Meeting+Documents

[[file:mpls, notes, mtg with judy, jan. 22, final.docx]]
**Design Team – Curriculum Guides** **Meeting with Judy Birmingham** **Friday, January 22, 2010** · Review of meetings held on Thursday and Friday morning. (Judy and Char had discussions with Associate Superintendents, with Bernadeia, Steering Committee members, and C & I subcommittee members, which included questions/concerns/understandings about the Audit and progress made in carrying out the recommendations of the Audit, thus far). · Judy’s Comments to the Design Team re accomplishments and work yet to do ·  Design Team Questions and the draft Unit template/cover sheet · Judy’s List of Questions: Things to ask as the Team progresses (Are these things happening?) · Mpls is working on developing a quality curriculum management plan which encompasses numerous areas including the development of quality curriculum and curriculum guides, policy statements and a comprehensive professional development plan. · Judy will continue to have conversations with Char and Erin over the course of this project. · She believes that the Design Team is headed in the right direction and has accomplished a lot; she is very impressed with the amount of work that has been accomplished since her initial visit in September. · She asserts strongly that Curriculum and Assessment are areas requiring decisions by the Central Office; further, she believes (and has stated so to above groups) that decisions made by the Central Office regarding curriculum and assessment must supersede decisions made by individual sites ala site-based management, and that the Central office must address exactly who does what in carrying out the audit recommendations – all of which needs to be clarified. · Push-pull: Getting a quality product (curriculum guides) and getting something done ASAP to speed up student learning; we should not let any kind of timeline devalue the development process; developing quality curriculum takes time. · Policy development: There are questions stemming from the Audit recommendations regarding the development of policy as it relates to curriculum and assessment: what policies are needed and what are some sample policies from other “audit” districts that can aid in developing Mpls policies? (Judy will share samples from other Districts). · Question from Bernadeia: Are we expecting enough from our kids? How do we portray higher level expectations and how do we require high-level thinking skill development? E.g., Is the aspect of “rigor” built into the developing product? Judy: Do well on fulfilling the state’s requirements, but go well beyond these expectations. · Subject areas needs not look exactly alike; there may be differences in content areas, but we must agree on definitions across content areas. Re: variations in content areas: materials are central to this. · Write the Guides to match the state standards and benchmarks. However, there are more state standards than people could possibly teach; don’t put so much into the curriculum guides: rather, ask: does this fit? Most other countries teach less, but teach what they do teach, well. · “Examples” should be put right into the document; not a “pop up?” (Both?) · What are the roles of everyone involved, e.g., principals and instructional facilitators, in this process and in implementing the Guides? · What do we like about this model? ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How can we build on it? ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How does it help us to understand the first steps for other areas? ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Which areas will have a “common lens,” e.g., cultural relevance? ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> What will the chosen font be? (The visual we are creating matters in terms of getting teachers to use the Guides). ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How do we use key assessments from the Teacher Guides? ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How are the principals as instructional leaders, going to be trained? ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How will we address “rigor?” (Check district’s purchased agreement for Content Rigor). Is rigor a part of the lessons or is rigor found in the pedagogy? How can video samples help us to demonstrate rigor? How do we go richer and deeper in terms of understandings? How to urge kids to go to the next level (how teachers can guide kids)? Through content AND habits? (Content pedagogy will reflect rigor; content and pedagogy are interacting, so there is rigor)? ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How make what we are doing user-friendly for experienced teachers; how to not “spell out” everything as we do for new teachers? ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How do we identify the Power Standards? (Are they the ones being assessed? Power Standards/Benchmarks are what from an assessment standpoint?) Given a time allotment, is the number “reasonable?” How do we indicate that certain standards are Power Standards, e.g., illustrate by color, highlighting or in “bold” print? ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> What indicates “mastery?” How will we know that kids know the content? “Covering the content” vs. fostering a real understanding/mastery of it. How indicate Level of Specificity? What is the “level of performance?” (What is this definition?) Add to the Assessment section? Judy: Put in a rubric, so that the level of mastery is there: students must be able to do …… Tell what it looks like when students really understand. Have a “graded” reference to standards: here’s what we are looking for from a student in second grade: to know… ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How do we address objectives that are taught one year and assessed in another year? “Concept development:” Teachers in preceding grades need to know when a particular concept will be tested, so that initial work can be done toward the time when the concept is included in an assessment. Prerequisite box? Call it Developmental Progress/Progression? ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> How should the POLs be identified? If they are embedded, should they be, then, highlighted as well? Team can spell out POLs in the Framework and make references to them; make a statement in the Big Idea about which POL is addressed? We need to make the Framework concise and appealing so that everyone will read it. ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Keep March 24 as the date for the next meeting of the Design Team. ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Have a couple of units done to share; priority areas: elementary math and English Language Arts. ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Requirements: one unit for a couple of grade levels. ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> //Agreement: Getting the pieces we discussed today right is critical, so that the subsequent work of others will be easier and faster!// ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Big idea** ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Standards and Objectives** ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Assessments with some Standard of Performance** ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Content Pedagogy** ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Additional Instructional Considerations** ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Prerequisites** ·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> **Materials and Resources**
 * 10:00 AM – Noon Meeting,** Char presiding.
 * Agenda:**
 * Judy: General Comments**
 * Judy’s List of Questions (See Handout)** (keep these in mind in the coming months)
 * Mary Ellen’s** (the brave one and the first one “up”!) **Unit Overview Template** – Cover Page: serve as a model to work out the kinks for subsequent units and other content areas. Mary Ellen had a positive reaction from math teachers to the Design Team format and the components and to putting an emphasis on pedagogy and cultural relevance. Teachers added to a draft version of the shared unit, the elements of vocabulary, references to the student math handbook, and differentiation.
 * Design Team: Rich Discussion/considerations/more questions for our continuing work sparked by Mary Ellen’s model:**
 * Timeline:**
 * Latest Unit Template: Check Wiki/Jean**
 * UNIT: shifting and additions to order of elements, e.g.,**
 * Adjourn: Types of Software discussion at lunch, followed by one-on-one meetings with Judy and the reading team writers’ meeting.**

January 14, 2010
meeting notes **Mpls Design Group Meeting** Discussion of: · The importance to enacting //all// the curriculum audit recommendations toward raising the achievement of all kids in the District. · Professional Development: need for a cohesive Professional Development plan. Presently, school buildings may conduct their own professional development based upon their individual needs; however, there are District Professional Development initiatives to consider. To this end, there is being instituted, a new Professional Development Work Group for District-wide professional development that will incorporate professional development for the implementation of the curriculum guides – and be based upon the recommendations in the Audit. Discussion of: Budget and policy matters regarding the Audit; Understanding how all components of the budget fit together. Questions for Judy: the curriculum guide development process and the template We have the template, but we cannot know its value until teachers begin their writing – tying the template to what they are already doing, and then, perhaps, adding other things to the template. Our Goal: To get a couple of units completed so that teachers can try them out this spring/April-May. · June, 2011: the Stimulus money will be depleted. We are on a fast two-year track: We can utilize stimulus money for next year, but the District would then have to complete all curriculum guides with its own funds. · There is a budget of $100,000 for writing teams. Currently, 85 teachers have expressed an interest in writing (K-5 literacy members will be added to this number). District can pay for extended time of writers ($34; or, $150/day at $25/hour of extended time); 75 people at 20 days/person. (85 writers will not all work 20 days) · Timeline of writing teams: Leave up to Design Team leaders. There are reasons why people are at different places, so structure of writing teams cannot be rigid. So, fit the writing process to where people are in your area. · Decide when is best for your team(s) to write: Saturdays or after school. · Char available to speak about the Audit, in general, or the Template. April 1: Mary Ellen: Math has core principles; lots of writing components will come out of the present program; some pieces need to be created with teacher input, e.g., specific pedagogy, prerequisite knowledge, cultural relevance. (“Building a context” is critical; “stadium” unit in math – explain “stadium” – is an example). The 5th grade team can probably develop another couple of units with feedback about the model from teachers. Pat: The Arts has Department of Education money that must be spent, so Arts can use their money instead of Char’s budgeted money for writing. In the works: a PLC focusing on a grade level. Ellen: ELA teachers already designing units for DL; will continue with this and work with the template as well as DL; will flesh out units working with the DL consultant in spring. Books and pedagogy exist. New standards are coming out. Jen: Science · Look at having best practice cluster labs for science. · Start with one cluster in DL; teachers react/analyze it, and make modifications. · Content teachers input critical. · High school teachers can move forward with core lab, but not middle school, yet. · Core lab will be within template and will address multiple benchmarks. · Exemplary lessons: need to be a part of the core curriculum wherein everyone must do them, but should be developed //with// them. Jean: Project 21/media people working toward a draft. Jean and Char: Will be working on technology aspect of the guides over the next several months; will look at 4-5 different curriculum mapping software: which is best to adopt/adapt; what are its capabilities, e.g., does it accommodate pop-ups and linking? · Teachers’ Guide a source for a definition? · Ellen: Think //with// teachers about this definition and have input from them. And, check Courageous Conversations rubric. · Pat: Check James Banks’ materials for a definition. Also, literature often raises the issue. · Ellen: Text selection critical: is the lens through which one works. How put such on a template? · Pat: How do kids see themselves as included in the class? · Molly: Identify articles for all writing teams to read with guiding questions and examples from content areas. · Jen: Need a common filter. · Mary Ellen: Build the context and images for learning. Why are we asking them to focus on this? Why important and meaningful? What is the big idea? Across grade levels, strands, areas. How do teachers plan for kids who learn differently from the way teachers learn, e.g., using kids’ knowledge and facileness with technology, their ability to multi-task. · Jean: Check for understanding and vocabulary; formative assessments reflect cultural relevance. · Need meaningful content integration; what fits “naturally” into the unit? · Means integrating whatever is fitting, the arts, technology, other content areas · The Arts: has a rubric for doing so · Ellen: Layers of cross-content integration,,e.g., popping in integration · How consider this in our work? · Char: Differentiating for different achievement levels? For learning styles? · Mary Ellen: Unit template or materials need enrichment · Formative assessment used to check that kids have what they need to learn · Differentiation: around ELL and enrichment; access points for all students; intervention, too
 * AGENDA**
 * __Judy Birmingham’s Visit/Schedule__**
 * Wednesday, January 20: Judy arrives**
 * Thursday, January 21**: **The Audit Recommendations**
 * 10:30 AM – Noon**: Meeting with Associate Superintendents & Bernadeia
 * 12:00 – 12:30 PM**: Meeting with Bernadeia
 * 2:30 - 4:00 PM**: Meeting with the Audit Steering Committee
 * Friday, January 22**
 * 9:00 – 10:00 AM**: Meeting with the Curriculum & Instruction Subcommittee of the Board
 * 10:00 – Noon**: Curriculum Guide Design Team
 * Afternoon Session/Cafeteria**: Open for meetings with interested members of the Design Team and/or Writing Team members/others
 * __Writing Teams__**
 * Money for Writing:**
 * Other:**
 * Specifics:** Goal: a lab or unit in draft form that teachers can try out by spring break/around
 * A Consideration by Design Team members //and// Teachers of “other” important categories.** In our writing, how are we/will we include cultural relevance, integration, and differentiation?
 * Cultural Relevance and ”building the/a context.” Comments/Suggestions:**
 * Integration:**
 * Differentiation:**

Can access without password within the District as District pays for the license Includes much of what our template has; Rubicon can create word documents, spreadsheets, etc.
 * RESOURCES: Mapping**
 * Discovery Education**
 * ATLAS Rubicon**

· How draw everyone into this process? New teachers and more experienced teachers. · How do we include cultural relevance and other aspects of excellent teaching and learning? · Content pedagogy – how emphasize the teaching of the content? What have other districts done to highlight the pedagogy? · What online tools are being used by other Districts across the country/in Minnesota? · How reconcile “coherence” and “autonomy?” · How do we determine what is really important about a unit and make it very visible? · What should the professional development look like regarding the guides? · Which school districts’ work can serve as guides for our work?
 * Questions for Judy**

Wednesday, March 24; 9:00 – 11:00 AM · We anticipate that at least one or two templates from each content area can be shared by then. · Char and Jean will provide a technology update in the interim. · Wiki is for the Design Team, for now; please check it for the latest information (e.g., Curriculum Guide Decision Rules) and Template · Check Wiki /Curriculum Template User Guide for Jen’s fill-in of boxes/references, e.g., cultural relevance
 * Next meeting of the Design Committee:**

January 5, 2010
Meeting notes



October 8, 2009--Original Planning Meeting Notes:
(Like a scope and sequence – in need of more detail) Unit can be 100 pages long --Live links? IL has them; iDream – tech vision, or videos of teachers teaching --Should reflect what we need/want, not what is available technologically --Skills, knowledge and attitudes --Scope and Sequence: years at large level across units --Understandings across grades (where taught and what taught previously) UBD Interim (have standardization) and formative assessments (give these all the time – evidence of student learning) and initial testing Agree on definition of terms, e.g. “curriculum,” “inquiry” --Technology included in all guides --Tech tools, tech connections – for use with a specific lesson (Need tech specialist help here) --Integrate the arts as well --Live links, videos (instructional and about kids: it looks like this…) --Download lessons – integration of technology --Training video – use for professional development, e.g. with elementary teachers --The habits – beyond the content --Habit and Content interaction critical (DL help with this process) --At unit and lesson level – some at instructional framework level, e.g. supporting POL’s --Embedded in lessons Cover explanations and important District documents
 * Thursday, October 8, 2009 – Curriculum Audit – draft ss**
 * Newsprint – recap of thoughts toward the CHART**
 * Small group meeting: Char, Jean, Ellen, Mary Ellen, Molly**
 * Randomings:**
 * CURRICULUM GUIDES: the big picture of all the units of study across the years
 * By grade level – a guide for each
 * Standards – for the quarter? Or month to month?
 * All Benchmarks not covered in one unit – units touch on multiple Benchmarks;
 * Need components in place for each unit
 * Have Framing and Building Units
 * Math – recommend a scope and sequence
 * Vary by discipline – and elementary or secondary variations
 * Math – example of problem or problem numbers 1-5? (How detailed should the assessment be?)
 * How does health, for example, get integrated?
 * Prerequisites
 * Back-loaded Benchmarks
 * Test Data
 * Glossary
 * Resources
 * Teacher TV
 * Rigor
 * Pedagogy
 * Introduction

**__THE CHART__** (note: TIME element - how long each unit should take - will be included in FORMAT)

(What’s Important) (the MENU) (Recipe) (Directions) (for principals) (teachers/models)
 * __FRAMEWORK__** **__OVERVIEW*__** **__UNIT*__** **__LESSON__**

POL’s PreK-12 Unit objectives Formative Assess (culminating)

Guiding Principles Year-long Benchmarks Lesson Objectives

Instr. Philosophy/ All disciplines Form/Interim Assess Language Objective Beliefs Summ Assess/Student Work – Rubric

Content Pedagogy Year-at-a-glance Materials – core/ (“we believe in (by quarter) supplemental Inquiry”)

Cultural Relevance PreK-12 articulation Teacher Resources (video clips/texts)

Meeting learning Standards Cultural Relevance needs of all

Parent blurb (District) Interim Technology/Arts (end of qtr/beg of yr) integration

List/mention Content Pedagogy/tools Core/supplemental materials

?Math K-12, initial Differentiation & benchmark; K-5 literacy; F & P

Language Objective (*Priority areas)