Teaching and Learning Toolkit

The Purpose of The Teaching and Learning Toolkit

The RCSD Teaching and Learning Toolkit exists to support the District goal of ensuring all students have access to high-quality instruction every day.  The Toolkit is broken down into the following sections to provide RCSD staff with resources they need to make this goal a reality.  

Curriculum

In the Curriculum section, there is a landing page for each discipline.  Each of these pages includes links to detailed standards-based curriculum guides and the following information at a glance:

• Core Instructional Materials: Consistent implementation of high-quality instructional materials is the first step toward ensuring every student's success.  These sections delineate Tier 1 curricular materials that schools and teachers are expected to implement as the foundation of classroom instruction and outlines other instructional materials and supports made available to all from the District level.

• Core Instructional Actions: Each discipline has identified Core Instructional Actions to focus on during the current school year.  These delineate high-leverage, research-based actions and strategies which should be employed by teachers to support student achievement in the discipline.  This is not an exhaustive list, but a prioritized one based on what we know are our existing strengths and challenges.  They are actions and strategies we expect to see teachers implementing in class with students.  

• Core Student Practices: Each discipline has also identified Core Student Practices which delineate the most important practices in which we believe students should be engaged.  These are similar to the aforementioned Instructional Actions, but focus on what students should be doing every day.  The Core Students practices are the actions, practices, and types of thinking that we should see evidence of students engaged in during class on a regular basis to master the standards in that discipline.  These are not the only practices in which students should be engaged; these are prioritized lists grounded in our standards and based on what we know our students need to focus on.  

Instruction

The pages in this section of the Toolkit are intended to be quick-reference guides that provide information and resources that cover fundamental pedagogical practices and concepts.  Each page includes a research brief and unpacking guide which RCSD staff can use as individuals, groups, or as an entire school.  These guides help us all be on the same page when we're talking about instruction.  

Assessment

This section includes information about New York State and District-based assessment programs.