Sean T. Griffin
Recently the city of New Haven adopted a new performance-based English Language Arts curriculum which was the result of a two-year effort of approximately two dozen district teachers, supervisors, and advisors. This massive document was designed to provide the district with a reading and writing based curriculum that provides teachers with a curriculum which is both flexible and practical.
Each grade level is divided into four quarters in which various genre are the focus of the curriculum, guided by enduring understandings (for example, "students become better writers when exposed to a variety of literature") and guiding questions. The curriculum is proving to be a effective tool in our attempt to provide students with real learning. Through a variety of genre, vocabulary, and literacy performance tasks, students are given the opportunity to develop as readers, writers, and critical thinkers.
For years before the new curriculum came out (pilot year, 2009-10), New Haven teachers were headed in the direction on which this curriculum focuses. The Connecticut Writing Project came to New Haven over five years ago and began training teachers starting with journal writing, and then moving into reading strategies and writer workshop. While the curriculum is completely new this year, the methods utilized are not new to the teachers of New Haven, who have been gradually over the years trained to teach in a manner that puts students at the center of their own learning. In writer workshop, students take a seed from their journal, see it through several drafts, through peer editing and revision, and finally to a polished copy that reflects a vast array of learning that takes place during the writing process.
The time, effort, dedication, and training that have gone into developing the teaching of Language Arts in New Haven have made their way through the system, into teachers' lesson plans, into students' knowledge, and finally onto these pages. Reading workshop, journal writing, writer workshop, and performance based assessment are at the heart of all of my classes. Everything I teach, everything I plan, and all of my units are anchored in these principles of education that have become the backbone of the New Haven Public School Language Arts curriculum.
The city has taken a bold step forward at a time when teaching to the test has become the norm across the nation. By adopting this new teacher-produced, Language Arts curriculum, the city is in effect saying we will not spend our year teaching to the test. Instead we will teach to the students and this will lead to real improvements in student learning which will translate into all aspects of student performance and assessment.