Thursday, July 16, 2009

2009 Summer Curriculum Committee Day 4

The following activities were completed by the Curriculum Committee on Thursday, July 16. The first week was very productive with excellent progress made on revising and editing many documents. Week 2 will be largely a continuation of Week 1 activities as well as increased emphasis on implementation and assessment issues. -Dr. Petrosino

Social Studies: It was another busy day for the Social Studies Group.  Four in number, we were able to divide the tasks of formatting, devising assessments, and entering data. The 5th and 6th grades are very near completion.  

Language Arts (Secondary): To date I have completed the new formatting for English I, II III, and Contemporary Lit (12th grade.) I will not be in next week, as I am having arthroscopic surgery on my shoulder. I will be in Monday July 27 to tie up any loose ends.

World Language: We completed the revisions for grade 3 and two units of  grade 4 for the UBD planners.
Also, we completed the revisions for the UBD and MYP planners for grade 9 honors and three units of  grade 10.

Science: Today the revisions for the remaining 4 units ( linear and projectile motion, sound and light, electricity and magnetism, and conversions) for grade 12 ( Physics) were completed.  The enduring understandings and the essential questions were edited and minor additions were made to the existing MYP planner according to the UbD format.  All of the completed units were typed and the information from the existing MYP planner was transferred into the new MYP Format.

Technology: Day 4: We began writing units to cover standard 8.2 and the MYP technology guide.

Day 2: We completed the process of documenting the technology standards across the curriculum.
Day 3: We began reworking the technology units written for grades 6,7,8 to the new MYP planner format and reviewed them for UbD components. We analyzed the documentation of curriculum to determine where we needed to revise or create new units to cover standards 8.1, Technological Literacy and 8.2, Technology Education. We found that standard 8.1 is well covered across the board. Standard 8.2 needs more coverage and will be addressed over the coming days.

Plans for next week:
Continue reworking existing unit plans to new MYP planner
Develop more units for 8.2 standards
Insert technology standards from our documentation project into units across the curriculum

Disclaimer: The 2009 Summer Curriculum Committee is roughly 50% the size of the 2008 Summer Curriculum Committee (29 teachers vs 60 teachers) and the budget allocated is approximately 2/3 less than the allocation for Summer 2008. Dr. Petrosino has explained numerous times that this represents a significant reduction in both expenditures and faculty involved with the curriculum project.