On the last day of term we had a planning day. Not all schools have them, some have a few a year and some have one a term.
I am part of the coaching team that meets to establish the protocols for these days.
We decided that we needed to plan for an Inquiry Approach so that all teams were approaching this with the same information and similar ways of recording information.
We were trying to do an integrated approach but not hitting as many curriculum areas as we wanted.
So Step One - Curriculum Summary
This types of documents have been around for a while and Kate that shared my grade talked to the coaches about doing this.
So I put the domains and dimensions across the top. As a team we then added our topics and went across the spreadsheet highlighting the areas that were part of that topic.
This exposed gaps and then we looked at what we needed to teach and come up with our topic.
The grey areas are areas we teach but do not assess.
Step Two - Find out what our students know and want to know about the topic. We got
them to write down or draw and then compiled them onto the charts below. This would drive our whole planning day.
Step Three- Professional Reading prior to the day. Each team member took hard copies of our curriculum home to read and they needed to be the 'expert' and have a voice for that part of the curriculum.
With a new curriculum - this was a great way to become familiar with and be accountable.
Step Four - A big brainstorm
We spread out and all wrote and all contributed to our plan. The different coloured sticky notes represent different parts of our new curriculum. I was so impressed with out efforts.
We came up with Inquiry questions, tuning in tasks and assessment tasks.
Step Five - Whole School Share
Built into this day was a 15 minute share by each team. Our Principal was so moved she couldn't speak! A hugely successful day by us for our students.
That is what it is all about!
Step Six - to get this to a planner that is portable....keep reading and see the first draft
