Project AERO is pleased to offer new resources in Math, Science, English/Language Arts, Social Studies and World Languages that are designed to assist teachers as they begin the new school year. Called “Guidance for 2021-2022”, each of these sets: 1. identifies the critical areas in each subject area; 2. provides guidance for accelerating instruction; and 3. gives links to additional materials, such as exemplar units, when available.
Math: The AERO Math “Guidance for 2021-2022” provides resources for K-10. The resources include the Critical Areas for each grade and high school course, sample scope and sequences, anchor and target tasks, and instructional strategies for implementation.
Science: AERO Science Critical Areas for grades K-5 have been identified, summarized and outlined to facilitate science instruction. This work seeks to support science educators in identifying the key content and practices they will need to target when developing assessments and learning experiences. For each grade level there is a year-long overview as well as individual unit documents that provide some guidance for storylines, phenomena and engineering design when appropriate. Similar documents will be released for Middle School before the end of August.
English/Language Arts: AERO's curriculum writers have reviewed the English/Language Arts Framework (205) and identified the Critical Areas within the four strands of Reading, Writing, Language, and Listening and Speaking for Grades K-5. These Critical Areas have been clustered to be the basis for four units at each grade level. In addition, vetted resources have been included for all units.
Social Studies: AERO’s curriculum writers have reviewed the Social Studies Framework (2019) and identified the Critical Areas for grades K-5, and have developed three sample units for each grade built on the critical areas. These units have been designed to guide teachers develop students into global citizens.
World Languages: The AERO WL team has worked with colleagues at every grade level schools to create a set of questions and unit themes that “braid” the World Language curriculum to the other core disciplines. Given the variety of schooling models this year, WL teachers are advised to teach fewer units (two to three units rather than five) that retain all five C’s of the 2018 AERO WL Standards and Benchmarks. The model units being released reinforce academic vocabulary and content while building language proficiency, strong intercultural skills and supporting social and emotional learning.
Webinar Sessions 2021
MAIS PLC Forum recordings available to members
MATHEMATICS · ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS ·
WORLD LANGUAGES · SOCIAL STUDIES · SCIENCE
Project AERO is offering a series of online sessions focused on planning and instructional practices that support teaching and learning in face-to-face, hybrid, or virtual settings.
No fee for MAIS Member Schools
Certificates for PD hours for participants
AERO Mathematics: Moving Learning Forward (Grades K-6)
Four 1 hour sessions
Presented by ERMA ANDERSON, Math Consultant
AERO is offering a series of online opportunities focused on the NCTM/NCSM Moving Forward recommendations for instructional practices that support mathematics teaching and learning during the COVID Era: face-to-face, hybrid or remote settings.
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Implementation of three key norms is essential to all mathematics classrooms:
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Tasks that promote thinking, prompt discourse, and reveal misconceptions;
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Questions that advance understanding and uncover errors; and
Evidence that informs formative assessment.
We will share strategies for addressing the Moving Forward recommendations through the lens of the TQE process. These sessions are designed for K-6 teachers.
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Zoom Session 1
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
Planning the Learning Journey
Using the priority areas, this session will identify the ‘learning intentions’ of the priority content and the prerequisite knowledge needed for accessing the priority content. A process for identifying a learning progression, a pathway to successfully achieving the ‘learning intention’ will be shared.
Zoom Session 2
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
The Task
To gather evidence of student learning of the priority areas, students need opportunities to engage in problem solving. This session will focus on exploring a variety of rich, student-centered tasks and analyzing the strategies to help students make sense of the tasks and assist them in persevering and engaging in critical thinking.
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Zoom Session 3
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
The Questioning
Effective classroom questioning does more than identify what a student may or may not know. Questions can engage and challenge a student. Effective questioning helps students develop critical thinking skills and is a powerful teaching strategy to open doors at every stage of the learning experience. This session will focus on strategies for crafting important questions and questioning techniques which support visible student thinking and move student learning forward.
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Zoom Session 4
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
The Evidence
To experience success in mathematics, students must be able to construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. They should be able to analyze situations, form plausible arguments and be able to communicate their ideas and conclusions to others. Conversely, students should have the communication skills to understand, analyze and respond to the arguments and conclusions formed by others. This session will focus on the tools and strategies needed to develop these overarching competencies in your students.
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Erma Anderson is a former high school physics and mathematics teacher and Albert Einstein Distinguished Fellow in the US Senate. She was a Senior Program Officer with the National Research Council assisting in the development of the National Science Education Standards and a Christa McAuliffe Fellow with the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education.
She has worked with the National Science Teachers Association on several projects including the Mentoring Initiative e-Mentoring for Student Success (eMSS), development of sciLINKS (www.sciLINKS.org), and Project Manager of Scope, Sequence and Coordination of Secondary School Science.
She was Associate Project Director for the Council for Basic Education’s Schools Around the World project, developing and implementing the Evidence to Excellence protocol, professional development that used student work from nine participating countries to enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics and science. Ms. Anderson worked with the Council in the writing of state and district curriculum frameworks and benchmarking of state standards to NAEP and Japanese standards.
Ms Anderson has considerable experience developing and facilitating workshops, on site and online with multiple national entities. Currently she is a Mathematics consultant working with international schools on implementing the AERO Mathematics Standards. She also facilitates the Math Specialist in International Schools (MSIS) and Math Fellows in International Schools (MFIS) initiative.
In the past 14 years, she has facilitated conversations about the K-12 math and science curriculum, instruction and assessment in over 120 international schools and facilitated over 500 parent presentations on the teaching and learning of mathematics.
English Language Arts
Two 1 hour sessions
AERO English Language Arts — Accelerate: It’s Critical
Presented by STEVI QUATE & KATRINA THEILMANN, AERO ELA Consultants
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Because COVID-19 abruptly cut learning short across the world last spring, many educators worry about unfinished learning: curriculum that wasn’t taught as well as concepts and skills that were partially learned. In order to address this unfinished learning, it is critical for educators to accelerate learning by teaching to the AERO grade-level standards, offering grade-level content and tasks, and providing scaffolds to make the work accessible.
The emphasis of these two one-hour sessions will be to assist teachers with planning for acceleration in all delivery models including in-person, virtual, or hybrid. The outcomes for the two sessions are as follows:
Zoom Session 1
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
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Understand the need to accelerate, not remediate;
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Know the Critical Elements K-5 in the AERO document Guidance for 2020-2021 school year;
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Extend the critical elements for literacy into 6-12;
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Share and discuss what schools are currently doing to address unfinished learning.
Zoom Session 2
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
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Review the concept of scaffolding;
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Focus on scaffolds for reading complex text;
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Explore the resources in the AERO ELA Toolkit.
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For more than 25 years, Stevi Quate taught English/language arts to middle and high school students and was the recipient of several awards including, “Outstanding Writing Teacher.” After leaving the classroom, she was the state literacy coordinator at the Colorado Department of Education and then a faculty member at the School of Education, University of Colorado at Denver. Along with serving as the president of the state affiliates for the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Literacy Association, she directed Colorado Writing Project and Colorado Critical Friends Group. For one year, she served on the advisory board for the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards.
Currently, she is a consultant on adolescent literacy with the Public Education and Business Coalition in Denver, Colorado, and consults with international schools across the world. She has written articles for many publications including a chapter in Powerful Designs for Professional Learning. She has co-written two books with John McDermott: Clock Watchers: Six Steps for Motivating and Engaging the Disengaged Across Content Areas (2009), and The Just-Right Challenge (2013).
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Katrina Theilmann first joined AERO to co-present the updated AERO Framework at the 2012 NESA Spring Educators Conference in Athens. Since then, she has been co-facilitating the AERO ELA Summer Institutes and actively leading the change in the elementary school at the American School of Doha.
Ms. Theilmann has extensive training in language arts, and she was part of the NESA Literacy Coaches Cohort led by Carrie Ekey. She has also worked closely with Pete Bowers regarding structured word inquiry. Her teaching experience incorporates a focus on the primary and junior elementary grades, English language learners, and students with special needs. Currently, she is enjoying her new role as a reading specialist.
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Originally from Canada, Ms. Theilmann earned her degrees from Queen’s University. After starting her career in Canada, she thought that she would teach overseas for ‘a couple of years’. Now, she has been an international educator for more than 20 years.
AERO World Languages
Two 1 hour sessions
Presented by CHRISTINE BROWN & KATHY MORABET, AERO World Language Consultants
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Zoom Session 1
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
The first webinar will provide teachers and administrators in international schools an update on the revised (2018) WL Standards and Benchmarks, as well as the work of a WL curriculum writing team that has developed model instructional units that can be used in any language. Teachers will be introduced to available assessments that can be used to test student language proficiency over time and inform standards-based instruction.
Zoom Session 2
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
The second webinar will showcase several units of study across levels of proficiency and grade levels. Teachers who have created and taught the units will demonstrate teaching techniques and strategies that they have used this year in online, hybrid and in person lessons. They will share new technology advances that can be used in an online environment. Student work will be shared with the participants.
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Dr. Christine Brown is a Regional Education Officer (REO) in the Office of Overseas Schools, U.S. Department of State covering the Western European Region. Dr Brown also serves as the DOS representative to the International Child Protection Task Force and to the Educational Collaborative for International Schools. Prior to joining the Department of State in 2013, she served as Deputy Director at the Carol Morgan School in the Dominican Republic. Dr Brown served as an administrator in the Glastonbury, Connecticut Public Schools for 28 years, first as the Director of K-12 Foreign Languages and ELL and later as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction..
Over the course of her career, Dr Brown has served as a president of state, regional and national language teacher organizations including the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. She chaired the American Language Standards Writing Task Force sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and served as the consultant to the national Arabic and Korean language standards projects, the Startalk ODNI language project, and as a board member of the National Defense Education Language Program.
Dr Brown chaired the AERO World Languages Standards writing project for DOS. She has testified before the United States Congress on behalf of language education, and initiated and co-chaired the Year of Languages Campaign in the United States. In February 2019, she was awarded the Keith Miller Innovation Award from the Association for the Advancement of International Education for her work in Child Protection around the world. In March 2019, Dr Brown received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award at Gwynedd Mercy University for her Doctoral Dissertation, The Effects of Early Foreign Language Study on English Reading Comprehension.
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Kathy Morabet has been a member of the AERO Summer Institute faculty since 2006. She helped develop the original AERO World Language Standards, the 2018 revision, and the K-12 Essential Questions Curriculum Framework.
As a language educator, Kathy has taught Spanish, French, and ESL to Grades K-12 as well as to adults. She taught core subjects to Grades 2-8 and coordinated the development of a new middle school. As elementary principal at the Rabat American School, she worked closely with the faculty to align world language and other departments to AERO standards. Kathy is retired and still enjoys using, learning and teaching languages.
AERO Science Critical Areas: Grades K-5 and Middle School
Two 1 hour sessions
Presented by CHRIS CHARNITSKI, AERO Science Consultant
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Zoom Session 1 Grades K-5
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
Zoom Session 2 Grades 6-8
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
Using progressions and formative assessment to move understanding forward for Grades K-5 and Middle School educators (Grades 6-8).
Elementary and middle school educators are facing enormous challenges engaging students in science education this year. The time for science at many schools has been reduced, and most teachers are engaged in a virtual, asynchronous or blended learning paradigm.
A focus on the Science and Engineering Practices and the Crosscutting Concept dimensions of the standards is key to ensuring that our students are prepared to move forward with their science education.
Formative assessment allows educators to identify student success in achievement of the “stepping stones” towards the larger goals of each dimension of these three-dimensional science standards.
In these two sessions — one for Grades K-5 teachers and one session for Middle School (Grades 6-8) — we will explore the following around the AERO Science Standards and formative assessment:
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a quick review of the AERO Science Critical Areas;
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standards organization to focus assessment and instruction;
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progressions at large scale (across grade bands);
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progressions at small scale for formative assessment development (‘stepping stones’ to
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understanding and achievement of standards);
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resources to help target assessment of the SEPs and CCCs.
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Chris Charnitski works with schools and educators around the world helping them understand, develop and implement curriculum aligned to the vision of science education presented in A Framework for K-12 Science Education. He spent 20 years as a science educator at schools in Fairfax County VA, Ecuador, Myanmar and Oman.
Chris co-facilitates the NGSS Introduction for Educators at the AERO Summer Institute in Virginia and at the AERO NESA Spring Educators Conference. He is a National Board-certified teacher and most recently worked with the non-profit Achieve organization, authors of the NGSS, on their Science Peer Review Panel.
AERO Social Studies Critical Elements Overview Sessions (Grades K-5)
Two 1 hour sessions
Presented by ANITA REILLY & NAOMI WOOLSEY, AERO Social Studies Consultants
Project AERO has identified Critical Elements for Social Studies in Grades K-5. During these two, one-hour sessions, the emphasis will be on assisting teachers with planning for instruction for in-person, virtual, or hybrid models. The outcomes for the two sessions are as follows:
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Zoom Session 1
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
Understand the rationale and process for developing the Critical Elements document and Guidance for 2020-2021 school year;Review the structure and key elements of the AERO Social Studies Framework (2019);Understand the relationship of AERO Social Studies and C3;Review the Critical Elements document focusing on the unit progressions, Grades K-5.
Zoom Session 2
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2021 | 4:30-5:30pm (CET, GMT+1)
Work in Grade Level Teams to review the content of the three units;Share and discuss various instructional strategies for in person and virtual learning;Consider assessment strategies, including assessing the Social Studies Practices;Review the vetted resources provided in the Guidance document.
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Anita Reilly is a middle school Language Arts teacher at the American School of Doha and a former history teacher at the middle school and university levels. She has worked for international schools in Austria, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, and has served as a researcher for the US government.
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Naomi Woolsey served as AERO Project Director from 2006-2017, and continues her affiliation with AERO as a consultant and curriculum writer. Most recently, she worked on developing the Guidance for 2020-2021 in Social Studies and English/Language Arts.
Naomi’s experience as an educational leader spans three continents: she served as a school principal at the American Community School of Athens, the International School of Bangkok, the International School of Luxembourg, and Washington International School.
She has worked extensively with AERO assisted schools and others to support their efforts to develop, implement, and sustain standards based curricula. She brings the specific knowledge and skills she developed from each of her experiences to share with school leaders dealing with the complex and often confounding issues of educational reform.
Naomi earned her BA and MA in English from the State University of New York at Albany, and her Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.
