You may have seen me at arrival and dismissal but not known my role at The Berkeley School, since I spend most of my time behind the scenes with teachers, administrators, and in classrooms. As K-8 Director of Teaching & Learning, one of my main roles is providing structures and support to classroom teachers to keep our curriculum rooted in best practices, while being responsive to 21st century students who will grow into a future we can only imagine.

Each August, February, and June, teachers spend time updating their curriculum maps, and get together in grade level teams to review the learning outcomes we expect students to achieve. These learning outcomes are reported to parenting adults in progress reports, and published in our Curriculum Guide, which you heard about at Back to School Night.  

But where does that curriculum come from? And how do we evaluate and develop it to enable students to “engage a changing world?”

As an independent school, we are fortunate to provide teachers with autonomy to teach things they are passionate about, yet we always balance that with best practice standards based in research. In addition, we have collaborative structures like divisional Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). Teachers meet every two weeks to support one another in strengthening effective habits of teaching and learning, make our process and progress visible to one another, and create a culture of collegiality where continuous improvement and help seeking are abundant. In PLCs, teachers use assessment and reflective practices to create curricula that are true to our mission and meet the needs of our students. And finally, we have ECC-8th grade Faculty Committees that help us make progress on strategic initiatives.

For example, for our elementary math curriculum, we look at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Principles and Standards, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the TERC Investigations learning outcomes, and other resources detailed in the Curriculum Guide. We plan lessons from Investigations as well as Montessori math in K-2nd grade, JUMP Math, and since last year, rich problem-solving units called Contexts for Learning Mathematics. Problems and hands-on approaches like these are recommended by Jo Boaler, a Stanford Math Educator who has a helpful website called Youcubed.org with more information about research-based approaches to math. Seven math teachers took an online Jo Boaler course at Stanford last summer that we shared with faculty this fall. Last year in the K-2nd grade PLC, teachers and I looked at the development of number sense, refined learning outcomes, determined which assessments to use, and looked at student work to differentiate. We are currently working with a math consultant, Paula Symonds, in 3rd-5th grade to assist teachers in expanding differentiation, and she is helping us explore new elementary math curricula to use moving forward.

Our Middle School (MS) math curriculum is developed using much the same approach, looking at the NCTM standards and the CCSS learning outcomes, as well as other best practice sources. We draw from Connected Mathematics, JUMP Math, and other resources, including a standard textbook, Elementary Algebra, and provide rich problems and projects providing choice and differentiation. The Middle School Math PLC meets every other week to look at learning outcomes, share assessment ideas, examine student work or MAP assessments, and refine curriculum and instruction.  

In science, we have partnered with BaySci at Lawrence Hall of Science for the past two years to move our curriculum and practices towards the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and other research-based best practices in science and engineering education. BaySci completed a needs assessment and helped inspire teachers, with the assistance of parenting adults in our community, to create a TBS Science Vision statement at the end of 2015-16. BaySci also provides professional development twice a year for K-8th science faculty, for example, using modeling, or supporting claims with evidence. The MS Science PLC, like the Math PLC, meets every other week to examine the NGSS Performance expectations, align our learning outcomes, share assessments, and design the 6th-8th grade science curricula.

The ECC-8th Science & Technology faculty committee is helping us move closer to our Science Vision, by documenting our science scope and sequence, including at least one NGSS unit per class, supported by the donation to the 2016 Count Me In drive and the purchase of one NGSS-aligned FOSS unit for each K-5 classroom. Faculty on the committee are joined by our Info Literacy team of librarian Rebecca Greco, EdTech Specialist Susan Winesmith, and IT Director Jose Arellano, and the group has been looking at technology standards developed by the ISTE, determining which technology skills are taught and which are not yet taught at TBS, with an eye to developing a draft scope and sequence and vision for technology. As you may also know, Susan has also been piloting and developing a scope and sequence for Digital Literacy in 3rd-8th grade classes this year, based on Common Sense Media’s curriculum, as well as one for keyboarding in 3rd-5th grades.

While it can be challenging to ensure that our responsive curriculum is relevant, up-to-date, and truly meets the needs of our students, it is also an exciting opportunity! By creating collaborative structures like regular curriculum map reviews, PLCs, and faculty committees, we are doing our best to make sure decisions about curriculum are not made in a vacuum, and that our curriculum is continually improving. It’s a challenge our reflective, curious, and dedicated faculty and I are excited to face.

Sima Misra, Director of Teaching & Learning