Feb+11-12+PD+Meetings

Puxi Division reports - February 11, 2010
Lower ES Looked cross grade level at alignment, at standards to see how the units fit and if there are any standards that are not covered Rewording of some benchmarks to fit No second or fourth grade on committee Third looked at what they are doing unit wise, aligning 3 common units on both campuses Fifth grade aligned standards and benchmarks, looked at what they are doing unit wise, aligning 3 common units on both campuses

Asian History shared what had been done so far. Discussion about proposed changes. Concerns about what was being offered. Proposed that there be a choice between thematic or chronologic. How will proposed choices affect students who transfer from campuses. Standards & benchmarks and skills to be reviewed. Content has been decided and one unit eliminated. (China, Japan, choice)

Economics covered skills, contents, S & B's but included business & management. Standards established, benchmarks yet to be done. IB syllabus as benchmark. Looked at common denominators and whittled down higher level to conform to regular course. Apply what they had for a regular course.

Psych changed wording of one of the standards (1) to reflect more thematic approach. Eliminated one standard from Psych that did not coincide with social studies, but added standard about methodology. Changed format of curriculum from 6 major units to 3, with one optional. One major thread following through. AP/IB style. Standards done, benchmarks mostly complete. Meeting for IB and this curriculum after IB exams to complete review and add to ATLAS. added environmental factors.

Middle School met and needed to agree on basics. Reviewed philosophy, worked on enduring understandings and S & B's. Discussion about thematic vs. chronological. Concerns about student transfers where they may miss units as a result. There are some differences in students who come from Pudong who may not have been exposed to all content but not a big issue. LA and SS in Puxi separate teachers, where Pudong teaches more Humanities based. How to assess expectations of performance, regardless of the approach used? Document that had the major units of study across MS grades made (see google docs) Looked at future of resources, particularly electronic resources. Campus resources are not the same. Looking at developmentally appropriate resources and who is driving the decisions for this?

__Next steps__ Can someone in PD office generate reports across grades to make it easier to look at information cross level? __MS__ Is it essential for students to have to cover specific pieces of history? (no world history before/after Napoleon in HS) Need to look at standards and benchmarks in divisions then have discussions across the divisions to see what is covered Have 5-6 th grade conversations, 8-9th grade conversations about skills that are needed to prepare students for the next year/level Discuss readiness skills (similar to what ES did)

__Economics__ Look at skills cross grade level (Use ATLAS to do search to see skills/keywords)

__Psych__ One meeting to hammer out leveling things out. They are basically coming in with skills they need to be successful in Pysch. Puxi may need one extra piece for abnormal psych, which Pudong doesn't have at present.

__ES__ Add current events unit for upper...no structure in place. Both sides do movement of people, immigration and migration Puxi more immigration to US 1880-1930 Pudong more movements of people around the world US Civil war in Puxi not in Pudong

Third grade economics and current events units to work on cross campus. Need to align with 2nd and 4th grade still, as no reps were present. Maybe have discussions across the divisions with regards to economics. Int'l relations in higher levels, current events at lower grades. Both seem to weave throughout.

Lower ES conversations on units that are being taught and work on choosing units and aligning them. There are transfers mid year that we want to make sure are exposed to all standards.

What do we want kids to be able to do with historical documents?

Where does geography fit in the grand scheme of things? See Jason Robinson for a document that looks across the levels.

New agenda not yet available......we'll check back next time!

Good Afternoon all you Social Studies people!

**High School -**

China and Japan would be the primary foci for Asian studies. Looking at China in modern. The general conscious would be optional depending on the teacher. This provides more time for detail and skill development. Fay and Peter are doing China and Jim would do Vietnam. Doug and Jan in Puxi are doing Japan - Check the wiki space google docs. - As for consensus their is not much beyond this. The scope and sequence needs to be developed. Themes for scope and sequence need to be fleshed out across the campus - Thematical and chronological has been proposed.

How will the proposal effect transfers between the campus.

Economics - Met to discuss the scope and sequence - broke down scope and sequence, skills, and standards and benchmarks. No major disagreements.

Pysch. - looked at standards and benchmarks removed standard 2 and added one on research methodology. Changed the format to 3 major units with a teacher option :

Biological/cultural social/ methodology and the last is an option for the depth and topic

Pudong does not offer abnormal pysch.

Time needed to write possible after the IB exams - scope and sequence is up and unit 1 and 2 have some resources.

Question raised on how the use (non use) of text books effects the long range stability and what is usable (websites / readings etc.) that help integrate.

Need for better understanding of the middle school humanities model

**Middle School -**

Looked at the essential agreements and discussed the terminology that might need to be changed. Sequence is being fleshed out and a big discussion was made over where things are placed. Greece is not taught here in Pudong but where does it belong. There is some discussion on the chronological vs. thematic approach. Looking at the themes and how they may

Humanities vs. Language Arts and Social Studies - is another issue.

I would say that as a MS (Pudong), we are just beginning to look at our approach to teaching Social Studies as more conceptual/thematic instead of teaching in depth history courses. Grade 8 has formulated units that center around Enduring Understandings (3 or 4 per unit) and Essential Questions, all of which align with our curriculum.

I think some of the pitfalls have been concerning ourselves with "covering" certain regions of the world or time periods as the focus, instead of what is at the heart of what has been and is happening in certain areas and times. (Enduring Understandings) I also think there is redundancy in what is taught concerning units on "Who Am I?" since students also get this in Elementary school and need to be pushed beyond this.

3 Units we feel should be core for MS students would be: Development of Humankind/Civilizations, Human Rights, Global Issues. (We think culture, power/government, etc. can be embedded within these overarching units.)

Let me know if you need more input.

As for skills (vs. knowledge), research skills and communication skills as taught via the language arts curriculum. (Validity of sources, primary vs. secondary, speech, debate, presentation, written products, etc.)

**Elementary -** Elementary has plotted out and looked for areas of repetition and discussed what they have and what they need by grade levels. Identified areas that are taught and not (ie economics) We worked together and discussed the lower grades start small and build out from me to the community to the country etc. Next step is to meet again and collaborate to make sure we are meeting the benchmarks and try to ensure that we are meeting the skills as well as content. Most of elementary is in understanding of each other and heading down the right path. Elementary does not have text books so much is done by teacher creation. Grade 4 and 5 the goals are to have the same themes and skill sets the same but to be covering the topics. Same topics, same rubrics but covered differently. Current events is a needed addition to the curriculum.

Information literacy skills is a clear avenue for next steps - 6 - 9 the skills need to be looked at and developed. Suggested that the approaches to learning the skills need to be addressed. Logical approach needs to be considered. Possible have team teaching so that more understanding is of primary documents. //email forwarded to Pudong team from Ron:// I am looking forward to sitting in with you all on Friday and facilitating the development of a shared understanding of the essential objectives of teaching History in our school.

For the meeting, our objectives will be to look at our progress to date the three units of study where each group is with their overviews. We will then work to develop a plan for next steps in creating the units of study (outline the dates for meetings, resources including human, in order to meet divisional objectives)

The plan should fit in to this template

**Who is responsible for what?** || **What are the dates for the meetings?** || **What is to be discussed at the meeting?** || **What resources are required for success?** ||

Looking forward to seeing you all on Friday in the HS Conference room at 8:30.

Sincerely, Ron