Accomplished Teaching: Module One Response

Our district uses the CEL 5D+ framework for our evaluations.  I plan to work on 4.2 - Curriculum and Pedagogy - Curriculum:  Alignment of Instruction Materials and Task.

This is our second year of using our adopted curriculum for Social Studies.  After adopting the curriculum, I and another teacher spent the summer creating the framework and pacing guide for 6th grade Social Studies using the guidelines from the publishers.  As we went through the curriculum last year, we quickly realized that many of the daily learning targets didn’t connect to the unit learning target(s).     As a result we have been working in our department this year to find materials to supplement so we can help our students meet the unit learning target(s.)    We are also working to insure that students also have more  practice opportunities where they can receive feedback on how they are doing in meeting the unit learning targets before taking the summative assessments.

Part of the reason we choose the curriculum we did was because it offered three reading levels on the online book version.  In the past I have not assigned the reading levels to their profile, but plan to do this using SBAC data over the next couple of weeks.   The online book also has the option of having the book read to students. This is great for my students who have difficulty with reading and I have provided this option to my students in the past.   To increase the variety of materials I have continued to add to non-fictional books to support our curriculum which are displayed around the room for students to read when they have some down time.  I would like to continue to find more materials that would address a variety of reading levels and interests this year.

After reading the book “Learning in the Fast Lane”,  I start every unit with a bulletin board in my room that shows how the daily learning targets connect to the unit learning target(s).  I also include the standards and vocabulary that they will be using in the unit on the bulletin board.  Not only does this help the students see where we are going, but it helps me to make sure my daily learning targets are connected to the unit learning target(s).   This year I want to be better about adding artifacts that remind us of what we did to meet our learning targets.

Overall,  I this year I would like to provide more supplemental materials that provide multiple opportunities for students to practice getting to the learning targets, provide more supplemental books that have a variety of reading levels and interests,  use the option of reading levels on the online version of our book, as well as to add artifacts to my learning target wall.