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Learn about the experience of aligning written, taught, and assessed curriculum to the Middle Years Programme at McAuliffe International School. Discover the impact on student learning and teacher growth.
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2014-2015McAuliffe International SchoolAssessment9341-2Aligning Written, Taught, andAssessed Curriculum to theMiddle Years Programmeat McAuliffe By: Shannon Wood Rothenberg
“We shape our self to fit this world and by the world are shaped again. The visible and the invisible working together in common cause, to produce the miraculous. I am thinking of the way the intangible air passed at speed round a shaped wing easily holds our weight. So may we, in this life, trust to those elements we have yet to see or imagine, and look for the true shape of our own self, by forming it well to the great intangibles about us.” ~ David Whyte
What did I do in my classroom and with my team during the course of the PDU? Experiencing my second year of MYP-based assessment was an extraordinary experience, for several reasons… • In my own classroom, I was able to see students connect with the rigor level of content in a completely new way. • As a math team, we were able to implement a consistent assessment strategy that evaluated all four MYP Criterion • The Assessment Committee was able to fine-tune our school-wide policies regarding MYP assessment.
What am I working on in my classroom as a result of the PD? What am I doing to further my own research? • In my classroom this year, I have felt completely grounded in our shared Math assessment protocol! I’ve felt more in touch with my students’ learning and metacognition than ever before. • I feel a personal drive to find all possible connections between CCSS and MYP, because I truly believe they compliment each other AND because I don’t think that’s fully addressed anywhere.
Why is this process important to me and to my growth as a professional? The face of education is changing, and I think the MYP/IB process this year has prepared me for what the future looks like. The IB philosophy is not only about creating “worldwise” learners who love the process of learning and are active and engaged members of the world community. As a professional, I’ve realized that the IB philosophy is also about creating educators who understand that no academic content exists in isolation and that collaboration and a holistic approach to both academic and social/emotional growth are crucial pieces in the puzzle we joyfully attempt to solve daily as teachers, role models, and fellow lovers-of-knowledge.
What did I learn from the PDU and strategy implementation in my classroom? More than anything, implementing the IB assessment philosophy in my unit planning and daily instruction taught me, more than ever before, to see the strands of math learning as part of a continuum. I saw the benefits of working not only with my vertical content team, but also with teachers “outside” of math. Both my instruction and the depth of my students’ comprehension are only enriched by weaving together the many academic and character-development threads that create a future of well-rounded, confident, and contributing members of the human race.
How did this experience impact my work and my students? • To start, this work impacted my students in that many were able to see, for the first time, that a test question isn’t just a test question. Leveling the questions caused many students to start thinking for themselves, “Should this be easy for me? Or should it feel like a stretch?” • To build on that, I think it’s fair to say that my own work experienced a similar “joy boost.” I have found that being able to bring my personal love of language, history, culture, and humor into my persona as a math teacher and my methods of instruction made me a happier and better teacher.
What are my PD needs for next year in terms of classroom culture and instruction? I would be interested in next year’s PD perhaps being more focused on specific content. One of the most beneficial PDs I have been involved in was one that I co-taught, and focused on specific methods for making math accessible to all students. That being said, I know that we are supported at McAuliffe in almost any professional development we seek out ourselves and want to pursue. This year, I researched a couple of conferences, but felt my efforts were best spent immersing myself in MYP. Next year, I plan to apply for the Mikkelson grant again to pursue professional development in math, specifically focused in CCSS.
How will I use my new learning in the future to further my own practice? I think all McAuliffe teachers are on a similar path in how they will apply this year’s learning to their future practice, since this year has been such an important year for our development as an official MYP Middle School. I plan to work towards having more common planning time next year. In addition, the challenges we’ve faced this year in a new building with a slightly different student body and a new grade level have resulted in McAuliffe’s staff feeling drawn together to support each other in their classroom culture creation, their instructional planning, and their professional investment in the IB philosophy.
EXIT TICKET • What support(s) do you need to further your professional growth in future PDUs? • A clear objective from the beginning of the year • More common planning time between grade levels • 2 things that you took away from the PDU this year • MYP rocks and makes every academic focus more meaningful, longer lasting, and personal! • I work with some of the most intelligent, caring, talented people in the world. • 1 piece of constructive criticism • I feel like I lost the connection with 6th grade math teachers this year, and I’m struggling to see how I could have maintained it without scheduled common time.
