Sept.+2009

September 16, 2009
 * Curriculum Council Minutes**

Nancy Alibrandi, Val Aubry, Michael Bessette, Tina Blinn, Bill Carozza, Steve Chamberlin, Sally Codd, Mark Dickson, Liz Durant, Chris Sousa, Dave Tilley, Trish Underwood Minutes submitted by: Nancy Alibrandi
 * Members Present:**
 * Place and Time: MSS 3:23 - 4:15

Items Discussed: Review of Summer Curriculum Work- Bill Carozza (HMS); Michael Bessette (MSS); Val Aubry (Special Education); Chris Sousa (HMHS) **
 * **Summer Curriculum Work at the Harold Martin School**
 * Bill Carozza worked with Edna Marie Griffin on her plans to podcast with some music students this year
 * The Assembly Committee met to plan events for the year; the first assembly will celebrate Constitution Day by having all students and staff taking a pledge to follow the 3B's (Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible)
 * The third grade team met to analyze MAP testing data, and may develop common assessments
 * Bill Carozza and Nancy Alibrandi started a wiki for HMS staff which is intended to be a portal to important school information, offer links to topics for professional development, and to provide a means for collaborative professional discussions
 * Bill Carozza met with Bonnie McAuliffe to bring more structure to the RTI process for HMS
 * Dot Helm and Karen Pond updated the manual for Digital Portfolios; and developed a proposed schedule for DP's for the upcoming school year
 * Planning was done for this year's Mini Mentor program
 * **Summer Curriculum Work at the Maple Street ****School**
 * Report Card Committee developed a standards based report card; gave careful consideration to each bullet (prioritized toward state standards); now need to look at how best to prepare parents and students for the new format
 * Staff from MSS and HMHS attended a Bullying Prevention Workshop held in the Lakes Region; became profoundly aware of how bullying affects the school in both overt and covert ways; information gained at this workshop was shared with others at MSS's first staff meeting; work will be continued throughout the school year with a consultant, Bill Preble
 * Spelling Committee discussed strengths and weaknesses of Rebecca Sitton program; developed a list of specific expectations for teachers to follow to provide more consistent implementation of the program throughout grade levels; expectations were shared with staff at a combined HMS/MSS staff meeting in early September
 * Michael Bessette, Kate Backman, the technology staff, and Nancy Alibrandi discussed revisions to the Technology Skills Curriculum for the 5th and 6th grade to meet ICT standards
 * Writing Skills Assessment Checklist (exit skills) developed
 * Alternative curriculum for student with specific needs developed
 * **Special Education S****ummer Curriculum Work**
 * Stacy Sezans did RTI work
 * Special Education files reorganized to improve management of data
 * Collaboration amongst 6th-8th grade staff for targeted youngsters needing curriculum accomodations
 * Training on AIMSWEB (computer program that allows monitoring of students' progress throughout the year) at middle/high school level
 * Specialized training for staff working with students with special needs
 * **Summer Curriculum Work at Hopkinton Middle High School**
 * Competencies will be in effect for Freshman and Sophomores; looked at how students will be assessed on these
 * Science Department looked at 7th, 8th, and 9th grade curriculum - moved some units around; developed UBD units and competencies for Introduction to Chemistry and Physics; Science is in the first year (evaluation/data collection) of the Cycle of Curriculum revision - have begun coordinating various science subject areas in order to be able to compare and contrast student outcomes vertically
 * Book discussion based on Robert Marzano's //Classroom Assessments that Work//; hope that this will be a launching point for conversations throughout the year to look at assessments in a broader sense
 * Discussion regarding the Experiential Education graduation requirement - What do students need to do to achieve that credit?
 * **Summer Curriculum - Math Academy**
 * Looked at what committee members currently teach, and what they have taught in the past; committee members are experienced and many have expertise at overlapping grade levels
 * The committee first attempted to "unlock the state frameworks in kid friendly terms" to arrive at Power Standards. Power Standards are the non-negotiables that students must have (content, skills, knowledge and understanding) to successfully complete each grade level. These are similar to competencies, but competencies are graduation requirements for High School.
 * Committee realized they would need to take a different approach to accomplish the job in the time they had available; decided to use the state's five strands for mathematics -identified the units that were most important for each strand up to tenth grade (where electives and competencies for specific courses kick in); then identified the most important concepts for each of those units
 * Had great conversations about when specific concepts should be introduced, practiced, and mastered (realized that once a concept has been mastered, there is still a need to continue to reinforce and practice it at subsequent grade levels)
 * Developed a preliminary list of Power Standards K-12 to be vetted horizontally and vertically with the rest of the staff; mapped out the following schedule: Sept./Oct. - bring Power Standards to grade level teams, then bring feedback back to the committee; Nov. - look at Power Standards vertically (PreK-12), and then tweak again
 * Parallel to this will be a development of common assessments, these will serve as a trigger for tiered support for students who haven't grasped a concept - appropriate support will be needed for these students
 * Steve Chamberlin sees Power Standards as the key to the Cycle of Curriculum Revision and will be interested to see how the process is received by staff
 * Once the Power Standards are in place, we can determine if the //Growing with Mathematics// series that we currently use is still a good fit for our district
 * Other topics for discussion - differentiation, remediation, tiered support, homework, calculators, instruction
 * Have scheduled time throughout the year for committee to meet; will use grant funds to send twelve teachers to regional math conference in Boston
 * Logistics**
 * Welcomed Chris Sousa to the committee
 * Meeting day and time will remain the first Wednesday of the month at 3:15

Update on Hopkinton 2.0 (H20) Committees
 * Next meeting:** Wednesday, October 7, 2009
 * Proposed Agenda Item:**