Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Curriculum Committee Summary: August 6

The following is the August 6th update for the Hoboken curriculum Committee:

SCIENCE- Accomplishments: Continued Design Drafts for Grade; Revised Grade 6 Unit 3 and 4 Assessments.Thursday:Type Grade 3 Units; Complete Design Drafts for Grade 6; Start Design Drafts for Grade 5; Start MYP Units and Design Drafts for Grade 10; Complete Grade 3 Unit Five

LANGUAGE (primary): Today's Accomplishments: Completed Unit 2, Grade 2; Completed Unit 3, Grade 2; Completed Unit 4,Tomorrow: Unit 4; Rubric, Grade 2; Continue with Unit 5, Grade 2; Start Unit 6, Grade 2; Check Standards for First Grade

SOCIAL STUDIES: Today we completed the edit of the mapping of the primary years on the L drive. We also began brainstorming units for the 5th grade US histoy MYP planners. The first unit on colonial life is complete. Tommorrow we will address the American revolution, and governmental structure units.

ARTS/MUSIC: To my delight, the extensive amount of time that we have spent in understanding the MYP method of instruction and its components as they relate to mapping out the Arts curriculum is truly paying off. All 3 teams (visual, music, and theater/dance) are now working independently, “Drafting Big Ideas” and filling out the MYP Unit planners for each unit. I’ve encouraged all members of the team to set reasonable goals for themselves everyday that take into account the amount of time it takes to produce a quality unit, while at the same time, moving forward to achieve some progress in writing the curriculum.

All three areas are making progress; music has just about finished the writing for 6th grade, while visual is a quarter-way through that same grade. I’ve decided to work on 9th and 10th grades before tackling 6-8, finishing 3 units today. As we proceed, I expect the process to move along faster. It is very encouraging watching all the team members creating units thoughtfully and a using concepts and terminology straight from the MYP. I can see tremendous growth and understanding of the program among all the team members and am inspired by their dedication to working very hard on this project.

MATHEMATICS: As a group we complete the Drafting from a Big Idea from Grade 5. This is part of our plan to complete the primary grades before the end of the summer. In the afternoon we attended the LEGO LOGO presentation in the cafeteria. This was very beneficial for the primary grades and will allow students to enjoy mathematics.Tomorrow: We plan to continue to Unit Plan the primary grades. We hope to have Drafting from a Big Idea complete for second grade and possibly complete third grade as well.

WORLD LANGUAGE: Things that were accomplished today: All units for grade 5 are now typed in the PYY and the UbD’ The 4th grade was also completed. We started to input the information on the PYP and UDD unit planners. The beginning of grade 3 in on its way. We hope to complete it my Monday afternoon.

LANGUAGE ARTS (secondary): Ninth grade was completed and saved in L drive. Revisions continue be made to fourth to tenth grade to adhere to MYP format and uniformity within the Language Arts Department.