Curricular Circular November 2014
A Curriculum & Instruction Newsletter for VTSD Faculty
The purpose of this Curriculum & Instruction circular is to help raise awareness of common instructional trends, provide you with classroom tips and tricks and work towards establishing a shared understanding of strategies, resources, and a familiar C&I lexicon. It was designed specifically for VTSD faculty in mind.
Principle #1
Picture: LA Word Wall, GMMS, Mrs. Basso, Gr. 7
Students acquire between 2,000 and 4,000 words per year during middle and high school. Students learn many words incidentally by inferring meaning from context. To learn more than 3,000 words per year, students need to read between 500,000 and 1,000,000 words.
Principle #2
Picture: Math Word Wall, LHMS, Mrs. Holderith, Gr. 6
Word knowledge is essential for a reader to construct meaning from a text. Tension will always exist between those advocating just more reading, through wide and varied reading, and those advocating instructional intervention to build vocabulary directly through explicit instruction.
Principle #3
Picture: SS Word Wall, GMMS, Mr. Jablonski, Gr. 7
Teachers cannot possible teach as many words as students learn during their secondary school years. Consider using a word wall and classifying your words by common core tiers including content words (cell, membrane, mitosis) and academic words (identify, evaluate, analyze.)
Best Tech Practices
Grade level teachers are starting to move their instructional files and resources to folders within their Google Drive. Why?
Picture: Mrs. Ryder's students working with Mrs. DeSenzo, RHPS, Gr. 3
they’re sharing them with their grade level colleagues, in-class support teachers and curriculum supervisors to encourage consistency
they share editing rights so that lessons can be updated and improved upon over time
teachers never have to worry about running out of space (like on the H or T drives)
- they can continue to access the files at home on any device without having to log into the VPN
Have you Read?
Professional Reading for Educators
Picture: Teacher Wish List: Book Fair Book Display, GMMS, Ms. Yost, Media Specialist
Notice and Note - Strategies for Close Reading by Beers and Probst
Reading in the Wild: The Book Whisperer's Keys to Cultivating Lifelong Reading Habits by Miller
Falling in Love with Close Reading: Lessons for Analyzing Texts--and Life by Lehman & Roberts
Cedar Mt. Teachers Use Literacy Skills to Engage Students in Real Life Application
Differentiation Myth Debunked
I' Can't Differentiate Instruction Because I'm Already Too Busy and Have Absolutely No Extra Time for Planning
Picture: Differentiation via the use of centers, LHMS, Mrs. Papendrea, Gr. 6
"The idea is not to plan everything the way you always have and then plan differentiation on top of that. Rather, it is to plan instruction in a differentiated fashion from the outset. In addition, it's essential for teachers to pace themselves and move into new ways of thinking about teaching and learning at a level that produces growth and change without being overwhelming."
From: Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom by Tomlinson
Math Resources
Picture: Math Application Activity, LHMS, Mr. DeYoung, Gr. 6
gregtangmath.com/kakooma- reinforces addition and multiplication facts
http://www.gregtangmath.com/materials- various games, puzzles, and worksheets available for free.
buzzmath.com - reinforces middle school math concepts - PARCC like assessment
www.k-5mathteachingresources.com - math center and project ideas and interactive whiteboard activities