Part III: Discussion of Interview Analysis and Findings
Allan Glatthorn in his book Curriculum Leadership sums up the purpose of curriculum planning.
“A goal of curriculum planning is to increase the knowledge and levels of understanding that students take from the instructional events embedded in learning and instructional materials” (Glatthorn, 2011, p. 225)
Interviewing teachers who are in the classroom different from Common Core State Standards for English I will help create deeper insights into the problems and strengths of the standards. The varied views of the school improvement plan and the curriculum in question help an executive leader gain a deep understanding of the most fundamental part of educating students: curriculum and
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He is very positive in his overall assessment of the school. Teachers who have been at a school for several years tend to be overly critical of the goals as they have seen years of failures and successes deal with the SIT goals. New teachers tend to view the school’s curriculum and goals with optimism. They are positive because they have not experienced anything else. One of the common themes throughout his interview is his desire for more time to collaborate with teachers. This is a common opinion for new teachers because of their lack of experience and desire to improve and learn from the older …show more content…
All teachers feel that collaboration is key for improving student achievement. They all agreed on the importance of data analysis but none of them felt that the curriculum department benchmarks were aligned appropriately enough to be useful in the classroom. Because of the time required to give the assessments, they see the benchmarks as a hindrance to performance. All three teachers agree that resources are limited, however, they were able to overcome this through technology. The interviews showed that the teachers had misconceptions on what the SIT team was actually doing. The newest teacher basically had no knowledge of the effect of the SIT team, whereas the experienced teacher was actively involved in the implementation of the school wide goals. This shows a lack of communication from the executive team regarding the work of the SIT and the status of annual
My assignment is a combination of two interviews. I interviewed an Assistant Principal, Ms. Katis Romig, as well as, our Curriculum Director, Mrs. Maria Petkanas. They are both responsible for the curriculum development and instruction for the school where I work, P.S. 811Q. I also learned a fair amount from Ms. Romig and Mrs. Petkanas including that District 75 Citiwide Special Education’s Deputy Superintendent, Ms. Barbara Joseph, had given the school feedback and suggested writing curriculum and textbooks. This was the only feedback she gave our principal during her observation last week.
Educators have to consider how to implement curriculum, instruction, management, and technology in the classroom. Educators also have to provide an environment where all children feel safe and nurtured. When creating a course of action, educators have to consider their role, as well as the role of the student, parent, and community. The first thing an educator has to consider is the curriculum students should be taught. Educators must use the common core standards for ELA and Math, as well as the Georgia Performance Standards for Science and Social Studies.
Curriculum and instruction is impacted by assessment, and whether in the design, delivery or data interpretation processes, aligning these apparatuses is most challenging part of being a teacher. Teachers are called to exercise an alignment between assessment and curriculum, use assessment to guide instruction, and deliver assessment that truly evaluates achievement. Two forms of assessment used in the classroom, formative and summative possess important components, that track them into purposeful, designated uses. Even more so challenging as a teacher in using these two assessments is understanding how they work separately, together, and exploring how they might be used with and for each other.
An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the Colorado Growth Model to help guide them to determine if students have made adequate yearly progress. Together, they created the plan that included the district goals mentioned above as well as continuing to include new technology skills, information on special education changes with Response to Intervention (RTI), maintaining current staff implementation of literacy goals and a new goal of raising achievement in math.
University, ©. S., Stanford, & 94305, C. (n.d.). Martha Castellón leads presentation on Common Core with San Francisco Administrators. Retrieved October 3, 2013, from http://ell.stanford.edu/content/martha-castell%C3%B3n-leads-presentation-common-core-san-francisco-administrators
Posner, G. (1998) ‘Models of curriculum planning’. In Beyer, L. and Apple, M. (eds) The Curriculum. Problems, Politics and Possibilities (2nd edn). New York: State University of New York Press.
When it comes to implementing a curriculum everyone has an opinion. Whether it is the organization of the curriculum or the evaluation of the curriculum, everyone from administers, teachers, and parents will have their opinions on the new curriculum. The curriculum development group has many difficult decisions to make. They have to decide when and how to implement, who will be in charge, what data will be collected, and how will the curriculum be evaluated.
Often time’s curriculum is thought of as a set of rules and standards given to teachers to follow. However, more goes into a curriculum than just what meets perceived. Teachers are not just the vehicles from which a curriculum flows but in a sense, they embody it. There are four main different avenues in which curriculum is constructed. It’s constructed through government agencies, publishers, school systems, and teachers. It can be defined as “content, a set of specific educational plans, a changing series of planned learning experiences, or as everything that learners experience in school” (Van Brummelen, 20). A curriculum is strongly built behind a worldview. “A worldview is a comprehensive framework of basic convictions about life. Worldviews
Curriculum is important being it’s the underlying factor that plays a role in determining ones growth, achievement and success. The majority of curriculum con...
Since then, Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction has been a standard reference for anyone working with curriculum development. Although not a strict how-to guide, the book shows how educators can critically approach curriculum planning, studying progress and retooling when needed. Its four sections focus on setting objectives, selecting learning experiences, organizing instruction, and evaluating progress. Readers will come away with a firm understanding of how to formulate educational objectives and how to analyze and adjust their plans so that students meet the objectives. Tyler also explains that curriculum planning is a continuous, cyclical process, an instrument of education that needs to be fine-tuned.
As teachers, we have to monitor the progress our students make each day, week, quarter and year. Classroom assessments are one of the most crucial educational tools for teachers. When assessments are properly developed and interpreted, they can help teachers better understand their students learning progress and needs, by providing the resources to collect evidence that indicates what information their students know and what skills they can perform. Assessments help teachers to not only identify and monitor learners’ strengths, weaknesses, learning and progress but also help them to better plan and conduct instruction. For these reasons, ongoing classroom assessment is the glue that binds teaching and learning together and allows educators to monitor their efficacy and student learning.
As you can see the school board handles many issues from budgets, to tenure, to performance scores, to conferences. Although this paper did not cover everything in the meeting, it summarized what took place, and what affects it would have on teachers. The decisions made no matter how big or small can influence how and what task a teacher performs. The school board meeting was interesting because you are able to see how the changes could affect you personally.
There are platitudes of issues and elements that pertain to the educational process as well as curriculum development that are addressed on a routine basis. As many researchers have discussed, and administrators and teachers alike have grown to understand, if this current educational model/system is to produce creative, productive, active, and technologically savvy students-citizens the worst actions are perhaps having no actions at all (Stansbury, 2013). In addition to the grandiose mistakes of becoming stagnant (progress), educators and administrators are faced with increasing demands at the highest levels; this of course is making reference to both federal and state legislation such as No Child Left Behind, perhaps the most groundbreaking legislation to date. These rigorous demands are curriculum based, creating definitive and innovative opportunities for educators, especially those in positions to promote and formulate new curriculum models as well as propose the implementation of a new curricula into the system, to better prepare students within their educational system/process exactly what the demands of a 21st century requires. These demands are in reference to an article written by Richard Long titled Career Success Demands Strong 21st Century Literacy Skills. Long states several skills that will be required if American students are to play catch –up with the rest of the world as well as perhaps attain their position at the top of the upper echelon of world educational rankings (Long, 2010).
Educational institutions today are increasing their emphasis on high standards as a crucial factor in improving the quality of education imparted to their students. They are, therefore, looking at new and better ways to develop such a curriculum that meets all the pre-decided standards. This calls for a change in the way schools are run and the methods of teaching in order to design, implement and evaluate curriculum effectively.
Designing curriculum, instruction, and assessments are steps teachers use to help them make sense of the concepts they teach and helps drive instruction. These steps can take on many different forms and drive a classroom in a plethora of ways. These steps, when developed properly, can help a teacher utilize each moment in the classroom and help students gain more insight to the standards they need to become proficient.