Curriculum
Standards
Creating
a Standards-Based Curriculum Web
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.
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Addressing Standards
with Existing Web Resources
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:
Perspective
on the Slave Narrative http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?ID=321
Grades 9 - 12
Flights
of Fantasy: a project about a myth
http://wings.avkids.com/Curriculums/Mythology/flights_of_fantasy_summary.html
Grades 4 - 8
ARTWORKS
http://cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/99/teams/impressionists/art2.htm
Grades 5 - 9
Mathematics:
Practice
Quiz from the Council on Competitivenesshttp://www.getsmarter.org/exit/newtestpractice.cfm?subject=Math
Choose a grade level for the quiz from 3rd to 8th.
THE
TITANIC:
What Can Numbers Tell Us About Her Fatal Voyage?
http://asterix.ednet.lsu.edu/~edtech/webquest/titanic.html
High
school mathematics
Science:
Oceans Alive
http://www.mos.org/oceans/
Elementary - High School
Cool Science
for Curious Kids
http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/
Elementary - Middle School
Elephants
of Cameroon
http://www.fieldtripearth.org/div_index.xml?id=3
Grade 7
Social Studies:
Dim
Sum: Using Chopsticks http://www.newton.mec.edu/Angier/DimSum/Using%20Chopsticks%20Lesson.html
Grades K - 5
The
Star Spangled Banners
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 are not necessarily
better. Your activity should directly address the standard, not
be loosely related to it.
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Resources and Links
Illinois State Learning Standards
page
http://www.isbe.net/ils/
The
Chicago Public Schools Academic Standards and Frameworks
http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/Standards/CAS/cas.html
Programs
of Study
http://intranet.cps.k12.il.us/Standards/Programs_of_Study/programs_of_study.html
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.
American Federation
of Teachers Academic Standards http://www.aft.org/edissues/standards/index.htm
This page includes documents like the "Making
Standards Matter" report of 2001.
The
Thomas Fordham Foundation's State of State Standards Report 2000
http://www.edexcellence.net/library/soss2000/2000soss.html
Site compares assessment and accountability across the United States,
assigning a grade to each state.
Align
to Achieve
http://www.achieve.org/achieve/achievestart.nsf/Search?OpenForm
The Achieve's National Clearinghouse site has a sear
The Gateway to Educational Materials
http://www.thegateway.org/
A project of the U.S. Dept. of Education and the ERIC
Clearinghouse on Information and Technology, which allows educators
to search for lesson plans and activities on the Web by subject
matter, grade level, and author.
PBS
Online Teacher Resource
http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/search.htm
This page includes this searchable database of all PBS lesson plans
and curriculum online. The search can correlate the activities
with many different standards documents.
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Proceed to Creating a Teaching Guide
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