From K-12 Dive
By Lauren Barack
June 30, 2021
Dive Brief:
When children return to school this coming fall, curriculum designers and stakeholders may want to consider using assessments to get a read on the educational strengths and needs students, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, a middle school English language arts teacher, writes for Edutopia.
With the social-emotional needs of students likely a high priority, educators may want to consider where to streamline assignments so standards and skills are addressed, but with an eye to time management. One suggestion is to use cross-curriculum opportunities so multiple subjects are covered together, while another is looking at where students are already learning a skill inherently in a project without it being explicitly taught.
Educators may also want to focus on core standards they and their teaching teams believe are the highest priorities, while considering setting others aside this year.
Dive Insight:
Schools and districts will be looking closely at goals and standards for the coming fall in an effort to help support learning after students return to classrooms from the past year’s experience.
Students will have other needs, as well, including social-emotional concerns as many re-acclimate to full-time, in-person learning. After a year of being relatively isolated from peers, and perhaps experiencing trauma from sudden changes in their personal and family lives, children may benefit from an enhanced focus on social-emotional learning (SEL) tools.
Chief academic officers and other assistant superintendent level roles overseeing curriculum and instruction may be able to address both at once by weaving SEL tools directly into curriculum. Educators can add dance and movement exercises into math classes, bring SEL skills into science courses and health curricula, and more.
While a return to in-person learning may have stakeholders eyeing how to shore up curriculum from the past year, educators can still address SEL needs and help support students both academically and emotionally.
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