The following update is for the activities undertaken by the Curriculum Committee on Tuesday, July 29, 2008.Technology- As a group we collaborated on a 3 month project the 7th Grade will be working on. We are reaching out to the Sciences, Arts and Humanities committees in an effort to work on cross curricular articulation. We plan on finishing the 7th grade units by the end of tomorrow and will map out our units for the 8th grade. On Thursday we will be discussing any changes we made to the curriculum map in order to get any changes made into the system on Tuesday.
Social Studies- As a group we have decided to put the 7th grade unit for Africa on hold, affording us the opportunity to gain more perspective on the subject. We did however, complete the remainder of grade 7 and the 1st semester (1st & 2nd quarter) of grade 9. We will be prepared to update our mapping tomorrow afternoon, however we still need a primary years consult. If you have any questions for us, please feel free to let us know.
Science- Accomplishments: Completed fourth grade units and assessments; Initiated fifth grade units and assessments; Completed physics units and assessments for twelfth grade; Completed rubrics for twelfth grade; Began typing grade eleven and grade twelve units; Completed time concept map for robotics; Completed formal lab template for grades six through eight. Our Plan and Goals: Continue working on fifth grade units; Continue typing eleventh and twelfth grade units; Initiate third grade units.
World Language- Things that were accomplished today: We revisited the mapping for grades K-5 and we made changes on our hardcopy; Also, we completed the 5th grade curriculum and we are now in the process to type the individuals units into the PYP planner. We looked at several textbooks. Among these textbooks are: Viva el Español, Paso a Paso, and Realidades for the middle school grades. We spoke with different sales representatives and based on our conversations we are making the recommendation to implement “Realidades” for grades 6-8. The logic behind the recommendation is that this particular book is completely aligned to the NJCCS and it fits the curriculum very well. For grades K-5 we are using “Viva el Español” systems A, B, and C for the implementation of the curriculum.
PhysEd/Health- Today our group finished the first grade Physical Education curriculum and is currently finishing the Health portion of the first grade curriculum. By the end of the day we feel as though we will begin to plan for the second grade units. Our group broke up into two small sub groups which we find to be more effective. Our sub groups are broken down into a P.E. section and a health section. The two sub groups periodically discuss the correlation between the two areas which creates consistency within the program
Mathematics- Today we completed writing the MYP Unit Plans for grade 8. Using the Drafting a Design from the Big Idea we had completed earlier this summer we have been successfully writing MYP Unit Plans for grades 6-8. Plans for Tomorrow: We hope to use the Drafting a Design from the Big Idea to complete the Algebra 1 MYP Unit Plans. Also we hope to start to write the MYP Unit Plans for the Geometry Curriculum.
Language (Primary)- Today's Accomplishments: Completed Units 7, 8, 9, 10; Completed rubric for unit 4 , 6, 9; Started rubric for unit 7; Began unit 11. Tomorrow's Goals: Complete rubric for units 7, 8, 9, 10, ; Continue to revise mapping for grade 1; Complete unit 11 ; Begin units 12, 13
