Jake Brandolino

ELEMED 351
September 26, 2013
Curriculum Analysis
As the time is quickly approaching, I am both extremely excited and nervous to finally
enter the field as a full time math teacher. I am confident in my content and background
knowledge thanks to the education that I have received here at Bloomsburg University. This
assignment is untouched ground for me and I was excited to jump in and see what I could pull
out of provided curriculum. The first issue I had was finding a curriculum I wanted to use. I
settled for an Essentials to Algebra curriculum found within Pocono Mountains Middle School
District. My reasoning for this decision was based on the curriculum being found within the
eighth grade classroom and the school district being a plausible placement for my fall student
teaching. Lets see what I found out.
Right off the bat, I was excited to begin reading through the overview of this curriculum
as Pocono Mountain believes itself to be using an active learning style that reflects reality for the
students rather than traditional teaching style where teachers dump knowledge on kids and
expect them to follow. The curriculum can be accessed through the schools main site
(www.pmsd.org) and provides visitors, me, with links between the courses of study and the
grade levels. As I enter the Essentials to Algebra Curriculum I am happy to see that the school
has broken it up into six categories: Measurement; Probability; Volume and Surface Area in
3-Dimensions; Algebra and Data Analysis; Data Analysis and Statistics; Integer Operations.
These would be my units. I open the six units and see what Pocono Mountain has provided me to
Commented [JMB1]: Self-reflection.
Commented [JMB2]: Neighboring school district to my
home town.
Commented [JMB3]: Pocono Mountains School District
site allowed easy navigation to finding desired curriculums.
work with. Each one is organized into a graphic table and provides the following: Time Frame;
National Standards; States Standards; Unit Objectives; Activities; Assessments. So this is
awesome and I see that the broad scale has provided me plenty to work with. Lets break down
each of the categories listed in the graphic table.
The time frame category is measured by days and gives me a general idea of the amount
of lessons and assessments I need to create for each individual unit. I am happy that it provides
me with this as it is vital for me to plan out an entire year. This is based off of year-round 45
minutes periods. The time frame for the six units read as follows: Measurement 25 days;
Probability 30 days; Volume and Surface Area in 3-Dimensions 10 days; Algebra and Data
Analysis 30 days; Data Analysis and Statistics 10 days; Integer Operations 30 days. I
become negative as I look at this more. First issue is that this only adds up to 135 days. The
average number of school days in a year is 180. So how does this school fill in the 45 days that
are missing? Second issue is that I question the amount of days given to each unit. I feel with
unit objectives that some should be longer and some should be shorter. I am not fully confident
with my assumption and know it is bad to assume. So I will just have to find out if I am right
from experience in the field.
The National and State standards provided in each of the units is extremely helpful. This
is the meat and potatoes of my content that I will use to break down into lesson plans. So I like
this a lot. The only negatives I have to point out is that the school is not exactly updated as they
are using standards from 2007 or 2010 and for some reason some of the units are missing the
abbreviated form of the state standards, i.e. M8.D.2.1.3. I understand that the standards will
change over time and these will need adjusting.
Commented [JMB4]: Provides easy transition for a new
teacher.
Commented [JMB5]: For updated standards I would
search the Common Core for the newest set of published
standards.
The Unit Objectives provided in each of the units is another win for me. This makes it
very clear for me of what I need to accomplish. The smaller units that last 10 days have around
five objectives. Whereas the larger units consist of approximately fifteen objectives that I can
work within my lesson planning. In my opinion going into a school that does not provide
objectives would be a terrifying experience. But thats just me. I can use these objectives on
numerous lesson plans throughout the units.
The activities section within this curriculum is a nice edition. I normally would not
expect to see a school provide me with ideas to add to my lesson plans as I teach each unit.
Granted, the curriculum describes that teacher differentiated instructional projects and activities
are ongoing and based on student need. So it is not all that helpful. It tells me I will be
following the Prentice Hall Connected Math2 text and provides resources found within this text.
Individual activities provided consist of links to websites and resourceful worksheets if extra
content is needed.
The broadest part of this provided curriculum is Assessment. This is fine because I plan
to create my own assessments as I move throughout the year. Pocono Mountain does list the
assessments that they expect me to do: Daily assessments, Quizzes, Partner Quiz, Unit
assessments, Binder check, Math Reflections, Take Home Quizzes, Ace Questions, Projects,
Teacher Monitoring and Observations, Journal Writing and Writing assignments, Oral
presentation. I am aware of all these forms of assessment and would gladly use them within my
classroom. The Assessment section also provides examples of remediation, differentiation, and
enrichment. Remediation consists of provided additional practice and skills workbooks that will
help students adapt to instruction. The differentiation gives me options such as breakout
computer games, test prep workbooks, and content that can be used for enrichment. I find these
resources to be awesome and would be excited to implement them within the classroom. This
information can be huge for me. It all depends on the particular students I receive in my
classrooms each year.
In conclusion, I would say that I am happy with the curriculum I found provided by
Pocono Mountains Middle School Curriculum. I chose happy I chose an eighth grade Essentials
to Algebra course because odds are that I will eventually end up teaching algebra. I am very
impressed with how they broke the course down into units for me and then provided standards
and objectives for me to follow. This will make it easy for me to plan out my year. I am
pessimistic with the time frame provided for the units for it adds up to only account for 135 days
of the year. With that said I am unaware of the days filled in with state testing and possible
outcomes of snow days. The curriculum is also a little dated as most of it is from 2007 and 2010.
I view the activities provided as a bonus to me and will help me with variations of lesson plans.
The assessment is very broad but that is okay for I plan to create all of my own assessments and
the school has listed forms that they expect to see from me. I know that I am ready to go if I find
myself working with a curriculum like the one I just analyzed. Overall this assignment has
provided me with confidence entering the next step within education.