Germantown teaching committee recommends English 11 Stage 1 UBD to school board

The Germantown School District Teaching and Learning Committee voted April 14 to recommend the Stage 1 UBD (Understanding by Design) for English 11 to the Board of Education.

Mysiak, who presented the curricular draft to the committee, said the revised Stage 1 identifies the course's core units and learning goals. "The first unit of the year, they start off with short story. Then they move into a literary analysis and novel study," Mysiak said, adding that the team narrowed and merged units to make the course "very clear in terms of what we wanted students to learn."

The Stage 1 document lists five main units: short story; literary analysis and novel study; lit circles; topic presentation; and a combined media-literacy-and-craft unit. A final unit is focused on college-essay preparation, with teacher options for students not pursuing college (for example, adapting the assignment into a cover-letter project). Mysiak also said a vocabulary-and-grammar strand will run throughout the course rather than as a standalone unit.

Committee members asked about texts and parental notification. Mysiak said teachers will have a curated lit-circle book list and that if students select optional texts outside the core list, the district would use a permission/notification slip to inform parents. "If we do look to expand this list for either lit circles or short story, That is something that I would bring back," he said.

After discussion, the committee approved a motion recommending the English 11 Stage 1 UBD and associated resources to the Board of Education. The motion was moved and seconded and carried by voice vote.

The committee does not adopt the curriculum at this meeting; the recommendation now goes to the full Board of Education for their consideration and any formal adoption steps.