Curriculum plan Paterson Public schools

Running Head: Paterson Public schools Curriculum plan and integrated unit

Paterson Public schools Curriculum plan and integrated unit 8

Paterson Public schools Curriculum plan and integrated unit

Part 1: Curriculum Plan

Mission: To ensure all pupils are equipped to perform successfully in their higher educational institution of choice, and in the profession they choose to pursue

Vision: To be at the forefront of urban youth education in New Jersey (Paterson Public Schools, 2018)

How the curriculum plan complements the mission goals and outcomes for the Paterson, New Jersey district

Priority I: Efficient Academic Programs – Pupils enrolled in the district’s schools can become high achievers, thanks to its sincere commitment to ensuring student readiness for university and professional life. Paterson continually implements an extensive range of high-impact student attainment interventions for achieving improved graduation rates and examination scores, and ensuring pupils acquire mastery over the latest learning skills.

Goal 1: Improving performance levels- A twenty percentage-point growth is anticipated for 3rd through 11th grade, by the year 2019

           Goal 2: Improving pupils’ graduation rates 

           Goal 3: Increasing university preparedness

           Goal 4: Technology and twenty-first-century learning

           Goal 5: Developing Student Centered Supports for ensuring adequate academic engagement of all pupils (Paterson Public Schools, 2018)

Priority II: Cultivation and Maintenance of a Healthy School Culture – Paterson district is committed to the creation and maintenance of a secure, organized, and benevolent school atmosphere. Administrators aim to continually implement the district’s very own ‘Paterson Effective Schools Model’ that covers 10 school efficiency dimensions for radically transforming district office and school atmosphere and culture (Paterson Public Schools, 2018).

Priority III: Family and Community

Goal 1: Increasing familial and parental engagement through PTA/PTO expansion and improvement

           Goal 2: Providing more community services 

           Goal 3: Expanding partnerships with the many community agencies, institutions and organizations

           Goal 4: Fulfilling parent needs through providing more avenues for parental education (Paterson Public Schools, 2018)

Priority IV: Responsive, Effective Operations – The admin offices of the school district need to be well-ordered, with familiarized processes and interactions based on first-rate customer service guidelines. Improved external and internal communications, in addition to continuous personnel training constitute the key elements of a responsive, efficient office.

Goal 1: Improving External and Internal Communication 

           Goal 2: Strengthening district office and school customer service orientation

           Goal 3: Increasing faculty and administrative personnel capacity

           Goal 4: Increasing Performance Accountability (Paterson Public Schools, 2018)

Instructional Material adoption cycle

Instructional material adoption constitutes a local and state level process, which encompasses a review of digital and print content and its approval for secondary and elementary level usage (AAP, 2015). Instructional material is planned and created based on highly specific state-defined standards (which include size, content, durability and content related criteria). States establish instructional programs at different subject and grade levels. The majority of state-adopted matter is utilized for a 6-year period (AAP, 2015) and normally includes textbooks, workbooks, study guides, teacher editions, websites, online homework assistance, etc. Following state adoption of a particular instructional program, the state’s school districts can buy it for local use. State adoptions are characterized by several differences; while certain adoptions are only “advisory”, with the state merely publishing a recommended program or book list rather than mandating the use of certain materials (AAP, 2015), others mandate purchase of programs or books featuring on the state-issued list. The school districts of non-adoption states adopt and subsequently buy instructional materials. Nevertheless, the material needs to be in line with local requirements and state standards (AAP, 2015).

Staff development plans

The Classes of 2018 and 2019 – The graduating classes of 2018 and 2019 may fulfil graduation assessment conditions by (Paterson Public Schools, 2017):

(1) Passing high-level PARCC tests;

(2) Attaining certain Accuplacer, SAT or ACT scores; or

(3) District submission of a learner portfolio via the portfolio appeals system of the Department. (The Special Education group, whose IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) outline an alternative proficiency demonstration process will still follow IEP-established graduation requirements.) (Paterson Public Schools, 2017)

Core Beliefs Facilitating best, ideally-supported, and advanced New Jersey state teaching corps; Collaborating to develop competencies and ensure continual leadership-supported faculty and student learning and improvement opportunities (Paterson Public Schools, 2018b). 

Values and Guiding Principles

       Customers

· The school district actively strives to stay up-to-date in the area of educational research, constantly looking for long- and short-run solutions for increasing educator capacity.

· The district supports its excellent educator pool in achieving further professional growth (Paterson Public Schools, 2018b).

      Systemic Decision Making

· The district is wholly process-oriented.

· It encourages educator collaborations and learning from one another.

· It values diverse perspectives and deems them vital to cross-disciplinary, non-routine decision-making.

· Evidence-based, outcome-focused decision-making (Paterson Public Schools, 2018b).

      Impact

· The district promotes retention and professional development of the finest teacher corps with proven superior teaching proficiency and mastery over instructional content.

     Communication

· Respectful, open communication which informs the educational process and leads to positive results.

     Growth

· The district adopts state-of-the-art technology.

     Leadership

· Administrators support all educators to emerge as leaders.

· The district collaborates with its leaders for ensuring continuous efficiency development (Paterson Public Schools, 2018b).

Curriculum evaluation

The Paterson school district has a collaborative curriculum evaluation procedure geared at promoting administrator and educator excellence, thus leading to positive learner outcomes (Paterson Public Schools, 2018c). Emphasis is given to continual improvement on the basis of objective information and explicitly-defined expectations; the process confirms competence, evaluates strengths, and recognizes excellence.

Part 2: Integrated Unit

Grade Level: K, 3, 4, & 5

Integrated Unit on Vocabulary for three instructional Periods for K 5

Introduction and rationale for teaching the Unit

Teach students using the sample menu and the many learning modalities on hand. Ensure pupils first understand words in context prior to giving explicit vocabulary-related instruction. Make sure they pronounce the words properly by having them repeat words aloud. Learners’ likelihood of incorporating words into daily usage increases if they are certain they aren’t mispronouncing them.

Integrated Content Areas: Phonemes, adjectives, nouns, and sentence construction

Activity Planned for the unit:

· Learning words’ correct spelling and pronunciation via ‘fill in the blanks’ questions.

· First, the whole class will collectively participate in the activities, followed by individual assignments.

· Students will be required to pronounce the given set of words aloud, followed by making sentences by using those words.

Materials needed for the Unit: Chalk board, exercise books, a projector and phoneme cards to distinguish words

Evidence of technology integration: Through the projector, the educator will project the word pronunciation key before students and teach them to discern phonemes.

Three lesson plans

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Objective:

a) Correctly recognize phonemes ‘m’ and ‘n.

b) Correctly enunciate the above phonemes.