S3j!

How does the principal promote curriculum, instruction, assessment, and accountability
to ensure student and staff learning?!

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The current seventh grade science curriculum is in a format that was revised in
2004 and 2005. A very user friendly document
with the main subject matter along with
subtopics, outcomes, state standards and
consideration to assessments. This document
was designed to be used as a curriculum map
as well as a content guide. Something very
easy for a young teacher to pick up and work
from. As the years have passed though the
curriculum map part of the curriculum has
changed based on opportunities for students
outside of the classroom. !
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The state standards represented in the
text of this document were the foundation for its
existence until the Next Generation Science
Standards started to show up and have now
taken the place of these former state
standards. I personally have been
incorporating the NGSS for several years in my
seventh grade science classroom piloting the
draft version in 2012. Currently, as a district we
have adopted NGSS and are now working on
our curriculum guide which we are using Atlas
to help organize. All grade level teachers in the
middle schools are working on this process currently. At this stage we have the
curriculum map in place, within atlas we are working to align NGSS standards to the !

subject matter. To the right is an

example of how atlas incorporates
NGSS into the subject matter.
This is just a couple standards
among several that we will
introduce during our invertebrate
animal unit with the intention of

developing mastery in other units later in the school year. We are not done with this
process but have made good progress for the few times we have been able to meet.!
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As far as performance standards, we are working on the I can statements to
make the standards meaningful and measurable. This process is incomplete at this
time but is something that will be done hopefully before next fall. An example of a
measurable standard: MS-LS2-1 Students can analyze and interpret data related to the
effects that resource availability has on an organism and its population. We use various
opportunities to put kids in data collecting, organizing, and interpreting situations.!
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Although we are not at this point of the process, our expectations will most
definitely fit into the analysis, synthesis and evaluation levels of Blooms Taxonomy. This
discussion will be great as we move forward. We have two new staff with little
experience in teaching science. Helping them get their classrooms at the upper levels of
Blooms will make our district better. Overall, we have a veteran, motivated staff that
love to share best practice strategies that can fit into these performance expectations.
When the time is right, we will move in this direction.!
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We have established a strong scope and sequence that allows for a lot of
environmental opportunities. We research invertebrate animals right away in the fall
because that allows us to have students go and catch micro and macro invertebrates
from the waters of the coulee region. Students are able to identify populations in
various waters to establish water quality based on the presence of individual species.
We save the topics that have less outdoor opportunities like cells and cell structures for
the winter when being outdoors with kids wearing shorts is less desirable. Finally, in the
spring we cover fungi when the local morel mushroom is available and plants at the end
when leaves are growing and the forest is coming back to life.!
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Assessments are going to be a real challenge as I do not believe we are all on
the same page with the types and roles that assessments play. After our last class, the
presentation that I was part of related to balanced assessments brought to light the
need for our PLC to educate ourselves a bit more on assessment. The difference
between formative, benchmark, and summative and when they are used and what they
are used for is something I think my PLC will need to move forward. !
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We hoped to include an area for best practice ideas as well as an area that
would store our district activity data. An example of this would be that all seventh grade
students participate in a biotic index survey of the marsh at Myrick Park. We have done
this for a couple of years as an entire grade level but the housing of the kids findings
has been scattered. Biotic indexing is an activity that determines the health of the water
way based on the presence or lack of presence of certain species of aquatic
invertebrates. The students collect, organize and identify species and use math
processes to determine a number that categorizes the water as excellent to poor. What
would be ideal would be to house the protocols for this activity as well as the district
wide data to be cumulative year after year. Any new staff member coming to the district
would have the how to for this activity and we would see less interruption in the
process. As far as a resource location, I am not sure yet how that will be represented.
All of us are using iTunes U to organize our class materials and with that autonomy we
may just keep that separate. Everyone has access to the others iTunes U courses and
can use any of the materials there so we will have to discuss the want to move those
into one location.!

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The strengths of this future document I believe will be its ease of use and
continued evolution. I have always felt that the current middle school curriculum is a
stand alone document that was not very flexible. As a principal in this situation I would
want to see the focus placed on the assessments and their effectiveness in relationship
to demonstrating proficiency in the NGSS expectations. I believe that educating staff to
use the appropriate type of assessment for the desired outcome could elevate a lot of
the all we do is test mentality. Time and money are always an issue but having a
working curriculum document that supports and guides my teaching staff is important to
the fidelity of the science instruction, especially across the district in three middle
schools.