By Sarah Campbell
scampbell@salisburypost.com
EAST SPENCER — An official with the Rowan-Salisbury School System told the Board of Education Monday that implementing the state’s new curriculum model has been a transition a year in the making.
“North Carolina is one of 44 states that transitioned to the common core and essential standards,” said Dr. Rebecca Smith, assistant superintendent of curriculum. “Teachers began that curriculum today and in preparation for that we’ve been training our teachers both face-to-face and online and going through various modules.”
Smith said about 200 teacher leaders gathered this summer to create curriculum maps for the switch.
Teachers also received training last Wednesday and Thursday.
“It allowed them to work collaboratively across district lines,” Smith said. “It was a time to work together, share ideas and build lesson plans.”
Smith said in some ways the district will be “building the plane as they’re flying it.”
“There has been a short window of time to turnaround the process,” she said. “In some cases we have curriculum maps ready for the semester, in other cases we’re mapping as we go.”
Smith said the new curriculum is more defined, requiring complex thinking in which students can make real-world connections.
“Most states and North Carolina used to say the curriculum was a mile wide and an inch deep, we taught everything,” she said. “Now the curriculum in kindergarten through 12th grade is the same idea but deeper.”
The new model incorporates more reading, argumentative writing and critical thinking skills.
“Really thinking about your thinking,” Smith said. “Students make more connections across subjects.”
Smith said the model incorporates many of the things the district had already set out to do, including incorporating technology, differentiating instruction and sparking higher levels of thinking.
“I feel like common core is sort of a vehicle to pull us where we were trying to go and teachers should feel pretty prepared,” she said.
Although teachers were hesitant about the switch at first, Smith said they have really started to buy in to the new curriculum.
“They see they can teach at a deeper level and kids can be more reflective,” she said.
Superintendent Dr. Judy Grissom said she’s been impressed by the initiative teachers have taken.
“A U.S. history teacher told me today that he has thrown out everything he has used over the past several years,” she said. “He wanted to be sure he wasn’t tempted to go back to the old stuff.
“I thought that was amazing for a high school teacher to go to those kind of lengths.”
The new curriculum, developed by a consortium of states, standardizes the content being taught across the country, making it easier for students to transition to another school after moving.
At the end of the year, students will take assessments aligned to the new standard course of study. They are expected to be more rigorous, requiring open-ended answers from students.
“We do not know what those tests are going to look like,” Smith said. “They will be more of a process test whereby students have to integrate their learning from multiple areas.”
Contact reporter Sarah Campbell at 704-797-7683.
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