October 25

1. October 25 • Developing New Courses & Units • Supervising curriculum • Who leads curricular change? • Final project discussion

2. Opener – individually, respond… • You are the principal of a middle school in a rural setting within 1 hour of New York City. Your school has grown to a capacity of 1,200 students, grades 6-8. The community has become very diverse, and a racial understanding gap now exists in your community and school among kids. Fights, vandalism, intolerance, bullying, harassment, etc. has emerged. You have two assistant principals and three school counselors, and 3 teams per grade level in your school. Your culture as a school has negatively impacted student achievement, student attendance, and obviously, behaviors. You need to do something significant. And you know it will take a period of years to do so. What curricular change(s) do you implement to address these issues? Where do you begin? How do you best make a significant impact so that it can only succeed? Sketch out how/where you begin, a short term and long term plan, and what the outcomes for the plan will be.

3. Opener • Are your responses to this real issue what our authors refer to as a “technological process” or “naturalistic process” of curriculum planning? Why?

4. Technological Process • Requires specified steps • Does it require a course/courses or a unit within a course? • How long should it take? Is the curriculum for it embedded and separated out by itself? • Uses data and assesses needs of the learners • Uses a needs assessment and acquired data / information • Has a rationale and purpose with a probable time schedule • Is it realistic? Is it actionable, relevant and a reason why kids will find it purposeful? How long will it take to implement? • Identify learning in objectives and activities to meet the objectives • What are the primary essential questions and big ideas to approach ? • What will be the primary learning experiences and inherent activities to approach the EQs? • How will you measure whether kids have applied and synthesize material/experiences?

5. Technological Process • Determine resources required to support • Texts, technology, field trips, speakers, consumables, staffing, scheduling, etc… • Determine Assessment Methods • Will you use standard formative and summative measures, or authentic/performance assessments? • What other data will you use to determine the course/curriculum's impact? • Systemize some kind of curriculum guide or plan • Use SAS or Performance Plus to design curriculum in which to share as a core map and use among multiple teachers

6. Naturalistic Process • Is sensitive to political aspects of curriculum making • Great emphasis on quality of learning activities • Looks at alternatives to a new course/unit • Test scores, perception data within school, parent and student information via survey methods/other feedback • Determine parties interested in process and develop a constituency • Involve multiple types of individuals – proponents and possible dissenters who may choose to submarine process otherwise • New math curriculum in State College Area SD – Investigations

7. Naturalistic Process • Build the knowledge base • Have plan for faculty and students • Report on progress over time • Determine Unit/Course/Initiative and Outcomes (similar to technological process…) • Plan and design learning experiences • Design final summative assessments to determine success (or not) • NOTE: Slightly different model for each level (elem., middle, high)

8. BREAK

9. Supervising the Curriculum

10. Some Essential Questions &Considerations… • Who are the major leaders concerned with supervision? • What are the current approaches to curriculum supervision? • What are the issues and problems that face those who evaluate curriculum today? • Why is having a faculty on board crucial to supervision process?

11. As a Principal, you absolutely MUST inspect what you expect…

12. Field Trip • Book storage room in library

13. Leaders in Curriculum Supervision • Can you name some?

14. Leaders in Curriculum Supervision • Madeline Hunter • Anticipatory set, objective, lecture/discussion of new content, modeling content, guided practice, independent practice • Bloom

15. Leaders in Curriculum Supervision • Charlotte Danielson • Wiggins & McTighe • Fontis & Pinnell – Guided Reading • Robert Marzano • Carol Tomlinson • Heidi Hays Jacobs • McRel Research lab • ASCD

16. Role of Curriculum Supervisor? • What do you believe the roles and responsibilities are of such a position? • Is this person more powerful than a principal? What are the pros and cons to a CS having all the say with curriculum trends versus serving as a resource?

17. Role of Curriculum Supervisor? • The principal MUST be viewed as an agent of change where necessary as well as a curriculum expert • Days of just “managing” curriculum are over • Whitaker talks about how any change effort’s premiere must be GREAT

18. Whitaker on change… • First Exposure (to anticipated change)must be GREAT and COMPELLING • (8x harder to unlearn something as it is to learn it). • DO NOT mention negatives of change when you first expose people to it. • Implementing change – sometimes, change must come slower; so, don’t be in a hurry unless it appears to be obvious, timely, etc. • Never introduce a change until you know that the first exposure to the change will be great! Again, use “is this best for kids” as the filter?

19. Differentiated P.D. • Do you believe in school-wide PD for all teachers or a more prescribed approach like in a PLC format? • What might be those school-wide PD topics good for everyone?

20. Staff Development • Can come in many forms and types • Small groups, whole faculty, conferences, etc. • Can be effective if best practice needs to be modeled first in order to get everyone on same page

21. Observations • Function of inspecting what is expected • Principals can visit classrooms of teachers all the time if they wish • In fact, they should regularly • Informal – walkthroughs, narratives, emails to reinforce what was observed • Should be frequent and numerous • Think about how many grades we need to have to paint a good picture of a student’s progress – we need to the same sort of concept for staff • Formals – pre and post observation conference, analysis of lesson plan and map, chance for teacher to converse about what ahs been observed

22. Ratings/Evaluations • A way to formally evaluate teacher performance • Incorporates observed and anecdotal information that is shared with individual teacher • Today, PA’s new form is a combination of an observation and evaluation measure

23. Individual Staff Action Plans/Development • “Clinical supervision” • Can take on many forms • Must use data and evidence • Used to improve teacher performance • Scripted, step by step • Conferences during planning period to work on lesson planning, strategies, reporting back on observable data, video analysis, coaching, peer observation, taking of graduate coursework, directives as necessary…

24. Staff Motivation • Huge research base • Servant Leadership and Emotional Intelligence keys to increasing and maintain motivation • Maslow works for adults like it does for kids… • Pay for performance (Merit pay)? How do you feel about this? • Being firm/fair/consistent and having high expectations • Must create and have vision for building a culture of students as the center of everything • Motivated teachers need less supervision • Will be more loyal and will hold themselves accountable

25. Supervising the Supported Curriculum • Must have scope and sequence and whole curriculum maps to drive big ideas for offering respective curriculum • How long units should take • What standards, content, skills, and major assessment will be used • How textbooks and other materials are selected and approved to support curriculum • Involving committees to design and implement curricular initiative • Basing everything on a research and best practice base