Curriculum

Standards

Bellingham School District's English Language Arts is based on Common Core Standards English Language Arts (ELA) for reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Curriculum

Preschool focuses on developing Emergent Literacy Skills.

With our earliest learners, we use the David Matteson’s approach for writing and oral language development.

Foundational Skills Curriculum

Really Great Reading, grades PK-2 is our adopted curriculum used for foundational skills instruction based on the science or reading.  We use Launchpad for PreK, Countdown for grade K, Blast for Grade 1, and HD Word for grade 2.

Handwriting Without Tears, grades PK-2 is our approach to handwriting instruction for our young learners.

i-Ready Reading is used for not only a literacy assessment and early literacy skills screener, it also have lessons geared toward need and an online practice component that targets the skills students need to develop next.

Reading & Writing Curriculum

Teachers College Reading Units of Study, grades K-5

Teachers College Writing Units of Study, grades 1-5

Multidisciplinary inquiry units are developed by teacher teams in our schools and these incorporate reading and writing with other content areas and critical thinking.

Instructional Model

In grades K – 5, students develop reading and writing skills through a literacy workshop model. Lessons include direct instruction on reading and writing (modeling and explanation) and a significant amount of time in a workshop model for students to learn and practice their reading and writing skills in authentic ways. Teachers coach students and respond to individual needs as students engage in their own reading and writing. Students also have frequent opportunities to collaborate with others and practice their speaking and listening skills.

Readers and writers workshop includes shared, interactive and independent reading and writing opportunities.  Teachers confer with individuals and small groups to guide instruction and learning.  Modeled reading and writing are key elements to the workshop model. The workshop model allows for feedback and application within the daily learning cycle.

In addition, primary students also have foundational skills instruction that is explicit, systematic, sequential and multi-sensory.

Assessment

Informal daily assessments through teacher observation, conferring and tasks

Classroom based assessments links to units of study, including end of the unit assessments

Running records of student reading proficiency including decoding, fluency & comprehension (listening to students read aloud)

Formal assessments by grade level include:

K Screen, grade K 

Teaching Strategies Gold (TSG) WaKIDS, grades PK, K

Benchmark Assessment System, for grade 2 oral reading fluency, as well as progress monitoring, K-5

i-Ready Diagnostic Reading Assessment & Early Literacy Screener, including Rapid Automatized Naming Assessment (RAN), grades K-2

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Reading, grade 3-5 

Washington State Smarter Balance Assessment (SBA) for English Language Arts (ELA), grades 3-5

Scholastic Reading Inventory, grade 5

Curriculum

Bellingham School District's Middle School English Language Arts instruction is based on Common Core Standards English Language Arts (ELA) for reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Bellingham teachers have access to Teachers College Reading and Units of Study for reading and writing curriculum in middle schools.  Novel studies are used as well as multidisciplinary units that integrate reading and writing elements.

We strive to have students value ways of thinking and being.  The learning focus is analyzing fiction and writing about it routinely.  Students take part in persuasive and informational writing with access to read a wide variety of non-fiction.  The literary fiction collections that support learning have a diverse range of characters and content.

Instructional Model

Students spent a significant amount of time practicing their reading and writing skills in authentic ways. Students engage in close and purposeful reading of complex texts and use textual evidence to support careful analysis. Learning is focused on building knowledge by reading content-rich nonfiction, writing routinely, and adjusting individual goals. Students also have frequent opportunities to collaborate with other students and practice their speaking and listening skills.   Teachers facilitate a supportive learning environment that promotes community, encourages risk-taking, minimizes status, and values diverse ways of thinking. Teachers adapt their practice in order to meet the needs of their students.

Assessment

Assessments include informal classroom-based assessments and check points, as well as more formal end of the unit assessments. Some examples of assessments used in English Language Arts include:

Informal daily assessments through teacher observation, conferring and tasks

Classroom based assessments linked to units of study, including end of the unit assessments

Formal assessments by grade level include:

Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Reading, grade 6-8

Washington State Smarter Balance Assessment (SBA) for English Language Arts (ELA), grades 6-8

Scholastic Reading Inventory, grade 6-8 as needed

Curriculum

See our high school course catalog for descriptions of all courses available to high school students.

Instructional Model

Students spent a significant amount of time practicing their reading and writing skills in authentic ways. Students engage in close and purposeful reading of complex texts and use textual evidence to support careful analysis. Learning is focused on building knowledge by reading content-rich nonfiction, writing routinely, and adjusting individual goals. Students also have frequent opportunities to collaborate with other students and practice their speaking and listening skills. Teachers facilitate a supportive learning environment that promotes community, encourages risk-taking, minimizes status, and values diverse ways of thinking. Teachers adapt their practice in order to meet the needs of their students.

Assessment

Classroom based assessments link to units of study, including end of the unit assessments

Course assessments, such as Advanced Placement (AP) tests for AP courses

Washington State Smarter Balance Assessment (SBA) for English Language Arts (ELA)

PK-12 Mathematics Vision Statement

To fulfill The Bellingham Promise, we believe mathematics is important for life, career, and college readiness, therefore we are committed to heterogenous, on grade level math courses that

• Offer all students a coherent, equitable, accessible and challenging mathematics program by ensuring all mathematics teachers have a deep understanding of the content and of what students need to know and be able to do.
• Support the success and unique needs of individual students by establishing classrooms where students learn mathematics by using prior knowledge and experiences to practice and apply his/her knowledge. Students learn new concepts by thinking critically, communicating effectively, problem solving actively while striving to be independent learners in an investigative learning environment.
• Use formative assessments to drive instruction through collecting evidence from a variety of sources; to guide instruction and create an accurate picture of student conceptual understanding, procedural skills, and application; and by using the results of formative and summative assessments to make program decisions.
• Provide access to technology that will facilitate students’ understanding of mathematics and ensure that students are capable of using technology to explore mathematical concepts.

OSPI Mathematics Learning Standards page.

The following link provides detailed information per grade level about the standards to be learned at each grade level.

The following document helps to highlight the key standards by grade level (K-8). Students should be spending the majority of their time learning in these focus areas.

Curriculum

Since 2014, our elementary teachers have used the top-rated  Math Learning Center’s Bridges in Math with Number Corner. For students needing additional support, we also use the Support and Intervention materials from Math Learning Center. We also implement Concept Quests and Math circles to extend and challenge students from grades 2 through 5.

Instructional Model

Students learn mathematics by actively doing mathematics in a sense-making classroom.  Bellingham teachers use our curriculum to develop conceptual understanding that leads to procedural fluency.  Students share their thinking with others and implement the elementary Standards for Mathematical Practice as they become mathematicians.

Assessment

Teachers gather a great deal of student learning information through observation and interview. They also implement the many assessments that are built into Bridges and Number Corner for more formal evidence of learning. In addition, we collect data through WaKIDS (Kindergarten), the i-Ready assessment and state SBA annual math assessments in grades 3-5.

Curriculum

Beginning in the fall of 2021, middle school teachers (grades 6-8) will use the Amplify Desmos 6-8 curriculum which is an enhanced version of the top rated Open Up (also known as Illustrative Mathematics) Math Curriculum. The curriculum uses an engaging, problem-based approach and provides experiences to explore and connect ideas based on grade level standards.

Instructional Model

Students learn mathematics by actively doing mathematics in sense-making classrooms.  Our middle school teachers use our curriculum to develop critical thinkers and problem solving that have deep conceptual understanding that leads to procedural fluency.  Students are expected to share their thinking with others through a visible thinking classroom approach developed by Dr. Peter Liljedahl. Dr. Liljedahl has provided ongoing professional learning workshops for our middle and high school teachers.

In middle school, students continue to strive to develop their Standards for Mathematical Practice.

To learn more about our middle school program please see our middle school math Q and A webpage.

Assessment

Teachers will implement the assessments that are included in the Desmos 6-8 program to monitor students learning. Teachers will collaboratively develop common assessments for this new curriculum. In addition, we implement NWEA MAP as a local assessment of growth and the state assessment (and federal accountability assessment) called SBA.

Curriculum

Beginning in the fall of 2022, our Algebra 1 courses use Amplify Desmos Math Algebra 1 (A1) curriculum. All high school math courses use locally developed lessons based on visible thinking classrooms. Teachers also use problems and units from Illustrative Mathematics for Geometry and Algebra 2. We will continue to use the transformational Agile Mind curriculum called Intensified Algebra for the course of the same name.  Advanced mathematics courses use a variety of AP or other curricula (including those created by teachers) designed for those specific courses. See our high school course catalog for descriptions of all courses available to high school students.

Instructional model

Students are expected to share their thinking with others through this visible thinking classroom approach developed by Dr. Peter Liljedahl. Dr. Liljedahl has provided ongoing professional learning workshops for our middle and high school teachers.

Assessment

Teachers use locally developed tests, quizzes and class exit tickets as well as observation of students in visible thinking classrooms. All Algebra 1 students will take the Algebra Assessment from NWEA. Tenth grade students will take the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA). Students who take Advanced Placement courses are strongly encouraged to take the end of course AP exams.

Washington State Science and Learning Standards (WSSLS) also known as the Next Generation Science Standards, describe at each grade level from kindergarten through high school what students should know in the four domains of science: life, earth and space, physical, and engineering, technology and science application.

Curriculum

FOSS (Full Option Science System) kits are used to support the WSSLS.  Some schools and grade levels may use different kits to support specific inquiry units.  During the 2020-21 school year some FOSS units were adapted to include STEM Storylines:  STEM Storylines in Elementary (K-5) | STEM Materials

Kindergarten 

• Animals 2x2
• Earth's changing surface
• Weather

First Grade

• Organisms
• Weather
• Solids and liquids

Second Grade

• Life cycles - butterflies
• Balance and motion
• Pebbles, salt and silt

Third Grade

• Measurement
• Sound
• Water

Fourth Grade

• Ocean Science
• Space Science

Fifth Grade

• Structures of Life
• Mixtures and Solutions
• Variables

We are continuing to adapt previous curriculum resources to the WSSLS and will be embarking on a three-year project to develop teacher leadership and coordinate science curriculum development, field experiences, and partnerships with community based organizations.

Assessments

The Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science is given in the spring of the fifth grade year.  Additional information on the WCAS is available here:  Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science | OSPI (www.k12.wa.us)

Since 2018, our adopted middle school curriculum is Amplify Science.  Amplify science was developed at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science and is the highest rated middle school science curriculum according to edreports.org: https://www.edreports.org/compare/results/science-6-8

Instructional Model

Amplify science is built from the ground up for three dimensional learning.  This includes attending to cross-cutting concepts, science and engineering practices, and the disciplinary core ideas.

During an Amplify unit students take on the role of scientists and engineers to investigate real-world phenomena.

Amplify is a literacy-rich science program.  Like practicing scientists, students spend a large part of investigations reading, writing, listening, and speaking in order to gather information and communicate their findings about the natural world.

Hands on experiences are an important part of the Amplify curriculum.  For understanding science phenomena that are too small, large, slow, distant, or dangerous there are also powerful digital simulations and modeling tools embedded into the Amplify curriculum.

Assessments

The Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science is given in the spring of the eighth grade year.  Additional information on the WCAS is available here: Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science | OSPI (www.k12.wa.us).  Formative assessments are embedded in the Amplify curriculum and are used to assess student learning during units.

Curriculum and Instructional model

High school curriculum for science is developed by teachers in collaboration with their departments and in some cases across the teachers of the same courses district wide.  Students are encouraged to take a three-year science sequence (biology, chemistry, and physics) which also integrates the earth and space science disciplinary core ideas from the WSSLS. AP science teachers have texts that are designed to align with AP course syllabi and help prepare students for their AP exams.

See our high school course catalog for descriptions of all courses available to high school students.

 Assessments

Our science assessments are created and implemented by science teachers.  Students who take Advanced Placement courses are strongly encouraged to take the end of course AP exams. The Washington Comprehensive Assessment of Science is given in the spring of the eleventh grade year.

Bellingham Public School’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is based on the Center for Academic Social and Emotional (CASEL) framework for SEL, which our Washington State SEL standards are aligned.  In all grades, beginning in preschool, we focus on safe learning environments, belonging, relationships and skill building.

Curriculum 

Our adopted curriculum for grades K-5 is Caring Schools Community  by the Collaborative Classroom, an evidence-based program focused on teaching and applying the social emotional competencies as described in CASEL’s framework.  It is a CASEL SELect program.   

Caring Schools is a comprehensive social and emotional program that builds schoolwide community and develops students social skills and SEL competencies. 

Instructional Model 

Caring Schools Community includes routines for learning of morning circle, class meeting, and closing circle.  The focus is on building a safe and engaging classroom environment where students have ownership and belonging.   

The curriculum explicitly teaches social emotional learning skills, builds relationships, fosters community and provides opportunities for practice intentionally over time.  It promotes positive behavior through direct teaching of responsibility, empathy, and cooperation, creating settings where students are heard, known, and cared for.  Students become intrinsically motivated to contribute productively to a community they are invested and where they know they matter.   

Daily morning circle teaches social emotional skills in the context of building community.   

A weekly class meeting focuses on problem solving within a community, applying social skills learned to classroom or school circumstances.   

Daily closing circle wraps up the day with a review and reflection.   

The program addresses inequitable discipline practices, assuming that all children want to and can behave well at school and are capable of learning.  Teachers treat students with respect and treat misbehaviors as mistakes and opportunities for learning.   

Assessment 

Assessments include informal daily assessments through observation.   

Devereaux Student Strength Assessment (DESSA), grades K-5 assesses student social emotional learning competencies in a strengths-based teacher survey format. 

Curriculum  

RULER, from Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, is a school wide systematic approach to SEL. RULER focuses on the following skills of emotional intelligence: Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating.  The curriculum teaches four core tools to all students schoolwide:  Charter (establishing classroom expectations collectively), Mood Meter (understanding and naming our emotions), Meta Moment (creating a pause between stimulus and response), and Blueprint (learning to problem solve collaboratively).   

Character Strong curriculum is available as a supplemental support in our middle schools.   

Instructional Model 

The RULER curriculum focuses on the intersection of social, emotional and cognitive aspects of adolescents.  The four core tools are taught to all students in explicit lessons and are then integrated into core subject areas.  RULER follows the Understanding by Design framework.   

Through interdisciplinary study that ensures learning is student centered and inquiry based, students take an active role in their classrooms, solve problems, participate in group discussions, and conduct real world experiments while learning emotion skills and concepts.   

Assessment 

Assessments include informal daily assessments through observation.   

Devereaux Student Strength Assessment (DESSA), is an optional assessment in middle schools, assessing student social emotional learning competencies in a strengths-based teacher survey format.   

Curriculum 

Character Strong curriculum is provided to all high schools and utilized in advisory as a part of student engagement, relationship building, and school connection.   

Character Strong focuses on improvement in emotion understanding and regulation, empathy and compassion, values and purpose, goals and habits, and leadership and teamwork.   

High School and Beyond Planning, across grades 8-12, support students in goal setting and future development, utilizing SEL skills and understandings.   

Instructional Model 

Through relevant contexts students engage in learning SEL competencies and applying them to their lives. 

SEL instruction and encouragement in our high schools includes topics such as stress and coping techniques, self-management practices, and relationship skills.  

Character Strong can be used for explicit lessons as well as infused into daily routines and relationships of the schools.  Advisory classes provide a district scope and sequence that includes SEL lessons focused on student wellness and skill building, future planning related to high school and beyond plans, and activities and strategies for building community and increasing resiliency skills.   

Assessment 

Students take part in annual surveys related to health, wellness, and social emotional learning, including the Healthy Youth Survey and our Annual School Climate Survey that is administered to staff, students and families on school belonging, adult relationships, and other indicators of safe and engaging learning environments.   

State Learning Standards for Social Studies in Civics, History, Geography and Economics

Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State

Learning for Justice Standards

College, Career and Civic Life C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards

Washington State Civic Observances

Curriculum

Much of the social studies curriculum at K-5 is developed by teacher teams at each school. Some units have been developed collaboratively district wide. We are continuing to grow the implementation of the Since Time Immemorial (STI) Curriculum and are developing locally designed STI curriculum in consultation with educators from Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Tribe. In our IB elementary schools, units of inquiry are multi-disciplinary and include social studies themes/topics based on grade level standards.

Instructional Model

Our approach to learning social studies concepts is based on guided inquiry.

Our model for instruction is based on taking an inquiry mindset.

We teach for conceptual understanding and transfer of ideas as described by Lynn Erickson in this IB presentation.

Assessments

Our social studies assessments are created and implemented by classroom teachers. In elementary school, we expect students will be assessed on grade level appropriate understanding of Civics standards through teacher developed assessments by the end of fifth grade.

Curriculum

Since 2017, our adopted middle school curriculum is TCI History Alive! The Ancient World and Medieval World (grade 6) and United States through Industrialism (grade 8) are the core texts/digital licenses.

Beginning in 2020-21 (based on revised state standards), our seventh graders students now study Washington State as a year-long course (before this it was a single semester course paired with Medieval History). Since 2017, we have used the League of Women Voters of Washington curriculum The State We’re In: Washington, 8^th edition (for secondary students) as the core curriculum and in 2020-21, we added the supplement An Indigenous People’s History of the United States For Young People.

In 2020-21, we also added a piece of supplementary curriculum called Stamped to enhance the curriculum for eighth grade students study of race in the United States.

Instructional Model

Our middle schools use three approaches. The first is a “core” approach where the same teachers have a group of students both for social studies and language arts/literacy. These teachers are teamed with math and science teachers.  They share the same group or team of students among this team. Literacy and social studies are then integrated through out the school year, though students are graded by content area.

Another model is the separation of social studies from language arts. In this model, the teachers are focused on their course of study and their passion content area, so students have one teacher for social studies and another for language arts/literacy.

The third model is like the first, but the teacher treats the two subjects/ content areas more independently.  In all models, students are encouraged to be historians and global thinkers and to consider how they can make a difference/take action locally to make their school and community stronger.

Assessments

Our social studies assessments are created and implemented by classroom teachers. In middle school, we expect students will be assessed on grade level appropriate understanding of Civics standards through teacher developed assessments in the eighth grade.

Curriculum

High school curriculum for social studies is developed by teachers in collaboration with their departments and in some cases across the teachers of the same courses district wide. AP social studies teachers have texts that are designed to align with AP course syllabi and help prepare students for their AP exams.

See our high school course catalog for descriptions of all courses available to high school students.

Assessment

Our social studies assessments are created and implemented by social studies teachers. In high school, we expect students will be assessed on grade level appropriate understanding of Civics standards through teacher developed assessments. Students who take Advanced Placement courses are strongly encouraged to take the end of course AP exams.