School board mulls proposals for new courses, textbooks

 

Worthington teachers outlined new course proposals and textbook adoptions for middle school and high school students at this week's school board meeting.

Two of the proposed middle school courses already are successful at Phoenix Middle School -- maybe too successful.

The board of Education met Monday, May 5 at the Worthington Education Center.

Jennifer Wene, director of teaching and learning, introduced two Phoenix teachers, Robert Estice and Beth Cullinan, who described Connections and Global Cultures, classes introduced at Phoenix this year.

Estice said Connections helps students develop "basic techniques of analysis and the concepts involved in clear thinking."

He said a few students may have learned the concepts in Connections a little too well.

"We had a bus driver come in because one our kids told her there was a 'flaw in her logic' when she reprimanded him for something that happened on the bus," he said. "I had to talk to the kids about using their powers for good, not evil.

"We talk about how to organize your thoughts and how to use critical reasoning to look at issues being studied in other courses as well as current ethical and social issues," he said. "Right now, we're looking at the hot-button issues in the presidential election."

Cullinan said Global Cultures is designed to help students develop an understanding of the connections between their own lives and modern cultures of the world.

Two new Career-Based Intervention courses were proposed for Thomas Worthington High School, to extend the courses to grades 11 and 12.

Teacher Mary Beth Pierce said the courses are designed for students who are at risk academically or disadvantaged, or both.

"It is a career-technical program designed to improve academic competence, develop employability skills, implement a career plan and help students participate in work-based learning opportunities," she said. "By expanding CBI to 11th and 12th grade, we're hoping to get the kids extra credits and to cover the employment piece better, which is crucial to student success."

Pierce said the CBI courses currently offered to ninth- and 10th-graders introduce concepts such as independently living that would be better taught in 11th and 12th grades.

Other proposed courses were Applied English: Stagecraft, which would realign the current Stagecraft course at Worthington Kilbourne High School with the high school language arts standards; African-American Studies at Thomas Worthington High School, in which students would "investigate the conventions of African-American literature"; and Media and Communications, a middle school course that would help students develop "21st-century electronics and communications skills."

Teachers also proposed to change the name of the Business Foundations course to Personal Financial Management, to better fit the course content.

Business teacher Janelle Hebert talked about the textbook being recommended for the financial management course, Personal Financial Literacy.

"We are so passionate about teaching financial literacy," Hebert said. "We recognize the lack in our society today in knowledge of financial management and we want to teach these important skills to as many students as we can."

Nancy Charlton, social studies curriculum leader, said teachers asked students to check out a few new history textbooks.

"We wanted textbooks that would engage our students, so we had students look over American history and world history books and asked them to give us their opinions on which were more interesting," she said. "We passed out the books at Perry and Worthingway (middle schools) and the kids' ideas helped us make a good selection of books.

"These are nothing like the books we were used to in eighth and ninth grade," she said. "We can show an interactive video and our students can interact with the French Revolution."

The books the students liked best and teachers recommended to board members are American History: Beginnings Through Reconstruction and World History: Patterns of Interaction, for grades eight and nine, respectively.

Wene said the new textbooks will be on display at the Old Worthington Library, the Northwest Library, the Worthington Park Library and at the Worthington Education Center until the adoptions are acted upon by the board at the next meeting, set for 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 19 at the Worthington Education Center, 200 E. Wilson Bridge Road.