My journey to understanding the research on how kids learn to read was decades longer than it should have been. I started my career in the classroom, as a special education teacher. I hadn’t learned the essentials during my teacher preparation. Then, even though I worked with children with disabilities, I didn’t learn what I […]
As high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) become increasingly prevalent in K-12 classrooms, the instructional landscape is undergoing significant change. We need teacher preparation programs to keep pace with this evolution. Historically, teacher preparation programs have treated individual lesson plan creation as THE essential teaching skill. Teacher candidates are graded on their ability to create a lesson […]
As we look back on 2020, it’s hard to deny the chaos and uncertainty around our work that this global pandemic has foisted on educators. Together with an awakening about racial injustice, the pandemic has inspired necessary conversations about educational equity and access – with no easy answers. For curriculum leaders and academic officers, we […]
In 2020, if you were doing equity work, you were taking a hard look at your curriculum. The big equity conversations happening across the country are appropriately asking: “How do we ensure that students are experiencing culturally sustaining instruction? How do we bring the ‘science of reading’ into classroom practice, so that all students become […]
Our recent webinar, The Shift From Reading Workshop to Research-Aligned Curriculum, was the most popular #CurriculumMatters event yet. We weren’t surprised… in fact, we held this webinar by popular demand! After recent acknowledgements of flaws with Reading Workshop by its author Lucy Calkins, a number of schools appear to be considering a change. Accordingly, questions […]
It’s no exaggeration to say that we’ve been gobsmacked by the Aldine ISD team this year! We were delighted to add one of its leaders to our ranks: Matt Warford, the Executive Director of Teaching and Learning – who hit the ground running with his first webinar. We had to share some of the exemplary […]
The webinar we held two weeks ago (back before the election consumed our collective attention…) had the highest turnout yet of any Curriculum Matters event. It’s a testament to the level of interest in a topic – the Science of Reading – whose flames were fanned by brilliant reporting, but whose embers were smoldering in […]
This is an exciting week for Curriculum Matters! In the midst of welcome buzz about curriculum, we’re excited to debut a new website and announce the addition of nine new members of our PLN! It doesn’t get much better from our corner of the world!!! Two years ago, when a few of us started gathering […]
We love the growing conversation about the importance – especially in 2020 – of high-quality curriculum. Lately, the buzz about curriculum has been hard to miss. Here’s what has the field talking: Renewed Concerns About a Popular Curriculum Lucy Calkins, the author of the Teachers College Readers Workshop program, recently acknowledged a longtime concern about her program – […]
The Green Garner Award, presented by the Council of Great City Schools, honors educational leaders from urban school districts. This week, the 31stannual award will be presented to one of twenty finalists—all of whom are impactful, inspiring leaders. No matter the winner, they will have earned it! Leading an urban district at any time is […]
