Wed Jun 17 2020, 6:00pm
Zoom Webinar
Regular Meeting

ACTION ITEMS

Approval of Text Book Adoption

To:  Michael Green, Superintendent 

From: Asha Riley

Date: June 2, 2020

RE: Text Adoption Recommendation

Woodland High School

The Text Adoption Committee recommends adoptions of the following books for use at Woodland High School.

Physics of the Future: In response to the district adoption of a career pathways framework, the English department has redesigned senior English offerings to align with this new framework. Futurology is an English class, but it has relevance to students in many career pathways, such as the STEM pathway, the business and computer science pathway, and even our health pathway. This book is part of the “popular science” genre.  It is aimed at making scientific knowledge accessible to laypeople.  One thing that is exciting is to be teaching a whole non-fiction book in an English class, as opposed to a literary novel. It also means that if my seniors “miss” a week or two of reading, they can still catch up by reading the current chapter, since each chapter talks about different aspects of the future. As much as this course will have a basic text, it will be this.  The book will be referenced in weekly class discussions for approximately 10-16 weeks of the semester.

Underground Railroad: This book won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 2017 and the National Book Award in 2016.  It received a lot of attention and was on a number of “Recommended Lists” in the last few years. This text is an in-depth look at the experience of slaves trying to escape to freedom prior to the civil war.  It is told from that perspective a young slave woman, Cora, who reluctantly decides to escape and then spends several years on the run trying to find full freedom.  The storytelling style is realistic-historical fiction combined with elements of magical realism, which is interesting for student readers. This book will be used as a basic text read by all students in AP Literature.

Lewis River Academy

The Lewis River Academy staff and parents have been exploring possible new instructional materials for grades 6-8. As a result of their curriculum review, they would like to propose the following resource for adoption. 

Edgenuity: Edgenuity improves on our existing courseware by offering video instruction with every lesson, as well as written work integrated with the learning rather than separate/optional.  It is rigorous, aligned with the Common Core, and can be adapted for different paces of learning. The feedback we have received from students and families has been positive.

Edgenuity has the "core" subjects of Math, English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science. In addition, Edgenuity can be used for Washington State History and also easily incorporates a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) component called "Purpose Prep." 

Administrative Recommendation /MOTION/ " I move we approve the recommended text and instructional materials as presented"

Attached Files:
LRAadoption.pdf application/pdf 319K
Textbook adoption for Physics of the Future - Google Docs.pdf application/pdf 184K
Textbook Adoption Underground Railroad.pdf application/pdf 219K