As part of the strategic plan developed in 2013, the Milton Academy Board of Trustees articulated competencies that “frame our curriculum, express our educational values, and define areas of mastery for our students” (Milton Academy Strategic Plan). At the same time, the plan called for “comprehensive curriculum renewal that includes all disciplines and curriculum strands across the K–12 grades” (Milton Academy Strategic Plan).
Over the last three years, our Lower School faculty and staff have engaged in robust discussions and thoughtful examinations of what we teach and how we teach, as related to pedagogical discourse. Good schools regularly revise their curricula to meet the changing needs of society, ensure long-term excellence, and implement innovation. In the past decade, perhaps more than any other, there has been a proliferation of research, both practice- and brain-based, on teaching and learning. Based on this research, we know more about how children absorb and retain information, and about how education needs to change if we are to prepare children for the instantaneous, global, information-driven world of the 21st century.
I am excited to share with you some exciting initiatives that highlight our curricular agenda.
Rethinking Curriculum Planning and Design
Under the leadership and direction of Charles Fadel, founder and chairman of the Center for Curriculum Redesign, author of Four-Dimensional Education: The Competencies Learners Need to Succeed, and co-author of both 21 st Century Skills: Learning for Life in our Times, and Deeper Learning, is a world-renowned education thought leader. Our work with Mr. Fadel which began last year, has helped us to view our curriculum through a new lens and has provided an “organizing framework that can help prioritise educational competencies, and systematically structure the conversation around what individuals should learn at various stages of their development.” (Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris).
We’ve invited Mr. Fadel to speak with Lower School parents on November 3 at 6:30 p.m. in Straus. We hope you’ll mark this date on your calendar. Details about the evening will be shared in the coming weeks. For a short YouTube video preview of Mr. Fadel’s work, click here.
English Language Arts Renewal
This year’s curricular renewal focus in the Lower School is our English Language Arts (ELA) program. To facilitate this work, we’ve hired Dr. Carol Jenkins, associate professor emeritus, faculty mentor, and coordinator of the elementary education program at Boston University. Over the course of the year, Dr. Jenkins is working with Lower School faculty to identify both the strengths and the opportunities in our program. She is meeting with classroom teachers, observing our teaching and learning practices, and facilitating cross-grade and cross-divisional meetings about the scope and sequence of English Language Arts learning. As Carol’s work progresses, we will share it with you.
As educators, we engage in ongoing discussions about teaching and learning:
- How do we instill in our students a love for intellectual challenge? Curiosity? Creativity? Confidence?
- How do we equip students with the knowledge of the world? With intellectual and personal skills, that will hold them in good stead? Resilience? Initiative?
- How do we maintain strength and purpose in our educational program while being open to the changes that need to take place so that our students are ready to inherit a world that will be much different than the world of today?
We are excited about the important work that we engage in every day. And I hope you will join me next Thursday morning, October 13 at 8:30 a.m. in the Junior Building for our first Family Education Workshop. At this session, you can expect to hear about these and other initiatives, and how they tie together in the world of our Lower School students.