Woodbury City Public Schools January Curriculum Presentation to the Board New Initiatives for 2015-16 School Year Elementary Grades Continuation of the Elementary English Language Arts Initiative 2015-16 will see a continuation of the Elementary English Language Arts implementation plan begun this school year and first reported to the BOE in January 2014. Having conducted a large-scale pilot with an overwhelming majority of elementary teachers participating, full implementation of Reader s Workshop with all teachers will occur in the fall of 2015. Additionally, a new pilot of teachers using Writer s Workshop will be formed. Participating teachers will receive a substantial amount of support through curriculum writing, modeling, professional development, and structured meeting time. Non-piloting teachers will also receive on-going professional development in Writer s Workshop with an eye toward full implementation in 2016-17. [The May 28, 2014 board agenda, in the Students & Program section, contains a full outline of the elementary literacy initiative.] Elementary Summer Programming Born out of the student success strand in the new strategic plan, a K-2 summer reading program will be formed. All current kindergarten, first, and second grade students will be invited to participate in a two hour-a-day program during July and August. This block of time will be divided into Reader s Workshop, Guided Reading, and Independent Reading time. Students will be matched with peers from across the district on their same reading level and accelerated forward. Current high performing students will be placed with similarly accomplished peers and will be appropriately challenged. Students who are struggling with reading will find the necessary support to help them grow and close any deficits. By continuing the momentum built up over the course of the 2014-15 school year throughout the summer, the district hopes to combat summer slide, solidify gains made, and establish a higher reading foundation from which to start the 2015-16 school year.
Junior-Senior High School Continuation of the High School math changes Woodbury Junior and Senior High School has had great success employing a constructivist approach to mastering the content of mathematics through the Core Plus program/curriculum, but this approach does not align to the new PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) assessment for high school mathematics chosen by the state. While the Common Core Standards do allow for an integrated approach, it would mean that student achievement in all grades may not be easily compared throughout the state. Additionally, the Department of Education maintains that very few of New Jersey s schools have adopted an integrated model. For these two reasons, the state has recommended that all districts use the Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II sequence in order to align to the version of the new test. As a result, the math department identified and selected Carnegie Learning to support our curriculum and the new math sequence. Carnegie Learning blends consumable textbooks, updated annually, with interactive digital, online tools and resources to create a personalized learning plan for each student. During the 2015-16 school year we will phase out Integrated Algebra II and introduce the next course in the sequence: Geometry and Geometry Honors. Continuation of the Rowan College at Gloucester County College Pilot 2015-2016 School year During the 2014-2015 school year, 20% of the 2015 senior class was part of a pilot at the Center for College and Career Readiness at Rowan College of Gloucester County (RCGC). The intent of the Center is to create an enhanced opportunity for high school students to interact in the college environment taking classes and receiving additional support so that participants are more ready to pursue post-secondary schooling. Currently, the information that related to our students performance is all anecdotal information -- from both our students and the faculty at RCGC. That anecdotal information received has been all positive, and we would like to make a more complete assessment with a full year s worth of data and reflection. We propose that the RCGC pilot continues through the 2015-16 school year.
New Elective Options Technology Electives In order to prepare our students for careers in the 21st century, we need to increase access to high-quality STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs. The inclusion of some or all of the following courses will upgrade our technology offerings for students who are interested in this as a career option. Coding Coding simply refers to the assorted languages programmers use to make computer software operate. Websites, mobile apps and video games are assembled entirely by lines of code. It's someone's job to write these lines letter-by-letter, symbol-by-symbol and, as with any other dialect, it takes proper spelling, spacing and punctuation for them to actually make sense. This course will launch a student into the world of programming through coding. Web Design/ Electronic Publishing This course introduces students to basic web design using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). The course does not require any prior knowledge of HTML or web design. Throughout the course students are introduced to planning and designing effective web pages; implementing web pages by writing HTML and CSS code; enhancing web pages with the use of page layout techniques, text formatting, graphics, images, and multimedia; and producing a functional, multi-page website. Multimedia and Desktop Publishing will provide students with the most up-to-date technological advancements in the areas of graphic design, photo enhancements, digital illustrations, and graphic animations. Video Game Design Students learn how to create their own video games. From start to finish, students program every aspect of their game while learning the basics of object-oriented programming. Students can publish and share their finished games on CDs, jump drives, or online.
Business Electives Birthed out of the new strategic plan, the inclusion of some or all of the following courses will upgrade our current business offerings to have a full complement of classes for students who want to move directly into business or prepare to study business at the post-secondary level. Accounting This course is designed to introduce high school students to the field of accounting. Student will work through the financial accounting cycle and payroll for a sole proprietorship. Career opportunities will be explored to see what the future holds for the accounting profession. Business and Personal Law Everyone buys, sells, rents, and enters into business contracts. This course shows students the sources of law and how law affects their everyday lives. It also introduces students to criminal and civil law, juvenile law, contract law, and the court systems. Students explore various cases designed to promote a thorough understanding of the principles of law and expand their legal vocabulary. They will also discuss current media issues in order to better understand how law affects their everyday lives. Students will also participate in a number of mock trials where they will undertake the various roles in actual court proceedings. Entrepreneurship Education This course explores the world of self-employment; specifically, it helps those students who may choose to focus on career development through ownership/management of their own businesses. Students will learn how to develop a venture plan including the following: type of business enterprise, legal considerations, location, financing, getting started, marketing techniques, and interaction with successful entrepreneurs. The course also focuses on the core skills and concepts required to manage a small business (sole proprietorship, partnership, franchise). In addition, students will learn about aspects of operations management including inventory, marketing, finance, and human resources. Marketing and Advertising How do you create an effective ad? How does publicity work? What makes an event special? Students will learn about the many career opportunities in the communications field while you create TV commercials, publicity campaigns, and special event concepts. Social media has become an integral part of your daily life. Learn how to use these forums for marketing purposes. Learn about the many ways companies, advertising agencies, and public relations firms use these social networking sites, while you learn how to create a Facebook fan page, post and write a blog and track what people are saying.
Competency Based Learning/Blended Learning Pilot As we continue to strive to reach our potential in being a Leader in Personalizing Education, we will explore the possibility of incorporating innovative strategies that will further individualize the learning for all students. Competency Based Learning The concept of competency based learning focuses on transitioning away from seat time in favor of a structure that creates flexibility and allows students to progress as they demonstrate mastery of academic content -- regardless of time, place, or pace of learning. Competency-based strategies provide flexibility in the way that credit can be earned or awarded and provide students with personalized learning opportunities. Blended Learning Blended Learning is a formal education program in which a student learns in part through delivery of content and instruction via digital and online media with some element of student control over time, place, path, or pace. The other element of blended learning is that there is still the expectation that students attend class with face-to-face classroom methods. The real attraction to this model is they greatly improve a teacher s ability to deliver differentiated instruction to small groups, as all students assigned to a teacher will not be in the class at the same time.