This is the slideshow of my share of the presentation Rick had the English Department do to the entire faculty. The plan was to agree on a set of schoowide writing standards and then to have posters created for every classroom.
2009 Department Re-structuring
1. Create a detailed writing and critical reading curriculum, as requested by the OPI team. Ensure that the objectives tested by the PSAT are taught in grades 9 and 10.
2. Require semester tests in every class worth a third of the semester grade. In grades 9 & 10 these would be modeled on PSAT.
3. Reinstate a writing proficiencies test at end of Grade 10, with a remedial class required for those who do not pass.
4. Freshmen expectations: note taking, orient them to major tests they need to prepare for in high school
5. Create honors classes in grade 9 and 10.
Courses that may need to be added:
1. Honors Eng 9
2. Honors Eng 10
3. Remedial writing (for students who do not pass the proficiency test)
4. Cohort: Eng 12 (or can this be handled via electives?)
5. Eng 12 AP (assuming Mac does not return)
6. Online AP courses to develop online capacity: marketed to rural schools and homeschoolers?
(So we discuss staffing guidelines, such as equitable teaching load? Minimize number of preps?)
Possible Resources:
ETS essay scoring service?
Curriculum materials for teaching writing Eng 9 and Eng 10--aligned with PSAT
Curriculum materials for AP English 12
If online courses are offered, budget for 8 weeks work in course design during summer -- one-time expense per course
This would include creating online learning experiences and assesssments, including recorded lectures, online lessons, online tests
Key Assessments:
1. CRT (spring, sophomore year) Use this as a selection tool for Advanced English 11
2. PSAT (autumn, Junior year) Use this as a selection tool for AP 12
3. MUS Assessment, (spring Junior year)
Suggested Assessments:
1. End of 8th grade: District assessment used for placement in honors and cohort. The CRT is given in grade 8 but results are not available until summer so it is not practical for placement in freshman classes.
2. Semester exams in each core English class, to assess mastery of curriculum
3. End of 10th grade: writing proficiency exam
PSAT Objectives
Reading
1. Understanding main ideas in a reading passage.
2. Comparing and contrasting ideas presented in two passages
3. Understanding the use of examples.
4. Recognizing the purpose of various writing strategies.
5. Applying ideas presented in a reading passage.
6. Determining an author's purpose or perspective.
7. Making connections between information in different parts of a passage.
8. Distinguishing conflicting viewpoints.
9. Being thorough.
10. Understanding difficult vocabulary.
11. Understanding how negative words, suffixes, and prefixes affect sentences.
12. Recognizing words that signal contrasting ideas in a sentence.
13. Recognizing a definition when it is presented in a sentence.
14. Understanding sentences that deal with abstract ideas.
15. Understanding sentences that deal with scientific ideas.
Writing
1. Being precise and clear.
2. Following conventions in writing.
3. Recognizing logical connections within sentences and passages.
4. Using verbs correctly.
5. Recognizing improper pronoun use.
6. Understanding complicated sentence structures.
7. Understanding the structure of sentences with abstract ideas.
8. Understanding the structure of sentences that relate to science or math.
9. Understanding the structure of sentences that relate to the arts.
CRT Objectives
???
Curriculum Writing Objectives
Grammar
1. Students will be able to identify the parts of a sentence, including subject, predicate, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, and object of a preposition.
Sentence structure
1. Students will recognize and correct misplaced modifiers.
2. Students will recognize and correct nonparallel items in a series.
3. Students will recognize and correct unnecessary shifts in point of view.
4. Students will recognize and correct pronoun/antecedent errors.
5. Students will recognize and correct unclear pronoun reference errors.
6. Students will recognize and correct apostrophe errors.
7. Students will recognize and correct subject/verb agreement errors.
Sentence Combining
1. Students will be able to combine several short sentences into a more complex sentence that is well structured and grammatically correct.
Paragraphing
1. Students will be able to recognize and correct a lack of unity in paragraphs.
2. Students will be able to write paragraphs developed with (1) facts or statistics (2) reasons (3) description (4) anecdotes and (5) comparisons and contrasts
3. Students will be able to use appropriate transitions to increase the coherence of paragraphs
Compositions
1. Students will be able to write 5-paragraph essays organized around a thesis
2. Students will be able to write argumentative essays using CDW (claim, data, warrant)
2007 Process
One way to proceed would be to see whether we can agree on a set of benchmarks that students should meet before they graduate. These are descriptions of what students know and can do.
If we can agree on final benchmarks, then we can compare them to our existing curricula, to see what is already taught and what needs to be added. At that point, it's useful to have detailed standards that make it simpler to specify what should be learned in each class. I've put a link to the California standards for writing, grades 9-10 and grades 11-12. They are wiki pages, so they can be easily modified to align more tightly with the benchmarks or to suit local preferences.
The benchmarks I've posted are adapted from the American Diploma Project. These have been widely vetted by people both in the universities and in the workplace. They are specific enough to guide instructional decisions but they don't limit choices of teaching strategies or resources. You can see them by following the links in the sidebar on the right side of this page. The sidebar has three links at the top--QuickStart, Recent Activity, and SideBar. Be sure to click "SideBar" to see a list of all the pages that exist on this wiki.
Here's a copy of the links to the eight sets of benchmarks:
Benchmarks for Critical Thinking
Benchmarks for Informational Texts
Benchmarks for Language
Benchmarks for Literature
Benchmarks for Media
Benchmarks for Research
Benchmarks for Speech and Communication
Benchmarks for Writing
Orientation Tools
Comments (1)
Anonymous said
at 2:10 pm on Mar 15, 2007
Testing the "comments" feature. . .
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