What did you learn in school today?
A grade-by-grade guide to carry children through the years
By Wayne Robins and Maureen Picard Robins
SPECIAL TO MSNBC
It seemed like a simple project: List the things a child should know after
each school year, from kindergarten through high school. But in a nation
as diverse and democratic as the United States, there is no national curriculum.
Karen Zumwalt, dean of Columbia University's Teachers College, offered up
some general information on the subject, but if we wanted to get specific,
we would end up with "a dissertation," she said. We know what
Zumwalt means. We've entered a controversy that is decades old, 50 states
wide and thousands of communities deep.
The school reform movement was launched in 1983, when the National Commission
on Excellence in Education published "A Nation at Risk" Since
then, whether or not to implement national learning standards has become
a divisive, partisan political issue. Within virtually every state, what
both teachers and students ought to know is under a microscope. That may
be a good thing. "The public continues to demand quality and accountability,
and no level of education can escape either scrutiny or pressure,"
R.W. Reising, a professor at Pembroke State University in Pembroke, N.C.,
wrote in 1995.
So how, as the 1990s draw to a close, can we best prepare our children for
a future we can only partially imagine? Perhaps the answer lies in the essay
question posed recently on one state's elementary school teacher exam: How
do we create lifelong learners?
The answer may be to teach kids how to research independently - how to use
a dictionary, a library, the Internet, how to think critically about a book,
how to write letters, state opinions, and ask questions. That's one way
at least.
Another is to keep children motivated, keep them connecting what they learn
in the classroom to their real world. Let them know that the reasons for
learning history are more than for merely preparing "to be on Jeopardy
one day" as one child recently told a social studies teacher. Take
the kids shopping and let them figure out the money. Take them to work.
Take them to museums where they can see and hear experts passionate about
their occupations. And encourage their questions. Along the way, there may
be something that you both can discover.
What follows is, by necessity, a very loose guide to what parents should
expect their children to know at the end of each school grade, from pre-Kindergarten
through the middle or junior high school years. [NOTE: We've included only
the middle school grades.]
The authors distilled the curriculum information from many sources, including:
The New York City Board of Education, the math curriculum models from the
states of Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Massachusetts, Missisippi and Texas
as well as the Mathwings project at Johns Hopkins University; the National
Science Education Foundation, the Washington State Science Learning Requirements
Web page; the Los Angeles County Office of Education, the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock, Creative Resources of Charlotte, N.C., McREL
(the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory); the Omaha, Neb., Public
Schools Language Arts lesson plan, the Teacher Talk Forum at the University
of Indiana School of Education; the National Center for History in the Schools
at UCLA; the National Council for Social Studies; and the
spring 1996 issue of Improving America's Schools: A Newsletter On Issues
in School Reform. Co-author Maureen Picard Robins gives special
thanks to the Queens College Graduate School of Education.
* * * * * *
BY THE END OF SIXTH GRADE:
Make and read pictographs and bar graphs; use decimals in all math operations;
understand geometric figures and understand their relationships
Describe the behavior of sound, light, electricity and magnetism and how
they are related.
Write clear, concise and logical opinion essays; use reference materials
other than encyclopedias to complete independent research projects.
Know the world by using maps, globes, atlases and other geographic tools;
discuss a variety of aspects of contemporary Europe, the Mediterranean region,
Africa and Asia.
Discuss body systems; understand the concepts of good nutrition and health.
BY THE END OF SEVENTH GRADE:
Show an understanding of the diversity and functions of living things, and
their interdependence in the natural world.
Demonstrate the ability to use laboratory equipment.
Know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions and mixed numbers.
Understand logical concepts such as "if then," "only if,"
"sometimes" "always" "never" in mathematical
context.
Distinguish between literal and figurative, formal and informal applications
of language in speaking, reading and writing.
Have a grasp of United States history and the history of one's own state.
(New York State history is taught throughout New York in seventh grade,
for example). Some schools teach American and state history from ancient
(pre-Columbus) through 1876 in seventh grade, and 1876-present in eighth
grade.
Demonstrate knowledge of the origins, philosophy, structure and functions
of the local, city, state and national governments, and recognize principles
such as human dignity, rule of law, justice and equality.
Understand the political, economic and social influences on events such
as the Revolution, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
Be able to comprehend the content of food and health product advertisements
and compare product contents.
BY THE END OF EIGHTH GRADE:
Know that molecules are the smallest particle of a substance that retains
its properties, and that molecules are made up of atoms.
Understand the need for cardiovascular health, and learn ways to build endurance,
flexibility and strength.
Be able to do operations with whole numbers, fractions and decimals.
Accurately summarize story elements: main character, supporting character,
mood.
Know how and when to use reference tools, including the Dewey Decimal System,
and the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, and try to begin an understanding
of CD-Rom and Internet reference tools.
Understand impact of social, economic and political changes in your state
and nation brought about by industrialization in the years from 1876 to
the present.
Understand the reasons for America's development of a leadership role in
world affairs.
Know what are recognized as great and important works of literature, art
and music, and how they reflected and influenced their times?
Realize that we live in a complex, multifaceted world and that there is
no "one and only" interpretation of history.
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