K-6 Curriculum Update
January 2019
K-6 Device Selection - Chromebooks
The district is moving forward with the purchase of Chromebooks for all students and teachers in grades K thru 6. After piloting devices for two years, visiting districts using both Chromebooks and iPads, conducting surveys, focus groups and in-person feedback we feel like Chromebook can best meet the needs of all of our students. Our views on the matter evolved over time as Chromebooks added functionality such as touchscreens, world-facing cameras, easy login via third-party applications, closed app environments, and accessibility features. All of these plus the ease with which Chromebooks are managed and supported created a situation in which we believe Chromebooks are the best solution for our students.
Team DLS has scheduled six professional development sessions in your buildings over the course of the winter and spring to prepare for 1:1 next year.
A Request for Proposal (RFP) to vendors will go out shortly. Once these proposals are received we will be able to communicate a more accurate timeline for delivery of teacher devices. We hope to have these in your hands asap.
Textbook Update
The reading textbook committee will be evaluating a couple of different options coming up:
- Fountas and Pinnell Classroom (core program)
- EL Education (core program)
- Goalbook Pathways (resource to support current maps)
Additional core program and resource packages will be continued to be explored. Once we have narrowed our options down each resource will be displayed in each K-6 building for teachers and staff to view and provide feedback before the team makes a final decision.
Close Reading Dashboard
Teachers in grades 2-6, you are invited to participate in a Close Reading Rubric Study Group that will meet Wednesday, February 6th at the Education Center. I am looking for up to 8 teachers from those grades to bring their completed close reading activities from Window E (ungraded) and with their student-annotated texts plus essay responses to be the first pilot of the updated close reading rubric. From there we will push the rubric out for use with Window G's (Window F is a Performance Task practice) close reading activity by all and based on feedback from that usage we will hope to use it for the EOY Close Reading Data Dashboard activity in Window I. Data from that close read will be submitted as a part of our dashboard data collection.