Today's session was much different than what we have done in the past at my current school with the day split in to two different portions. In the morning we focused on learning about approaches to each subject area across divisions and begin a discussion about scope-and-sequence in the subject area and then in the afternoon we worked in a our division subject area departments. To many this doesn't sound like anything super exciting, worthwhile, or rewording (and I even think some of our staff originally felt this way), but since we do not often have K-12 conversations about curriculum this was much needed and way overdue. Quick side note: our primary school is located on another campus while our middle school and upper school share a campus allowing us to communicate on a more regular basis about our curriculums.
In order to have some structure to our morning session we followed the Feedback/Discussion Protocol (see below for information on this protocol) after each division shared a 10-minute presentation of their subject area curriculum and touches on the following: structure/planning opportunities, resources, learning highlights, overview of assessment practices, and challenges. I especially found the presentation from the PS eye opening as I had a lot of misconceptions about what they do there and also a lot of gaps in my knowledge about their program (I had no idea a kid was learning math in their target language and english in grades 4 and 5) and the discussion that came from the protocol was so interesting and opening to future conversations as well as changes that we as a staff believe would be best for our students and our curriculum. I am interested in seeing where this takes us, hopefully somewhere exciting and rewarding for all involved!
Feedback/Discussion Protocol:
Step 1-Clarifying: What questions do you have that simply clarify what has been said (as opposed to questions about substance)? (3 mins.-presenters respond)
Step 2-Valuing: What do you value in what you’ve just heard? What do you perceive as strengths of the program/approach? (2 mins.-presenters don’t respond)
Step 3-Naming Insights/Observations/Connections: What insights have you gained from what you have heard? What observations do you have about the nature of the curriculum? What connections are you able to make to your own division’s curriculum? (3 mins.-presenters don’t respond)
Step 4-Wonderings: What are you now wondering about the curriculum in the other division(s)? (2 mins-presenters don’t respond)
General Discussion, if time (5 mins. max.)