Curriculum Support Selection: Language Arts

As we finish the year, it seems that we gain momentum with each passing day. About Christmas time the kids start talking about the end of the year, then the "Spring Break" hits and they really start thinking about it, and then you have a few days like we have the last 2, where the weather is nice, and the sun is shining, and they (the kids) seem to just be ready for the end. Well, there are many things to accomplish before the kids and teachers leave for the summer, one of those is the selection of materials for Language Arts.

Currently teachers are reviewing sample materials to see how they best fit and align with our curriculum. Each of them has a rubric that they are using to evaluate materials. These rubrics evaluate the organization of the text, the types of student work that is required, how technology fits in with the process, are there allowances for student reflection and analysis, how are the teacher materials organized, and how are things assessed. All of these things are an important part of the selection process and help teachers understand how the texts will support them as they instruct students in the classroom.

The Social Studies teachers are working to identify the standards and benchmarks that are grade level expectations. This procedure has taken a little evaluation and thought on their part, and as we see where "holes" are in our curriculum teachers may even have to pick up a few more benchmarks at the different grade levels. We will be discussing this further in May, and by the time we leave in June we will be able to say, these are our grade level expectations for Social Studies for the X Grade level, or for a specific class in the high school. Knowing this parents and students can plan accordingly and work as a team to meet these expectations during the course of a school year, or the scope of a class.

Entering the last 3rd of the Year

Curriculum

There is much to be done over the next 3+ months. Year 1 teachers will continue their review of Curriculum - Standards and Benchmarks. As we review these items we are trying to make sure that we are teaching all identified items within the Iowa Core Curriculum. The reality is that we probably aren't but, we can't make any improvements until we have an assessment of our current reality. Year 2 folks are now ready to begin evaluating curriculum supports. What are curriculum supports, you ask? Well, they are anything that will help teachers as they prepare lessons. Things like textbooks, primary source documents, software programs, or other items for instruction. You may hear many "old school" teachers stating it's time to purchase some new curriculum. However, we need to develop/review our standards and benchmarks and make sure we all agree on them, before we decide on a text, or other supports.

Assessment

ITBS and ITED testing finished up in nice timing, and all results have been send back for scoring, and I hope to have results back very soon. The Iowa Testing Systems is charged with getting the results back in a timely manner, so I anticipate our results will be back any time now. Once they return I will do much of the data work myself, sharing information with teachers and principals alike. I'll also share information with the school board about our results in early April. The ITBS/ITED information along with our second MAP administration in April will help us as we plan district, building, classroom, and student goals for the 10-11 school year.

February Blues

Thanks to Old Man Winter we are a bit behind in our curriculum work for 2009-2010. Due to the weather we have either missed school on Monday completely, or been released early. Not such a big deal? Well, when your curriculum meetings are scheduled on Monday nights it does become a bit of an issue. We will have to do some compacting of the work to complete our tasks -

Luckily ITBS week went off without major weather/school issues. At this point I believe we are nearing completion of makeup testing, with Friday, February 26 as our target date to return materials for scoring. Comments from staff about student participation and focus have been positive, we shall see! I certainly hope that this was the case.

Mid Year and Still Much to Do

Curriculum

Welcome to 2010! In an effort to get our feet back on the ground after break, January has been a quiet month for meetings and curriculum work. Year 1 folks continue to work on their purpose statements and Year 2 folks are entering units into the Curriculum Manager. During the January 4 professional development day all High School and Middle School staff members were required to input one unit in the software that reflected the use of Google Apps, so that forced some of our staff members to input units.

What is so important about this process is the fact that when teachers put the units in the system, we can evaluate if a benchmark is being used during the course of instruction, how many times it is taught, and at what levels. As we work toward implementing the Iowa Core Curriculum this tool is very necessary, as we will have to account for all our core benchmarks and report where they are a part of instruction.

The SIAC group has taken the month of January "off", but will reconvene for work this year in February.

Assessment

Our winter window of MAP testing started, January 12, and should finish up this week, weather permitting. I've heard good things from some of the teachers - seeing significant gains from their students from the fall to the present. Look for more details about this in months to come. The thing I am seeing is that teachers more and more are looking at this data and using it to guide their instruction, which means our students are getting the skills instruction that they need! ITBS/ITED testing is scheduled to begin February 8.

Board Report 12-16-09

Curriculum

As we work our way through the school year I am seeing good progress, albeit slow, by our teachers with the Curriculum Manager entry. By the end of the year many of our teachers will have their courses entered allowing for evaluation of the infusion of the Iowa Core Curriculum throughout all subject areas. Our schedule got tossed off a bit with the recent weather and I hope that this does not halt what progress has been made.

Shortly after the start of the school year teachers in Year 2 will begin to select materials for evaluation. We will use January and February to select and March and April to evaluate. During the evaluation process we will be referring to our established standards and benchmarks to see how closely aligned materials might be and find the best fit for our classrooms.

On a School Improvement note, the School Improvement Advisory Committee (SIAC) has met 3 times this fall, each time discussing a portion of the Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP). After Christmas we will be discussing the Annual Progress Report (APR). This report is our mechanism for reporting out the progress of the school toward our CSIP goals. If you have an interest in being part of this group, you are welcome to attend. We will be meeting next, February 1 at 6:30 p.m.

Assessment

Shortly after school starts back up in January we will be taking our Mid Year MAP assessments at the Elementary school. Teachers will use the data from this assessment to readjust their instruction, student placement, and any interventions that might be taking place. The more instructional data that we have the better! February brings ITBS/ITED testing. Our scheduled testing dates are the week of February 8.

Curriculum Work Progresses - 11/13/09

Standards Work and Curriculum Mapping

It probably seems for teachers that their Curriculum work is never done, and in reality to be done correctly that is a fact. Social Studies, Art, and Library teachers across the Earlham Schools are working hard to identify the "Must Haves" for their programs, in education we refer to these types of items as "Standards". Standards are the guiding principles for the program, those things that once a student has completed the coursework they will have the skills to perform the tasks. These tasks look different for different grade levels - Kindergarten, Third grade, Middle School, and High School classes all may teach students about their community, but the expectations for students to reach the skills of a standard are very different. These are called "Benchmarks".

Why is this relevant to the Curriculum work being done in Earlham? Each year a different group of instructional areas go through Curriculum Review, reviewing their purpose statement, the standards for the core area, and their benchmarks. For this year Social Studies, Art, and Library are in the midst of this process. The groups meet once a month (first Monday) to discuss their "homework" for the month and answer any questions about procedures and the expected outcomes. Our next meeting will be Monday, December 7 at 3:25.

Teachers in the second year of the review cycle (Year 2) are inputting their curriculum content into a curriculum mapping software. This software allows us to analyze the content of classes and we can identify areas of need within our standards and benchmarks. The software is not new to our district, but we have not utilized it to the full extent possible. As teachers cycle through the 6 year Curriculum process they will be utilizing this tool as a historical document. Because of the amount of turnover our district typically experiences having historical records of what has been taught and when it was taught is a very important step. We will now have data for new teachers to our district, to show the way things have been taught ( the order of the year) and allow them to focus on instruction, and not curriculum development.

Board Report 10-29-09

Curriculum

As we did last year, we have started another group through the Curriculum cycle. Year 1 consists o f Social Studies, Library Sciences, and Art. Currently these folks are working on a program "Philosophy" - trying to make sure we can answer the question, "Why do we teach Social Studies?" Then we will begin discussion of the important parts of their subject area, or Grade Level Expectations. To do this process we will rely heavily on the written Standards and Benchmarks that MISIC has established for us, while comparing them to the Iowa Core Curriculum.

Year 2 folks have been trained in the use of the Curriculum Manager ( a benefit of being a part of the MISIC group) in fact all teachers in the district have been trained somewhat in the use of the tool, and we are working with all groups toward having Unit Maps on the software, so rather than an anecdotal history, we have a written history. History in the sense of having a plan for a new teacher to come in and use to guide them through the first year they are with Earlham.

Assessment

MAP Testing went smoothly this fall, in the sense that our technology worked for us and scheduling changes went smoothly. Hard to believe that almost a month has passed since we did our final testing! During our full day in-service in September Elementary teachers had the time to do some data review and begin planning for ways they would use the data for their classrooms. High School teachers worked to become familiar with the goal setting worksheet so that they could use it when talking with their advisory groups. They have been working to meet individually with each of their advisees to talk about the results and set goals for this year. I am optimistic that this will be another way the students see the importance of taking assessments seriously. As I mentioned at the September meeting we set some "test out" cutoffs, and as a result of this saw some changes in testing from many of the students. At the present time we have 9 Students that met the Reading test out cut point, and 18 that met the Language cutoff. Look for district data to come to you soon.