Here’s the raw draft of section two of the proposal, the instructional plan. It hasn’t even been through the spell checker yet.
I’ll point this out…it’s in earlier than the Official School Plan, and they have a ghost writer. Heck…at this point, we are over halfway done.
Comes from being organized.
True Believers…this document is ten pages long, single spaced in MS Word. So if you want to read it, do so…but know in advance, its a long, wordy document.
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Instructional Plan, Draft
2. Curriculum and Instruction
a. Instructional Philosophy:
Our mission is to significantly increase the percentage of students in our ethnically diverse population that are prepared to attend college, develop career enhancing skills and become productive, thoughtful citizens of the 21st century.
Our school will guide and mentor students in the construction of habits and academic skills that will allow them to build a successful future. We labor toward a curriculum that reaches across academic disciplines, providing dynamic learning experiences, in a small school setting, based upon meaningful, project-based assessments. By providing a safe environment that promotes intensive academic and personal exploration, the tools to build that future are at hand.
Our vision is that children leave our middle school with:
• A complement of academic skills — linguistic, mathematical, scientific, artistic, physical and social that will directly foster success in high school, college, and beyond.
• Enhanced development in critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and innovation, and discriminating intellectual skills – which creates a life long desire for knowledge.
• A greater understanding of 21st Century concepts such as global awareness, financial literacy, civic responsibility and environmental literacy.
• Expansive information and communication technology (ICT) literacy
• A strong understanding of graduation requirements from high school and the academic and emotional skills needed to succeed in college and careers.
• High personal expectations for themselves and their future.
• Respect and tolerance for others in our diverse, global community.
We deeply respect the critical partnership which exists between school, parents and community. Teachers will labor hard toward the common goal to which we all strive, the intellectual and social growth of the children with which we are entrusted.
Philosophically, we are dedicated to making a difference in our students’ lives. It is our core belief that this comes from empowerment, which in turn comes from the building of skills. To make a difference in our students’ lives, we must focus on the literacies unique to this century, and make those changing markets our thrust educationally. We must emphasize heavily the type of computer literacy that goes beyond rare access opportunities, and refocus our efforts on a project based learning model that prepares children to enter the workplace of the modern global economy.
Our goal then, is to create a learning environment that is meaningfully project based, and focused in large part upon the context of the future workplace, and future academia. Building the basic framework for study success will lead a student in that direction, while providing the necessary psychological empowerment to facilitate following that path to its logical conclusion. We will endeavor to prepare our students for the problem solving and collaboration needs of these academic and professional environments.
To do so, looking toward the changing nature of our 21st century world, it is necessary to make our students proficient in the art and science of image usage and manipulation, internet searching for useful content, desktop publishing, word processing, and presentation creation with multimedia. These are the skills that transport the core academic matters of Mathematics, History, Science and English into the marketable skills of the modern workplace.
Clearly we must utilize project based learning philosophies in creating a contextualized learning environment that supports the development of critical thinking skills. By diverging away from the Standardized Test driven mentality, to more applicable skills that are career based and problem solving driven. It is the complaint of the various corporate partners that support the 21st Century Skills Model that students are “book smart, but unable to collaborate, communicate, and critically think.” A project based learning environment of collaborative structures would facilitate an improvement in these arenas, and thusly provide greater college and career opportunities for the community of Henry Clay.
The “Achievement Gap”, to which we always speak, could be considered on some level an “opportunity gap.” The students in our area have been consistently neglected by the Local district, and provided with limited opportunity to achieve outside of the context of direct instruction. Further, meaningful access to the multimedia learning and presentation structures of the 21st century have been limited. To remedy this, it is our philosophy to utilize strong pedagogy, based upon the CORE content standards (Nationally adopted), and a “hands on” learning approach that empowers the student. Students would interact to a large degree with the technology of the modern workplace.
The neglect in terms of multimedia and district support is as nothing compared to the neglect of the teachers toward the students. Oftentimes, measures taken by the District are not followed through upon, and the students’ achievement suffers. Furthermore, Clay’s teacher attendance at school is surprisingly poor, with a number of teachers absent for an entire year, or more. Long term subs rotate through the classes, and the students suffer. We are opposed to this, and as a result, the Pilot format, with its Elect to Work agreement is central to our philosophy. Consistent teaching by a true panel of dedicated experts who are reviewed based upon commitment and achievement is the central element in a solid educational program, and we have worked hard at creating a Staffing Policy, Staffing Requirements, and an Elect to Work Agreement that uphold our core values of Content Mastery, Commitment, and Reliability.
Students will take an interdisciplinary, college and high school preparatory curriculum. The goal is to provide them with a solid foundation of both content mastery and critical thinking skills in a variety of disciplines, while contextualizing them to usefulness in their lives. In our demographic, where a small number of students attend university studies, and the rate of passage of the CAHSEE is low, the interdisciplinary program would open the door for College and Careers.
The modern workplace is primarily project based, and not limited to one subject or medium. Cross disciplinary action and development is required, not the compartmentalized knowledge of past eras. In addition, the ability to interact with the changing technologies of the time period, successfully and intellectually is paramount. Too often, the basic facility of the younger generation with technology is mistaken for a higher level of academic mastery. Although most students know how to use e-mail, or start a computer, or even perform a search, there is in fact a limitation in their ability to determine the value of the results of that search. There is a lack of knowledge about plagarism, and the realities of fair usage for academia. It is these issues that are of the highest importance with technology, the ability to use them thoughtfully and critically on a project.
Learning these skills promotes teamwork, communication, creative thinking and decision making, which are all important traits in the competitive environment of colleges and careers. This is the end result of the prep work done in schools, and the heart of our philosophy.
Education Plan
Our school proposes to increase the length of the school day, via the institution of an Advisory system for students, Intervention Classes, and Electives programs, all in direct support of the Core Academic Curriculum. Advisories themselves have shown compelling effectiveness as an intervention for both student achievement and self efficacy, through numerous narrative studies and a few statistical studies (see the NMSA summary of findings, Number 9, attached).
In addition, the implementation of Electives, based upon the empowerment of self directed study and the development of 21st century skills is paramount. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has become an effective curricular framework adopted by 16 states, and focuses on career, community service, and college readiness. (Citation, p21 materials pending)
The focus is on a small school environment, with educational options for both student and parent. The school day would be an eight period length, with each period being 45 minutes in length. In this fashion, a student that is receiving intervention classes can still profit from the Advisory, and still take an Elective of their choice. By empowering the student and the parent to take control of their own learning, achievement can be shown to increase (Self Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement, Zimmerman, 2001).
Curriculum And Instruction
A. Curriculum Map and Summary
The primary goal of our school is to create exciting, student motivating, project based learning experiences focused on the 21st Century Skills required for career and college. To do so, we will be basing the instructional and pedagogical framework upon the Partnership for 21st Century Skills model (P21) which has been adopted by roughly 30 percent of the United States, but would need to be pioneered here. This model uses an interaction between specific skills, content knowledge, expertise, and literacies to form well rounded and knowledgable student. The Learning Environment for students must be supported by a PLC, or Professional Learning Community, dedicated to the growth of teachers in the service of student needs. This combination has proven to be effective (see attachments), and would best facilitate the use of periodic assessments and CST scores in the use of the Pilot Autonomy to best determine Curricular Choices.
Project based learning is by definition student intensive and directed, with an interdisciplinary focus. Students, then, would b entered into a grade level academic core, which would collaborate to provide meaningful interdisciplinary projects. For example, a science fair project incorporates a non fiction writing component, easily supported by the English teacher, and a historical component easily supported by the History teacher. Using these methods adds meaning to the content learned in each class, and furthermore, replicates the kind of decompartmentalization of knowledge that is sought by employers. (see attachements, p21 model).
Each grade level team is supported by its complementary cores in the other grade levels. Vertical planning then becomes possible, as the prior year’s scores on the CST and periodic assessments would determine areas of skill focus needed for the current teachers to focus on. This method of vertical planning has been shown to be highly effective in making up for student deficits in knowledge, and is an excellent method to continue the progress established by the prior instructors. The sharing of these ideas in the PD, common planning time, and other facets of the PLC is a key reason for the creation of the Professional Learning Community.
An Advisory period for each student, at the beginning or the end of the day, is key to this plan. The Advisory would provide a framework for learning study skills, and also for assisting in the completion of projects with the vital assistance and/or guidance of an educator. A large volume of our student population has challenges in homework completion, as well as a lack of internet research at home. The Advisory would provide much needed scaffolding and support for students in that struggling socio economic demographic.
In addition, a battery of core content supporting electives will be available to students, by choice. Such things would be Geography, Music as Poetry, or Practical Mathematics for Life and Business. This schedule of content based electives in the core curricular areas would provide the students with a large degree of inquiry based, self directed learning opportunities, while simultaneously providing reinforcement of necessary content strands.
The Advisory and the Electives framework, in the P21 model, are the reason for the eight period day, by necessity. In addition, a student who requires an intervention class, such as a double block of English or Math, still gains the advantage of an elective and the Advisory, given that schedule. No student is marginalized by being solely in intervention classes, which can negatively affect motivation, as has been seen at Henry Clay in the past.
The CST exam, and the periodic assessments of LAUSD have been an invaluable tool used by the design team in prior years, to determine the focus of standards based instruction, so they would be continued in the Pilot School format. As a result, the District pacing plan is also a fair guideline to use in developing the curriculum, as the pacing plan attempts to keep pace with the assessments. The scores of the design team, over the past years, on these assessments, clearly indicate a success in using those tools.
Furthermore, our proposed partnership with the Create Now organization would allow opportunities for Community Outreach and Service by the students. Create Now is an arts driven organization, that mentors students who are “at risk”, and is involved in beautification projects such as awareness murals, and music enrichment, such as community performances. Students can create songs for instance, and deal with professional recording studios to produce the music. Dance and choreography are available,
Thusly, the Create Now partnership would allow students to creatively outreach to the community about its issues in a positive way, and perform community service about these issues utilizing the arts to express themselves.
Other Community Service Opportunities exist in Peer Mediation, the Environmental Club, which focuses on improving the environment at school and in the community, and the Garden Organization. The Garden Organization is a club run by Ms. Orpe, that has received numerous grants and recognition, and focuses on the beautification of the school environment and the development of an environmentally aware community of students.
Please see Appendicies for the basic Curriculum, and Maps of such.
B. Track record of proposed Curriculum.
Over the past six years, the design team has used a project based, interdisciplinary work driven model of the Prentice Hall curriculum. Over those years, the design team has consistently outperformed the Henry Clay Middle school, and further, been competitive in scores with the District averages. Statistically, that shows a large degree of success with the students of the school demographic, that is replicatable in that context. (See attachements)
Project based learning, furthermore, has had numerous studies that show that it provides an advantage in learning, and the development of higher level cognitive skills. (see attachments)
Finally, the P21 Framework for the delivery of content to students has been adopted by numerous states (16) since its creation in 2002. Those states’ educational systems are consistently higher rated than those of California, demonstrating that the framework has allowed the other states to exceed our current standards. This statistical gain suggests that it would be the beginning of wisdom to pioneer this framework in California.
Finally, since their inception in 1998, in Boston, Pilot schools with Advisories have shown a large degree of success in using their autonomies to determine content and instructional models. They are now responsible for 10 to 15 percent of the Boston educational system, and consistently exceed the expectations of conventional public schools.
C. Addressing the needs of all students
Allowing for State and Federal Mandates, our school will meet the diverse learning needs of our students in the general (or mainstream) classroom. We will utilize co-planning and teaching, paraprofessional support, peer support, and modifications to the classroom environment, as well as accommodations to the core curriculum where needed, in order to meet student needs. Fully including all students is paramount. That includes, but is not limited to, students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and Advanced Learners, who have their own inclusion challenges. We believe that all students are learners, and deserve the same opportunities for success in careers, their community, and college readiness.
D. Accelerated Learning
Our team has had the privilege of serving the GATE community of HCMS for many years. As a result, the curriculum for those students is backwards planned, with enrichment strategies suggested by the USC Rossler School Of Education GATE seminar, which we attend annually. These methods have been proven to be effective, and dovetail elegantly with the P21 Framework.
Accelerated learners, it is known, require differentiation based upon depth and complexity, that will challenge the minds of such individuals. Specific strategies that facilitate excellence for these students are inquiry driven instruction, thematic connections, problem based learning experiences and authentic assessments. This inquiry driven methodology allows the specific learner to address the content from the perspective of their own diverse gifts and talents, used as a lens.
Examples of an inquiry based methodology include simulations, debates, Socratic seminars, scientific experiments, independently developed research projects and frequent engagement in metacognitive discussion. Gifted students must be regularly engaged in such higher order thinking activities to avoid being bored, and further, to flourish. The thematic nature of interdisciplinary instruction, and the connections made in the P21 framework, best facilitate the discovery of patterns and types of higher order that apply to real world applications.
At risk gifted students will be well served by the Advisory program, which would provide counsel and motivation, to attempt to bring those students back into the fold, so to speak. The team will participate in intervention strategies to motivate the student in a career direction, and focus them on being a positive force in the community. In addition, EL students who are gifted will also be supported by the presence of the Advisory.
E. Instructional Strategies
The key goal in developing student skills is to focus on collaborative, group, and individual learning and study skills for our student body. This, in turn, will improve performance in High School, and further, in their college and career choices. Thusly, the Design Team has decided to focus on certain essential standards, as well as adopting a more student directed, inquiry based system of learning. The P21 Framework, as well as the content area based electives framework, facilitates this to a high degree.
To this end, when the school is formed, the entire staff will need to be trained in the P21 Framework, which could be executed by a partnership. Also, PDs will frequently need to address project based learning, Depth and Complexity of standards, and the use of collaborative teams of students, such as PODS.
Standardization of the educational methods is important, so that students do not feel that knowledge is compartmentalized. The same rules and strategies should transfer from class to class. Staff have agreed to standardize the following skills and strategies, in addition to administration of the CST and Periodic Assessment, and the delivery of the California Standards on a daily basis:
• Organizational and Study Skills will be supported in Advisory and in Content area classes.
• Students will maintain an interactive Notebook for Core Content Areas, allowing the student to receive periodic feedback on their work, completeness, and study skills.
• Cornell Note Taking will be used across content areas, for student note taking.
• SSR (Silent Sustained Reading) will be executed using the internet based Accelerated Reader Program to track progress.
• Classes will be based on a fifty point per week, 1000 points per semester grading system. This will standardize grading milestones, and allow students to better track their progress toward the grade that they desire.
Faculty must focus strongly on the following procedures to facilitate student progress toward their goals of excellence:
• Students and teachers will use academic vocabulary in the classroom environment. Home Languages and Dialects will be respected, and the use of AEMP and SDAIE methodology will be used daily to support the students in progress toward a comfort level with the language of academia.
• Daily serious effort will be made on improving vocabulary and spelling across the content areas.
• Project Based Learning, and the use of Collaborative Groups will be adopted for all content area classes, for a significant percentage of instructional time. Whereas group work or collaborative learning is not always the delivery method needed, it should be used with frequency, on at least a weekly basis, in the classroom. This can take a diversity of shapes.
• Reading Comprehension strategies of Prediction, Questioning, Clarification, Summarization, and Outlining will be used for reading based assignments.
• A diversity of Writing Strategies, and Writing Styles, will be used across the content areas. Multiple paragraph essays will be the norm. Thesis statement generation will be practiced, as it is a key skill in English, History, and Science. Students will learn to cite accurate data from content area text to support claims made in a thesis statement, and correctly expound upon them, as well as make appropriate citations.
• Students will reflect upon content area learning, and be encouraged to seek application to their own lives. They will use appropriate evidence to support their assertions. A strong verbal component ill be applied to these applications of content to philosophical, social, and ethical matters.
Our faculty believes quite strongly that content area standards are interdisciplinary, paramount among them, writing. The English teacher is not the sole distributor of the set of writing skills, and at our school, that will certainly not be the case. The design team has had success in years past by utilizing the writing methods instructed by the English teacher in other classes, such as History and Science, to create meaningful projects in those courses. Thusly, it remains the English teacher’s responsibility to teach the writing process, as defined by Pre-Writing, Drafting, Review, Revision, Redrafting, and Publishing. The English teacher must also be tasked with the instruction in writing numerous multiparagraph essays driven by a thesis statement. Also, the English Teacher is responsible for the introduction of various formats and genres, such as Narrative, Exposition, Description, Research, and Persuasion.
The other teachers will use this framework established by the English teacher to create meaningful written sections for their own class projects. The additional practice in those content areas will support the skill set, as well as providing a rewarding context for the students who use the skills. For instance, the transfer of the writing skills of English Class to the presentation section of a Science Fair project demonstrates to the student the true value of the standards in both classes.
At times, essays will be written “on demand” in timed situations, to simulate the demands of major exams, and High School Essay tests. This is intended to encourage thoughtfulness and logical development in high pressure environments, a key issue in career and college environments.
Students will be strongly supported in the use of proper grammar, vocabulary, syntax, and overall sentence/paragraph structure in all writing assignments, by all teachers.
In addition to writing, oral presentation and participation are vital to the modern workplace and college. Thusly, all students will be given opportunities and support in these areas. They will be required, across content areas, to participate in small group and class discussions, and at times, to lead or mediate such discussions. Also, in group or collaborative work, participation is expected from all members of the student group, tracked in a method such as the PODS method (Ron Klemp).
Research is also a vital component. The ever present nature of the internet has given students access to more information than ever before, but the skill to analyze good information is sorely lacking. Taking that into account, all teachers will focus on the identification of valid Primary and Secondary sources. They will also be shown how to properly execute and document original Internet and Library research, to support any thesis or argument that they might be making. To this end, each content area will have oral presentations based on research, and increasingly complex projects with an oral delivery and research component.
Evaluation and Critical Thinking Skills are vital to the working world and higher education, and need to be a key focus of the instructional program. These habits of mind are a challenge to stimulate, and must be frequently modeled, as well as the opportunities for them provided in a rigorous educational setting. The goal is to create in students a willingness to question, not only the teacher, but the concepts and their own core beliefs. Exposure to other viewpoints, concepts, and cultures, as well as the ability to analyze and evaluate their own ideas as well as others, are paramount to such a Critical Thinking based educational program.
The Advisory is key to inciting the growth of Critical Thinking Skills. By providing safe, supportive environment for the support of inquiry with respect to content areas concepts and projects, the student is encouraged to question. This is supported in a setting that has no negative input, only guidance and direction for the growth of intellectual prowess. Students in the Advisory, as well as class, must assume some level of responsibility for their own learning to facilitate the growth of Critical Thinking skills. That includes asking for help when it is needed, and participation in intellectual discussions in a respectful and logical manner. We offer, through these support methods, a rigorous High School and College Preparatory setting for the diverse student population that we have served, and intend to serve.
To facilitate all of these goals, the Design Team has begun exploring partnerships with various organizations that have a vested interest in the improvement of education as a whole, and our students specifically. Should our school be conferred by the Board, we will first be able to open a partnership with P21, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. In addition, we have formed a relationship with Create Now, which would provide enrichment in the arts through project based community and school activities. In addition, we would be able to continue the established relationship with Computers for Youth, giving our demographic access to increased computer and internet assets. The California School Garden Network would allow us to grow the existing garden and nutrition programs established by Ms. Orpe of the Design team into a larger, more community affecting entity. First Book, a discount provider for books, will allow us to support literacy in the home through the creation of book clubs for both students and parents. Generation Earth/Tree People, will allow us to expand the existing Environment Club, run by Ms. Horton of the Design Team into a larger, more community influencing environmental project, with their support. Also, Junior Achievement brings together businesses and community figures to educate the students in financial and business literacy. Pillar, A division of the LA Chamber of Commerce, has committed to strengthening the link between businesses and school, which in turn, would strengthen the work force opportunities of the student population. Finally, Project Give, a philanthropic organization that Design Team has already received grants from, and is committed to creating community service projects for middle school students, very much in line with the needs of a Pilot School’s community service obligations.
These are the established relationships that we have been working on, that in turn, dovetail into further opportunities.
To conclude, the modern Academic and Career environments are increasingly challenging, and employers are demanding a different set of skills than mere “test taking” or “book smarts.” In the 21st Century, evaluative and collaborative ability are more important by far than a storehouse of trivia that can be recited on demand. Further, a familiarity with the expanding technologies of computer use, multimedia presentation, and the ability to use and evaluate internet sources are vital to the success of students in the new world that is before us.
Intense training in these areas, from an early age, is vital to the success of our student population, and key in closing the demographic achievement gap. In addition, cultural literacy, outside the scope of simply the neighborhood and the home environment is key to interacting with the diverse population of the increasingly globalized world. To this end, the addition of content electives, and a return to the arts is needed to successfully serve our student population in the achievement of their goals in career, college, and community enrichment. Delivering these concepts, in an individualized fashion for a self directed, inquiry based learning program provides our students with equal access to the content that might be found in any competitive academic institution.
The Hammer Lane 