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Home/ Curriculum and Instruction |
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A
primary goal of the West Bridgewater School District is to honor the
intellectual capabilities of our students.
While the responsibility of student achievement lies in large part with
the school and in the classroom, student academic success is strengthened when
there is a strong partnership between home and school. We encourage parents and
guardians of our students to stay connected to your student’s academic
program. West
Bridgewater is committed to hiring and retaining highly qualified teachers who
work directly with our students. Our
faculty members commit themselves to the effective implementation of our
curriculum, which includes presenting coherent connections to the curriculum,
instruction, and assessment. We
encourage parents and guardians to get to know your child’s teachers and find
out what is needed to assure academic success. An
important district goal is to assure a seamless curriculum from grades PreK to
grade 12. The
Massachusetts State Curriculum Frameworks serve as a reference place for West
Bridgewater’s curriculum. The
State’s curriculum documents provide understanding of the skills and knowledge
for student learning. Our
curriculum program covers the following areas, English/Language Arts,
Mathematics, Science and Technology, History and Social Studies, Foreign
Language, the Arts and Comprehensive Health.
While often teaching activities focus on one of these areas at a time, we
also encourage the connections between subjects into interdisciplinary studies.
Below
are brief excerpts from the state frameworks that guide our academic programs. The full text of each framework can be found at the following
website: www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/current.html. English/Language
Arts: “English Language Arts is based on two important concepts. First, learning in
English language arts is recursive. That is, students at every grade level apply
similar language skills and concepts as they use increasingly more complex
materials. In this way, students build upon and refine their knowledge, gaining
sophistication and independence as they grow. Second, although represented
separately in the framework, the strands—Language, Reading and Literature,
Composition, and Media—are, in fact, interdependent. Each strand intertwines
with and supports the others. Students might at any time read and write, view
and discuss, or interpret and perform in order to understand and communicate
meaning. Thus, at all grade levels, effective English language arts curriculum
units weave together skills and concepts from several strands to support student
learning.” (Page 5 Massachusetts English Language Arts
Curriculum Framework, June 2001) Mathematics: “The
five strands
organize
the mathematical content: Number Sense and Operations; Patterns, Relations,
and Algebra; Geometry; Measurement; and Data Analysis, Statistics, and
Probability.
This
curriculum framework envisions all students in the Commonwealth achieving
mathematical competence through a strong mathematics program that emphasizes
problem solving, communicating, reasoning and proof, making connections, and
using representations. Acquiring such competence depends in large part on a
clear, comprehensive, coherent, and developmentally appropriate set of standards
to guide curriculum expectations.” (Page 7 Massachusetts
Mathematics Curriculum Framework, November 2000) Science and Technology: “The
four strands organize the content areas into earth and space science,
life science (biology), the physical sciences (physics and chemistry), and
technology/engineering. Each strand details the essential knowledge and
skills that students should acquire through the grades.
The learning standards within each strand are organized by grade span and
grouped by History
and Social Studies: “In
this curriculum framework, the four disciplines of history, geography,
economics, and civics and government are integrated in the learning standards;
they are not presented in four separate strands. This organization supports the
teaching of a coherent historical narrative.” (Page 8 Massachusetts History and Social
Studies Curriculum Framework, October 2002.) Foreign Languages: “The
Strands (Communication, Cultures, Comparisons, Connections, and
Communities) describe the overall content and skills of foreign language
learning, teaching, and assessment.” (Page 11 Massachusetts Foreign Language
Framework, August 1999.) The Arts: “The
Strands (The Arts Disciplines: Dance, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts; and
Connections: History, Criticism, and Links to Other Disciplines) describe the
overall content and skills of learning, teaching, and assessment in the arts.”
(Page
24 Massachusetts Art Curriculum Framework, October 1999.) Comprehensive Health: The strands include the following areas, Physical Health, Social and Emotional Health. Safety and Prevention, Personal and Community Health Information. (Page 3 Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Framework, October 1999.) A vitally important part of curriculum is assessment. In the West Bridgewater Public schools, we integrate many different types of assessment, each whose aim is to provide evidence of student learning. The teachers use this evidence to help direct the future learning activities as feedback to the student for further effort. Each type of assessment is important. Just as students have different learning styles, there are also different ways that students can share their understanding. FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT:
Within the classroom, assessment is going on all of the time.
Informally the teacher checks for understanding through discussion,
questions, short quizzes or written work. There
is always on-going assessment at which time teachers are checking for
understanding. This evidence
provides the teacher and the learner with a sense about how the student is
forming their understanding and mastery of knowledge and skills.
SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Student learning is also assessed at the end of a unit or a quarter or the year. This is to see what is the “sum” of all that has been learned. This may take the form of a longer writing assignment, a culminating project, a presentation, or an exam. This type of assessment asks students to demonstrate the skills they have learned, as well as their conceptual understanding. Teachers assess this evidence of learning against criteria, which is expected to show proficiency. STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENT: Often school districts and parents what to know how the district, or school of child is doing when compared to a state or national standard. Standardized assessments are used for this purpose. The Terra Nova and IOWA tests are nationally normed test. These tests assessed the skills and knowledge of students that there is some national consensus should be learned. The MCAS is also a standardized assessment but
unique to Massachusetts school districts. This
assessment is linked directly to our State curriculum frameworks and rates
students performance in one of four areas; advanced, proficient, needs
improvement and warning/failure. Various
parts of this assessment are given at different grade levels and in different
subjects. The West Bridgewater’s goal with regard to student performance on the MCAS is to increase the percentage of students who score advanced and proficient and decrease the percentage of students who score warning/failure on the tests. It is important to remember this is only one type of assessment, one in which we take seriously. It is a high stakes test with high standards since the State does not want to award a high school diploma if a student fails the math or English/Language Arts MCAS. Below is a list of the standardized tests that are given in each grade level. Please call your child’s school principal if you want more information regarding these tests or your child’s results.
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