ENGLISH CURRICULUM GUIDE - Breaking News
Curriculum Guide
for
Teacher-Interns and Mentor Teachers
Summer Research and History Skills Workshop
Summer Research and History Skills Workshop
Curriculum Guide
Table of Contents
• Introduction 3
• Choosing the Content Covered in Your Class 4
• Choosing Texts for Your Class 5
• Reading and Taking Notes in History 5
o Cornell Note-Taking
o SQ3R
o Note Cards
o Costa’s Levels of Inquiry
• Department Meetings 9
• Lesson Plans 9
o Attributes of Strong Lesson Plans
o Bloom’s Taxonomy
o Procedures
o Assessments
o Homework
• Lesson Observations 11
o Classroom Management Rubric
o Instruction Rubric
• Curricular Objectives 13
o 7th Grade Long Term Objectives (By Unit)
o 8th Grade Long Term Objectives (By Unit)
• Deadlines 19
o Lesson Plans
o Department-Wide Curricular Goals
• Online Resources for Teacher-Interns 20
o History and Study Skills
o Sourcebooks
• Appendix- Double Plan Lesson Plan Template 22
• Contact Information 23
Introduction
Purpose
This curriculum guide serves both Mentor Teachers and Teacher-Interns providing context, sequencing and concrete lesson plan components.
Resources
A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (ISBN-13: 9780312446734, Bedford/St. Martin’s)
Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that put Students on the Path to College (ISBN-10: 9780470550472)
Purpose of the Course
The course is designed for academically motivated seventh and eighth grade students who plan to attend rigorous college preparatory high schools. The majority of the seventh and eighth graders who complete this course during the 2010 Summer Program will enroll in parochial and independent day and boarding schools.
The course should be academically rigorous in order to prepare students to thrive in the more challenging academic institutions to which they aspire and instill them with the intellectual confidence that comes with academic success.
Context
Breakthrough New Haven Students have all demonstrated the desire and capacity to do well academically. However, typically the student’s schools are both under-resourced with respect to materials and academic support for struggling students. The latter issue often results in teachers’ devoting a significant amount of time addressing behavioral and remediation issues that detract from the academic rigor of their classrooms. Finally, due to resource constraints, and, in some cases, institutional academic expectations and standards of success, the strongest students are not always challenged to the degree necessary to prepare them for rigorous high schools. For many of our students, Breakthrough represents their sole opportunity to be consistently challenged academically and achieve their full scholastic potential in an environment of similarly capable students.
Pedagogy
Breakthrough New Haven Teacher-Interns are all required to read Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College by Doug Lemov before you arrive at Breakthrough for teacher training. You should have received that text in the mail with your contract and employment information. Annotate the text as you read it keeping in mind the techniques that you think you might use the most in your classes this summer (if this is your first summer teaching then this part of the assignment will be speculative), and paying special attention to Chapters 1-4. You will be expected to be fluent in the language of these chapters when you begin teacher training this summer.
Choosing the Content Covered in Your Class
For many Teacher-Interns in the History Department, appropriately choosing the content to cover during the summer program can be a daunting endeavor. Appropriately choosing content includes making sure that the underlying historical concepts are age-appropriate for high ability middle school students, that that content is interesting to high ability middle school students, relatable to their lives and most difficult of all, that the content is of the appropriate scope for a skills-based, six-week summer program.
Choosing content for the summer is a very active process; it takes serious self-reflection, analysis, and forethought to do correctly. Included in this curriculum guide is a series of questions for Teacher-Interns to consider as they develop their summer courses. The answers to these questions will ultimately be used as the basis for a conversation between the Teacher-Intern and his or her Mentor Teacher.
Choosing a Topic
• What topic do you want to teach for your Breakthrough New Haven history class?
• What do you find most interesting about this topic?
• How did you become interested in this topic?
• How much do you know about this topic? Have you had formal schooling in this topic or is it a hobby interest?
• Is there a history topic that you might know more about? If so, why didn’t you choose that topic as the one that you want to teach at Breakthrough New Haven this summer?
Relating the Topic to a Middle School Audience
• Why would this material be relevant to the lives of twelve or thirteen year olds?
• Why might a twelve or thirteen year old find this material interesting on his or her own?
• What concrete steps could you take to connect this topic to things that are important to twelve or thirteen year old students?
• What trade-offs (if any) do you perceive in performing those concrete steps outlined above?
Narrowing the Topic
• What large ideas or trends should a person knowledgeable in this material know?
• What are some seminal works or important books or articles that a person knowledgeable about this topic should have read?
• Do you have any project ideas which might encourage students to learn more about your material?
• What kind of prompts would make good five paragraph essays about this material?
• What kind of research paper topics would be good for this material?
• If you could condense the material that you would like to teach into three or four recurring themes, what would those themes be?
• If you could structure your course as the answers to three or four essay questions, what would those essay questions be? Outline the answers.
Preliminary Planning Concerns
• What would the syllabus of an advanced or college-level course on this topic look like? What readings would be included? In what order would they make sense to be covered?
• What would the syllabus of a regular high school or introductory course in this material look like? What readings would be included? In what order would they make sense to be covered?
• How did the syllabi change and why were those changes necessary?
• What would the syllabus look like for classes meant for twelve and thirteen year olds?
• If a serious twelve or thirteen year old taught this topic, what do you think the syllabus would look like then?
• What kinds of sources might a person studying this subject use?
o Are there any specialized sources available, i.e. Roman History( inscriptions from monuments and temples, or Ancient Egypt( pyramid paintings and artifacts.
• Using the tools available on the Hopkins School Library Website, identify ten to fifteen sources that you might use for the content of your course.
• How many of these sources are appropriate for high-ability middle school students to read and work with?
• Are there any reference or textbook-type sources that you could use for teaching this topic?
• Are those references or textbook-type sources appropriate for high-ability middle school students to read?
Choosing Texts for Your Class
The students at Breakthrough are high achieving and motivated. However, it is important that Teacher-Interns remain mindful of the age-appropriateness of the materials that they hand out. Teacher-Interns should make decisions about the texts for their class after in-depth consultation with their Mentor Teacher. However, when initially choosing texts or handouts for their classes, here are several guidelines that a Teacher-intern might follow:
• Readability- Texts should be easy to read and include language appropriate for high achieving middle school students. Teacher-Interns should consult with the department’s Mentor teacher before assigning college and/or advanced placement level readings for your middle school students.
• Variety- Teacher-Interns should choose texts which contain a variety of media, including maps, pictures, charts, and diagrams. Exposing students to different types of sources helps them to develop interpretations skills and appeals to multiple intelligences. Furthermore, Breakthrough Teacher-Interns should integrate primary sources (including photographs, artifacts or diary entries) into their classes whenever possible. Teacher-Interns should consult with the department’s Mentor Teacher for primary sourcebooks and other ideas for obtaining age-appropriate primary sources.
• Background Knowledge- Texts about a topic often require readers to have considerable amounts of previous knowledge to fully understand. Teacher-Interns should not automatically assume that students know the appropriate background information to understand the texts that they will be given. Instead, it is important for Teacher-Interns to decide for what context they would like to use the readings and to be mindful of the knowledge required to put the texts into that context. After determining what background knowledge the students need teachers should try to ascertain how much of it they actually possess. Teachers should address any dearth of background knowledge that the students possess or choose a different reading on the topic.
Reading and Taking Notes in History
Efficient reading and note-taking is an integral part of student success at any level. Breakthrough New Haven is committed to providing students with a toolbox with which to do these activities. To this end, Breakthrough Teacher-Interns should use the Cornell (STAR) Note-taking system, SQ3R method for reading dense texts, and note cards for doing research notes in their classes. At Breakthrough note-taking is not optional and should be treated as a serious part of the requirements for good scholarship. Breakthrough teachers should monitor that students are taking notes when appropriate and should give the students periodical notebook checks to assure that they are regularly rereading, revising, and rewriting their notes.
Cornell Notes
Breakthrough New Haven has adapted Cornell Note-taking as the strategy we teach students to take notes in their classes. Since the strategy was used during the school year classes, students should already be very familiar with it. The strategy includes four steps:
• Set Up Paper- Before beginning to take notes, students set up their paper. They put an appropriate heading (including their name, the class’s name, the date they are taking the notes, and a title for their notes) in the upper right corner, draw a vertical line about one third of the way from the left edge of the paper, and draw a horizontal line about two inches from the bottom of the paper.
• Take Notes- Students take most of their notes in the right hand column of the paper. At the very minimum, students should make sure to write down whatever the lecturer writes on the board. They should also be sure to write down any particular points that the lecturer might indicate are important and to delineate the important points from the lesser details by underlining, highlighting, or another method. If the student has any questions about the material or if any questions are answered in class, the student should write those questions in the left hand column of their notes, preferably right next to the portion of their notes that answers the question. Students should try to ask themselves higher level questions about the material rather than questions which focus solely on recall.
• After Class- As soon as possible after class, students should summarize their notes for the day at the bottom of the page. They should also reread them looking for places that require additions of information or that are redundant. Students should also reread their notes with an eye to understanding. If there are any parts of the concepts or information that the student does not understand, the student should note those in order to ask the lecturer about them.
• Review- Students should review their notes at least once a week regularly. Students can review their notes by folding their note pages on the long vertical line and asking themselves the questions in the left column.
SQ3R
This is a very effective method to teach your students to efficiently read textbooks or other difficult texts. A great companion to Cornell Note-taking, the SQ3R method has five stages:
1. Survey- Before students begin reading the document or book, they should scan it in order to get a better idea of what kind of information it will contain. For textbook reading this means that students should scan any subject headings, chapter review questions, bold headings or words, and introductions or summaries within the text. When applied to researching, students should pay attention to any tables of contents, subject headings, chapter names, and synopses that their sources have. They should use this information to determine if they have any reason to believe that the source might be helpful for their research topic.
2. Question- Before the students begin reading the document or book, they should try to turn the subject headings that they found during their survey into questions. Students should write these questions down and use them as reading goals. Students should write questions for each individual section of the document or book they are reading as well as questions that pertain to the entire document.
3. R1 Read- After writing questions for each section, students should begin reading the source on section at a time. After reading a section of the document or book, the student should refer back to the questions and try to answer them. If the student cannot answer each of the corresponding questions after reading the relevant part of the source, he or she should re-read that part of the source until he or she can answer the corresponding question(s). It is important that students take the time to question and answer each part of the source that they are reading.
4. R2 Recite- After reading each section, students should orally ask themselves about what they have just read. Students should orally summarize what they have read and then write that information down as notes from that section, making sure to use their own words rather than the author’s. Students can also use their verbal summaries to choose which sections of the source to highlight, underline, and write in their Cornell Notes.
5. R3 Review- After students have read each of the sections that they need to read and taken notes on them, they should review what they have read immediately. Students should try to answer all of their questions, both from the entire document and from each individual section from memory. Students should then look over the reading to make sure they did not forget anything. Students can even review by trying to teach the concepts or facts they have learned from the reading to someone else. A couple of days after the initial reading, students should once again review to make sure they have not forgotten anything in the interim time. The first review attempts to cement the material into the students’ long term memory from his or her short term memory. The second review tests whether the material has been actually transferred into long term memory. If it has not, the student should re-read those sections of the reading that he or she still needs to remember.
It is important to remember that SQ3R is not a note-taking technique, but rather a way to assure that students get the most out of difficult readings. Students should use SQ3R to guide them in their Cornell Note-taking on reading assignments given in class and for homework.
Note Cards
Taking notes for a research paper requires a very flexible form of note-taking. Since students usually work with many different sources, each of which has information on numerous topics, it is important to keep track of their notes by topic. At Breakthrough, teachers should encourage their students to apply the analytical approaches that they first develop with the SQ3R method to their research note cards.
The following explanation was adapted from the one used by several members of the Hopkins History Department to explain note cards to their students:
When taking notes, think about picking out important facts, ideas, and arguments from the source you are using.
• Each note card from a source should focus on a unique topic or idea. If a student is working on a note card that is focused on a particular topic but comes across a new and interesting topic within the same reading, the student should put the first card aside and start a new one. Having only one idea or topic on each card allows students to shuffle their ideas around later on.
• Each note card should have an appropriate header. At the top of each card, students should include their name (so that the cards can easily be returned to their owner if lost), author and title of the book (in brief). Students should also be diligent about writing down the bibliographic information for all of their sources on a list in one place so that they can easily refer to it later. At the top of the card students should also write the topic of the information on the card. Students might also use the back of the card to write down their own thoughts or ideas about the information on the card.
• Most of what the student writes on any given card should be in the form of a summary with relevant quotations to highlight the contents of the summary. After some preliminary reading or surveying, students should put a topic at the top of the card. Students should be sure to include page numbers on the left side of the card as they are researching (and if they move onto a new page and are still reading about the same topic, they should indicate on the left side of the card that they moved on to a new page).
• When a student encounters a new topic in his or her reading, he or she should begin a new note card. Student note cards should contain as much identification information as possible to make the process of writing easier. If students have exact quotations and page numbers written down on their cards, they might not have to go searching through all of their sources again later. When students have finished taking notes on a source, they should put the cards aside and keep them together. Later, when they are working on organizing their notes, they can group them as needed.
• Students should keep all of their note cards in one place. Teacher-Interns might suggest that students separate their note cards by source or topic using rubber bands or butterfly clips. Students should make sure to keep their note cards in a secure and organized place, like a note-card box or folder.
A note card template can be found on the next page.
Teacher-Interns might also check the Resources section of this guide for websites with more information on the SQ3R reading strategy and Cornell Note-Taking.
Costa’s Levels of Inquiry
Developed by Arthur Costa, a Professor Emeritus of California State University at Sacramento, these levels of inquiry will help you determine at what level of cognition students have mastered the material. The higher the level of questioning on the chart, the more advanced the thinking process required to answer it. In class, Teacher-Interns should concentrate on getting their students to ask and answer questions which demonstrate that they are thinking about the material at an advanced level. Furthermore, Teacher-Interns should require students ask higher level questions in their Cornell Notes and when they are using the SQ3R method for reading tough sources.
|Level of Inquiry |Sample Questioning Words |
|Level One- Information (Text Explicit) |Defining, observing, describing, naming, identifying, reciting, |
|Readers can point to one correct answer right in the text. |noting, listing |
|Level Two- Processing (Text Implicit) |Analyzing, grouping, synthesizing, comparing/contrasting, inferring, |
|Readers infer answers from what the text implicitly states, finding answers in several |sequencing |
|places in the text. | |
|Level Three- Application (Experience Based) |Evaluating, judging, applying a principle, speculating, imagining, |
|Readers think beyond what the text states. Answers are based on reader’s prior |predicting, hypothesizing |
|knowledge/experience and will vary. | |
Department Meetings
At least once a week, Teacher-Interns in the History Department will meet as a group with their mentor teacher during one of their preparation periods. Department meetings are not optional and will be scheduled at a regular time and place. Teacher-Interns should use the department meeting to talk about common issues with students or skill development, discuss lesson ideas and possible pitfalls, exchange curriculum materials, and do any necessary department-wide planning.
Department meetings are run by the mentor teacher or the Teacher-Intern that has been designated the “department chair.” Teacher-Interns should email both their department chair and their mentor teacher with any items that they would like included on the meeting’s agenda.
Lesson Plans
Since a major part of consistently successful classroom experiences is good planning, Teacher-Interns at Breakthrough New Haven design their own curriculum in accordance with the objectives and deliverables provided by the program and the input and mentorship of professional Mentor Teachers. Each week of the summer, Teacher-Interns will write their own lesson plans according to department-wide standardized objectives (see Objectives section). The Teacher-Interns will be responsible for handing in their lesson plans to their Mentor Teachers on time and the promptly submitting revisions in response to their Mentor Teacher’s feedback. During orientation, Teacher-Interns will receive extensive training in how to write lesson plans. The Lesson Plan section of this guide is meant as a supplement to that training.
Attributes of Strong Lesson Plans
Objectives should follow Lemov’s techniques for objective writing on pages 60-63. They should be manageable, measurable, made first, and most important.
1. The objective(s) should clearly define what students will be able to do that they may not have been able to accomplish prior to the class. Avoid vague objectives such as “Students will understand…”, “Students will discuss …”, and “”Students will appreciate …”
2. At Breakthrough New Haven, unit and longer-term objectives have already been written for you. However, Teacher-Interns should write their weekly and daily objectives before they begin planning the procedures of their classes. By writing objectives first, Teacher-Interns think through what, if any, prior knowledge or skills students need to have in order to accomplish the objectives set forth in the curriculum. They also must think through the process required for any student to learn a particular skill.
3. The scope of daily classroom objectives should be narrow enough that they can be accomplished within one class period. Doing this is called making the objectives manageable. When your objectives are manageable they are also easier to assess.
4. Each objective that a Teacher-Intern writes should be easily measurable by an assessment. The assessment methods can be immediate and in-class—like an exit ticket or worksheet—or homework assignments or quizzes. No objective should only be measured by one assessment. In fact, Teacher-Interns should endeavor to constantly assess their students’ mastery of concepts and skills.
5. When writing objectives, Teacher-Interns should focus on helping their students develop the skills and critical thinking that they will need to succeed in the most rigorous high schools in the area. Please refer to the brief discussion and outline of Bloom’s Taxonomy below for wording ideas for the creation of lesson objectives.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s Taxonomy organizes cognitive functions into a structure that can be used to assure that classroom instruction supports and develops higher order thinking skills. The taxonomy prevents common pitfalls like teaching only the definition of a concept, instead of how and when a concept is used. Ideally, students participate in activities and discussions distributed over all six levels of the taxonomy.
|Bloom’s Taxonomy |
|Level and Definition |Action Verbs for Lesson Objectives |
|KNOWLEDGE |List |Match |Identify |
|Recalling and recognizing factual information |State |Examine |Show |
| |Name |Describe |Label |
| |Tabulate |Choose |Collect |
| |Quote |Define | |
|COMPREHENSION |Represent |Show |Paraphrase |
|Translating and interpreting ideas |Examine |Select |Calculate |
| |Illustrate |Explain |Summarize |
|APPLICATION |Modify |Construct |Rearrange |
|Generalizing and applying knowledge to new situations |Predict |Combine |Demonstrate |
| |Solve |Integrate |Compute |
|ANALYSIS |Classify |Distinguish |Compare |
|Break into parts to understand connections |Categorize |Separate |Contrast |
|SYNTHESIS |Design |Create |Hypothesize |
|Combine elements into a new format |Develop |Invent |Infer |
| |Compose |Formulate | |
|EVALUATION |Recommend |Appraise |Criticize |
|Develop judgments and opinions according to criteria |Prioritize |Justify |Defend |
| |Assess |Judge | |
Procedures should be well thought-out and reviewed carefully and thoughtfully by the Teacher-Intern, Mentor Teacher and any other appropriately experienced educational professional. A Teacher-Intern should imagine him- or herself as the director of a play in which the actors have significant freedom to improvise and develop their roles.
Procedures should be skills-based, experiential, and designed to appeal to students with multiple learning styles. Teacher-Interns should be mindful of what students will be doing at any given point of the lesson when devising procedures for their classes (please refer to Lemov, Technique #10, “Double Plan”). Furthermore, Teacher-Interns can also increase the amount of quality input that students contribute to class while decreasing the amount of the higher-order thinking done for the students by the teacher at the same time (Lemov Technique #17, “Ratio”). Remember, the most engaging classes are those in which the students are actively participating in their own learning at all times. While lecture is sometimes necessary in History classes, it is much better for lectures to imitate guided conversations wherein students actively ask questions, contribute ideas, and make connections. To assure this kind of participation, Teacher-Interns should try to formulate guiding questions for their lectures and discussions. Furthermore, lesson plans that integrate different numbers of voices (i.e. single voice=teacher only, two voices= teacher and student conversation, three voices= paired presentation with teacher comments, multiple voices= group work) and different stations of learning (i.e. students at desks, students out of their seats, students exploring concepts out on campus) are structurally more likely to be engaging than ones that do not include such differentiation. Please consult Chapters 3 and 4 of Teach Like a Champion for specific ideas and techniques that can be used to engage students in your classes.
Assessments serve an integral part of any educational program by allowing teachers to easily determine whether or not each student has met lesson or longer-term objectives. Good teachers regularly assess their students’ progress through assignments, homework, projects and tests, in-class observation (Lemov Techniques #s 15, 22, 23, 24, and 26) and exit tickets (Lemov Technique #20). Teacher-Interns should develop their major assessments early on and adjust them as classroom conditions warrant. By planning assessments early, Teacher-Interns give themselves concrete benchmarks by which to gauge their progress toward their medium- and long-term content and skill goals. Each History class at Breakthrough should have at least two major assessments during the course of the summer: 1) a test or quiz before the rough draft of the research paper or five-paragraph essay is due and 2) a final exam or a non-test assessment scheduled during the last week of classes. (See page 95 of the Breakthrough Collaborative Teacher Guidebook for examples and resources of assessments and rubrics for assessment. The Guidebook may be found at ).
While it is important that Teacher-Interns always teach with their assessment in mind, not all assessments at Breakthrough New Haven have to fit the mold of the traditional test/quiz dichotomy. Teacher-Interns are encouraged to develop creative assessments so long as they are objectives-based and those objectives are compatible with the objectives of the Teacher-Intern’s classes. Additionally, Teachers-interns should develop rubrics for their assessments that use clear and concrete guidelines to demonstrate the students’ achievement. For longer-term assignments, Teacher-Interns should provide students with the rubrics that will be used to evaluate the students’ work at the time they assign the assessment.
Homework should be 1) a form of assessment as well as review of the material covered in class; or 2) preparatory work for the next class. Satisfaction of the objectives by successful completion of the lesson procedures and thoughtful in-class assessments should allow students to complete the homework independently or in groups, as determined by the Teacher-Intern.
Students should be given no more than thirty minutes of homework for each class, each day that the class meets. Teacher-Interns may not double the amount of homework they assign because it is to be completed over a weekend! It is important for Teacher-Interns to realize that the summer program is the first time that many of our students will be trying to balance a difficult workload. Teacher-Interns should take the time to complete each homework assignment that they intend to assign well before assigning it to students. Doing this can serve as a good way to anticipate some of the issues that students might have and to gauge how much time it will take the students to complete the assignment. Teacher-Interns should assume that it will take students four to five times longer to complete any assignment than it takes the Teacher-Intern to complete it. In the case of homework, Teacher-Interns should expect to be able to complete their assignments between six and seven and a half minutes to complete.
Lesson Observations
In addition to submitting lesson plans to their Mentor Teacher each week, Teacher-Interns will be observed by their mentor teachers at least twice a week. During the classroom observations, Mentor-Teachers will evaluate the classroom management and instructional quality of the class according to the standardized rubric provided by Breakthrough New Haven.
After each observation, the Mentor Teacher and the Teacher-Intern will have a sit-down meeting to talk about the events of the class. During this meeting, Mentor Teachers and Teacher-Interns should discuss those things that went well in the classroom, those things that might be improved, any particular student-teacher issues, and creative ideas for the future.
The classroom observation rubrics below were designed by the Roosevelt Institution at Yale and were edited by Master Teacher Martha Combs. They are not designed to pick up on all of the finely grained intricacies of a Teacher-Intern’s teaching. Instead they are designed to measure whether Teacher-Interns are using techniques in the classroom which, when done properly, will result in a learning environment conducive to learning by learners with differing needs.
|Classroom Management: Does the teacher “own” the classroom? |
|Practice |(Yes) |(No) |
| |Often |Sometimes |Rarely |Never |
|Teacher checks in on all students individually (e.g., calls on them randomly, looks over | | | | |
|their shoulders when doing individual work) | | | | |
|Teacher moves around the room during a lesson | | | | |
|Teacher affirms students’ contributions with positive feedback, especially when students | | | | |
|ask questions | | | | |
|Teacher addresses inappropriate behavior with little or no disruption of instruction | | | | |
|When doing so… |Teacher rejects behavior, but not student | | | | |
| |Teacher explains why behavior is wrong | | | | |
|Behavioral rules/expectations are posted on the wall | | | | |
|Teacher effects quick transitions between lessons/activities | | | | |
|Teacher knows students by name | | | | |
|Instruction: Does the teacher engage all students and communicate clearly? |
|Practice |(Yes) |(No) |
| |Often |Sometimes |Rarely |Never |
|Lesson plan objective(s) are posted and visible | | |
|Teacher reviews lesson objectives | | | | |
|Teacher ensures all students are actively involved in their learning by: | | | | |
|Instruction clearly supports and substantiates posted objectives | | | | |
|Teacher differentiates instruction to accommodate students’ learning styles | | | | |
|Teacher engages students in the lesson by using a variety of teaching methods | | | | |
|Including… |Group/pair work | | |
| |Role playing | | |
| |Individual work/reflection | | |
| |Whole-class discussion | | |
| |Direct instruction/lecture | | |
| |Debate | | |
|Teacher encourages higher levels of levels of thinking | | | | |
|Including… |Makes students summarize information (i.e. “who?” “what?” and | | | | |
| |“when?”) | | | | |
| |Asks questions that promote critical thinking (i.e. “why?” and | | | | |
| |“how?”) | | | | |
| |Asks students to compare/contrast ideas | | | | |
7th Grade Curricular Objectives
Long Term Skill Objectives:
Unit 1- Note-taking and Study Skills (3-4 days)
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
• Take effective notes on lectures and discussions by
o Organizing their paper using the Cornell note-taking system;
• See section above entitled “Cornell Notes”
o Use underlining or highlighting to distinguish between main ideas and supporting details in their notes;
o Composing level-three questions about the content of the day’s lesson; and
o Summarizing the information from the day’s lesson in context.
• Develop study guides and effective study habits by
o Rereading the summaries of their Cornell notes;
o Identifying key terms, themes, and concepts that appear in their notes;
o Answering the questions that they posed in their notes from memory;
o Predicting assessment questions based on the terms, themes, concepts, and questions that appear in their notes.
o Explaining how the key terms, themes, and concepts in their notes fit together using the triad method from memory; and
o Identifying which key terms, themes, concepts, and questions in their notes that they could not link or define from memory.
• Analyze difficult primary and secondary sources by
o Determining the historical context of the source through background reading, and informal and formal clues presented in the document itself;
o Using the SQ3R method to paraphrase the main ideas of a source;
▪ See section above on SQ3R. Also see pp. 25-29 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
o Reading with the author’s thesis in mind; and
o Interpreting the meaning of the source in historical context using prior knowledge or knowledge presented in class by the teacher.
Unit 2- Argumentation and Paragraphs (7-9 days)
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
• Use evidence to support an argument by
o Distinguishing between narrative and argumentative statements;
o Identifying and paraphrasing the arguments being made by authors in primary or secondary source materials chosen by the teacher;
o Paraphrasing passages and facts from primary and secondary source materials; and
o Making plausible inferences from facts and arguments in primary and secondary sources
• Determine whether there is sufficient evidence to support an argument by
o Deconstructing an assertion into its component parts;
o Matching each of the component parts of the assertion to a relevant; and
o Making plausible inferences from primary and secondary sources
• Write persuasive paragraphs by
o Constructing an arguable topic sentence in response to a teacher-provided prompt;
o Incorporating at least three pieces of evidence to support their topic sentence; and
o Explaining how each piece of evidence that they use relates to and supports the topic sentence of their paragraph.
• Properly incorporating evidence from a source into their academic writing by
o Identifying assertions in their writing that need to be supported;
o Identifying evidence that will support the assertions they are making from a source chosen by the teacher;
o Determining whether that evidence should be paraphrased or block quoted;
o Correctly paraphrasing information from a source using the guidelines in the A Pocket Guide to Writing in History;
o Correctly block quoting a source using the guidelines in the A Pocket Guide to Writing in History;
o Citing their sources in-text using footnotes according to the Chicago Manual of Style as explained in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History; and
o Constructing a works cited according to the Chicago Manual of Style as explained in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
Unit 3 – Thesis Statements (3-4 days)
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
• Develop a thesis statement answering a teacher-provided prompt by
o Summarizing information from teacher-provided sources;
o Identifying common themes within those sources;
o Developing an opinion about how or why those themes relate to the prompt provided by the teacher; and
o Construct a one-sentence summary of their position using the SNAPpy model as a guide.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of thesis statements by
o Assessing whether or not the thesis conforms to the SNAPpy model; and
o Recommending ways they could change their thesis statements to make them better conform to the SNAPpy model.
Unit 4 – Five Paragraph Essay (5-7 days)
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
• Compose a 5-paragraph essay from a thesis statement by
o Identifying the component parts of the argument contained in the thesis;
o Composing an arguable topic sentence for each of the component parts of the thesis;
o Identifying evidence that will support their topic sentences from teacher-selected sources;
o Composing a properly written paragraph for each of the arguable thesis statements; and
o Correctly incorporating evidence into each paragraph that they have written using the guidelines found in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
• Effectively link persuasive paragraphs together to support a larger argument by
o Drafting an introduction paragraph which introduces the reader to the topic and puts it in context;
• Pp. 52-55 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
o Composing transition sentences using linking words; and
• Pp. 56-58 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
o Determining the flow of evidence that makes the most sense based on their thesis statements; and
• Pp. 96-99 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Composing an effective conclusion paragraph.
• Pp. 58-60 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
• Avoid plagiarism by
o Citing their sources in-text using Chicago-style footnotes; and
i. Pp. 106-120 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Constructing a bibliography according to the Chicago Manual of Style as explained in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
i. Pp. 121-133 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
• Develop and execute an editing plan based on teacher feedback and guidance by
o Identifying teacher comments on their rough draft that will require minor corrections to fix;
o Identifying teacher comments on their rough draft that will require major corrections to fix;
o Scheduling a meeting with their teachers to talk through the expectations for each of the teacher comments which require major corrections to fix; and
o Integrating teacher comments into the revisions of their papers.
Unit 5 – Final Exam Preparation (3-5 days)
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
• Use questions and summaries from their Cornell notes to develop study guides for long-term assessments by
o Rereading the summaries of their Cornell notes;
o Identifying key terms, themes, and concepts that appear in their notes;
o Answering the questions that they posed in their notes without aid;
o Predicting assessment questions based on the terms, themes, concepts, and questions that appear in their notes.
o Explaining how the key terms, themes, and concepts in their notes fit together using the triad method without aid;
o Identifying which key terms, themes, concepts, and questions in their notes that they could not link or define without aid; and
o Composing questions for review sessions which reflect the key terms, themes, and concepts that they could not link or answer without aid.
o See pp. 38-42 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History for more details.
8th Grade Curricular Objectives
Long Term Skill Objectives:
Unit 1- Note-taking and Study Skills (Review 1-3 Days)
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
• Take effective notes on lectures and discussions by
o Organizing their paper using the Cornell note-taking system;
• See section above entitled “Cornell Notes”
o Use underlining or highlighting to distinguish between main ideas and supporting details in their notes;
o Composing level-three questions about the content of the day’s lesson; and
o Summarizing the information from the day’s lesson in context.
• Develop study guides and effective study habits by
o Rereading the summaries of their Cornell notes;
o Identifying key terms, themes, and concepts that appear in their notes;
o Answering the questions that they posed in their notes from memory;
o Predicting assessment questions based on the terms, themes, concepts, and questions that appear in their notes;
o Explaining how the key terms, themes, and concepts in their notes fit together using the triad method from memory; and
o Identifying which key terms, themes, concepts, and questions in their notes that they could not link or define from memory.
• Analyze difficult primary and secondary sources by
o Determining the historical context of the source through background reading, and informal and formal clues presented in the document itself;
o Using the SQ3R method to paraphrase the main ideas of a source; and
▪ See section above on SQ3R. Also see pp. 25-29 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
o Interpreting the meaning of the source in historical context using prior knowledge or knowledge presented in class by the teacher.
• Take effective research notes from a source by
o Using the note card system; and
o Evaluating the note cards of their peers with regard to formatting and relevance to a given topic.
Unit 2 – Libraries and Sources (3-4 days)
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
• Find sources in a library that are relevant to a topic by
o Differentiating between types of sources and for what they are best used;
▪ Pp. 6-9, Section 5b-1 (pp. 73-75), and Section 5c-3,4,& 5 (pp. 79-81) in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Developing a list of initial search terms after doing preliminary reading on a topic;
▪ Pp. 76-84 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History. Pay attention to box on pp. 83-84.
▪ See also Tip Sheet 2- key Words in .
o Developing a list of subsidiary search terms based on additional reading on a topic;
▪ See Tip Sheet 2- key Words in .
o Evaluating an internet source’s reliability;
▪ Pp. 16-17 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Evaluating a primary or secondary source’s reliability; and
▪ Pp. 8-16 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Evaluating a book’s potential usefulness by using a table of contents, index, and/or introduction to search for key words.
Unit 3 – Content Analysis (7-9 days)
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
• Develop an argument using information from sources that they have found in the library by
o Narrowing their research subject into a topic;
▪ Section 5a-2 on pp. 71-72 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Formulating research questions based on preliminary readings;
▪ Pp. 3-5 and 69-72 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Taking effective research notes using the note card system; and
▪ See section above on note cards and pp. 84-86 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Paraphrasing information they have read in sources into a summary paragraphs and sentences;
▪ Pp. 90-93 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
• Compose a working thesis statement answering a student-created research question by
o Identifying common themes, ideas, or key terms within the sources that they found in the library on a topic;
o Developing an opinion about how or why those themes relate to the prompt provided by the teacher; and
o Constructing a one-sentence summary of their position using the SNAPpy model as a guide.
▪ See pp. 75-76 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
▪ See chart on pp. 48 and 49 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
• Create a research plan for their paper (see pp. 72-76 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History) by
o Developing an outline based on their working thesis;
▪ See pp. 86-87 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Identifying which aspect(s) of their thesis might need additional sourcing
o Composing a time-management plan for their research
o Meeting with a teacher or consulting a librarian to check-in about difficulties in the process
▪ See pp. 76-77 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
• Evaluate the effectiveness of peers’ thesis statements by
o Assessing whether or not the peer’s thesis conforms to the SNAPpy model; and
o Recommending ways their peers could change their thesis statements to make them better conform to the SNAPpy model.
Unit 4 – Mechanics of Academic Writing and Citation (3-4 days)
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
• Compose arguable topic sentences for their thesis by
o Identifying the elements of a good topic sentence;
o Distinguish between adequate and inadequate topic sentences (ones which are not arguable or do not specifically further along the argument being made in a thesis);
o Composing arguable topic sentences for the body paragraphs of a teacher-provided SNAPpy thesis;
o Identifying the components of the argument they are making in their thesis statement; and
o Composing arguable topic sentences for each component of their thesis.
• Properly incorporating evidence from a source into their academic writing by
o Identifying assertions in their writing that need to be supported;
o Identifying evidence that will support the assertions they are making from a source they found in the library;
o Classifying facts as needing citation or or not needing citation.
▪ Pp. 90-93 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Determining whether that evidence should be paraphrased or block quoted;
▪ Pp. 96-99 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Paraphrasing information from a source using the guidelines;
▪ Pp. 90-93 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Correctly block quoting a source;
▪ Pp. 96-99 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Citing their sources in-text using footnotes according to the Chicago Manual of Style; and
▪ Pp. 106-120 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
o Constructing a bibliography cited according to the Chicago Manual of Style.
▪ Pp. 121-133 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History
• Write persuasive paragraphs by
o Constructing an arguable topic sentence to address a portion of their argument prompt;
o Incorporating at least three pieces of evidence to support their topic sentence;
o Composing a sentence explaining how each piece of evidence that they use relates to and supports the topic sentence of their paragraph
• Effectively link persuasive paragraphs together to support a larger argument by
o Drafting an introduction paragraph which introduces the reader to the topic and puts it in context;
▪ Pp. 52-55 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
o Composing transition sentences using linking words; and
▪ Pp. 56-58 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
o Determining the flow of evidence that makes the most sense based on their thesis statements; and
o Composing an effective conclusion paragraph.
▪ Pp. 58-60 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History.
Unit 5 – Editing and Using Teacher Feedback (1-2 days)
By the end of this unit, students will be able to:
• Develop a revision plan (see pp. 60-68 in A Pocket Guide to Writing in History) by
o Identifying grammatical and mechanical errors in their own writing using a modified version of the “Errors of Doom” worksheet of the English Department;
o Identifying grammatical and mechanical errors in their peers’ writing using a modified version of the “Errors of Doom” worksheet of the English Department;
Identifying non-grammatical editing suggestions made by their teacher on their rough drafts;
o Meeting with their teacher to discuss steps the student can take to address those non-grammatical suggestions;
o Categorizing the non-grammatical errors according to their difficulty; and
o Prioritizing the fixing of their errors according to their difficulty.
• Revise their papers by
o Eliminating grammatical and mechanical errors from their writing; and
o Addressing the non-grammatical suggestions made by their teachers;
Deadlines
Lesson Plans
Lesson plan rough drafts are due every Wednesday at 5:00pm the week before they are to be carried out. Revisions are due by noon on the Saturday before they are to be carried out. Teacher-Interns should turn their lesson plans via email directly to the Mentor Teacher (with a carbon-copy to the Dean of Faculty).
• Week 1- Rough Drafts Due 5:00pm, Wednesday, June 23, 2010; Revisions Due Noon, Saturday, June 26, 2010.
• Week 2- Rough Drafts Due 5:00pm, Wednesday, June 30, 2010; Revisions Due Noon, Saturday, July 3, 2010.
• Week 3- Rough Drafts Due 5:00pm, Wednesday, July 7, 2010; Revisions Due Noon, Saturday, July 10, 2010.
• Week 4- Rough Drafts Due 5:00pm, Wednesday, July 14, 2010; Revisions Due Noon, Saturday, July 17, 2010.
• Week 5- Rough Drafts Due 5:00pm, Wednesday, July 21, 2010; Revisions Due Noon, Saturday, July 24, 2010.
• Week 6- Rough Drafts Due 5:00pm, Wednesday, July 28, 2010; Revisions Due Noon, Saturday, July 31, 2010.
Department-wide Curricular Goals
In order to make sure that all of the Teacher-Interns in the History Department are on the same page and to assure that the Breakthrough students maintain a modicum of common experience, the following deadlines apply to the entire department.
7th Grade
• Each Teacher-Intern should introduce the five paragraph essay project by Wednesday, July 7, 2010.
• Each Teacher-Intern should proctor his or her midterm test by Wednesday, July 21, 2010.
• Each Teacher-Intern should have returned his or her students’ five paragraph essay thesis statements by Wednesday, July 21, 2010.
• Each Teacher-Intern should collect the five paragraph essay by Thursday, July 29, 2010.
• Each Teacher-Intern should begin holding final review sessions by Monday, August 2, 2010.
8th Grade
• Each Teacher-Intern should introduce the research project Wednesday, July 7, 2010.
• Each Teacher-Intern should have completed his or her midterm test by Wednesday, July 21, 2010.
• Each Teacher-Intern should collect rough drafts of the research paper by Wednesday, July 21, 2010.
• Each Teacher-Intern should meet with each of his or her students about his or her rough draft during the week of July 21, 2010 to July, 28, 2010.
• Each Teacher-Intern should collect final drafts of the research paper by Tuesday, August 3, 2010.
• Each Teacher-Intern should return his or her classes’ evaluated final drafts by August 5, 2010.
Online Resources for Teacher-Interns
The following websites might be helpful as you plan your lessons this summer.
Breakthrough Collaborative Teacher Guidebook () – An introduction to the theories of teaching along with some handy tools to use this summer.
History and Study Skills
• Cambridge Ringe and Latin School Research Guide () – Produced by one of the best public high schools in Massachusetts, this is an online guide to the research process written in language appropriate for high school students. Some of the information in this guide is not enough to stand alone, but would be good to supplement other sources.
• Cornell Notes PDF Generator () – This website generates custom Cornell note pages in .pdf format.
• Cornell University Learning Strategies Center () – Collection of resources to help your students develop time management, stress management, and study skills for their classes. Evaluating Web Pages : Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask () – This source provides a step-by-step approach to evaluating web pages complete with questions students should ask about web pages, where to look for indications of the answers as they apply to the web page they are looking at, and the implications of the answers to those questions.
• Guide to Library Research at Cornell () – A good source for identifying the concrete steps necessary for library research and what each of those steps requires. This site is much more concise than A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, but is not nearly as exhaustive.
• Indiana University at Bloomington Writing Tutorial Services () – Collection of pamphlets dedicated to writing specific subjects like using evidence effectively, writing thesis statements, proofreading, and taking an essay exam.
• Purdue Online Writing Library () – Collection of detailed, comprehensive resources for teachers and students with different ability levels including general writing techniques, mechanics and grammar guides, research and citation guides, and teacher and tutor resources,
• Sheboygan Falls High School Skills and Style Handbooks () – This website has a collection of resources dedicated to helping students
• Prentice Hall Social Studies Skills Tutor () – An online, interactive guide to many of the skills that we teach at Breakthrough New Haven, including but not limited to: Identifying the main ideas in a passage, making inferences and drawing conclusions, recognizing biases, identifying and using reliable information and source, and synthesizing information. This guide takes the user through processes step-by-step, with opportunities for practice along the way. It also addresses each topic on two different levels (one for beginning students and another for more advanced students).
• Study Guides and Strategies () – Searchable online guides in topics ranging from preparing for tests, studying in groups, and research writing.
• Virginia Tech Cooke Counseling Center () – A study skills and time management website from Virginia Tech with many different resources as well as several online workshops.
Sourcebooks
• America’s Library () – This website is specifically designed by the United States Library of Congress to be kid-friendly resource for American History. It contains encyclopedia-type entries on many subjects, as well as multimedia presentations.
• ARTstor ( happy) – A digital library of over 400,000 images from a wide range of cultures and time periods taken from art museums and collections around the world. These high quality images may be used for education purposes provided they are properly cited. Requires a subscription to use but can be accessed on the Hopkins campus for free.
• Duke University Library’s Digital Collections () – This website features scanned images of primary and secondary sources in a variety of subjects. Of particular note are the collection of photographs of African-Americans, the Egyptian papyri collection, American advertisements from 1850-1920, and collections of American Sheet music.
• Internet Ancient History Sourcebook () – An excellent collection of primary and secondary sources having to do with Ancient Mediterranean history. Put together by Fordham University, the sources are arranged by subject and time period.
• Internet Medieval History Sourcebook () – An excellent collection of primary and secondary sources having to do with Medieval European history. Put together by Fordham University, the sources are arranged by subject and time period.
• Internet Modern History Sourcebook () – An excellent collection of primary and secondary sources having to do with Modern European history. Put together by Fordham University, the sources are arranged by subject and time period.
• Smithsonian Institution Research Information Systems () – This is an easily searchable database for “images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from all across the Smithsonian.” Many of the resources on this site are easily downloadable; however, some searches will turn up links to sources only available in hard copy by checking them out from a local or national library.
• The University of Oklahoma College of Law Chronology of U.S. Historical Documents () – This website links to major documents in United States History. The site contains a mixture of direct links to the document text and links to websites hosted by other universities and reliable sources.
• The University of Oregon, Internet Sites for Teaching American History with Primary Documents () – This website is a clearinghouse of websites for teaching U.S. History using primary documents. While many of the links on this webpage are great, do not be disappointed to find several links that no longer work.
• Yale University Library’s Digital Collections () – This website features scanned images of primary and secondary sources in a variety of subjects, including images from the Beinecke Rare Book Library and the Historical New Haven Digital Collection.
Lesson Plan Template
|Teacher: |Subject: |
|Objective(s): |Standard(s): |
|SWBAT … | |
|BY [activity] | |
| | |
| | |
|In-Class Assessment Methods: |
| |
|Classroom Materials and Preparation: |
| |
|What the Teacher is Doing |What the Students Are Doing |
|Do Now or Warm Up | |
| | |
|Hook | |
| | |
|Introduction to New Material (I) | |
| | |
|Guided Practice (We) | |
| | |
|Independent Practice (You) | |
| | |
|Closing | |
| | |
|Homework (Assessment) |
| |
For more information about this guide, please contact:
Errol Saunders – History Mentor Teacher, Breakthrough New Haven, 2010 Summer Program
esaunders@hopkins.edu
Michael Van Leesten – Director, Breakthrough New Haven
mvanleesten@hopkins.edu
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Student’s Name Topic of Card
Name of Source
p. 5 notes …………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
“quotation …………………………………………………”
p. 6 “quotation ………………………………………………………”
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