EDL 687

October 21, 2014

Fall Portfolio Entry C

Doug Van Pelt

Social Studies Curriculum meeting

October 16, 2014 - HS Room 305
Members present: Anthony McPhillips, Jimmy Motz, Jen Harlow, Tessa Kroksh, Josh Hood, Doug Van Pelt
Priorities for this school year:
Review of new materials o [Josh H.]: havent reached the content where I will begin to use the new resources
o [Anthony M.]: spent a lot of time figuring out resources (Houghton Mifflin) but working well now (thanks to Mason
o
o
o

S.);
[Jimmy M.]: have used maps in classroom already, need time to play with resources
[Pat H.]: would probably prefer B/L masters over online resources;
[Tessa K.]: elementary teachers guide could be bigger and provide more answers

Collaborative project ideas - working with other grades, curriculum areas, etc.
o [Elementary staff]: Distance/Virtual Learning:
research opportunities
collaborate with other schools on projects, geography?
o [Middle school staff]: Field trips changes:
MS: Civil War at Stuhr to Jimmy?
MS: trip to Indian Hill by Palmer for Anthony?

[Doug VP]: New Social Studies priority = Writing emphasis to support Reading and Writing NeSA tests
(handwriting AND keyboarding)
o creative fiction, historical narratives, collaborative documents using Google
o Elementary - what do we currently have in place? can we build writing skills through existing curriculum?
writing component of Reading Mastery?
can we add guided instruction piece to 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade
o Middle school - journaling, current events, L-to-J
Anthony - ASOT #2 - notetaking and summarizing
add writing component to quizzes
o High School - collaboration with English, essay tests
weekly writing prompts
historical narratives

Support/resources needed:
Help with purchased resources o can we add elementary staff to Stratologica? - [Anthony M.]
o get Stratologica rep out to help putting the resource to work; - [Anthony M.]
o get McGraw Hill out to provide more training for elementary staff; - [Doug VP]
do we have a teachers manual with answers Science Fusion?

I am submitting my notes from our social studies curriculum meeting last week for my Fall Artifact C. The notes
represent a sample of my opportunities leading a collaborative team. These notes represent Organizational
Leadership for me, this group is engaged in developing the vision for the social studies curriculum by using data to make
informed decisions about where our content area can contribute to the overall educational environment in the CCPS.