Teaching methods at Webutuck set to change

WEBUTUCK — The staff at the Eugene Brooks (Webutuck) Intermediate School is working tirelessly to plan for a curriculum change that will be implemented beginning in the 2011-12 school year.The school wants to strengthen the “vertical alignment” of the academic instruction for the fourth, fifth and sixth grades.The vertical alignment, or the planning and coordination across grade levels, is done in two areas: the curricula and the teaching methods.For the vertical alignment of the fourth- through sixth-grade curricula, teachers will need to plan the order and extent of subjects to be taught in each class and grade so that each year’s subject matter will serve as a foundation for the following year’s instruction.For the vertical alignment of the teaching methods, the staff will need to coordinate with each other to decide which methods are the most effective for each subject and grade level, then use only that method of teaching.The vertical alignment has many proponents, but the way it is being implemented has been controversial.The change was first proposed at a board meeting at the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, but it was sent back to the drawing board after it was decided that more planning, discussion and interdepartmental communication were necessary.Since the 2011-12 school year will also see changes in the state’s requirements for the core classes, there has been a lot of effort put in to make the vertical alignment change happen at the same time as the state’s changes.“With the changes happening at the state level, it’s the right time for this kind of change to happen in the school, but it’s never the right time to have change without the time needed for planning,” said Dale Culver, the Webutuck Board of Education president. “Communication and collaboration are key to success.”As it stands now, the curricula are departmentalized by grade, meaning there is a group of teachers for each grade that teaches all subjects to the students in their grade.Once the vertical alignment is put into place, the curricula will be departmentalized by subject across grades. That means that a team of math teachers will be created to teach all levels of math to the students in fourth through sixth grades. A separate team of teachers will be formed for every subject.“Teachers were expected to be experts in everything,” said Nancy Gagne, the president of the teachers’ union. “Now they will need to be experts in just one subject.”Because of the enormous amount of planning that is necessary for this kind of curriculum change to go smoothly, the teachers were hoping that the change would be put off for a year.The school district had originally allotted the teachers a small number of half-days during which they could meet with each other and plan next year’s curricula for each grade level and each subject. After insisting that more time was needed to complete proper, thorough planning, the teachers were given a few more days’ time.“Teachers aren’t against change. Teachers are always looking for a better method, but we want to be prepared,” said Gagne. “If we don’t have enough time to prepare, the ones who will be hurt most are the kids.”