ELA Team New Curriculum Onboarding Ideas by Julia Cooper

Backwards design

rachel1592 — 2025-03-27 16:59:51 UTC

How is this curriculum employing backwards design?

meredith63 — 2025-03-27 17:00:09 UTC

Mindset--> I can figure this out.

There are a lot of similarities

meghan193 — 2025-03-27 17:00:34 UTC

Instead of focusing on what's new I try to make connections to what I already know and can leverage

meredith63 — 2025-03-27 17:00:41 UTC

Review the assessment structure as one of the first steps; find, and read in full, program overview/curriculum guide

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:00:49 UTC

Read any "program or implementation guide" that may exist, read at least one unit's and a couple of lessons in full

jessicaantonio3 — 2025-03-27 17:00:55 UTC

It's helpful to spread out the learning over time and mapping out when I will do a deep dive on key components.

meredith63 — 2025-03-27 17:01:07 UTC

Connect with people who have taught the materials before as a final step

Empathetic/Application Mentality

Katie_Twa — 2025-03-27 17:01:19 UTC

Approaching the new curriculum through the lens of myself as a teacher. I review it as if I’m preparing to teach it to my students within the week. I compare it to prior knowledge (i.e. prior curricula, teaching methods, etc.) while aligning with the key aspects of quality curriculum I look for based on research while naming how this new curriculum meets all of those needs.

meredith63 — 2025-03-27 17:01:27 UTC

Deep dive into one full unit/section/lesson using aligned protocols

both and

meghan193 — 2025-03-27 17:01:32 UTC

there is benefit to following a really structured approach AND there is a benefit to getting lost in the materials - put on your teacher hat and your curriculum expert hat

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:02:14 UTC

jumping in & taking notes on noticings to begin. keeping notes in a centralized place so you can refer back to them, revise and update as you learn more

Maintaining a learner mindset

staci35 — 2025-03-27 17:02:23 UTC

Approach with curiosity

Mindset: At some point, the knowledge building is critical. Texts must be read. Content knowledge must be built.

melanie823 — 2025-03-27 17:02:41 UTC

renee255 — 2025-03-27 17:02:57 UTC

Understanding my learning style. What works for me, what are my gaps, how can I process information, etc?

IF Foundation Skills, where are the moves of S.O.R. (or synonymous research) living? (ex: teacher model, student practice and interaction, data collection)

rachel1592 — 2025-03-27 17:03:14 UTC

Find the things, and then prioritize the things.

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:08:20 UTC

meredith63 — 2025-03-27 17:14:19 UTC

Including curriculum onboarding in the specialist onboarding process is a great use of time; can forecast and back-map using onboarding plans

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:15:35 UTC

possible danger: misaligned understanding or vision

meredith63 — 2025-03-27 17:16:01 UTC

Critical part of HS ELA/any SS HQIM is knowledge building and having deep knowledge of text; must know the texts to understand the 'why' behind instructional strategies and practices in materials; this type of knowledge slows us down

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:16:07 UTC

connected bridge: getting clear on the curriculum designer's intent and how that meshes with our approach and beliefs at SchoolKit

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:16:43 UTC

Start with big picture understanding of the curriculum, and then get granular with specific units or lessons they need to know for content and facilitation.

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:17:07 UTC

possible danger: not going the right "level of depth" into the curriculum - what is the right level?

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:18:28 UTC

Build our own understanding of how deep you can ACTUALLY go into specific products, and where that differs - and make that clear to the person learning it

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:18:42 UTC

possible danger: maintaining the integrity of the curriculum

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:19:04 UTC

bridge: naming and understanding the non negotiables and key foundations of the curriculum and its processes for implementation

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:20:17 UTC

challenge/danger: there's a LOT of nuance not only in the materials but also in the client (realities of teachers' experiences)

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:21:09 UTC

we need to figure out and name the purpose and goal of curriculum onboarding

meredith63 — 2025-03-27 17:21:22 UTC

Not having a full understanding of team's curricular gaps - who knows what materials and how deeply

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:21:35 UTC

how do we get access to the right things we need to actually onboard?

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:22:49 UTC

what's the right balance of simplify/clarify while also acknowledging the nuance of each product?

meredith63 — 2025-03-27 17:23:01 UTC

Helping us move fast- leveraging onboarding plans that already exist and updating them / using the process with new materials.

meredith63 — 2025-03-27 17:24:57 UTC

Not having access to materials that are not free/open

Organizationally, what is our approach to this across teams?

julia607 — 2025-03-27 17:28:23 UTC