Hello Sally, thanks for your comment! We’ve observed teachers implement choice in their classrooms in different ways, with some teachers adapting their pedagogy to more explicitly promote student engagement with choice-making and other teachers using these units without necessarily modifying their usual instructional approach. One challenge is addressing teachers’ varying comfort levels with supporting student-led projects. In our continued work in this area we hope to better understand and develop ways for supporting teachers in implementing curriculum featuring student choice.

Thanks, DeLene! We have NGSS-aligned modules for a variety of grade levels and disciplines, free and available online for all to use. You can find and view the Musical Instruments module and all of our other curriculum modules on the WISE website: https://wise.berkeley.edu/

Hi Acacia, thanks for your question! The PLANS curriculum units are built on the WISE platform, which includes a progress monitor and grading and feedback tools, as well as an authoring environment. Since WISE units are all free to use, teachers and curriculum authors can copy any of our library units and then edit them to match specific learning goals or local contexts. We've seen teachers add their own or other outside resources to the unit sequences as supplements based on needs they've identified by reviewing student progress. Other teachers have swapped out images, text, and other multimedia content to better reflect their local communities.

In conjunction with some of our other research projects, we're also in the process of developing more accessible ways for teachers to customize units before, after, and during implementation. In our POWER project, we're working on a curriculum planning tool to better support teachers to integrate open education resources into their curricula. In the STRIDES project, we're working on improving the evidence teachers have to make customization decisions. We're generating automated data summaries that highlight students' progress on identified NGSS learning goals and providing research-based suggestions for customization.

Thank you!