This book emerged from our work over the last ten years in looking for strategies teachers can use to improve the curriculum writing process. Overloaded with volumes of state curriculum guides, caught on a seesaw between the importance of authentic knowledge (content) and instructional techniques (process), and challenged to include activities from the latest educational bandwagon, the Herculean task of curriculum writing often falls to an intrepid committee relegated to work during summer vacation. Their stories of frustration are common, and the ever present black, three-ring curriculum binder that sits on their colleagues' shelves collecting dust serves as a reminder that their work is not always relevant to their colleagues' instructional needs. While the curriculum writers' intentions are good and the work is rigorous, we have all come to realize that the hours of toil often result in a conglomeration of activities that does little to enhance the teaching and learning process in any meaningful way.

It is our belief that in order for a curriculum guide to be effectively applied to the learning process in the regular classroom, teachers must be equipped with the tools and the time to translate these lists of curricular outcomes into meaningful units of instruction. The Multiple Menu Model respects this goal by providing six practical planning guides or menus that all teachers, K-12, can use to design in-depth curriculum units for classroom use. It is based on the work of theorists in curriculum and instruction (Ausubel, 1968; Bandura, 1977; Bloom, 1954; Bruner 1960, 1966; Gagne & Briggs, 1979; Kaplan, 1986; Passow, 1982; Phenix, 1964; and Ward, 1961) and differs from traditional approaches to curriculum design in that it places a greater emphasis on balancing authentic content and process, involving students as firsthand inquirers, and exploring the structure and interconnectedness of knowledge.

We chose to create a "menu" because, like the choices that appear in the pull down menus of many computer software programs or on a restaurant menu, it provides the teacher-as-curriculum-designer with a range of options within each of the components of the model. The menus encourage teachers to design in-depth curriculum units that bring together an understanding of the structure of a discipline, its content and methodologies, and the wide range of instructional techniques educators use to create teaching and learning experiences.

Several assumptions and beliefs about curriculum development are inherent in the Multiple Menu Model. These assumptions provide the foundation for this model and help clarify the role of the teacher, the learner, and the curriculum. First and foremost, we believe that teachers who are able to inspire young people to explore a discipline have a genuine interest or passion in the discipline themselves. These teachers have gathered stories, realia, and documents to make the curriculum authentic, and they employ strategies to effectively engage learners in the process of inquiry. Second, we believe authentic learning consists of investigative activities and the development of creative products in which students assume roles as firsthand explorers, writers, artists, and other types of practicing professionals. Therefore, the overriding purpose of curriculum development should be to create situations in which young people are thinking, feeling, and doing what practicing professionals do when they explore the content and methodology of a particular discipline.

The Multiple Menu Model is designed for individual or small groups of teachers who want to write comprehensive curricula and who understand that this endeavor is rewarding but time consuming. The chapters in this how-to book offer more suggestions and guidelines than any one teacher could possibly use. As a teacher, you will need to be selective in your choices. Along the way, the chapters address issues, questions, and quandaries with which we, and the teachers with whom we work, have struggled. Several vignettes appear throughout the book to illustrate how teachers have used the Multiple Menu Model.