Elementary principals and teachers demonstrate new MyView literacy curriculum to DCG board

Dallas Center-Grimes elementary principals and teachers presented the district's new MyView literacy curriculum to the board, detailing classroom routines and assessment practices.

"I'm Deb Kale. I'm the Dallas Center Elementary principal and also the district preschool director," Kale said as she introduced the elementary team. Principals Patty Morris (South Prairie), April Heitland (Northridge) and Diane Williamson (Heritage) joined teachers who walked the board through daily and weekly instructional practice.

Kindergarten teachers Emily Akers and Sydney Westling described the five-day writing process: day 1 brainstorming, day 2 organization, day 3 rough draft, day 4 revise/edit and day 5 publish and share. "The writing program gives students the tools to express their ideas, using proper writing mechanics and language," Akers said. First-grade and other teachers explained that daily exit tickets, weekly progress checks and unit tests are used to track growth; digital tools such as Seesaw and Google Classroom send student work to curriculum platforms for reporting.

"We adopted MyView; we started with third and fourth grade two years ago and this is K, 1 and 2 their first year with doing this," a district leader said, praising consistent professional development and instructional coaching. Teachers said project weeks (a sixth-week project after five weeks of lessons) and standards-based report cards support deeper performance-based assessment and year-long growth measures.

Board members thanked the principals and teachers for demonstrating cross-building collaboration and noted the curriculum leaders and instructional coaches who supported the adoption. The presentation was for board information; no formal board action was required.