On February 8th, Matt hosted a webinar about the CKLA curriculum featuring users of the curriculum.
Speakers included:
- Matt Warford, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, Aldine ISD (TX)
- Shawn Hayes, Director of Teacher Development, Jefferson Parish Schools (LA)
- Jennifer Price, Principal, Aldine ISD (TX)
- Jennifer Brown, Principal, Aldine ISD (TX)
Each of the speakers shared a ‘hot take’ about the materials, and we’ve collected them below. We hope you will watch the recording, and enjoy our companion webinar, Understanding the Curriculum Landscape in 2021.
Our Hot Take on ARC Core:
“CKLA has allowed our district to streamline the way in which our standards are taught. We can still use our creative side but a lot of the building work is already done and CKLA provides high-quality instruction throughout our entire district. When grade level teachers meet for PL, we are able to truly discuss where our students are and provide best practice approaches in helping each other succeed.” – Jennifer Brown
“CKLA has a phenomenal balance of skills and knowledge instruction in ELA. Students have the opportunity for daily building of foundational skills critical to gaining literacy along with engaging, cross curricular knowledge lessons that allow students the opportunity to grapple with high-quality text. This work will take time. CKLA can seem overwhelming at first but give grace to grow into the curriculum and its vast resources. When done effectively, you will see teachers modeling instruction that marries good skills instruction and the building of knowledge. We are still working to change mindset so I am not the best to answer this question. However, as we gear up for a huge literacy push in K-5, I feel we will see mindsets change as we build the plan.” – Shawn Hayes
“Give the curriculum a chance. In the beginning it will be slow progress for your teachers and students. It is a different way of teaching and thinking for everyone. What I will say is that it will be so rewarding to see students excel and grow through the curriculum. You will see students having discussions about the Renaissance error and Leonardo DaVinci in 4th grade and that is amazing. You will see 1st grade students discussing Greek Mythology. Do this for students because they are worth it and the gains we have seen our amazing.” – Jennifer Price
“It is a game changer. Everyone can implement CKLA, kids enjoy it and will be successful it…they can do hard things, and takes a huge lift off of teachers from lesson planning to lesson internalization. In terms of improving teaching and learning, we are not actually aligned to the science of reading and implementing a phonics program that is working, our questioning and student task has improved because they are built into the curriculum, and we are giving students access to high-quality complex text daily.” – Matt Warford
