Elementary Schools Programs and Issues

1. DEM 332-Curriculum Development Elementary Schools Programs and Issues By: Jayson C. Timtiman

2. By the late 1990s, the elementary curriculum in many school districts included: • Implementation of national standards in • reading, writing and mathematics • Use of performance-based assessment with • rubrics • Competency-based instruction • Academic skills placement tests • States standards and frameworks along with • assessment and benchmark tests

3. Portfolio Assessment Systems • Aligning the curriculum • Some have implemented inclusion programs • “full service” schools to cope with large • numbers of children from single-parent and • poverty households and cultural diversity • and mobility of parents.

4. Elementary teachers continue to be “all things to all children.” Plans, writes daily notes, prepares weekly progress reports, distributes fluoride, collects supermarket receipts for free computers, bundles newspapers, collects money for book orders, handles science cards, compute grades and writes reports cards on hand, comes up with positive comment for each child, writes pizza slip, ties shoes, evaluate the kids in all areas, files papers, breaks up fights, creates bulletin boards, eats lunch in 27 minutes or less, counsels parents, interns, call parents, laminates, attends PTA meetings, laminates materials, remediates standardized tests…. and, of course, teaches.

5. Some Elementary Teachers Sell different staffs (e.g. candy, chocolates, personalized-bond papers/indexes, tocino, longanisa etc)… Collect money for ghost projects, gossip during vacant period… Loan here and everywhere…

6. Millions of new immigrants, (Non-English- • Speaking) have dramatically increased the • number of students in public schools. • Elementary school serves as the great melting pot of the nation as new languages, customs and cultures are brought to the school.

7. Balancing academics and exploration in early childhood programs. The goal of developmentally appropriate teaching is to provide instruction suited to the age and cognitive readiness of each child.

8. BASIS OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM Modern curriculum has evolved over the past 200 years From a narrow curriculum (Reading, Writing, Arithmetic) Now a broad program encompassing not only basic skills, but also a variety of learning experiences • Schools like the nation itself, are in transition • Mechanism for social change

9. Elementary School History Establishments of Free Elementary Schools As early as 1642, the colonies were enacting legislation concerning educational matters. The 1647 legislation compelled communities over a certain size to set up, grammar schools. “Old Deluder Satan”

10. The first law in America requiring schools to be established Education at the expense of the community

11. New England Primer • Used Bible verses • Used for more than 100 years • Used to teach reading and number skills • Disciplinary problems • Religious lives, with flogging and other measures • to “drive the devil out of children.”

12. Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) He viewed child growth and development as orgasmic (natural) rather than mechanistic. He recognized that the narrow the curriculum, consisting mainly of mechanical exercises in reading, was inadequate to prepare children for intelligent citizenship. He helped through teacher training programs. His ideas were best expressed in his book, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children.

13. In the early 1800s, Prussian educators borrowed many of Pestalozzi’s methods to build a national system of education. Public education became increasingly popular in the first half of the 1800s First board of Education was established in Massachusetts in 1837 with Horace Mann as its first secretary.

14. EXPANSION AND CONTINUED REFORMS OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION From 1876 to the mid-1930s, the United States became a great industrial nation. 1920s and 1930s, educational philosophers such as John Dewey had a great influence on the elementary curriculum.

15. Dewey believed that schools should be a reflection of community life, with students studying about the home, neighborhood, and community. The progressive education movement, led by John Dewey, George Counts, Harold Rugg, and others, heavily influenced the elementary curricula until 1957. “1960s” an era of innovation in the elementary curriculum

16. ORGANIZING CURRICULUM Organized around the bases of knowledge, the needs of society, and human learning development. Individualizing Instruction in the Elementary Grades A consistent theme of elementary school learning for years has been that of individualizing instruction to accommodate differences among students. Multiple Disabilities Video

18. Variables in Individualize Instruction • Materials for Study • Method of Study • Pace of Study • Sequence of Study • Learning Focus • Place of Learning • Evaluation of Study • Purpose of Study

19. Grouping Flexibility is the key in any grouping arrangement. Some Common Groups • A Class as a whole • Reading Level groups • Reading Need groups • Interests groups • Practice or tutorial groups • Research groups Two common terms used in Grouping Heterogeneous and Homogenous Groups (Mixed) (Like) • Individualization

20. Reading Levels Another common means of providing for student differences is in providing books of varying degrees of difficulty. Readability is the objective measure of the difficulty of a book or article usually involves the use of a specific formula, with results reported in terms of grade level.

21. Seven Formulas 1. Flesch Reading Ease Score

22. 2. Wheeler and Smith-Index Number 3. Cloze Technique 4. Lorge Grade Placement Score 5. Fry Graph 6. Smog Grading Plan 7. Spache Grade Level Score

23. Whole Language vs Phonics: A Continuing debate Whole Language, as a teaching approach embraces the theory that children learn to read they way they learn to talk-naturally. Phonics, explicit decoding instruction, is known as basic-skills instruction. Phonics builds on a series of basic steps that introduces emergent readers to such fundamental skills as linking sounds and letters, combining sounds, and recognizes sounds with similar-letter-sound pattern.

24. Seven Basic Approaches to teaching reading 1. Basals 2. Language Experience 3. Individualize Approach 4. Linguistic Approach 5. Phonics 6. Alphabetic Approach 7. Programmed Instruction

25. SELECTION OF CONTENT Subject Content Language Arts Reading Spelling Writing Social Studies Geography Health and Physical Education The Arts

26. DIVERSE NEEDS OF CHILDREN Children from Different Culture Speak many languages, practice many religions, come from many backgrounds. Children from Impoverished Family Poverty still remains a problem not only in the USA but in the whole world. Children with Special Needs Who are considered Special Learners/ Students with Special Needs/ Persons with Special Needs with Disabilities?

27. LEARNING STYLES AND SYSTEMS Learning Styles • Studies have indicated some children enjoy understanding the big picture before focusing on specifics. Other children enjoy a classroom atmosphere in which personal relationships are important. e.g. Neil Fleming's VAK/VARK model visual learners; auditory learners; kinesthetic learners or tactile learners

28. Cooperative Learning A technique where children are trained to use one another as resources for learning. (e.g. group works, peer tutoring, group reporting etc.) Grade Level Retention Research studies show that there are better approaches to motivating underperforming children than retaining them for a year.

29. That’s the End of Elementary Education Programs and Issues (American Setting)

30. Elementary Education Programs and Issues (Philippine Setting) by: Jayson C. Timtiman

31. K-12 Vision Dr. Yolanda Quijano Undersecretary for Programs and Projects Department of Education http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyP2ug8Vxdw

32. The Elementary Curriculum Responding the Challenge of Learners • Yolanda S. Quijano, ED.D. • Bureau of Elementary Education • Department of Education • Pasig City

33. Every child has unique characteristics, interests, abilities and learning needs and therefore, if the right to education is to mean anything, education systems should be designed and educational programs implemented, to take into account the wide diversity of these characteristics and needs. Salamanca Conference in Education (Spain, 1994)

34. Outline • The Basic Education Framework • Background and Rationale • Curriculum Refinement • Thrusts • Directions • Programs & Projects :Existing & • New • Intended Outcomes

35. Background and Rationale • Elementary Education Curriculum (EEC) as major component of Basic Education Curriculum (BEC) first implemented in 2002 • Evaluation of EEC conducted by PNU from June 2005-June 2006

36. Background and Rationale • Two issues identified: teachers as facilitators and lack of textbooks, equipment and materials • Issues addressed through: • * training • * lesson exemplars • * procurement • * stakeholders support

37. Background and Rationale • Realities in Education • Rapidly changing world that need empowered and lifelong learners • Standards-based School Initiatives in Differentiated Curriculum • “All students can learn to high standards.” • “Ensure full access to the general curriculum to the maximum extent appropriate to the needs of the child.”

38. Curriculum Refinement Thrust:Raise school effectiveness and pupil performance in learning environment that promotes school-based management Directions: No. 1: Intensify school practice of developing numeracy and literacyskills in Grades 1, 2 & 3 within the context of values/ character education through Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education

39. Curriculum Refinement Directions: No. 2: Intensify school practice of developing learning to learn skillswith focus on HOTS in Grades 4-6 in the context of self-independence and economic sufficiency

40. Curriculum Refinement Directions: No. 3: Intensify shift to “Talk Less, Learn More” strategy through context -/problem-/ inquiry-based with ICT enhanced instructions & other interactive & integrative strategies and develop the 21st century skills

41. Curriculum Refinement Directions: No. 4: Building models of Inclusive Schools, Special Science Elem. Schools, Elem Schools for the Arts & ICT-enhanced Schools

42. Teacher-Support Program for Curriculum Refinement • Building teacher-leaders through institution-based training for master’s degree through blended learning (face-to-face & e-learning) • Development of training designs and sessions through print and e-learning in support to school/cluster-based training, LAC sessions, mentoring/coaching, • distance education

43. Existing Programs/Projects 1. SPED in Inclusive Schools Educating all children with support system Assessment process Categories of Children with Special Needs Provision of appropriate SPED program

44. Existing Programs/Projects • 2. Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education • Mother tongue as language of instruction (LOI) from preparatory level, Grades 1, 2 & 3 • Filipino and English are offered as subjects • Filipino and English are used as LOI in Grades 4, 5 & 6 in designated learning areas

45. Existing Programs/Projects • 3. Special Science Elementary School Curriculum Model • Enriched science curriculum • Science & Health is taught starting Gr.1 • Provides ICT-enhanced instruction • LOI are Filipino and English • Assessment of Grade 1 entrants • Special trainings provided to teachers by RECSAM

46. Existing Programs/Projects • 4. Model Schools Using ICT-enhanced Curriculum • Provision of computer units and multi-media equipment by DepED with assistance from LGUs/NGOs/business sector • Uses on-line collaborative teaching through Oracle Education Foundation, Inc. and other service providers • Uses multimedia in providing instruction

47. New Projects • 5.Enhancing Curriculum for EPP and Work Centers • Differentiated curriculum based on community resources for regular and special children • Establishment of Work Centers for development of entrepreneurship • Linkage with community for volunteer teachers

48. New Projects • 6.Special Program for • Culture and Arts Enriched curriculum in Culture and Arts • Assessment of pupils talents/potentials • Screening and training of teachers • Provision of special equipment & materials needed

49. New Projects • 7.Model Preschool Classes • Identify preschool • classes that meet • standards of • excellence • Practice inclusion • Demonstrate strong community support

50. Intended Outcomes • Scaling up of models with stakeholders participation • Support to schools initiatives on differentiated curriculum • Students possess skills and values for continuous learning and cope with demands of rapidly changing world