Transcript BAY COLLEGE SYMPOSIUM January 12, 2007

BAY COLLEGE SYMPOSIUM
January 12, 2007
Social Studies Merit Curriculum
Breakout I
Wendy Bruno, DSISD; Mike Powers,
Manistique High School
Grade Level Content Expectations
(K-8 GLCEs)
• Convening to begin work today!
• Group of Scholars
– Chaired by Stan Masters, Lenawee ISD
– Also includes ISD and local district representatives
• Focus Groups
– Community members and professional organizations
• Web Review – posted on MDE website in March
• National Review
• Plan for presentation to SBE July 2007
HIGH SCHOOL CONTENT
EXPECTATIONS
(9th – 12th HSCEs)
• Group of Scholars
– Chaired by Dr. Robert Bain, University of Michigan
– Also includes local district and ISD representatives
and career and technical education
• Focus Groups
– Community members and professional organizations
• Web Review – will be posted in March
• National Review
• Plan for presentation to SBE July 2007
What will be done?
• Draw upon work that has been done
• Align with national documents, standards
• Code by appropriate type of assessment
– statewide/large scale
– formative/classroom/ongoing
• New standards may be added to the
Michigan Curriculum Framework to better
represent World History & Geography
Michigan Curriculum Framework
• Approximately 10 years old
• Comprised of Content Standards and
Benchmarks
• GLCEs and HSCEs will hang on the
Content Standards, but the benchmarks
will be refined
• Will probably add standards to
accommodate World History
Criteria for the work
• RIGOR: What is the level of intellectual
demand in the standards?
– challenging enough to equip students to
succeed at the next grade level
– essential core content of a discipline; its key
concepts and how they relate to each other
Criteria for the work
• CLARITY: Are the standards clearly
written and presented in a logical,
easy-to use format?
– more than just plain and jargon-free prose
– widely understood and accepted by teachers,
parents, school boards and others who have
a stake in the quality of schooling including
university faculties that will prepare teachers
to convey the standards and later receive
those teachers’ students
Criteria for the work
• SPECIFICITY: Are the standards
specific enough to convey the level of
performance expected of students?
– enough detail to help teachers design their
courses
– address the given teachers’ time for
instruction
Criteria for the work
• FOCUS: Have tough choices been
made about what content is the most
important for students to learn?
– priorities of facts, concepts and skills that
should be emphasized at each grade level
Criteria for the work
• PROGRESSION: Do knowledge and
skills build clearly and sensibly on
previous learning and increase in
intellectual demand from year to year?
– move from simple to complex, from concrete
to abstract
– prevent needless repetition from grade to
grade
Criteria for the work
• COHERENCE: Do the standards convey a
unified vision of the discipline, and do they
establish connections among the major
areas of study?
– reflect a coherent structure of the discipline and/or
reveal significant relationships among the strands and
how the study of one complements the study of
another.
– States should eventually be able to “back-map” from
the high school Academic Standards to a progression
of benchmarks that middle and elementary school
students would need to reach in order to be “on track”
for college and work.
Social Studies Credit Requirements
• Required: 3 credits
• Credit content is being developed for:
– U.S. History and Geography, Civics, Economics, and World
History and Geography
•
•
•
•
•
1 credit in U.S. History and Geography
.5 credit in Civics
.5 credit in Economics
1 credit in World History and Geography
Anticipated approval and dissemination
July 2007
U.S History and Geography
• Timespan covered is late 1880’s –
industrialization – through present
• Teachers comment that they have difficulty
getting up to Watergate era
• With geography – trends more than eras,
maps and data more than narrative,
places more than events
• Michigan Geographic Alliance - presidents
World History and Geography
• Similar principles will apply
• This will most likely be taught in 9th or 10th
grade
• Michigan Geographic Alliance – NATO
lesson
Economics
• .5 credit
• Different schools handling this differently –
most have split the senior year into ½
econ and ½ government
• Will need to move this to 11th grade for
Michigan Merit Exam testing
Civics
•
•
•
•
.5 credit
Schools handle this differently
“Government”
We the People and Project Citizen
DISCUSSION QUESTION
What are the challenges posed by this
high school reform for social studies?
Merit Exam
• For Social Studies – two fifty minute testing
periods
– 26 multiple choice and 1 persuasive essay
– 31 multiple choice and 1 persuasive essay
Social Studies counts as part of the Merit Award
for the first time this year.
• Google: Michigan Department of
Education released items social studies
Other portions of Michigan
Merit Exam
• ACT
• Work Keys