Schools

District 200 Proposes Middle School Schedule Change, New Electives

Board reviews proposed schedule change for middle schools, science curriculum for high schools.

District 200 staff will work to establish a new schedule with new classes available for middle school students beginning the 2012-13 school year. Staff Wednesday presented to the Board of Education its plans for the changes and new offerings at a meeting at Washington Elementary School.

A group of staff has worked this year to create new electives that "reflect the needs of a 21st Century learner," allow for flexibility for students to take band, chorus or orchestra during the day in addition to electives and to provide block math classes, according to a memo to the Board of Education from Faith Dahlquist, assistant superintendent for educational services in District 200. 

With a new schedule students will have eight, 45-minute periods in one day. Classes will include math, science, social studies, P.E./Health for one period, two periods of language arts, one elective period for music, or math or reading instruction, and one other elective period that rotates throughout the year.

Find out what's happening in Wheatonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Students who do not participate in band, chorus, orchestra, math or reading will take Foundations, an elective that focuses on students' study skills.

Sixth grade: Leadership and Collaboration

Leadership and Collaboration: The course will incorporate social/emotional learning standards. The emphasis will be placed on how to prevent bullying, build confidence and collaborate with others.

Find out what's happening in Wheatonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Seventh grade: Digital Literacy, Project Lead the Way—Design and Modeling and Navigating Informational Services

Digital Literacy: Addresses digital citizenship and gives students practice using various technologies. 

Project Lead the Way—Design and Modeling: Teaches students to keep engineering notebooks. Students will use an industry standard 3D software to create a virtual image of their designs and produce a portfolio to showcase their creative solutions. 

Navigating Informational Sources: Teaches students to navigate informational text, integrate several sources and summarize and evaluate them to create meaning. For example, students would listen to a Martin Luther King Jr. speech and read an article on Rosa Parks and compare and contrast the two. The work in the class will be aligned with what is being taught in social studies and language arts. 

Seventh grade: Performance Seminar, Project Lead the Way—Robotics and Digital Authorship

Performance Seminar: Students will create an end-of-semester performance using skills they’ve built throughout their music, drama, art and speech classes.

Project Lead the Way, Robotics: Robotics students will trace the history, development and influence of automation and robotics. They will learn about mechanical systems, energy transfer, machine automation and computer control systems. They will design, build and program a solution to an existing problem.

Entrepreneurship: Students will use skills learned in speech and visual arts to create and market a product or service.

Digital Authorship: Students will use technology to collaborate and create projects/products that will be used in conjunction with their math and science classes. 

Foreign language classes will be available before school for students that elect to take band, chorus, orchestra, an elective and a foreign language. Students not in band, chorus or orchestra will be able to take a foreign language during the regular school day. 

To implement the new schedule and classes beginning fall 2012, staff will design the courses and apply for funding this month, create course standards and work to create lessons and milestones in January and February. Assessments for the new curriculum will be formalized in March and April and submitted for board approval in May. In June, staff will bring possible new materials to the board and send teachers and continue to train teachers in August.

Dahlquist said Wednesday teachers will need "a lot" of professional development as some will be required to teach different classes. The training will take place over the summer, so teachers are not removed from the classroom, Harris said. 

Funds needed for staff work will come from the FY11 and FY12 Educational Services Department budget.

The board will have an official vote on the new curriculum in January. The board's next meeting is Wednesday, Jan. 11 at .


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here