The Chicago Public Schools home page describes the Chicago Academic
Standards. They:
- are academically challenging;
- embed core skills, key content knowledge, and applied learning;
- are expressed in clear language understandable by parents
and the public;
- stimulate instructional improvement across the system;
- guide the development of curriculum frameworks and instructional
materials;
- lead the development and implementation of assessment systems;
- are carefully aligned with state goals and standards;
- draw on the experience of other states, urban districts,
and professional organizations.
The two sentences in bold point to using the standards
as the starting point to creating activities. Most teachers
start with activities they normally do, then match up potential
standards. In this module, you will choose a standard or
set of standards before creating an activity.
You will start by choosing an activity from an existing Web-based
module and then match it up to one or a few of the Illinois State
Learning Goals and Chicago Academic Standards. This procedure
can be helpful if you do not have the time to create your own
module or lesson plan, or if you find an outstanding web site
that you want to incorporate into your curriculum.
Links below will open into new windows. Please close these windows
to return to this page.
Follow these steps:
1. Look at a minimum of two of the selected web sites depending
on your interests or subject matter you teach:
Language Arts:
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lessonplans/slave_narrative.html
Grades 9 - 12
http://wings.ucdavis.edu/Curriculums/Mythology/flights_of_fantasy_howto.html
Grades 4 - 8
http://cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/99/teams/impressionists/art2.htm
Grades 5 - 9
Mathematics:
http://www.getsmarter.org/exit/newtestpractice.cfm?subject=Math
Choose a grade level for the Quiz.
http://asterix.ednet.lsu.edu/~edtech/webquest/titanic.html
High school
Science:
http://www.mos.org/oceans/
Elementary - High School
http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/
Elementary - Middle School
http://www.nczooeletrack.org/
Grade 7
Social Studies:
http://www.newton.mec.edu/Angier/DimSum/Using%20Chopsticks%20Lesson.html
Grades K - 5
http://americanhistory.si.edu/ssb/2_home/fs2.html
Grades K - 8
2. Things to think about as you look at the web sites you
have chosen:
- Does the site have a Teaching Guide?
- Does the site list the standards that the curriculum addresses?
(Warning: the site may not address the standards it
outlines, you may want to double check!)
- If the site does not list specific standards, do the authors
of the site mention the standards at all? How?
- If the site addresses standards other than the Illinois
State Learning Goals, can you easily apply the activities
to your own classroom?
- Does this site take advantages of the unique capabilities
of the Web? Or do the activities seem like they could
be easily reproduced on paper?
- Is this site directed mainly towards kids or teachers?
Or does it have special sections for both?
- Is this site interdisciplinary? Is it mostly one
kind of subject matter? Keep in mind that even
though an activity may be of a certain subject, the skills
needed to perform the activity may draw on other subjects.
(For example, a chemistry equation draws on both science and
math skills).
3. Choose one activity from each web site and match it
up with the appropriate grade level.
4. Identify one or a few standards that the activity you
have chosen addresses. More standards per activity is not
necessarily better. You want your activity to directly address
the standard, not be loosely related to it.
http://www.isbe.state.il.us/ils/lstandards.html
Illinois State Learning Goals page
http://www.cps.k12.il.us/Instruction/CAS/
The Chicago Public Schools Academic Standards and Frameworks and
an introduction to them.
http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/
The Chicago Public Schools Instructional Intranet site.
The "Programs of Study" (POS) section includes draft POS statements
for Grades 6, 7, and 8 that outline units and subjects to study
for each grade level. The POS are in pdf format and require
Adobe Acrobat Reader to access.
The CASE (Chicago Academic Standards Examination) is based on
the Programs of Study, which is based on the Chicago Academic
Standards.
http://www.aft.org/edissues/standards/index.htm
American Federation of Teachers Academic Standards page includes
documents like "Making Standards Matter" report of November 1999.
http://www.edexcellence.net/library/soss2000/2000soss.html
The State of State Standards Report 2000 compares assessment and
accountability across the United States, assigning a grade to
each state
http://www.ash.udel.edu/ash/teacher/teacherframe.html
The Alphabet Superhighway page of links about standards.
This is a very comprhensive set of links and articles.
http://www.achieve.org/achieve/achievestart.nsf/Search?OpenForm
Achieve's National Clearinghouse site has a searchable Standards
database that allows students, parents, and educators to analyze
or track specific standards according to grade level, subject
matter, and state.
http://www.thegateway.org/
The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM), a project of the U.S.
Dept. of Education and the ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and
Technology, that allows educators to search for lesson
plans and activities on the Web by subject matter, grade level,
and author.
http://www.explorasource.com/educator/
A free website that points out multi-media resources based on
the topic, grade level, subject matter, and standards document
you choose. The resources in the database are books, CD-rom,
other software, or Web-based.
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/search.htm
PBS Online Teacher Resource page includes this searchable database
of all PBS lesson plans and curriculum online. The search
can correlate the activities with many different standards documents.
http://communities.msn.com/CurriculumStandardsOnline
Microsoft Network Community about Curriclum Standards. Teachers
sign up and post discussion topics about curriculum standards
and technology integration. There is not much traffic
on this bullentin board.
http://www.k12.msn.com/LessonConnection/Administrator.asp
Here you can download the Microsoft Lesson Connection Wizard,
which claims it allows
curriculum administrators to correlate lessons on the Internet
and specific learning objectives in
curriculum standards documents. You can add search links
to HTML versions of your district's
standards. You need Microsoft Internet Explore version 5.0
or higher and at least Windows 95 to download the wizard.
