Curriculum Title Reviewed:    Helping Bear the Burden       

 

Reviewer 1

Reviewer 2

Reviewer 3

How used in a classrm?

As a follow up on both social studies unit on volunteering/civic duty and English unit on letter writing.

With persuasive letter writing, learning how to write a letter. Discussing health, illness. If a lesson in poetry, have them create a positive message using the poem.

Fairly fluffy project.  I don’t think teddy bears are the thing these kids need most.

Which grades?

3 – 5

3-5

k-5

Subjects?

English, Social Studies, some Science

Health, ELA

ELA?

Appropriateness, possibility to strengthen: Learning Goals/Academic subjects

Learning goals and academic skills seem appropriate.

Appropriate. Create a variety of activities around “understanding community and personal needs.”

OK

Community needs

Community needs are relevant, especially in communities with larger children’s hospitals.

Yes, public health Dep’t might be able to help, give them info on needs in the community.

OK

Character virtue prominence

Character virtues of caring and giving are covered to a great extent.

I don’t think they are prominent. The activities do not seem to focus around getting students to understand. They are in the reflection piece though.

OK

SL activities

Yes.

Yes. How children will deliver bears and boxes of item is not clear. How will community help be a support system?

OK

Reflection activities

(n/a)

Reflection is good and will assist students in reflecting on virtues.

Good

Costs

Not specific ~ seems like a need for a great deal of teddy bears!

Not totally clear on how students will get bears and boxes to needy. Writing paper, envelopes, stamps, materials for teddy picnic.

Doable

Time needed

I disagree with time allotment.  I think something like this needs a semester rather than a full year. 

Seems a year is a very long time for this project, maybe a semester or ˝ year?

Doable in semester/ 2 months

Teacher preparation required

(n/a)

Educate students on persuasive letter writing, help students ID agencies and people to write to to request items and help students IDF what is needed, plan delivery of bears/boxes, plan picnic.

Doable

Possible improvements

(n/a)

Little more specifics, expand more on student support messages, more interaction between agencies, school and recipients of bears,-maybe include them with the celebration?

Focus more on supplies and friendships than teddy bears.

Assessment items

The assessment items were well thought out and align with learning goals in the academic and character virtue areas. 

Good assessment piece, appropriate age group.

OK, is #4 clear? I don’t understand what the answer should be.

Experience needed in CE

Little or no experience. 

Moderately

Moderately

Experience needed in SL

Little or no experience. 

Moderately

Little or no experience

Rate the project in the following areas:

Doability

(n/a)

Average-Strong

Average

Addressing the character virtues

(n/a)

Average

Average

Relevance to actual academic content

(n/a)

Average-Strong

Average

Reflection activities

(n/a)

Average-Strong

Average

How strongly are each of the character virtues addressed by this project….

Caring

Very Strong.

Strongly

Strongly

Citizenship

Very Strong. 

Not at all

Somewhat

Fairness

Somewhat.

Not at all

Somewhat

Giving

Very Strong.

Somewhat-strongly

Strongly

Respect

Somewhat.

Somewhat

Somewhat

Responsibility

Somewhat.  

Somewhat

Somewhat

Trustworthy

Somewhat.

Not at all

Not at all


 

Curriculum Title Reviewed:    Hooked on Helping     

 

Reviewer 1

Reviewer 2

Reviewer 3

How used in a classrm?

I would emphasize the Arts component.

na

 

Which grades?

All grades

5-8

3-5

Subjects?

Arts and Social Studies

SS

Arts/Social Studies/QA

Appropriateness, possibility to strengthen: Learning Goals/Academic subjects

The second goal is more service than academic.

Expand to include outreach to homeless vets. (Vets are a disproportionately high % of homeless.) They really could use blankets.

Power Point surely is Career Dev. 2+3a

OK

Community needs

To be fair, I would also want to recognize the role of pacifists in the community.

Kids connecting with vets is good.  However, they should do the afghan for other folks – street people or folks at homeless or battered women’s shelters.  Just do an interview celebration with the vets at the VA hospitals – they’ve got blankets.

OK

Character virtue prominence

N/A

Respect is served well.  Caring is present but redundant. These folks aren’t cold; others are.

OK

SL activities

Planning activity #2 needs to include meeting with seniors who will crochet with students.  The power point presentation needs to be broken down into steps that correlate with Arts learning standards. 

Yes

OK

Reflection activities

(n/a)

Excellent – esp.

OK

Costs

Costs are addressed in planning activity #1.

Transportation – lots

Doable`

Time needed

Semester.

Several months – gather materials, crochet, do powerpt, have program

+2 months

Teacher preparation required

(n/a)

Average

Doable

Possible improvements

(n/a)

The restriction to R, W, and B is offensive.  Nothing is more personal than color.  Let the crafters have more choice.

 

Assessment items

Questions 4 & 5 are not academic. 

The federal (NOT local) govt funds the VA, and is cutting benefits.  My uncle, late uncle, and late father all served in WWII.  I take this stuff seriously.  Let the students write to the real authority and local paper after they read a brief fact sheet on recent trends in VA funding.

Good

Experience needed in CE

Little or no experience. 

Little or no experience.

Moderately experienced

Experience needed in SL

Little or no experience. 

Little or no experience.

Moderately experienced

Rate the project in the following areas:

Doability

(n/a)

Average-Strong

Average

Addressing the character virtues

(n/a)

Average

Average-Strong

Relevance to actual academic content

(n/a)

Average

Average

Reflection activities

(n/a)

Average

Average

How strongly are each of the character virtues addressed by this project….

Caring

Strongly. 

Strongly

Strongly

Citizenship

Somewhat.  

Somewhat

Strongly

Fairness

Not at all.

(only if advocacy is real)

Somewhat

Giving

Somewhat. 

Strongly

Strongly

Respect

Very strong. 

Very Strong

Somewhat

Responsibility

Somewhat. 

Somewhat

Strongly

Trustworthy

Somewhat. 

Somewhat

Not at all`


 

Curriculum Title Reviewed:    How Can We Help         

 

Reviewer 1

Reviewer 2

Reviewer 3

How used in a classrm?

This may serve as an introduction to service learning.

N/A  

As a method of teaching organizational skills as well as research methods. Group work and teaming are also very relevant.

Which grades?

Middle and high

Grades 4 – 8 

6-12

Subjects?

ELA (getting information), MST (establishing a database)

ELA, Social Studies

SS, English, Computers, Math (to some extent)

Appropriateness, possibility to strengthen: Learning Goals/Academic subjects

MST learning goal needs to focus on the creation and organization of a database.  ELA goal needs to emphasize reading and writing for research. 

Good road for a project. 

Appropriate but could use more specific detailing to assist teachers not familiar with plan (i.e. various forms of media-create videos, website, brochures, etc.). Would give a better idea of how to make academic curriculum.

Community needs

A service-learning database would be of use to the school and other service agencies in the community. 

Very relevant; generalized plan instructions. 

Relevance limited-briefly mentioned that the students would actually do a project, but not in depth: Community partners listed are more than adequate.

Character virtue prominence

N/A

Clearly stated.  Very evident in nature of projects suggested.   

Pretty good character objectives. Seems that they are intertwined in project. Civic Virtue and Citizenship will take on a more prominent stance in 2nd part of project (once students select and go out for project).

SL activities

The first planning activity has students “brainstorm ideas for possible community organizations” before meeting with the organizations.  It might be helpful to do the outreach first.  The service activities are “planning activities.”

Very general plan.  New teachers to service learning should partner with an experienced service-learning mentor. 

Definitely detailed enough. More info on what will be done once students select project would be helpful (how they will facilitate the students to design a project).

Reflection activities

(n/a)

(n/a)

Appropriate, but seem low level activities to encourage basic knowledge of character virtue. Drawing pictures could be a poster contest top publish winner drawings around town.

Costs

Internet and computer costs relevant to web page and database. 

Varies greatly by project. 

Minimal costs-more about finding people to come in and speak from organizations.

Time needed

4 – 8 weeks

Varies greatly – could be could be entire school year. 

Adequate time, especially if students develop their own project.

Teacher preparation required

(n/a)

(n/a)

Familiarity with community organizations available.

Possible improvements

(n/a)

(n/a)

Much more detail needed on how to facilitate students to develop their own project (activities).

Assessment items

The questions address service learning and not academics. 

Good job of asking for the important elements – especially in the essays.   

Assessment is weak-character questions in multiple choice. No academics in essay.

Experience needed in CE

Little or no experience.

Little or no experience.   

Moderately experienced

Experience needed in SL

Little or no experience. 

Moderately experienced. 

Little or no experience

Rate the project in the following areas:

Doability

(n/a)

(n/a)

Strong

Addressing the character virtues

(n/a)

(n/a)

Average

Relevance to actual academic content

(n/a)

(n/a)

Average-Strong

Reflection activities

(n/a)

(n/a)

Weak - Average

How strongly are each of the character virtues addressed by this project….

Caring

Somewhat.

 

Strongly

Citizenship

Strongly.

 

Strongly

Fairness

Not at all.

 

Not at all

Giving

Not at all.

 

 

Respect

Not at all.

 

Somewhat

Responsibility

Somewhat.

 

Somewhat

Trustworthy

Not at all. 

 

Not at all

 


 

Curriculum Title Reviewed:   Hudson on Line

 

Reviewer 1

Reviewer 2

Reviewer 3

How used in a classrm?

As a semester-long or year-long visual arts project.

 

 

Which grades?

9-12

9-12

9-12

Subjects?

Visual Arts/English/Science

ELA, Arts, Science

ELA and Art (visual)

Appropriateness, possibility to strengthen: Learning Goals/Academic subjects

The project will give students a venue for visual arts projects featured in school visuals and literary arts pub as well as the chance to write creatively and expressively.

Add more science.  Add theatre arts/expressive reading.

I’m concerned that this would be difficult to use in a visual arts class because so much of it emphasized writing.  Difficult for a non-ELA teacher to do well.

Community needs

To raise awareness of the Hudson River ecology to students who then transfer that knowledge to the community.

DEC esp. Hudson River Programs (845) 256-3181

Hudson River Research Station (845) 759-7033

Scenic Hudson

Arm-of-the-sea theatre

Local Museums/Historical societies

Definitely legitimate needs, great partners.

Character virtue prominence

The character virtues will be very prominent to students who buy-in to the project.

Excellent.

I think caring especially is emphasized- maybe civic virtue a bit less because the crusade for change is more passive than direct (e.g. showing photos/writing to state legislature).

 

SL activities

Service-learning activities easy to replicate, but not a very moving project for non-Hudson River neighbors.

Yes!

Do students upload photos onto SOL and then write or do they look at the photos in class, write, then upload? It’s a little unclear.  Also, when does the editing from the project description happen?  How?

Reflection activities

Appropriate and highly specific. Will reflect character virtues as long as they are stressed by teachers.

They rehearse presentations, but they don’t perform their work at celebration.  Why not?

Pretty good.  For #2 what exactly are they writing – an essay?

Costs

Very minimal. Costs to include copies of publication and money needed for gallery exhibit of work.

Cameras, computers, transport to river.

Manageable except need to be careful on cost of publication.  Could get pricey.

Time needed

Semester-long or year-long

3 mos.

Pretty accurate – one full school year.

Teacher preparation required

Lots of preparation to get community partners. Must be highly skilled in writing and visual arts.

Computer literacy.

Manageable

Possible improvements

How will students get to the River to take pictures? This project is only relevant in Hudson Valley.

Sticky politics, but consider including rural communities about the Troy Dam…

Perhaps make it a collaboration between an English and an art class so that the students can have a good writing and visual arts experience.

Assessment items

Assessment for assessment sake.  Appropriate questions. Students will learn through projects.

Q5 unclear.

C is the best answer to a strange cloze.  Scenic importance?

Fairly simplistic questions for 9-12.  Question #5 is awkwardly worded and unclear and the long answer question asking about a haiku would be hard for vis art students who don’t have an English teacher who has taught them.

Experience needed in CE

Moderately experienced

Moderately experienced

Moderately experienced

Experience needed in SL

Moderately experienced

Moderately experienced

Moderately experienced

Rate the project in the following areas:

Doability

Weak (unless you live in the Hudson Valley)

Average-strong

Average-strong

Addressing the character virtues

Average

Average-strong

Average

Relevance to actual academic content

Average

Average-strong

Average

Reflection activities

Average

Average

Average

How strongly are each of the character virtues addressed by this project….

Caring

Somewhat

Very strong

Strongly

Citizenship

Somewhat

Very strong

Strongly

Fairness

Somewhat

Somewhat

Not at all

Giving

Somewhat

Somewhat

Not at all

Respect

Somewhat

Somewhat

Not at all

Responsibility

Somewhat

Strongly

Not at all

Trustworthy

Not at all

Somewhat

Not at all