DATE:
April 6, 2017
TO:
Elementary Principals
FROM:
Laura Finlinson, Administrator, Curriculum and Staff Development
Becky Gerber, Language Arts Consultant
SUBJECT:
2017-2018 Language Arts Key Standards Curriculum Maps & Pacing Guides
The Elementary Literacy Specialists, along with the ELA Teacher Advisory Group, have prepared several standards-based resources to assist teachers in their ELA planning for the upcoming school year. Based on feedback from these teams and the ELA Principal Advisory Group, we are scheduling time at each school to help teachers understand the documents and how to use them.
The professional development will include a brief online video about important literacy instructional components that teachers will be expected to view prior to the face-to-face meeting at the school. The on-site meeting will include a review of the standards-based documents, 2017-2018 curriculum maps and pacing guide. We will show teachers how to use the curriculum maps and allow time for team planning so we can provide assistance and answer questions. Each meeting will be facilitated by the Teacher Advisory Group member from the school paired with an ELA teacher specialist and customized to meet the specific needs of the faculty. The meeting is expected to last 1 – 2 hours, depending on what the team is asked to include. Teachers will receive inservice rate for attending meetings scheduled off contract time. Subs will be provided for any meetings scheduled during the school day.
For schools that may need more detailed support in using Journeys, some information can be incorporated into this meeting. More in-depth Journeys training can be scheduled at a separate time, if needed. We will be offering several PD opportunities focused on Journeys during the summer and that information will be sent out following the Spring recess.
To schedule this meeting, please send an email to becky.gerber@jordandistrict.org and include the following information:
- Preferred date (April 26 or later)
- Time
- Any specific requests/questions you would like included/addressed during the meeting
(We can schedule up to 10 schools at a time, so we are pretty confident we can meet all requests. However, having a ‘second choice’ date might not be a bad idea.)
We look forward to the opportunity to assist schools in planning for standards-based literacy instruction for the upcoming school year.
