Summer Workshops Sustain Creative Curriculum Planning

With the cooler air and leaves fluttering to the ground, the memories of sultry summer days may be fading, but in Bedford Public Schools we are continuing to implement summer curriculum projects in every building and nearly every subject matter. Many educators are invigorated by working with colleagues on curriculum during the summer months, for there is time and space to be creative and dig more deeply into approaches and materials for minds-on, student-centered learning.

This summer the district sponsored more projects than ever before, in part because projects in recent years have yielded such powerful results. One example is the Kindergarten Integration Project, which began in 2015 with a group of five teachers working to integrate purposeful play into the ELA, math, science and social studies learning for kindergarten students. They transformed the longstanding Davis Town Project into an end-of-year culmination of skills development in collaborative, creative problem-solving that ran throughout the year and incorporated learning expectations from all curriculum areas. Three teachers, Vera Corbett, Jessica Colby, and Alysse Bridenbecker, presented their project to the school committee on October 4.  It was truly inspiring, especially in terms of student and teacher engagement in the work. Their slideshow is linked below and plans are underway to videotape their presentation.   MLS

Kindergarten Integration Project

Here are a few highlights of other curriculum projects:

At the Davis School teachers and administrators collaborated to

·         develop integrated units at grades 1 and 2 parallel to the integration work of the kindergarten team

·         review and revise standards-based progress reports

·         review and revise writing program, including working with student examples and scoring rubrics to determine growth at each grade level

At the Lane School teachers and administrators worked together to

 ·       infuse new science units with increased student inquiry opportunities

·         determine science expectations for report cards

·         deepen read-aloud story lessons that help students develop greater cultural proficiency

·         strengthen ELA integration within science and social studies at grade 3, 4 and 5

At JGMS faculty collaborated to

·         develop and improve co-teaching in math and ELA

·         continue ELA Audit, incorporating more diverse texts and authors at each grade level

·         continue integration of new science standards

·         continue revision of social studies curriculum grades 6-7-8

At the high school faculty worked together to

·         continue refining co-teaching in ELA and math

·         further develop curriculum for STEP Program (new in 2015)

·         develop curriculum for new ELA courses in Asian-American and African-American Literature