Talking about pre-planned, teacher-directed curriculum is easy: “Here’s what I’m going to do this week in my classroom. Here’s what I expect children will learn from it. You’re welcome.” But explaining a responsive model for curriculum planning is much trickier. How do you articulate an intention to pay attention to children’s play, and offer responses and opportunities with an attitude of curiosity, flexibility, and possibility?

Educators in the schools of Reggio Emilia sometimes describe their process of curriculum planning, or progettazione, by using the image of a ball being tossed back and forth, between educators and children. In this vision, children “toss out” an idea, in the form of a game, a drawing, a comment, a struggle, a question… Attentive educators “catch” that offering, consider it (by talking with each other, documenting, revisiting), and then toss something back to the children. In this model, the object of the game becomes keeping the ball in play - how long can we toss this ball back and forth? What will develop and unfold, that we didn’t expect, as we continue to play? It’s a pretty different goal from the lesson-planned version, which (to follow this ball-game metaphor) might be more like dropping all the balls kids toss to you, and throwing your own ball at your whole class, hoping they get all the right learning out of your ball before you pelt them with another one. Yuck.

Metaphors like this image of a ball toss can help us clarify our understanding, help us wrap our minds around an idea like responsive curriculum, that’s a little bit amorphous, slippery, and hard to describe. What other metaphors help you consider your own vision for curriculum planning? See if any of these resonate…or make up your own!

• hosting a cocktail party

• tending a flower garden

• sailing uncharted waters

• stage-managing a musical

• riding a roller coaster

• weaving a tapestry

• going fishing

• building an airplane while flying it

• playing jazz music

I find each of these metaphors evocative in different ways, and each time I offer this activity to a new group, many more colorful metaphors get added to the list. In trying to describe Responsive Curriculum, I’m most drawn to the metaphors that contain elements of investment over time, of co-creation, of hypothesis and investigation, of uncertainty and anticipation. I’ll say more in the following pages about the impacts of this seemingly free-form planning, and possible structures to support and uphold our intentions for responsiveness. For those of us who need something concrete to hold on to, here’s a very simple way of describing the process of responsive curriculum planning:

• The curriculum is not designed in advance by educators, but instead develops over time, based on the interests of the children in the class.

• The educators begin by observing children’s play, reflecting (together, if possible) on those observations, and then making plans for what to offer next.

• These plans, these projections, may take the form of environmental provocations or specific invitations to participate in a conversation or activity.

• Then the cycle of observation, consideration, and projection begins again, based on children’s engagement with the new offering.

• The cycle might end there, resting with that one-time activity or short-term interest, or it might continue into a deeper investigation over time.

To geek out for just a sec: I find that the word progettazione itself is rich and provocative. It can translate as design, as planning, and as projection. I’m inspired by this idea that curriculum planning includes intentionality - planful and well-designed - as well as the flavor of “tossing something out there.” To project can mean to forecast, to guess about the future. To project can mean to throw, as in the ball-toss metaphor. To project can mean to intentionally give your own voice more strength and power. To project can also mean to cast an image onto a large surface, and I have a lot more to say about the impact of documenting children’s work and making their learning visible. I find all of those possible meanings more compelling than the static noun-form of the word, “doing a project.” I carry the word “projection” as a multi-layered short-hand answer to the question “What is Responsive Curriculum?”