The New
Richmond Board of Education has been presented with a K-12 English Language
Arts course of study for the 2013-14 school year that completes a two-year
project by the district to meet the new Common Core State Standards in math,
reading and writing recently adopted by the State of Ohio.
The
school board is expected to vote on the adoption of the K-12 English Language
Arts initiative at its May 20 meeting. Board members received a detailed
presentation of the project from Supt. Adam Bird during their April 15 meeting.
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New
Richmond superintendent Adam Bird briefs school board members (from left) Kim
Hayden, Fred Heflin, Ben Bird, Kevin Walriven and David Hawkins on the
district’s a K-12 English Language Arts course of study designed to meet the
Common Core Standards for reading.
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“This
language arts initiative is the result of more than a year of planning with a
steering committee and grade level teams evaluating our current practices and
the proposed Common Core State Standards,” explained John Frye, director of
Staff and Pupil Services for the New Richmond Exempted Village School District.
Examples
of the project are on display in the New Richmond Board of Education Office on
the third floor of the Market Street building in New Richmond. (212 Market
Street, NRO 45157). Residents are welcome
to browse the presentation which includes all reading materials for grades
K-12, including 180 read aloud books for the district’s Kindergarten classes.
John Frye explains the NREVSD Language Arts Course of Study in detail in this YouTube video:
Frye noted that the Common Core goals are internationally bench marked and emulate expectations found in high performing systems abroad, but do not call for a specific curriculum or reading list.
“Rather,
they lay out an ambitious set of goals for the math, reading and writing skills
that children should acquire as they move through school,” Frye said.
By fifth grade, for example, students will be
required to produce essays in which they introduce, support and defend
arguments, using specific facts and details. By 12th grade, they will be asked
to solve problems and answer questions by conducting focused research projects
— using skills that are generally associated today with the first year of
college.
The
standards are flexible so that states and localities can implement them in
varying ways and New Richmond’s implementation is designed to zero in on a
rich, reading experience for New Richmond students as well as preparing the
district to meet Ohio’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee.
“It’s
important that we have alignment at the elementary level and agreement on
common reading materials so students coming into middle school from our three
elementary schools all have the same background, all have the same experiences
having read the same books,” said Frye.
The
language arts initiative follows new math programs adopted by the district to
align the district’s three elementary schools with the Common Core math
standards.
“Envisions
Math was introduced in grades K-6 two
years ago, and this year, Math Innovations was introduced to students in grades
6-8 that more closely align to new the standards,” said Frye. “Integrated Math
9-10-11 is midway in the implementation schedule as the high school moves to an
integrated approach to teaching the traditional subjects of Algebra I & II
and Geometry.”
