Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Brrr! It is so cold here! I have worked with these same teacher for many years now, always in January and I am always a bit surprised at the cold. Having grown up in South Dakota you would think that I would retain some ability to deal with it.
The teacher are wrestling with the district’s desire to get the curriculum map to be coherent and use the same terminology throughout and the teachers are more concerned with what works with students. So I just worked with the teachers, listened to their issues, and tried to find solutions that would not require too much of their time. We looked at other models, other essential questions, and other frameworks.
When we got to instructional topics, the teachers were very interested in the difference between “high-frequency” and “early acquired” words. Elementary and secondary split up and worked independently. They got a lot accomplished!