Emergent Curriculum! Who Knew?

So, I'm reading various articles about arts and education, which I do all the time, when I come across this term "emergent curriculum." Doesn't that sound scientific and important? Well, it's the term for my teaching methods - I just didn't know it. It's always fun to find there's a big term with lots of syllables in it for something you've been doing for a long time - years, even.

I use jumping-off points, brainstorming, and projects-made-up-on-the-fly to teach. In fact, I pretty much never know how a class is going to go or what we are going to make.

This does not mean, however, that we just go in there and the students do whatever they want and there is no structure or teaching going on. It just means that I look for where the energy is in the class and go with it. Then, using that, I engage the group in projects and exercises that have that energy as the raw materials. What you get in return is lots of interest, great ideas, and fabulous humor. And a class that is engaged because they are making the work their own.

For example, if I am teaching a class on cartooning, I may have the group brainstorm ideas for superheroes or superpowers or bad guys, and then guide them in creating stories. Students will almost always have something on their minds, like a movie they've just seen or a particular animal that they like. That stuff will come out as we brainstorm, or as I see what the students are doodling on their papers. Those are jumping-off points. My job is to ask them about their ideas, and get them to tell more, and then show them lots of ways to get their developing ideas out where they can be seen. What does the superhero look like when it shoots its laser rays? What sort of sidekick do they need? Where is their secret headquarters? Would a story or idea work best as a movie poster or as a graphic novel? How is the narration going to work?

In one class, we created a mini-comic in which kitchen appliances battled food. There were super powers, and sidekicks, and complicated relationships. There was also an ultimate battle. Every person in the class contributed pages, or character sketches, or story ideas. Then we copied it and stapled it together and everyone took a copy home. It was fabulous.

So anyway, the term for this is apparently "emergent curriculum." So now you know. And I do, too.