WEBVTT

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Craig Mullenix: I
am Craig Mullenix,

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principal at MacArthur
Ninth Grade School,

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in Aldine Independent School
District, Houston, Texas.

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Chris McCurry: And I am Chris
McCurry, department chair

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of biology at MacArthur
Ninth Grade School.

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Mullenix: It's important to
use data to develop curriculum

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because you want to know
exactly what strengths

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and weaknesses students
have coming

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into the school before you
develop your curriculum.

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You need to know what areas
students have low scores in so

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that you know when you
develop your curriculum,

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what areas need more
concentration.

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You have to balance student
needs with national, state,

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and district curriculum
standards.

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I think the first thing that we
do before we write curriculum

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in the summer, we get all of
the students' data in at the end

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of May or the beginning of June,

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then we get several
curriculum teams together

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for our core areas, and when
I talk about core areas,

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we're talking about
math, science,

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social studies, and English.

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We get teams of curriculum
writers together.

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You want to have an
administrator that's able

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to look at what's being written.

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You want to have teachers
writing the curriculum

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so that they buy in to it.

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And you also want to have some
curriculum experts that can look

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at the content of what's being
written, as well as teachers

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that know about pedagogy
and teaching techniques.

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So we get our teams
together in the summer.

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We look at the data, we
look at national standards,

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we look at state standards, we
look at district requirements,

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and we make a determination
of exactly what's the process

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that needs to be followed
throughout the year.

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We take the district objectives
and then we try to get

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as specific as we can with
each objective according

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to student needs,
according to student data,

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and according to
state standards.

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McCurry: Although we do write
the curriculum in the summer,

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during the school year we
build on what we have done

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in the summer by making the
kind of changes that we need,

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and those changes
are based on the data

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that we gather at
every assessment.

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The use of data to develop
curriculum has impacted our

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instruction in that we found

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that certain teaching
strategies are more successful

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with certain content areas.

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For example, in science,
we teach the structure

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of the DNA molecule,
and we have found

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that creating a visual
diagram of the DNA molecule

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in a whole-group setting led

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by the teacher is
much more successful

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with that certain
specific content area.

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In other ways though,
working in small groups,

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such as studying the steps of
cellular reproduction, mitosis,

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is much more successful
when students are working

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with students because activities
such as mitosis are more

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of a sequencing activity,
putting things

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in correct sequence,
using visual cues

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and prior knowledge is better
between student and student

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with the teacher more guiding,

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rather than directly
leading, the instruction.

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Mullenix: Just as important
as the final document is

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in writing curriculum is the
process that the teachers go

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through when they
write the curriculum,

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because in effect what you are
doing is you have professional

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development or staff
development going

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on while you are
writing the curriculum

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because the administrators, the
teachers-everybody participating

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in the process-have
to look at curriculum.

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You have to study, you have to
look at what the objectives are,

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you have to study what
national standards are,

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you have to know what
state standards are.

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McCurry: In my experiences
writing curriculum,

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I have learned that
curriculum writing is something

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that cannot be repeated
year after year and expected

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to get the same result.

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You have to look back
at the data every time

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that you assess your
students, whether that would be

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through a six weeks' exam
or even a weekly lesson,

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and see where you
were successful,

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where you were unsuccessful,
and continue to apply the skills

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that you have learned
through curriculum writing

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to the next week's lesson,
the next six weeks' groups

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of lessons, and even the next
year's set of curriculum.

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It's not something that
can be static at any point,

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and it's truly the greatest
challenge I find as a teacher.