October 25

Developing New Courses & Units

Supervising curriculumWho leads curricular change?Final project discussion

Opener – individually, respond…• You are the principal of a middle school in a rural setting within 1

hour of New York City. Your school has grown to a capacity of 1,200 students, grades 6-8. The community has become very diverse, and a racial understanding gap now exists in your community and school among kids. Fights, vandalism, intolerance, bullying, harassment, etc. has emerged. You have two assistant principals and three school counselors, and 3 teams per grade level in your school. Your culture as a school has negatively impacted student achievement, student attendance, and obviously, behaviors. You need to do something significant. And you know it will take a period of years to do so. What curricular change(s) do you implement to address these issues? Where do you begin? How do you best make a significant impact so that it can only succeed? Sketch out how/where you begin, a short term and long term plan, and what the outcomes for the plan will be.

Opener • Are your responses to this real issue what

our authors refer to as a “technological process” or “naturalistic process” of curriculum planning? Why?

Technological Process• Requires specified steps• Does it require a course/courses or a unit within a course?• How long should it take? Is the curriculum for it embedded and

separated out by itself?• Uses data and assesses needs of the learners• Uses a needs assessment and acquired data / information

• Has a rationale and purpose with a probable time schedule• Is it realistic? Is it actionable, relevant and a reason why kids will find it

purposeful? How long will it take to implement?• Identify learning in objectives and activities to meet the objectives• What are the primary essential questions and big ideas to approach ?• What will be the primary learning experiences and inherent activities to

approach the EQs? • How will you measure whether kids have applied and synthesize

material/experiences?

Technological Process

• Determine resources required to support• Texts, technology, field trips, speakers, consumables,

staffing, scheduling, etc…• Determine Assessment Methods• Will you use standard formative and summative

measures, or authentic/performance assessments?• What other data will you use to determine the

course/curriculum's impact?• Systemize some kind of curriculum guide or plan• Use SAS or Performance Plus to design curriculum in

which to share as a core map and use among multiple teachers

Naturalistic Process• Is sensitive to political aspects of curriculum

making• Great emphasis on quality of learning activities• Looks at alternatives to a new course/unit• Test scores, perception data within school, parent and student

information via survey methods/other feedback• Determine parties interested in process and develop a

constituency• Involve multiple types of individuals – proponents and possible

dissenters who may choose to submarine process otherwise• New math curriculum in State College Area SD – Investigations

Naturalistic Process• Build the knowledge base• Have plan for faculty and students• Report on progress over time

• Determine Unit/Course/Initiative and Outcomes (similar to technological process…)

• Plan and design learning experiences• Design final summative assessments to determine

success (or not)• NOTE: Slightly different model for each level (elem.,

middle, high)

BREAK

Supervising the Curriculum

Some Essential Questions & Considerations…

• Who are the major leaders concerned with supervision?• What are the current approaches to

curriculum supervision?• What are the issues and problems that

face those who evaluate curriculum today?• Why is having a faculty on board crucial to

supervision process?

As a Principal, you absolutely MUST inspect what you

expect…

Field Trip

Book storage room in library

Leaders in Curriculum Supervision

• Can you name some?

Leaders in Curriculum Supervision• Madeline Hunter• Anticipatory set, objective,

lecture/discussion of new content, modeling content, guided practice, independent practice

• Bloom

Leaders in Curriculum Supervision• Charlotte Danielson• Wiggins & McTighe• Fontis & Pinnell – Guided Reading• Robert Marzano• Carol Tomlinson• Heidi Hays Jacobs• McRel Research lab• ASCD

Role of Curriculum Supervisor?• What do you believe the roles and

responsibilities are of such a position?• Is this person more powerful than a

principal? What are the pros and cons to a CS having all the say with curriculum trends versus serving as a resource?

Role of Curriculum Supervisor?• The principal MUST be viewed as an

agent of change where necessary as well as a curriculum expert• Days of just “managing” curriculum

are over• Whitaker talks about how any change

effort’s premiere must be GREAT

Whitaker on change…First Exposure (to anticipated change) must be

GREAT and COMPELLING (8x harder to unlearn something as it is to learn it). DO NOT mention negatives of change when you first

expose people to it. Implementing change – sometimes, change must

come slower; so, don’t be in a hurry unless it appears to be obvious, timely, etc.

Never introduce a change until you know that the first exposure to the change will be great! Again, use “is this best for kids” as the filter?

Differentiated P.D.Do you believe in school-wide PD

for all teachers or a more prescribed approach like in a PLC format?

What might be those school-wide PD topics good for everyone?

Staff DevelopmentCan come in many forms and

typesSmall groups, whole faculty,

conferences, etc.Can be effective if best practice

needs to be modeled first in order to get everyone on same page

ObservationsFunction of inspecting what is expectedPrincipals can visit classrooms of teachers all the time if

they wishIn fact, they should regularly

Informal – walkthroughs, narratives, emails to reinforce what was observed

Should be frequent and numerous Think about how many grades we need to have to paint a good

picture of a student’s progress – we need to the same sort of concept for staff

Formals – pre and post observation conference, analysis of lesson plan and map, chance for teacher to converse about what ahs been observed

Ratings/EvaluationsA way to formally evaluate teacher

performanceIncorporates observed and

anecdotal information that is shared with individual teacher

Today, PA’s new form is a combination of an observation and evaluation measure

Individual Staff Action Plans/Development

“Clinical supervision”Can take on many formsMust use data and evidenceUsed to improve teacher performanceScripted, step by step

Conferences during planning period to work on lesson planning, strategies, reporting back on observable data, video analysis, coaching, peer observation, taking of graduate coursework, directives as necessary…

Staff MotivationHuge research base Servant Leadership and Emotional Intelligence keys to

increasing and maintain motivationMaslow works for adults like it does for kids…Pay for performance (Merit pay)? How do you feel

about this?Being firm/fair/consistent and having high expectationsMust create and have vision for building a culture of

students as the center of everythingMotivated teachers need less supervision Will be more loyal and will hold themselves accountable

Supervising the Supported CurriculumMust have scope and sequence and whole curriculum

maps to drive big ideas for offering respective curriculum

How long units should takeWhat standards, content, skills, and major assessment

will be usedHow textbooks and other materials are selected and

approved to support curriculumInvolving committees to design and implement

curricular initiativeBasing everything on a research and best practice base