The Focal Point
September 2012
Integrating Differentiated Instruction +Understanding by Design
(Connecting Content and Kids)
The authors, Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe, are considered educational
masters in differentiated instruction and understanding by design. They start out in
this book by asking and answering the question: What really matters in teaching
(the students). They shared six axioms and their corollaries that describe how
these two teaching models interface. The first axiom states “the primary goal of
quality curriculum design is to develop and deepen student understanding” of the
content. The second axiom reminds us that “evidence of student understanding is
revealed when students apply (transfer) knowledge in authentic contexts.” The
fourth axiom then describes the necessity of “regular review of curriculum and
assessment design, based on design standards, will provide quality control and
inform needed adjustments. Regular reviews of results (i.e. student achievement)
should be followed by needed adjustments to curriculum and instruction.”
September Calendar
September 3 – Labor Day, Holiday
September 6 - General Principals’ Meeting, Board Room, 9 a.m.
September 7 – 9th Grade Academy Makeup Day, Location TBA, 8 a.m. -3 p.m.
September 12 – School Data Teams, First Two Hours of the School Day at each School Building
September 15 – National Board Certification Support Meeting, 9 a.m., Hedgesville High
September 18 – LLT Presentation, Holiday Inn, 8 a.m. -3 p.m.
September 19 – Instructional Meetings; High School, 9 a.m., Middle School, 1 p.m., Board Room
September 20 - Instructional Meetings; Primary, 9 a.m., Intermediate, 1 p.m., Board Room
September 21 – Secondary Science Fair Meeting, Business Location in Berkeley County, 8 a.m. -3 p.m.
September 25 – LLT Planning Meeting, Holiday Inn, 8 a.m. -3 p.m.
Page Two
September
Teaching Tips
“Graphic organizers provide students with visual information that complements the class
discussion or text. Organizers come in many forms, from Venn diagrams to complex cause-andeffect charts. Although graphic organizers come in hundreds of versions, they can be organized
into four main types: concept maps, flow diagrams, tree diagrams, and matrices. Concepts maps
are a series of words organized by their relationships around a central idea. Flow diagrams are
used to visually display a process, a sequence of events or a time line. Tree diagrams are often
used to classify and categorize information by visually demonstrating how items are related. A
matrix is another way to display information visually in a tabular form to allow the reader to easily
distinguish relationships. Enchanted Learning (www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/)
provides graphic organizers that can be printed directly from the Web site.”
From Creating Literacy-Rich Schools for Adolescents by Gay Ivey and Douglas Fisher
Instructional Updates
Curriculum changes are slowly coming to our classrooms. The Common Core Standards
have been refined by the WV State Dept of Education into the Next Generation Standards
abbreviated by NxG. The areas that are moving this school year to NxG are 1st, 4th, 5th, and 9th
grade Math and English. Kindergarten implemented the NxG Standards last year. The NxG have
been developed and will be implemented for Social Studies K-12. A reminder, the essential
curriculum maps are on our Berkeley County Schools Website. Also, the WVDE website has the
whole curriculum and instructional resources on the Teach 21 webpage. As always, if you cannot
find these areas, please email anyone of us in the Department of Instruction. We are here to help!
Kudos Corner
Kudos to Jodi Kissner, Science Teacher at Martinsburg High School, who is the Teacher of
the Year ’12-’13 for Berkeley County Schools. Congratulations!!
Kudos to all the participants in the various summer workshops of 2012! There were
approximately 250 teachers who attended the Teacher Institutes the second week of June. Almost
100 teachers and administrators attended APL for a week each in June and July. Three weeks in
July, teachers from 1st, 4th, 5th, and 9th as well as selected science, social studies and arts teachers
attended state sponsored Teacher Leadership Institutes in Morgantown for a week. About 100
principals, assistant principals and central office staff spent three days at the end of July and
beginning of August in a leadership workshop. The English 12CR teachers also spent two days in
Morgantown learning about their new course. By mental estimation, that is about 550 teachers
and administrators who took time from their summer activities to hone the skills in their craft!