Office of Curriculum & Instruction

What's New in the Curriculum Office!

• It indicates a student’s academic performance relative to standards established by the PA Department of Education

• It shows a student’s growth in terms of grade-level expectations

• It communicates a student’s learning qualities and the extent to which a student invests effort in the learning process

The report card will be issued four times per year in grades 1-5 and twice per year in kindergarten. Letter grades will begin the second marking period of third grade. More information is available on the following downloads:

Dr. Bompadre's Presentation to Parents during fall PTO meetings
Elementary Progress Report Parent Handbook

Secondary Grading Scale to be reported with Letter Grades -- During the 2006-2007 school year a Secondary Grading and Assessment Committee, composed of teachers from both Paxon Hollow Middle School and Marple Newtown High School, was formed to examine the philosophy and practicalities of how we assess and evaluate student achievement. Specifically the committee reviewed grading policies regarding classroom discussions, question and answer sessions, homework, research papers, quizzes, tests, midterm and final examinations. The committee reviewed current research and best educational practices in student grading and assessment. Two specific outcomes of the committee’s work were the creation of course specific grading policies and a common grading scale for the secondary schools.

In the spring of the 2006-2007 school year, teachers met in small groups, by content area, and developed grading policies for all the courses that we offer. These policies utilized a common vocabulary so that there would be a common understanding amongst students, parents, and teachers as to how assessment is implemented for that particular course. All assessments were characterized as Formal Assessments, Authentic Assessments, or Informal assessments. A description as to how these assessments are used to determine a student’s grade is included in the grading policy for each course.

The second task of the committee was the development of a uniform grade reporting system for all grades at the secondary level. Once again, after an extensive review of current research and much discussion among educators at both the middle and high school level, it was determined that an alpha-numeric system would be implemented.

Beginning with the 2007-2008 school year, students’ quarterly, midterm and final grades will be reported using a letter grade determined from the scale below. When calculating a student’s final grade, the numeric value of each term will be retained and the final average, and therefore final grade, will be calculated using the original numeric value.

We are pleased with the work that was accomplished by the Grading and Assessment committee. We thoroughly examined the Who, What, Why, and How of grading. I am confident that the policies and procedures we have put into place will allow us to use the various forms of assessments as a vital tool for guiding instruction and informing parents, allowing us to meet the educational needs of all students. In addition, we feel that we have developed a policy that is fair and in the best interest of our students.

If you should have any questions or concerns about the grading and assessment policy, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher, guidance counselor or principal.

UNDERSTANDING by DESIGN  

“To begin with the end in mind means to begin with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you are going so that you better understand where you are right now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.” (Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.)  

The curriculum department is implementing aspects of a curriculum design process that applies Stephen Covey’s idea of beginning with the end in mind to writing curriculum. It is called Understanding by Design. The key elements of this approach are

• a focus is on developing curricula that result in student understanding, not just the acquisition of facts,
• techniques that have been developed for “unpacking” the academic standards and incorporating them into the curriculum in a meaningful way, and
• a logical way to differentiate and to accommodate varied needs while maintaining the goal of understanding for all students.

Understanding by Design is a way of thinking about curriculum design developed by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe that starts with the end-product—beginning with the end in mind. There are three steps in curriculum development using this approach:

• one, teachers identify desired results, goals for our students, including those required by the Pennsylvania Academic Standards,
• two, teachers determine acceptable evidence of student understanding, what is expected from students to show they have met the goals,
• and three, teachers plan the learning experience and instruction that will enable students to provide the acceptable evidence of understanding.

In the words of Wiggins and McTighe, our goal is to “make it more likely—by our design—that more students really understand what they are asked to learn.”

Earobics

Earobics is coming to Marple Newtown in the fall! All of our kindergarten students will have the opportunity to work with this unique software program that develops phonemic awareness, phonics, and language skills in an exciting, motivating format. Each kindergarten classroom will be equipped with a computer center so that the children can rotate to use the program several times a week during their literacy center time. Even more exciting, since the program is web-based, parents will be able to access it from home so that our students can use it on their own time as well. The Earobics program provides instruction in ten different languages to accommodate English language learners. Kindergarten, first grade, and special area teachers will be participating in training on the use of Earobics on June 21 st so that we can be up and running in September.

Penn Literacy Network

The University of Pennsylvania will be providing in service training to nineteen middle and high school teachers through the Penn Literacy Network (PLN) in the fall of 2007. PLN coursework assists teachers in integrating reading and writing strategies into content area instruction. Teachers learn about techniques, try them out in their own classrooms, then discuss the application and results with members of the study group. Teachers will be meeting after school once every other week for a ten-week session. They will complete and implement a major unit of study as a culminating activity to this coursework. This effort is part of Marple Newtown’s focus on writing and literacy across the curriculum as a way to improve student achievement.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS: Bryn Mawr Trust  

Marple Newtown School District has entered into an exciting new partnership with the Bryn Mawr Trust Company. Barbara Newcomer, Vice President and Manager of the Newtown Square Branch of the Bryn Mawr Trust worked with teachers at Russell Elementary School and Paxon Hollow Middle School and Curriculum Coordinator for the Humanities, Sandra Schaal, to develop two educational programs that were piloted this year.

Russell Elementary second grade students went to the Newtown Square branch of the BMT for a two hour field trip in March. Students visited the customer service department where they discussed the importance of saving, the vault, where they tried to lift $500 in quarters, behind-the-scenes at the teller’s desk where they got to try the dollar counting machine and the “turret.” When they returned to school, students completed art work about their visit that was then displayed at the bank.

In May, Mrs. Newcomer, and her colleague, Mr. Thomas Giamoni spend two days at Paxon Hollow Middle School. They met with every 8 th grade American Studies class. Having completed their economics unit, students were ready to hear about economics from the perspective of the “real world.” Mrs. Newcomer and Mr. Giamoni explained the role that the Federal Reserve Board plays in the world of banking, discussed with students the advantages and disadvantages of credit and debit cards, and talked about the money supply—where money comes from and where it goes. Students were rewarded for participation with bags of “fed-shred,” discarded money from the US Treasury Department.

Both parts of this new partnership between MNSD and the Bryn Mawr Trust Company offered our students experiences in the real world of economics, reinforcing our classroom programs in ways that students enjoyed and will always remember. Mrs. Newcomer and the Bryn Mawr Trust company provided students with tokens to remember their experience—coloring books, pens etc. and even more generously, Bryn Mawr Trust gave each student a $25 gift certificate which can go into a savings account opened by the students and their parents!

WRITING PROMPTS: Math, Science, Social Studies

In September 2006, the implementation of the District Writing Plan began. Teachers in all secondary content areas participated in “Writing Across the Curriculum” and “Writing to Learn” workshops on in-service days. As part of the workshops, teachers developed writing prompts and activities to implement in their classrooms. In Math, Science and Social Studies, teachers are expected to provide their students one opportunity each marking period to demonstrate their writing skills and their knowledge and understanding of content in either an informational or persuasive writing piece. These pieces are evaluated using the PSSA Domain Scoring Guide that assesses focus, content, organization, style and conventions. Other content areas such as Health and Physical Education, Foreign Language, Family and Consumer Science, Technology, Art and Music developed a variety of writing activities and assignments for their content areas. The content area writing prompts will become part of the regular curriculum program in the secondary schools.

WRITING PROMPTS: Secondary Language Arts

Spring and Fall Writing Assessments that have been part of the K-5 writing program for a number of years are being implemented at the secondary level as part of the new District Writing Plan. Middle and High School Language Arts teachers assisted in the development of writing prompts similar to those used in the PSSA writing tests. Teachers of secondary language arts are being introduced to the scoring process used at the elementary schools so that in the fall the spring and fall writing assessments will begin to be implemented at the secondary level.

Energizers -- The Way Teachers Integrate Physical Activity with Academic Concepts

The District Wellness Committee recognizes that student wellness is realted to students' physical well-being, growth development and readiness to nearn. In a healthy school environment, students will learn to participate in positive lifestyle practices that can improve student achievement. As a District, we strive to provide opportunities for physical activity and/or movement during the day for all students. The Energizers are helpful activities to get elementary children actively engaged in the classroom.

Teachers should align the Energizer activities with the curriculum content they will teach for the year. Activities should be used as a model for teachers to creat active lesson plans.

The following sample Energizer activity, "Inches, Feet and Yards. Oh My!" is appropropriate for grade levels 1 through 4:

Formation: Students line up around the room or stand at desks
Equipment: None
Rules/Directions:

1. Have students start with feet side by side and move one set of toes ahead of the other set of toes to represent inches, or "small".
2. Have students place one foot in front of the other to represent feet, or "medium".
3. Have students take one giant step forward or backward to represent yards, or "large".
4. Call our different measurements: Example -- move forward 2 feet, back 5 inches, sideways 1 yard.
5. Have all students move in the same direction.
6. Have students jumping, twisting and stretching between measurements for at least 30 seconds.

Variations:

Add directions (right, left, forward, back)
Use the metric system

More information and a copy of the full Energizers booklet is available for download here.

Science Curriculum Update

Lyondell Partnership Timetable

In mid-November, a meeting with selected staff, including teachers and administrators, and Lyondell personnel to establish guidelines for a partnership between Lyondell and the school district. As part of the partnership, Lyondell engineers and chemists will be sponsors for the Senior Project. In addition an engineer from Lyondell will be included in the Junior Initiative, fall of 2007, as a speaker to inform the class of 2009 how science can lead to many rewarding vocations within the chemical industry.

As part of the partnership, Lyondell engineers will come to the Marple Newtown School to demonstrate how chemistry is used in everyday life and to teach fundamental concepts of science. Mr. Tom Cook, principal of Culbertson Elementary School, contacted Lyondell concerning topics that would be appropriate for third grade students. Subsequently, Lyondell personnel taught a lesson in Mrs. Vickie Herr’s third grade class. The scientists also visited Paxon Hollow to demonstrate science to Ms. Eileen Killoran’s and Mrs. Karen Pantle’s seventh grade science classes.

USDA Forestry Program

In conjunction with the ongoing USDA Forestry Department Grant, Robert Sidlowe, Robert Speca and Elizabeth Marino, ninth grade earth science teachers at the high school, joined the Chester – Ridley - Crum Creek (CRC) Watersheds Association to become more proactive in the protection of our local watershed. Under the supervision of the teachers and CDC personnel, Marple Newtown earth science classes will work in the field to monitor the quality of the water in the CRC Watershed. This will be a real “hands-on” experience to reinforce what is presented in the classroom. Field testing will be done on Tuesday, May 15, and Wednesday May 16. Rain date will be Thursday, May 17. On each day approximately 150 students will travel to four identified locations to test water quality in local streams. The locations are

• Edgmont Township – Crum Creek behind the Regal Theater
• Newtown Township – Goshen Road at the covered bridge
• Marple Township – along Crum Creek Road where the Crum Creek meets Trout Run
• Marple Township – off Palmer’s Mill Road in reservoir park.

In late February, the teachers had training on the equipment being used in the field study. CRC instructors conducted the training. All monitoring and testing equipment have been purchased for the field experience using forest services monies from the grant.

Mr. Sidlowe, Mr. Speca and Ms. Marino have also joined, using Forestry money for dues and fees, the Pennsylvania Association of Environmental Education (PAEE). They will then be attending the PAEE Convention in Wilkes Barre, PA, on April 12-1