Curriculum Matters
MTSD / Volume 2 / Issue 5 / February 2016
MTSD Office of Instructional Services
Deborah Sarmir—Assistant Superintendent Curriculum/Instruction
Damian Pappa—Director Assessment/Data/Accountability
Fiona Borland—Director Instructional Technology
Ron Zalika —Director Curriculum
Lucianne Smith—Executive Assistant
MTSD Content Area Supervisors
Jennifer Riddell—MHS Mathematics
Alma Reyes—World Languages & ESL
Melissa Hodgson—MHS Social Studies
Adam Warshafsky—Visual & Performing Arts
Jason Sullivan—MHS Science
Lisa Romano—LMS/UMS Language Arts & Social Studies
Karen Stalowski—MHS Language Arts
Christopher Herte—LMS/UMS Mathematics & Science
Amy Wish—OHES/VES Mathematics & Science
Amy Monaco—OHES/VES Language Arts & Social Studies
Naoma Green—MHS Physical Education & Health
Website: http://www.mtsd.k12.nj.us/domain/25
Phone: (609) 466-7600
From the Office of Instructional Services
MTSD has a never-ending commitment to creating and maintaining a guaranteed and viable curriculum that will ensure our students' academic success. This newsletter is a part of this equation, helping to communicate our curricular happenings and instructional activities across grade levels and content areas to district educators, parents and students. While all of our curriculum guides are available through an online database called Rubicon Atlas, this newsletter provides a closer look at the some of the learning experiences and outcomes that our students undertake. Please browse through the curriculum updates provided by our talented team of content-area supervisors.
Spotlight on Curriculum
Many of our K-12 curriculum guides have begun to incorporate a new kind of rigorous assessment called a Performance Task. According to expert Jay McTighe, a Performance Task is an assessment that asks students to perform to authentically demonstrate knowledge, understanding and proficiency. Performance tasks present a complex situation that calls for learners to apply their learning in context. In an authentic task, students consider goals, audience, obstacles, and options to achieve a successful product or performance. Believe it or not, Performance Tasks have been around for decades and have been routinely used in visual and performing arts, physical education, and career-technology where performance is the natural focus of instruction. However, we believe that such tasks should be used in every subject area and at all grade levels.
These Performance Tasks will not replace more traditional types of assessments regularly given to our students. Rather, these two assessment types will be used in tandem to better gauge student mastery. As we continue to develop and utilize these in our curriculum, our collective goal remains the same—to promote meaningful learning for students. Be on the lookout for a Performance Task coming to a curriculum near you!
MHS Math
Statistics students at MHS recently completed a project regarding bias. Students investigated how different forms of bias affected data results. Students designed a survey and had two questions asked of two different groups of people. The topic was the same but the word choice was different. The ‘control’ group had no bias and the second group had a similar question with word variations offering a certain direction. Student proposals included anticipated results with explanations of their bias type. It was interesting to see how students were suddenly not a fan of McDonald’s chicken nuggets when some ingredients became part of the question. Overall, the real-life aspect of the assignment really hit home and our students are now questioning what is really being delivered to them in data and in simple marketing schemes.
MTSD Technology
If the purpose of schooling is to prepare students with workplace readiness skill, Mr. Leicht's students at MHS are ahead of the curve. Every classroom must have an accurate map displaying emergency exits and evacuation routes. When our new Director of Facilities came to Montgomery, he identified the need to upgrade the classroom posters as a task he would need to tackle. However, instead of turning to an outsourced firm, Mr. Klein partnered with our Architectural Portfolio students to get the job done.
Utilizing both computer assisted design (CAD) software and Photoshop, MHS Architecture Portfolio students have already updated the fire emergency plans for Orchard Hill Elementary School, Montgomery Lower Middle School and are working on Village Elementary School under Mr. Klein’s and Mr. Leicht’s guidance. The new plans will include a secondary fire evacuation route for each room of the building along with the location of an AED. This project is part of Mr. Leicht’s give back assignment where each portfolio student must complete a project that gives back to the MHS community.
LMS & UMS Language Arts & Social Studies
2016 Presidential Candidates aren’t the only ones debating in this country. In fact, students across all middle school grade levels in both Language Arts and Social Studies are immersed in a study of Argument and Advocacy.
5th graders are debating as to which of the 13 colonies was the best place to call home. On the Language Arts front, they are discussing the complicated issues surrounding Zoos and Sharks and Extreme Sports. In 6th grade Social Studies, students will soon be debating as to whether or not they would have preferred to have lived as an ancient Spartan or an ancient Athenian? In 6th grade Language Arts, students are tackling the question of, “ Who’s Responsibility Is It?” These students are discussing the complex issues of America’s Expanding Waistline and Animal Ethics. In 7th grade Language Arts and Science, students are debating the current, entangled relationship humans are leading with the horseshoe crab population. In 7th grade Social Studies, students are debating which ancient Chinese leader had the biggest impact on the world. 8th grade Social Studies students are reliving the past as they form various reformation groups and advocate for Federal support. Lastly, 8th grade Language Arts is engrossed in the study of influential speeches that motivated people to action so that they may recreate some of those same persuasive moves in their own writing.
February and March is an exciting time to be reading and writing across the content areas in our middle schools as critical thinking fans the fire of debate!
MTSD Visual & Performing Arts
There is significant research that explores the infusion of the visual arts into other content areas and finds deepened understanding as a result. In Montgomery, we continue to believe in this and explore ways for the visual arts programs to connect to other disciplines. Artistry is all about students using their skills to creatively and uniquely express their understanding of the world in a manner that is personal to them. Making this personal connection through the visual arts to other content areas allows our students to solidify their learning in a way they can relate to from their own life experiences.
As an example, at the Lower Middle School, we continue to make deep connections to the social studies curriculum through the Cultural Museum Experience and Heritage Day arts infusion. Our visual art teachers have studied the social studies curriculum and are developing projects with your students that allow them to explore the essential questions of the social studies curriculum through their own personal creativity. Every social studies class in 5th and 6th grade spends at least 10 days with the art teachers in the art studios where they visually explore the content they are learning in class.
The MTSD Music Department continues to thrive, giving fantastic concerts while performing at a level well beyond the students’ years. The Montgomery High School Wind Ensemble was recently invited to perform a joint concert with the Montclair State University Wind Ensemble. While there, the students had the opportunity to receive a workshop with the director of bands from Montclair, Dr. Thomas McCauley. This was a wonderful opportunity for our students that helped solidify many of the concepts they have been working on in class. Additionally, the MHS Chamber Orchestra recently performed at the New Jersey State Music Education Association Conference. They were invited to perform a concert as a model to teachers from across the state. All of the students from this class should be very proud of their wonderful performance and achievements.
MHS Language Arts
As part of their study of The Odyssey, the 9th grade English classes recently completed a group project focused on motifs found within the text. Despite having been written in Ancient Greece, The Odyssey expresses many transcendent ideas and values which we as a society still consider relevant and important today. Because this is true, students are able to recognize connections between the text and modern media that are relevant to their own lives.
For this project, students were tasked with creating a presentation highlighting the presence and impact of an assigned motif within The Odyssey. Students then related that motif to an aspect of modern media such as a TV show, movie, music video, commercial, or news article. Final projects were shared via Google Slides presentations that allowed students to demonstrate not only their knowledge and deep understanding of The Odyssey but their public speaking and collaboration skills as well. Teachers were quite pleased with the resulting projects, proving that it is possible, and perhaps even a little bit fun, to explore complex ideas within a challenging text in a creative way.
OHES & VES Math & Science
Community Partnerships help students to connect what they learn in school to their lives outside of school. We are lucky to have many generous community members- parents and business leaders- who are interested in helping our elementary students grow in both understanding and leadership.
This past month students at Village School were using what they learned about what plants need to survive to create a plant carrier that could keep a plant alive for a 4 day transport from farm to nursery. Mr. Danny Hsieh from Montgomery’s Blooms at Belle Meade nursery took the time to work with our VES third graders to look at the prototype designs for their plant carriers and give each student partnership feedback about the strengths of their designs. He wrote letters on business letterhead to provide suggestions on how they might improve their designs. He explained to the class that the problem they were looking to solve- how to get plants from a farm (in Florida for instance) to travel for several days in a truck and still have the plants be healthy when they arrive- is a real one that affects his profits. The type of feedback Mr. Hsieh provided not only motivates our students, but also helps them to see how problem solving in the real world affects communities and businesses.
Another example of community partnerships is the PTA/PTO Sponsored Science & Invention Convention which was held on Sunday, February 22 at MHS. District parents and educators interacted with hundreds of grade 3-8 students. We were wowed by the students’ interesting projects, their great communication skills, and their confidence. During the day The Franklin Institute and the Faraday Show from Rutgers University wowed students with exciting and educational science shows.
We are blessed to have such strong community partnerships. If you have expertise in any subject you would like to share, please reach out. Maybe you can initiate our next partnership!
MHS Social Studies
The sophomore US History I students are preparing to study the Civil War, which began in 1861 with the secession of several states from the Union. The classes have engaged in discussion and debates on the events of the 1850s, a tumultuous decade in American history when several key events took place that led America into war. Students were given several questions to focus their research in preparation for the class discussion. After researching and evaluating these events, students engaged in various types of discussion formats with their class, including fishbowl discussions and whole class debates. The focus of the discussions was on the evaluation of these events as catalysts to the War. The discussion tool is used often in MHS Social Studies classrooms in order to help students consolidate their understanding of a topic as well as sharpen their literacy skills.
LMS & UMS Math & Science
Congratulations to the Montgomery Mathcounts team on their terrific performance at the Regional competition on January 30th. The team took 3rd place and earned a place at the State competition later in March. The team who competed consisted of: Brandon Chan, Anshul Guha, Justin Kim, Ethan Liu, Sean Liu, Avhan Misra, Frank Wang, Larry Wang, Michael Wu, Allen Zhang, , and. Two of our students were in the top 15, Avan Misra (14th in the Region) and Frank Wang (3rd in the Region). Coaches Ms. Donovan and Ms. Yip couldn’t be prouder! Congratulations and best success at States!
Congratulations to the Montgomery Science Olympiad Team on their first place victory at their Regional competition. The team will compete in the State competition. Montgomery was in the top 5 in 12 out of 13 events! –First time ever! First place in the Region for the events: Bottle Rocket-Alex Zhang and Charles Ma and Write it Do it - Audrey Ma and Avhan Misra. Second place in the Region for the events: Elastic Launch Glider - Ethan Liu and Jimmy Wang; Mission Possible - Neeraj Arunkumar and Dhruv Patel; Wind Power - Oliver Yao and Dhruv Patel; and Scrambler - Neeraj Arunkumar and Frank Wang. Third place honors at Regionals for the events: Green Generation - Carina Manok and Evelyn Shiang. Coaches Mrs. Blakemore and Mrs. Sowa are so proud! Great job everyone and best success at States!
MHS Physical Education & Health
The Peer Leader Program strives to develop and deliver meaningful and relevant outreaches to the freshmen class every two weeks. Past outreaches focused on Social Media Safety and Distracted Driving, an outreach in which we partnered with Cougars in Control to present and discuss the dangers associated with distracted driving, targeting not only the driver but the passenger as well.
The peer leaders also partnered with the Guidance Department at the Lower Middle School to present an outreach to each 5th and 6th grade classroom on resiliency. Positive feedback was received not only from the peer leaders but from the classroom teachers, who reported that the professionalism and creativity of the peer leaders themselves was something to be admired. The Peer Leader Program looks forward to partnering with all the lower schools as the development of this year and the program continues.
Select peer leaders also traveled to Long Branch, NJ in the beginning of February to participate in the Elks Peer Leader Conference. MHS partnered with the Elks of Somerset & Montgomery PBA to send ten students to the conference where internationally recognized presenters re-motivated and re-inspired them to promote positivity and respect in the MHS community.
OHES & VES Language Arts and Social Studies
Our VES readers are ready to head into March and new reading units! Third graders are excited to begin a unit on Research Book Clubs and will be working collaboratively to research animal topics and collect information on selected subtopics. After completing two rounds of research in their book clubs on two different animal topics, they will work to compare and contrast their research and develop theories about their topics. They will conclude the unit by considering ways to use their research to solve a real-world problem!
Fourth graders are preparing to begin book clubs as well, with a focus on Historical Fiction. They’ll be working together to read books based in a variety of time periods, and work to interpret the texts, forming theories about the message in the book and reading on to confirm or revise their theories. The final part of the unit will incorporate nonfiction reading on the same time periods as a way to find answers to the questions they formed while reading.
Our next Language Arts Parent Night is on Wednesday, March 16th. It is titled “What is a Writing Workshop?” and is for all K-4 parents interested in learning more about this instructional model and ways to support the writing curriculum at home. Looking forward to seeing you there!
MHS Science
As Montgomery Township Schools joins the rest of New Jersey in phase 1 of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) implementation for grades 6-12, the MHS Biology team is developing instructional and leadership capacities in a pedagogical structure call Claims, Evidence and Reasoning (CER). This instructional format places a premium on making student thinking visible and using data and evidence gathered in class to justify a scientific claim and form the basis of reasoning that builds essential scientific models. The CER approach utilizes many of the reasoning, thinking, discussion, and writing skills developed through writing courses and is compatible with the MTSD participation in The Columbia Teachers College Reading and Writing Project.
Recently, MHS Biology instructors, Chris Resch and Glen Stuart, presented CER to a group of educators at the February STEMTeachersNYC Saturday workshop series at Columbia University. MHS Science continues to explore instructional strategies and models of science education that are research based and designed to prepare students for the rapidly changing world of 21st century science.
We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to community members who volunteered during the 2016 Cougar Science Olympiad Invitational. The event was a tremendous success and could not have happened without the support from our community.
As always, the MTSD Science Team welcomes the involvement of community members in our programs. See below for some of the many ways you can use your talents and get involved in our local educational community:
- The MHS Student STEM Board is accepting recommendations for guest speakers to participate in the MHS Science Lecture Series. The students solicit individuals to share their experiences in education, research, and industry.
- The Monty MakerSpace is open and getting ready to host open lab times on Saturdays this spring.
- Spring is just around the corner meaning that the MHS Courtyard Garden will be set for another planting season. The Garden is divided into 3 areas. The Outdoor Classroom is a grassy expanse with benches that accommodates various classroom and Unit lunch activities. The Native Plant Garden displays numerous varieties of perennials and a small pond with waterfall. The third section is home to over 40 raised beds where fruits, vegetables and flowers are raised without pesticides or herbicides. Donations of plants, equipment, or time are always appreciated.
- Please contact Jason Sullivan for more information (jsullivan@mtsd.us) regarding opportunities to get involved.
MTSD Mission and Vision Statements
Our mission as a forward-thinking community is to ensure that all students grow into confident, compassionate, successful, and self-directed learners a multi-cultural and socio-economically diverse society by providing engaging and challenging real world educational experiences in a student-centered environment.
Vision Statement
We envision a district on the forefront of public education. We focus on the needs of every child, dedicating ourselves to their present and future success. Success means that all students possess a passion for learning, develop a deep understanding of rigorous content, demonstrate cultural competence, and exhibit ethical conduct, while cultivating social skills and healthy habits that will empower them to achieve their goals and aspirations. Achieving this vision requires that the district become a learning community that continually reflects and challenges itself to effect transformational teaching and learning. We prepare our students to take responsibility for their own educational accomplishments in our global society while nurturing them in a community where each student is known and valued. We believe by embracing frontier spirit, we can create a unique organization that is recognized as a forerunner in public education.