Colloquium
December 2014
Best Wishes for Happy Holidays and a Safe, Restful Winter Break! You are a gift to our students.
Visit the Sweetwater Union High School District Professional Development Calendar to keep up with everything the SUHSD is doing to connect people to learning opportunities.
January 12 Preservice Day: PLC meetings and Professional Development at School Sites
Written Curriculum: Visit the SUHSD Curriculum & Professional Development Canvas Course to Find Instructional Guides and Other Materials to Aid in Planning for Semester 2
Tested Curriculum: Final Exams Are Wrapping Up!
In the past, student results on End-of-Course Exams were accompanied by performance bands labeled descriptively (i.e. "below basic," "proficient"). This year, "performance bands" simply group scores in 25-point increments. There are several reasons for this.
- First, "performance bands" should be based on actual DISTRIBUTION of student scores on an assessment; without knowing how students actually DID on a test, assigning descriptive labels to their performance is arbitrary. In fact, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) just recently released information on "achievement levels" and predicted distribution of student scores by level based on last Spring's pilot tests. Learn more about that here.
- Second, teachers must make thoughtful decisions regarding how to use Final Exam data. Members of PLCs should discuss both the assessment tool and resulting data when making shared decisions regarding how to "count" final scores as a factor in students' semester scholarship grades.
Members of the District-level Curriculum Specialist team are taking a close look at both SBAC predicted distributions and student performance on 2013 semester 1 EOCs as they consider distribution of student scores on this semester's final exams. Future "performance bands" will be established after consideration of these and other data.
Taught Curriculum: Zone Workshops to Feature "Promising Practices" at the Classroom Level
Cohort Workshops (Site Curriculum Specialists Only)
January 16: ELA Cohort (PDC)
January 23: Math Cohort (PDC)
February 3: Science Cohort (PDC)
February 10: History/Social Science Cohort (PDC)
Zone Workshops: All Content-Area Teachers in Four Core Content Areas
January 26: Zone 1 ELA (SUH/NCM)
January 27: Zone 2 ELA (MVH/MVA)
January 28: Zone 3 ELA (PDC/RDR)
January 29: Zone 4 ELA (SOH/HTM)
February 4: Zone 1 Math (SUH/NCM)
February 5: Zone 2 Math (MVH/MVA)
February 6: Zone 3 Math (ORH/RDR)
February 9: Zone 4 Math (SOH/HTM)
February 11: Zone 1 Science (SUH/PDC)
February 12: Zone 2 Science (MVH/MVA)
February 17: Zone 3 Science (ORH/RDR)
February 18: Zone 4 Science (SOH/HTM)
February 19: Zone 1 H/SS (PDC/NCM)
February 20: Zone 2 H/SS (CPH/MVA)
February 21: Zone 3 H/SS (ORH/RDR)
February 22: Zone 4 H/SS (SOH/HTM)
Academic Literacy and English Learners: Important Reseach
- Transformational Opportunities: Language and Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners in the Common Core Era in the United States (Kibler, Walqui, Bunch; 2014)
- A Review of the Literature on Teaching Academic English to English Language Learners (DiCerbo, Anstrom, Baker, Rivera; September, 2014)
- Science and Language for English Language Learners in Relation to the Next Generation Science Standards and with Implications for Common Core State Standards for English, Language Arts and Mathematics (Lee, Quinn, Valdez; April, 2013)
SUHSD Office of Curriculum, Instruction & Professional Development
Roman Del Rosario, Executive Director of Curriculum & Instruction
Katrine Czajkowski, Lead Curriculum Specialist
Daniel Cohen & Mimi Williams, Math Curriculum Specialists
Gina Vattuone & Rhea Faeldonea-Walker, ELA Curriculum Specialists
Ana Garcia & Melanie Brown, Science Curriculum Specialists
Kelly Leon & Olga Loya-Estrada, History/Social Science Curriculum Specialists
Email: katrine.czajkowski@sweetwaterschools.org
Website: http://curriculum.suhsd.k12.ca.us/
Location: 1130 5th Avenue, Chula Vista, CA, United States
Phone: 619-691-586