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The GTACS Curriculum Project
Overview
The GTACS Curriculum Project was launched in the fall of
2001. It dedicated increased resources to the development, implementation
and evaluation of curriculum and instruction in the Grand Traverse Area Catholic
Schools.
Mark Esper serves as the Director of Curriculum and
Instruction for the GTACS and is primarily responsible the design and implementation
of this project. Mark works in concert with Bill Gorney,
curriculum director for the Diocese of Gaylord and with the principals of each of the
GTAC Schools.
The general goals of this project include:
 | To provide improved curriculum building tools to teachers. |
| To implement a standards based,
student-centered curriculum. |
| To improve our written curriculum in a manner that is user
friendly, easy to access and implement as well as easy to update and maintain. This has
been accomplished in concert with the GTACS Technology Initiative which has
created a state of the art network in our schools and provided each of our
teachers with a laptop computer. |
| To raise learning targets so as to focus on enduring understandings,
well-defined knowledge and skills and to promote
critical thinking skills. |
| To provide and promote professional development in support
of this project. |
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Standards Research
This is an overview of the in-service that Bill and Mark have used for introducing our
standards selection process to the teachers in content areas under
review. Major sources we have relied upon include the Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and Mid-Continent Research for
Education and Learning (McREL).
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Progress Report
To date the following has been accomplished.
| In 2001 - 02 all GTACS teachers wrote abstracts for each of the classes that
they teach. Those abstracts can be found in the Content Areas section of this website. In
2002 - 03, as teachers updated their abstracts to include a list of
units taught. These will become the links to their Understanding by
Design units as they are completed.
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| Teachers and principals collaborate to set individual
goals relative to curriculum and instruction. Evidence of progress
towards those goals is incorporated into electronic portfolios which serves
as the base document for teacher evaluation.
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| A GTACS Curriculum website has been developed. It
serves as the medium for the development and posting of our written curriculum.
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| We have contracted with Understanding By Design, a
curriculum building program designed by nationally recognized experts Jay McTighe
and Grant Wiggins. Initial teacher training on the philosophy, applications and implementation of this
powerful resource occurred during Fall 2002. That training continues
during the current semester (Spring 2003).
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| The final draft of the new Diocesan Religion Curriculum
has been distributed to all schools and parishes in the diocese. In-service training for all teachers in the diocese
took place in September 2002 in Gaylord. The religion curriculum document can be accessed on the Religion content
area page.
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| Standards and benchmarks for the diocesan language arts,
math and science curriculums are posted on this site and can be accessed through
the Content Area pages.. Planning time is being provided to teams of
teachers to study, implement
and align standards and benchmarks.
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| A diocesan committee to adopt social studies standards
and benchmarks has been established.
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| A teacher in-service plan has been developed for 2002 - 03
which includes both school-wide efforts and opportunities for teachers to
pursue areas of personal / professional interest. You can view that
plan by visiting the Professional Growth page on this
website.
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Understanding by
Design
Understanding by Design is a powerful web-based program developed by
nationally recognized experts Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. At it's heart
there are two key ideas:
| Developing our concept of what student understanding really looks like and how we can teach more effectively to achieve improved
levels of understanding. |
| It is based
on the idea of Backward Design, that is, starting with the end in mind.
What are the standards, the big ideas, the essential questions, etc.,
that we wish to ensure students learn. The program then moves on to
the development of effective assessments and, finally, to detailed unit
plans. |
Teacher training in the development and implementation of this program during
the 2002 - 03 school year under the direction of Mark Esper, GTACS Director of
Curriculum and Instruction, and Regis McCord, of the Traverse Bay Area
Intermediate School District.
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Ideas? Contact Mark at mesper@gtacs.org
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