tool in answering any question for parents or (in the worst case) a court. Systems of evaluation are also helpful to instructors and program chairs as they reflect on what works and is successful and what may need improvement.
Attached is an example of a simple skill sheet that can be used very successfully to follow the progress of sailors as they learn new skills. Such skill sheets should not be used for public documentation of progress because of the excessive and harmful competition that they can cause, particularly between younger sailors. Rather, skill sheets should be used as a tool with which instructors can confidentially track the progress of their students and share such information with parents and program chairs.
Lesson plans are another important medium for evaluation within a curriculum. While they are used to plan how a curriculum will be executed, they also serve to document the success of daily goals, activities, and teaching methods. The attached sample lesson plan form has a section titled Evaluation (Self & Student), designed specifically for this purpose as well as to qualitatively assess the progress of students, as mentioned under the previous heading. In this way, properly filled out lesson plans are a system of evaluation for both a curriculum and its students.