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SCHOOL BACKGROUND: Our curriculum instructional plan reflects the vision of our newly constructed small technology middle school---cross-curricular technology integration. Our school's mission is to raise student ELA and math scores by half a level each year and provide the graduates with sufficient academic, technological and study skills so they are successful in high school and their future educational and career endeavors. Our staff are recruited not only for prowess in their content areas but for their technology skills and interest in incorporating technology in the school wide curricula. Our student population have been labeled as at risk with many scoring level ones and twos on the NY State ELA and math exams. A moderate section of our student population are also English Language Learners.

INSTUCTIONAL PLAN FOCUS:

Our curriculum instructional plan is intended for the eighth grade and will last for a school year. The subject area of focus is technology and is applied across subject areas.

INSTRUCTIONAL VISION:

The structure of the curriculum is based on two concepts; Understanding by Design and Curriculum Webs. The structure that the staff follows in planning will by guided by the backward planning model. This planning is linked to an overarching key idea. The key idea is the linking point of the entire curriculum and how teachers of all learning areas contribute in ways that connect and overlap. Teaching is driven by planning which considers the concepts of the unit, the essential questions students and teachers need to consider, and assessments that demonstrate student understandings.

The basis of technology as an integral part of the framework is spelled out clearly by Bruce and Levin (1997)

Today, interactive multimedia technology provides us with a new way to draw upon children's natural impulses. These new media hold an abundance of materials, including text, voice, music, graphics, photos, animation, and video. But they provide more than abundance. Bringing all these media together means that we can vastly expand the range of learning experiences, opening up the social and natural worlds. Students can explore the relations among ideas and thus experience a more connected form of learning. Perhaps most importantly, these new media are interactive and conducive to active, engaged learning. Students can choose what to see and do, and they have media to record and extend what they learn. Learning is thus driven by the individual needs and interests of the learner.

Our vision is to meet our goal of improving ELA and math performance by leveraging the availability of new media and technology.

GOAL FOR STUDENTS:

Students will demonstrate computer literacy by creating content area unit exit projects in power point, blogs, pod casts, video streaming and a website.

CONTENT BEING TAUGHT:

See unit planning chart which is attached to summary.

STUDENT NEEDS

Along with the need to develop technical skills, the students need intensive math and ELA attention. Toward this end we will incorporate AIS services as a Tier 2 (pull out) intervention. We will implement after school, lunch time, and/or early morning tutoring. In addition to content area teachers providing AIS services in their subjects, we will have a reading specialist and an ESL teacher providing AIS. Software and audio equipment that allow texts to be read to the students in English and Spanish will be available. Open Source programs and student/staff email accounts will be used to facilitate group work and communication between students and staff and between cross content area teachers. An attempt will be made to secure funding for laptop computers to be loaned to individual students. However, if that is not successful, we will provide students with computer access while they are in the building as well as having after school computer lab hours.

SUPPORT FOR IMPLEMENTATION

The teachers would need moral, professional and material support.The administration needs to back the teachers and follow through with plans and promises. The teachers will need professional development as well as all the technological materials to successfully implement the plan.

One aspect of teacher support would be a system of mentors. Teachers that are more comfortable with the technology would be trained to implement the curriculum. They in turn would lead professional development workshops and afterwards act as mentors for other staff members. These second generation staff members would mentor a third generation of staff membors. The idea is to have continuing training by members of the staff who are always onsite.

AVAILABLE RESOURCES

ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Students collect and organize their work in a digital portfolio. Informal assessment takes place daily via teacher interaction. At intervals during the week, the students post status reports and examples of what they have worked on. At regular intervals during the semester, students complete projects that are designed to enhance the student's learning while acting as an assessment tool. Projects vary according to what goals are sought. For example, some projects might assess student knowledge by asking for facts about historical events, and these facts would be presented using the technology theme of that unit. These tools will be building blocks for future assessments that ask students to take the next step toward understanding concepts. The form of the assessments would include whichever technological tool students are working with during the unit. For example, students would create a basic web site to compare civil wars throughout history. Since the assessments throughout the unit are often digital, collecting the work throughout the semester to be presented in a portfolio follows naturally.

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT