District 95 unveils new curriculum maps

Carbondale Elementary School District 95 last week unveiled its news curriculum webpages, which include new maps that let parents know what their student is expected to know at each grade level.

The new curriculum maps are called "Scope and Sequence," an overall plan that teachers use to align instruction to the Illinois Learning Standards, according to Janice Pavelonis, District 95's assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.

Teachers started building these plans last school year and completed them during the school closure, working on curriculum teams that Pavelonis led.

On the curriculum pages, parents can also find summaries for each subject area and ideas for activities to do with their child.

Pavelonis said when she started with the district two years ago, she met with many different groups to get a sense of what was in place in the various areas of curriculum.

She said it was clear that the district did not have consistent curriculum maps that teachers could use to guide their instruction throughout the year. It was also clear that past efforts in the district to create these were made along the way, but most teachers did not find them helpful and were not using them, she added.

"Since we have eight or nine teachers at each grade level, building useful, clear maps was a clear first step in overhauling instruction," Pavelonis said. "Now we can ensure that a student in our district will be learning the same things as any other student in the same grade about the same time of year."

The District 95 curriculum and instruction webpage is at ces95.org/about_us/departments/curriculuminstruction.