Curriculum Plan and Integrated Unit

Paterson Public School is one of the most diverse school districts in New Jersey with the main goal of educating children and young people in the region. The focus of this school district is to help children and young people from diverse backgrounds and settings to become proficient in their various fields of study. An important aspect towards achieving this goal is ensuring the professional development and enhancing instructional leadership of teachers. Similar to other school districts, teachers in this school district are required to identify and utilize suitable teaching strategies that help in enhancing the learning outcomes of all students. As an English language teacher to English Second Language (ESL) students, a critical aspect towards enhancing the proficiency of these students in this language is developing a curriculum plan. The curriculum plan provides a suitable framework and learning activities that helps in enhancing these students’ mastery of the English language. This paper provides a curriculum plan for teaching English to ESL students in grades 3, 4 and 5 at Paterson Public School.

The development of this curriculum plan is geared towards enhancing the learning outcomes of these students in line with the established mission statement, goals, and outcomes of the school district. The vision of Paterson Public School is to become a leader in educating urban youth in New Jersey (Paterson Public Schools, 2018). Based on this vision, the mission of this school district is to prepare every student for success in their chosen career or in university or college. To accomplish this mission, the school district has identified some major goals/priorities including creating effective academic programs, developing and maintaining healthy school cultures, promoting family and community engagement in education, and ensuring effective and responsive operations. Some of the expected outcomes in this school district include enhancing student achievement, aligning instructional system, enhancing accountability for academic performance, and professional development of staff.
This curriculum plan for elementary ESL students in Paterson Public School is in line with the school district’s mission of preparing students for success in higher learning institutions or respective career. The plan seeks to achieve this by enhancing the students’ mastery of the English language, which they will later utilize in college/university or their careers. Additionally, this curriculum plan is developed as part of establishing effective academic programs for teaching English language in the class. The use of this curriculum plan will help achieve the desired outcomes of the school district through improving student achievement in English and aligning instructional system for these students.

The cycle for adoption of relevant textbook and supplemental material will entail the establishment of an Instructional Materials Adoption Committee. This committee will be mandated with the task of creating and evaluating procedures for identification, adoption, and removal of instructional materials that are utilized by the school. The committee will work with the relevant professionals in the school district to ensure that the materials are in line with those owned and utilized by the District. A 5-year revolving cycle for selection and adoption of textbook and supplemental material will be utilized. Paterson Public School will also consider the advice of staff, parents, and students during the selection and adoption of textbook and supplemental material.

A critical aspect towards the achievement of the goals of this curriculum plan is establishing staff development plans. Staff development plans help in promoting the professional development and growth of individual teachers towards enhancing teaching and learning. In this regard, teachers at Paterson Public School will be required to complete a summative evaluation that will be utilized to generate needs improvement rating. Once the rating is developed, specific tasks or activities to address the areas requiring improvement will be identified. Teachers will then be required to engage in these activities or tasks to help improve their teaching practice and learning in the classroom. During this process, teachers will be provided with necessary resources and support to complete the required activities or tasks.

The effectiveness of this curriculum plan will be determined through evaluation since curriculum evaluation is an important part of curriculum development. The process for evaluating the curriculum will focus on three major areas i.e. the learner, the instruction, and the overall program. With respect to the learner, the evaluation will examine improvement in learning outcomes based on curriculum objectives (National Research Council, 2004). The evaluation of instruction will focus on whether the faculty met the learners’ expectations based on the required standards and goals. Evaluation of the overall program will entail examining whether curriculum content or format achieved its goals and objectives.

Curriculum development plans for Paterson school district is based on a 5-year schedule for curriculum planning, implementation, and evaluation. The District’s Board of Education conducts annual evaluation of curriculum and provides guidelines for district improvement measures. One of the measures utilized by the District for curriculum development is standards-based curriculum frameworks that are based on Core Curriculum Content Standards (Paterson Public Schools, n.d.). These standards provide information on what students should know and accomplish in every subject. As a result, the standards are utilized as the basis for creation and selection of new curricular in the school district. The District also utilizes standards-based curriculum linked to program implementation using the Excellence in Curriculum Evaluation and Learning protocol (EXCEL). This protocol outlines the process to evaluate program implementation and offer technical support to schools.

The creation of an integrated unit is driven by the belief that integrated teaching and learning enables students to develop a deeper understanding of content. Deeper understanding of content is achieved because students begin to identify meaningful connections between subject areas. This integrated unit plan is for teaching and learning English Language Arts and Mathematics for elementary students in Grades 3, 4 and 5. The rationale for teaching this unit is that even though there are variations between math and language arts, teachers tend to utilize similar strategies in teaching both subject areas. Through this unit, the teacher will help students understanding the meaningful connections between subject areas through bringing meaning to printed symbols.

The unit is written for English as a second language (ESL) elementary students in Grade 3, 4 and 5. The content area for which the unit is written is written and oral communication skills since both subject areas help in improving these skills (Bucci & McEwan, 2015).

The activities planned for teaching this unit include creating a rectangular prism, class discussions, and feature talk. On the other hand, the materials required for teaching the unit include Mathematics and English textbooks, videos, and cubes.

Technology integration in this classroom will involve using video presentations that show a sample rectangular prisms that students are required to draw. The presentation will also highlight how students need to work together towards creation of the rectangular prism.

Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3

State or National Standards
· Common Core Standard K.G 5
· Reading Standards for Informational Text K-5 (7).
· Common Core Standard K.G 1
· Reading Standards for Informational Text K-5 (7).
· Common Core Standard K.G 1
· Reading Standards for Informational Text K-5 (7).
Objectives
1. Learning abstract math ideas.
1. Development of oral communication skills.
2. Improving overall language skills.
1. Development of written communication skills.
2. Improving overall language skills.
3. Bridging language and visual representations of mathematical concepts.

Procedures and Activities
1. Students will watch a video of a visual representation of a rectangular prism.
2. Each student will be provided with 12 cubes and required to create a rectangular prism.
1. Students will be divided in small groups.
2. They will share their thoughts on how they created the rectangular prism
1. Students will work in their small groups to write a story about their experience in creating the rectangular prism.
2. The teacher will engage the students in discussions on how to connect written terms to mathematical ideas.

Assessment
Performance-based assessment
Open-response questions
Multiple-choice questions

The integrated unit for Math and English Language Arts will help meet the needs of diverse learners by providing a framework for active learning for all students. In this case, the plan ensures that all students are actively engaged in the learning process. Additionally, this plan provides a framework for students to support each other in completing the learning activities and achieving the learning outcomes. As students are actively engaged in the learning process and support each other, their diverse learning needs are met.