Over the past few weeks, we have been reading the Wiles and Bondi textbook. We have been introduced to programs and curriculum issues that exist at the elementary, middle, and secondary school levels. In your opinion, what are the most beneficial programs that you have at your school and do you think these programs are appropriate for the age group that you teach? What do you find to be the biggest issues with regard to the curriculum at your own specific grade level?
A program that I am particularly proud of in the Paterson Public Schools is the Full Service Community Schools program. This is a federally funded program that seeks to fulfill the needs of the student and the student's family. This could mean providing after school homework help, and it could also providing medical services, food support, and counseling services. What I like about this program is that it recognizes two things: 1. It really does take a village to raise a child, and this program provides a way for the village to show up at the school 2. Families face multiple challenges and often need additional support services. This program helps provide those services.
ReplyDeletePaul Brubaker
Christine brings up a great issue, at my school I have seen many issues with regard to the curriculum. For one when I am teaching readers and writers workshop, a curriculum designed by the great Lucy Cawkins, I find that students need to have prior knowledge about certain language rules and exceptions. I came from a public school that taught Fundations as their word study/phonics program and now the school I teach at has Fontas and Pinnell. F&P and its tools need a lot of prep work and I find that if the school does not provide certain supplies, like magnetic letters, than I can not teach some lessons. I also find that some of the lessons are way to simple and I need to challenge the students more on my own. I also find that the phonics does not always match the learning in the other core subjects well. It would be nice if they complimented each other and I can teach them together or in sequence with the skills being learned. It would be my goal to look as all curriculum maps and be able to pair them based on the need of the skills being taught. This is something I saw working at public school, there were many subjects taught together and skills that can be crossed through the disciplines. Being in my 2nd year at charter I notice the huge gap and the fact that they separate each core subject as well as all disciplines to ensure that the students get hmm minutes that is required of math and hmmm minutes that is required for reading. It mostly sets the tone to show the proof of data, not the actual learning. This frustrates me!
ReplyDeleteWith respect to ELA, I feel as though the Workshop model is beneficial for our students. In K-5 language arts, we use Lucy Calkins Unit of Study as a guide, along with our curriculum. While the UoS are a powerful framework, they do lack in grammar, and therefore I believe that there needs to be a balanced approach to literacy in the curriculum. This, in turn, is my biggest issues with regard to our current curriculum. The good news is that we are currently rewriting all of the K-5 ELA curriculum to better align with the UoS and a balanced approached. My district adopted Fundations about three years ago. I have yet, in 5th grade, to have the students who have had Fundations from kindergarten and do notice gaps in their phonemic awareness and use of grammar. On the other hand, because of the structure of a Workshop model since kindergarten, I feel as though my students are more independent readers, able to think closely about their reading and for the most part, write well. There has been some push back from others in the industry against Lucy Calkins regarding the lack of grammar in her Units of Study. I was able to see her speak about three weeks ago and she addressed this when speaking. She shared that she agrees that there is a lack of grammar in UoS and that this is something they are working on.
ReplyDeleteIn my school district they are placing a high importance on incorporating ELA in all subject areas. The curriculum I feel, is being affected in certain subject areas, due to the fact that I am teaching Science and English at the same time. I believe having foundation knowledge of certain skills is importance, but taking time out of my curriculum to teach English is taking away from teaching to the standards and curriculum. I am also not an English teacher, I do know the basics of grammar and other ELA aspects since I went through school, but my knowledge is in Science. I think the curriculum needs to emphasizes the importance of incorporating ELA and Math aspects, but that should not be the main focus in other subject areas curriculum.
ReplyDeleteMolly Allister