Office of Curriculum, Technology, & Assessment

Overview: How do we improve and sustain performance over time? Literacy is the key. Learners need focused attention on reading, writing, speaking and listening in each classroom whether elementary, middle, or high school. Solutions can be found in seamless skill building between grade levels and across departments systemically K-12.

After years of work with K-12 vertical planning through curriculum mapping, Dr. Jacobs has developed an applied literacy model and a set of procedures for assisting middle school buildings and districts in digging in and revising existing curriculum, assessment, and instruction. She will emphasize ways to link with elementary, middle school, and high school. Each and every teacher will be viewed as a language teacher. Every math teacher is a reading teacher; every science teacher is a writing teacher; every art teacher, a speaking teacher. Specific strategies will be presented and simulated in the presentation. A key feature of the presentation will be the design of internally generated benchmark assessments based on targeted applied language skills. Prospects for applying state standards to your school, developing new initiatives as teams, and monitoring student performance increase dramatically with the application of the model presented using curriculum maps. Communication increases dramatically when maps are used across grade levels, departments, and between buildings.

Participants will observe the following:

• Ways to analyze assessment data to make revisions in instruction integrated into the K-12 experience

• Specific teaching strategies for integrating literacy strategies into the classroom

• How to use technology to employ assessment data through maps between buildings

• How to organize and involve all staff members

• The roles of principal, teacher, parents, students, and district personnel to sustain the work

• How mapping literacy can improve student performance
   

Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs has served as an educational consultant to over 1,000 schools nationally and internationally. She works with school and districts, K-12, on issues and practices pertaining to curriculum reform, instructional strategies to encourage critical thinking, and strategic planning. She authored the best selling book, Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design and Implementation, and Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum and Assessment, K-12, both published by ASCD, and numerous articles. She served as an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University, NYC. She has worked with the College Board, NBC Sunday Today Show, Children's Television Workshop, CBS National Sunrise Semester, ASCD, IBM EduQuest, The Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall. She has been featured in the New York Times, Educational Leadership, child Magazine, NASSP's High School, and National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation. The fundamental backbone of her experience comes from her years as a teacher of high school, junior high school, and elementary children in Utah, Massachusetts, and New York.

NSDC Standards for Staff Development

Context Standards
Staff development that improves the learning of all students:

• Organizes adults into learning communities whose goals are aligned with those of the school and district. (Learning Communities)

• Requires skillful school and district leaders who guide continuous instructional improvement. (Leadership)

• Requires resources to support adult learning and collaboration. (Resources)

Process Standards
Staff development that improves the learning of all students:

• Uses disaggregated student data to determine adult learning priorities, monitor progress, and help sustain continuous improvement. (Data-Driven)

• Uses multiple sources of information to guide improvement and demonstrate its impact. (Evaluation)

• Prepares educators to apply research to decision making. (Research-Based)

• Uses learning strategies appropriate to the intended goal. (Design)

• Applies knowledge about human learning and change. (Learning)

• Provides educators with the knowledge and skills to collaborate. (Collaboration)

Content Standards
Staff development that improves the learning of all students:

• Prepares educators to understand and appreciate all students, create safe, orderly and supportive learning environments, and hold high expectations for their academic achievement. (Equity)

• Deepens educators' content knowledge, provides them with research-based instructional strategies to assist students in meeting rigorous academic standards, and prepares them to use various types of classroom assessments appropriately. (Quality Teaching)

• Provides educators with knowledge and skills to involve families and other stakeholders appropriately. (Family Involvement)

NOTE: Each site must audio mute upon connecting to the session to prevent voice activated moving of the cameras from site to site.

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