A Good Curriculum Must Also Have Scope and Sequence

In following up to our article on the lack of curriculum in our HSE School District, we want our district families to understand what else we are missing to facilitate “academic excellence”. Not only have we not adopted a curriculum in Language Arts for K-6, we also lack scope and sequence, which sets up the order and materials used in teaching the curriculum. Let us explore why scope and sequence is so important to have for our teachers, parents, and students.

Scope and sequence is defined by a list of the concepts, topics, and overall material that is to be covered in a curriculum. That may include books, courses, or the lesson plans in a particular curriculum.

Scope is the skills content and areas of development.

Sequence is the progressive order in which these skills are taught.

Together, these important tools used by educators are a guide for what specific skills and content will be taught and in what order they will introduce the content. For the newer teachers in our district (past 6 years), they have had no scope and sequence, textbooks, or any curriculum mapping to follow in Language Arts. Not only is it a lot to expect of a new teacher, it's also very time consuming for them to come up with the content all on their own. Teachers that have been teaching for years would be able to draw on their past experience and materials to help them teach in these areas where our curriculum is lacking.

The HSE School District has been lacking in curriculum in the Language Arts area, which includes reading, writing, and grammar for our young elementary children since 2014, when we adopted the “philosophy” of Lucie Calkins “Units of Study” (https://www.fishersone.org/articles/the-tale-of-two-curriculums). In other districts, such as Mt. Vernon and Noblesville, they have scope and sequence or “curriculum mapping” for each grade level. The teachers collaborate together in order to determine what material needs to be taught and in what order they will teach it. At the end of each grading period, they all should have taught the same thing and be on the same page. In talking to former teachers, they all agree it was a mistake to get rid of this system the HSE district had years ago. It helped in situations when students moved from one elementary to another in the district and with this mapping, if everyone is teaching the same lessons at the same time, there should be no gaps when transferring. It also helps hold everyone accountable when lessons are laid out for teachers, parents, and students to see.

Without structure from the teachers and our district, we are seeing students who can not write, capitalize sentences or know to put a period at the end of a sentence when reaching intermediate school. Their handwriting is so poor that intermediate teachers can not decipher a student's work enough to correct it, nor do they have the time to devote to every single student. Reading, in general, is below where most should be at the 5th/6th grade level. Added to the lack of curriculum, is the lack of books to follow along with what our children are learning. The iPad has been implemented 100% in our elementary schools to the detriment of our younger students. They are no longer learning lessons from books, or even a link to a book, because Lucy Calkins does not provide those materials. Teachers must supplement their lessons, as we said above, with things they find on their own. For a new teacher this can be very costly.

In today’s world, what our school district expects from our teachers has become absurd. They want them to create their own curriculum to ensure the success of our children, and yet, they give them little help by not providing them with good teaching resources. Maybe it’s considered “old school”, but we need to supply some good old-fashioned textbooks to help our children succeed. Education fads come and go…new doesn’t have to mean throwing out all the old…and not all fads are great ideas. As teachers and parents, our concern is to help our children succeed, and having a good curriculum with scope and sequence is a good foundation to accomplish this goal.

We need to hold our administration accountable in these areas if we want to see “academic excellence” as the HSE School District claims to have.