Curriculum Title Reviewed:      Let Me Be Your Eyes…Ears…Friend          

 

Reviewer 1

Reviewer 2

Reviewer 3

How used in a classrm?

N/A

 

The project summary is fairly awkwardly worded and therefore might be unclear to some.

Which grades?

All grades could adopt this

3-5

K-2 (and 3-5 with small changes)

Subjects?

Health, Language Arts

ELA

Language Arts/Visual Arts and Social Studies

Appropriateness, possibility to strengthen: Learning Goals/Academic subjects

I feel the students would need a strong background of the disabilities that are being addressed to eliminate fear and foster understanding. 

n/a

Yes, appropriate, but no standard given for goal #2. Perhaps a third goal could focus on how students will understand the diversity of their community.

Community needs

Local BOCES schools – our student council – (Gr. 3 – 6) did visitations with handicapped students and sponsored a breakfast. 

Lions, Senior groups, very much so!!

Great!

Character virtue prominence

Very good!  Caring, compassion, justice and fairness need to be there at the start of school. 

Good

Great!

SL activities

Fine. 

Good

Will the children have a private meeting with school administration at which they will present their recommendations?

Reflection activities

(n/a)

Avoid pity. This project does not humanize individuals with disabilities, although physical access enhances dignity and autonomy. Expand on “interclass discussions” segment.

Great, but need to connect more specifically to virtues.

Costs

N/A

n/a

Doable

Time needed

Fine

n/a

Doable

Teacher preparation required

(n/a)

Creation and analysis of survey

Very doable

Possible improvements

(n/a)

Get older students to assist with survey design and analysis.

Great!

Assessment items

Yes

Tie in with grade that does fairly complex map skills. 4th? 5th? Some reference to ADA and legal mandates would help.

Wonderful idea to assess as group and allow various expressions as answers. Questions are great.

Experience needed in CE

Little or no experience. 

Little or no experience

Moderately experienced

Experience needed in SL

Moderately experienced.

Little or no experience

Moderately experienced

Rate the project in the following areas:

Doability

(n/a)

Average-Strong

Average-Strong

Addressing the character virtues

(n/a)

Average-Strong

Average-Strong

Relevance to actual academic content

(n/a)

Average

Average-Strong

Reflection activities

(n/a)

Average-Strong

Average-Strong

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

Caring

Very strong.

Strongly

Very Strong

Citizenship

Somewhat.

Strongly

Strongly

Fairness

Very strong.

Very strong

Very Strong

Giving

Strongly.

Somewhat

Somewhat

Respect

Very strong.

Somewhat

Strongly

Responsibility

Strongly.

Somewhat

Strongly

Trustworthy

Strongly.

Somewhat

Not at all

 


Curriculum Title Reviewed:     No Butts About It       

 

Reviewer 1

Reviewer 2

Reviewer 3

How used in a classrm?

It could be done in conjunction with the 5th grade D.A.R.E. program.

Use with a full class.

 

Which grades?

5th – 12th

5-8

6-8

Subjects?

Health

ELA, Health, Technology (because students will be making commercials), Math (because students will be tracking progress of smokers)

Language Arts and Health

Appropriateness, possibility to strengthen: Learning Goals/Academic subjects

Yes, they are appropriate

MST standards should be added to address learning goals.

Good learning goals. Is there a standard link for #2?

Community needs

The focus of the project seems to be more on the dangers of second-hand smoke and not preventing teens from trying smoking. 

Add community members that are suffering from the effects of smoking. Members of the medical community should be added to the list of partners. Also community members that will participate in celebration activity.

Good, but how will you get local TV stations to show the ad? Will it be shown on the news or as a regular commercial?

Character virtue prominence

Looks okay! 

This section is fine. Caring should be added.

Fairly flimsy links. Should we be taking responsibility for more than just ourselves in Character Ed?

SL activities

Yes, it could be replicated.  What about making and posting educational posters. 

It would be helpful if students were taught how to approach smokers in assisting/participating in this project.

Not very detailed-the involvement with other students is vague as is the nature of the contract being drafted.

Reflection activities

(n/a)

Reflection #1 should add caring. Reflection #2 should be reworded because the present essay is too difficult. It should indicate if they have seen any visible changes in their community, and if no change is visible, what action could be taken. Reflection #3 – the scenarios do not indicate who the students are acting for.

Okay

Costs

Cost of commercial/radio ads. Cost of educational posters

$0-$250

Unless you can obtain free air time, it could be problematic.

Time needed

It could be completed in 1 – 2 months.

Semester long if doing the celebration activity.

Seems pretty expensive with the contract and the tutoring, so might require a full year.

Teacher preparation required

(n/a)

Teacher will contact media and purchase supplies.

Also could be prohibitive if the teacher doesn’t already have a connection with local media.

Possible improvements

(n/a)

Change grade level. For the Celebration Activity, students should make community members aware of Anti-Smoking contract. At the picnic, students could develop games to promote health awareness.

Clarify how high school students will be involved and perhaps air the commercials at an exhibition rather than relying on the media.

Assessment items

Looks okay.

Questions need to be changed to be more age level appropriate (5-8; changed from grades 3-5). Rubric too general.

Question #1 has the same answer option twice. While the multiple choice seem age-appropriate, the longer-answer questions are much more difficult.

Experience needed in CE

Moderately experienced. 

Little or no experience.

Moderately experienced. 

Experience needed in SL

Moderately experienced. 

Little or no experience

Moderately experienced. 

Rate the project in the following areas:

Doability

(n/a)

Average-Strong

Weak-Average

Addressing the character virtues

(n/a)

Strong

Average

Relevance to actual academic content

(n/a)

Strong

Average-Strong

Reflection activities

(n/a)

Average

Average

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

Caring

Somewhat.

Strongly.

Somewhat

Citizenship

Somewhat. 

Not at all.

Strongly

Fairness

Not at all.

Not at all.

Somewhat

Giving

Somewhat.

Not at all.

Somewhat

Respect

Strongly.

Very strong.

Strongly

Responsibility

Strongly.  

Somewhat.

Strongly

Trustworthy

Somewhat.

Not at all.

Not at all

 

 

Curriculum Title Reviewed:     Parents Promoting Peace

 

Reviewer 1

Reviewer 2

Reviewer 3

How used in a classrm?

We don’t recommend this be used in the classroom. Parents might be offended by students teaching them how to be parents. Would the target population really attend??

I am not sure. I am concerned about securing a parent group.

 

Which grades?

9-12

9-12

9-12

Subjects?

Health, ELA, FACS

Human services, Public safety

PE, ELA, SS

Appropriateness, possibility to strengthen: Learning Goals/Academic subjects

Goals are fine.

Are appropriate. Good infusion for project.

Mediation training is also ELA4, SS5

Community needs

These are fine as written.

Relevant need. Difficult way to go about addressing the need.

Parole/probation/DFY staff/ex-offenders

Character virtue prominence

This section is fine.

Moderate part of the curriculum. If teacher keeps it prominent, no problem.

Good.

SL activities

Service activity #2 is appropriate.

Detailed, but a huge, difficult undertaking.

Survey design, parent recruitment weak

Reflection activities

Reflection #1 and 3 are fine.

Appropriate and specific. Need to work in more reflection of character virtues.

They’re good

Costs

$0-$150

None

 

Time needed

Year long

Year long

6 months min.

Teacher preparation required

Teacher will need to instruct students on mediation and violence. Teacher will facilitate and implement project.

Community outreach, potential parental audience

Background in conflict resolution/mediation/

Creating a classroom/school wide community

Possible improvements

There is no question in our mind that this project should be student-to-student. Change the name to “Students Promoting Peace”. Parents could be invited to see students share their mediation techniques.

Shift focus from parents (hard to get to school) to other students. Have a peer mediation group.

Put peace cranes in Hiroshima context.  Also, who will be doing the training?

Assessment items

Questions are fair. Rubric too general.

Takes some turns that don’t seems exactly relevant – be sure to cover specific points (for example #1).

They’re fine except #5 isn’t subtle.

Experience needed in CE

Little or no experience.

Moderately

Moderately experience

Experience needed in SL

Very experienced. (If project stands as written, facilitator would need a great deal of experience.)

Moderately

Moderately experience

Rate the project in the following areas:

Doability

Weak

Weak (very difficult to get the audience)

Strong

Addressing the character virtues

Average-Strong

Average

Strong

Relevance to actual academic content

Strong

Average

Average-Strong

Reflection activities

Weak-Average

Average

Strong

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

Caring

Somewhat

Somewhat

Somewhat

Citizenship

 

Somewhat

Strongly

Fairness

 

Strongly

Strongly

Giving

Somewhat

Somewhat

Somewhat

Respect

Strongly

Somewhat

Very strong

Responsibility

Strongly

Somewhat

Very strong

Trustworthy

Not at all

Somewhat

Somewhat

 

 

Curriculum Title Reviewed:     Parks and Ponds (Building Communities)

 

Reviewer 1

Reviewer 2

How used in a classrm?

Curriculum used in Science classes to reinforce life-cycle and planning curriculum

 

Which grades?

9-12

9-12

Subjects?

Science, Art, Technology

Sciences/Interdisciplinary

Appropriateness, possibility to strengthen: Learning Goals/Academic subjects

Learning goals and skills relevant.  Are very necessary to making the project a success.

Great goals-would definitely require interdisciplinary collaboration.

Community needs

Relevant – place in school that is chosen for gardens must be accessible to community residents. Local environmental AmeriCorps teams.

The need is a little vague-is there an existing separation between schools and communities? Perhaps there is a need for communities to see the types of out-of-classroom projects that schools can do in order to appreciate the schools in their area.

Character virtue prominence

Moderately prominent.  Virtues need to be stated and restated to keep it in students’ minds.

Pretty good

SL activities

Easy to replicate.  Probably would be best attended (Park building) if held on weekend.

Good-will community members be extended a formal invitation to participate in construction?

Reflection activities

Good reflection activities. Camcorder needed continuously through project. Character virtues need to be stressed.

Great

Costs

Minimal. Students and teachers will grant write and seek in-kind donations, $ for newsletter.

Could be prohibitive if no grants can be secured or donations

Time needed

Year-long project.

Year-long is appropriate.

Teacher preparation required

Community outreach, school outreach to designate park space.

Would require a lot of teacher knowledge about existing grants and writing process and a lot of supervision, but doable if collaborative

Possible improvements

Be sure to get other teachers on board – Science, Technology, Math – to have best park possible.

Perhaps some suggestion of how the park will be used

Assessment items

Relevant and appropriate. Again assessment for sake of assessment.

Good-is the PowerPoint question an indication that it will be a part of the process? How?

Experience needed in CE

Moderately experienced

Moderately experienced

Experience needed in SL

Moderately experienced

Moderately experienced

Doability

Average

Weak-Average

Addressing the character virtues

Average

Average-Strong

Relevance to actual academic content

Average

Average-Strong

Reflection activities

Average

Average-Strong

Caring

Strongly

Somewhat

Citizenship

Strongly

Strongly

Fairness

Not at all

Not at all

Giving

Strongly

Strongly

Respect

Somewhat

Somewhat

Responsibility

Somewhat

Strongly

Trustworthy

Somewhat

Somewhat