Curriculum Update
The 2017-18 school year will bring many updates and
improvements to our current curriculum frameworks. In early August I was able to attend, along
with three North Reading teachers, a full-day workshop on the changes that are
coming to our frameworks in Massachusetts.
At that workshopg several documents were shared that are posted here: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/
and I’ve included some of the highlights below.
English Language Arts
and Literacy (ELA)
The new 2017 frameworks include revisions that were gathered
from a multi-year process that included feedback from teachers and other
educators. These changes incorporate
some of the standards that were “Massachusetts only” standards that exceeded
the Common Core standards, further improving upon our frameworks. Below is a selection of the highlights from
the document.
ELA/Literacy Anchor Standards
·
Reading Standard
MA.8.A: deleted; content adapted for integration into other standards,
primarily Reading Literature Standards 4 and 5, for coherence and flexibility. Affects grades PK–12.
·
Writing Standard
3: edited to encourage more flexible and nuanced approaches to narrative
writing and to incorporate expectations from 2010 Writing Standard MA.3.A. Affects grades PK–12.
·
Writing Standard
MA.3.A: deleted; content adapted for integration into other standards,
primarily Writing Standard 3, for coherence and flexibility. Affects grades K–12.
·
Speaking
and Listening Standard 4: new expectation of appropriate vocabulary use
reinforces Language standards. Affects
grades 1–12.
Grades 6–12 Literacy in the Content Areas
·
Reading
in History and Social Science and Reading in Science and CTE Subjects
Standard 1: added references to
quoting and paraphrasing to reinforce Writing standards. Applies to grades 6-8.
·
Reading
in History and Social Science and Reading in Science and CTE Subjects
Standard 4: edited to emphasize academic (tier 2) along with
domain-specific (tier 3) language.
·
Writing
Standards 1 and 2: edited to encourage wider variety
of writing tasks and products.
·
Writing
Standard 7: expects more sustained research as well as shorter projects. Applies to grades 6-8.
·
Speaking
and Listening Standards 1–6: new for Literacy in the Content Areas.
Our curriculum leaders and teachers have been well informed
about these changes and have provided feedback on these revisions. Teachers will use time this year during our
professional development and department meeting time in order to unpack the
standards in teams in order to best understand the best ways to implement them
in the classroom.
Mathematics
The changes in mathematics are similar to the changes in ELA
and also do not represent a major reworking of the 2011 frameworks. However, there are many improvements and
shifts that reflect the feedback from educators in order to continuously
improve the document.
At the elementary and middle school levels, in addition to
some grade level shifts, there are changes to the language at all grade levels
to provide further clarity around the standards. At the high school level there are some
significant updates to all courses, with some standards moving from one course
to another and some additions to the courses as well. These will be reviewed in detail by our
Mathematics teachers in order to ensure that our curriculum continues to be
aligned to the frameworks.
Other changes include updates to the Mathematical Practices
to incorporate language that is appropriate for the grade level. Each grade still has the same 8 Mathematical
Practices, however, language at the elementary, middle, and high school levels
is now differentiated to include more clarity on how those practices look for
students in those grades. I anticipate
that these changes will be embraced by the educators as they provide more
opportunities to clarify and communicate the vital practices in language that
is even more accessible to the students.
A final update to the new Mathematics frameworks is the
inclusion of some documents that were previously supplemental, including
guidance on multiple pathways to Calculus for students.
Overall, the updates to the Mathematics and ELA Frameworks
also include many of the elements of the previous frameworks prior to 2011 that
many educators requested, including more examples of the standards in
action. It is our hope that these
revised frameworks will continue to hold students to the rigor and high levels
of accountability as the previous iterations but with many improvements to
benefit everyone.
In addition to these updates, educators and students in
North Reading will continue the transition to the new Science, Technology, and
Engineering frameworks this year, with our grades K-8 fully aligned and
additional focus this year at the high school.
Furthermore, the Digital Literacy and Computer Science
frameworks, first introduced in 2016, continue to be unpacked by all of our
teachers and implemented with the help of our Digital Literacy specialists at
every building.
And coming soon:
updates to the Arts, Social Sciences and History, and more!
The 2017-18 school year will be a very engaging one for our
educators who will tackle the best practices for incorporating these standards
into their classroom practices, curriculum, and instruction. Having reviewed these documents I am
confident that these changes represent a step in the right direction for
improving student learning outcomes for all students in North Reading and look
forward to unpacking these documents with our teachers this year.
