I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Connections

Essential Question:

Explain the statement, “History is created on a daily basis.”

Bridge:

Observations

Content:

Current Events

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: To engage student interest in world issues and enable them to see themselves as part of what is happening in the world.

Activity: Teacher brings to class an appropriate political cartoon from current events to which students can easily relate. With students in small groups for discussion, teacher leads discussion with questions to which each group responds.

Assessment: Quality of student participation and interest.

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: To analyze current issues raised in relation to themselves.

Activity: Teacher-led discussion focusing on what students know about the current issue presented and how they see the issue as relating to their lives.

Assessment: Quality of student participation.

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: To broaden students' awareness of one current issue.

Activity: Mindmap one issue, first individually, then collectively as a class. Have students make connections they see on the class mindmap, with a focus on their specific observations.

Assessment: Quality of individual and class mindmaps; contributions to the group; quality of observations.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: To gather information on a pertinent issue.

Activity: For homework two or three nights a week, students select an issue to follow. Their task is to gather as much information as possible to build their own expertise. Suggested information sources are TV news; radio; discussion with parents and friends; and newspapers, from which they should attend to political cartoons, headlines and lead paragraphs, articles, and editorials.

Assessment: Thoroughness of information gathered.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: To collate student facts in an organized way to support their positions on issues. To expand their awareness of issues and possible effect on them. To understand the background of today's issues and to project into the future.

Activity: Students share information about issues with other students adding additional information from what they themselves know. Students record facts in Current Events Log.

Assessment: Quality of student reports and quality of class contributions to individual reports.

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: To have students develop and present their point of view on a current issue.

Activity: Students will plan their own political cartoon. They must select an issue; decide on their message; sketch their idea, and provide any necessary verbal information.

Assessment: Quality of thought put into project.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: To have students look critically and constructively at their own work.

Activity: Share working copies of political cartoons in small cooperative groups. Students critique each other's work for editing and improvement.

Assessment: Quality of student group contributions. Ability to critique work for substance and originality.

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: To share and enjoy the products created. To respect different points of view.

Activity: Students present final cartoon to the rest of the class. Cartoons are displayed on a bulletin board to be shared with the school.

Assessment: Quality of completed projects, presentation, participation, and enjoyment of the learning.

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: