CURRICULUM
Early Entrance-Kindergarten and First Grade
Elementary Reading
National Geographic Reach for Reading (Kindergarten)
ReadyGEN (1st-5th)
Health
Grade K - 3 Social Emotional Learning
Human Growth and Development, HIV/Aids Prevention, Affirmed Consent and Bystander Training
Elementary Math (i-Ready K-5)
Social Studies
CONTACTS
Melissa VanZanten
Director of Curriculum and Assessment
Keanne Bender
District Specialist-Curriculum
(360) 965-0054
Marysville School District Curriculum Information
Curriculum in the Marysville School District is the written documents that identify what is essential for students to learn. It is the work plan. As educators, parents, and citizens from diverse backgrounds, we share a common concern for and commitment to the welfare of our children. Therefore, the purpose of the Curriculum Design Blueprint is to provide a system-wide process by which we can ensure that all students, PK-12, will learn the same academically rich, standards-based, holistic, student-centered, and culturally diverse curriculum from teacher to teacher, and school to school.
The commitment of Marysville School District is to develop an exemplary curriculum that promotes high expectations for its teachers and students that result in meaningful student learning. The system-wide curriculum is a thinking curriculum; one that integrates content and process, typifying real world situations and challenges. The decisions, strategies, and practices are supporting the alignment of the written, taught, and tested curriculum. The root of the curriculum is in internal and external research. This research is critical to providing optimum learning opportunities for all students.
The Curriculum Design Blueprint provides the structure to create curricular frameworks for each of the content areas that are simultaneously practical and progressive. The standards-based curriculum will enhance opportunities for students to meet new standards and to help students realize their potential and move toward higher educational and career goals.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
The Marysville School District believes that literacy, the ability to read, write, listen, speak, and think critically in different ways and for different purposes, begins to develop early and becomes increasingly important as students pursue specialized fields of study in high school and beyond.
In 2011, Washington formally adopted the Learning Standards (Common Core State Standards) for English Language Arts and Mathematics. These standards provide a rich depth of knowledge and skills that young people will need to succeed in technical school, college, careers, and life. The standards are vital to ensuring our students can be successful in their communities and global society.
The Marysville School District is aligning our literacy curriculum to meet or exceed Washington State Learning Standards (WSLS). Our reading program consists of clearly articulated goals, quality assessments, appropriate, evidence-based instructional strategies, and quality materials for students with the end goal of helping students achieve college and career readiness.
HEALTH CURRICULUM
Beginning no later than Grade 5, students shall receive yearly instruction in the life-threatening dangers of HIV/AIDS, its transmission, and its prevention.
A student may be excused from HIV/AIDS prevention education and/or Growth & Development if the student’s parent or guardian, having reviewed the curriculum on the MSD website, completes and submits the HIV/AIDS and Growth & Development Opt Out Form.
Beginning in the 2021-22 school year, schools must start providing comprehensive sexual health education at least twice in grades 6-8. Ideally, this would be a unit of instruction in at least two different grades, and there are many possible strategies for providing all required content. Best practice suggests providing instruction over time, building on earlier instruction. Instruction must be consistent with Health Education K-12 Learning Standards. Grade-level outcomes are provided as examples only and do not represent a required course of instruction.
MATH RESOURCES: SUPPORTING YOUR CHILD IN MATHEMATICS
OVERVIEW
The field of mathematics continues to grow at a rapid rate, spreading into new fields, and creating new technologies and jobs. Students today require an education in mathematics that goes far beyond what was needed in the past in order to maximize their opportunities. The way we taught students in the past simply does not prepare them for the higher demands of college and careers today and in the future.
Marysville schools, and schools throughout the country, are working to improve teaching and learning to ensure that all children will graduate high school prepared for further education, technology, economic change, and social realities.
In mathematics, this means three major changes.
FOCUS: Teachers will concentrate on teaching a more focused set of major math concepts and skills.
COHERENCE: Students will be allowed time to master key math concepts and skills in a more organized way throughout the year and from one grade to the next.
RIGOR: Teachers will use rich and challenging math content to engage students in solving real-world problems in order to inspire a greater interest in mathematics.
In a coherent curriculum, mathematical ideas are linked to and build on one another so that students’ understanding and knowledge deepen, and their ability to apply mathematics expands. An effective mathematics curriculum focuses on important mathematics that will prepare students for continued study and for solving problems in a variety of school, home, and work settings. A well-articulated curriculum challenges students to learn increasingly more sophisticated mathematical ideas as they continue their studies.