The vision for the instructional period known by the current placeholder name of “LCA” is to provide individualized enrichment and skill building strategies for the district’s students, particularly those “in the middle.” A student will experience this period once a week in the content areas of math, science, and social studies conducted by their team teacher (approximately nine classes per marking period in each subject area). Students will have opportunities to enhance their skills, extend their reading, conference with teachers, pursue research in areas of interest, and make connections to current events. These opportunities may be discipline specific (as in the examples listed below) or be focused on supporting an interdisciplinary project or unit. It should be noted that students will be held accountable for their work during this period and will receive written feedback about their performance and progress.
Examples
for how students would experience “LCA” in a math class
·
A student could be
part of a stock market simulation
where each student would be given a certain amount of money to invest and track
their “purchases” during the course of the school year. The student would apply math skills of
converting to percentages, graphing results, creating pie charts, and
communicating their investment choices through portfolios.
·
A student could use prior knowledge of surface area and volume to
attempt to redesign packages of various real-world items that hold the most
product while using a fixed amount of material.
The student would present her findings to the class and send her
recommendations to the actual manufacturer.
·
A student could
conference with his/her teacher to
enhance his/her mathematical and written explanations/solutions to problems.
·
A student could
compare various newspaper and magazine articles to critically view graphic
representations of data to determine potential bias.
·
A student could
enhance his/her literacy skills in math by creating graphic organizers; concept
maps; note taking; vocabulary development; recording; organizing; analyzing
data; and creating and reading graphs and charts.
Examples for how
students could experience “LCA” in a science class
·
A student could select
a topic or issue (something from science class) to research in order to write a
position paper, prepare for a debate, hold a town meeting, and create a
presentation including visuals. (e.g. Is air matter? What
created craters on the moon?)
·
A student could design,
conduct, and present an original scientific investigation. From this investigation she would write an
article, modeled after a real-world journal piece.
·
A student could
evaluate data from earthquake seismographs in order to predict the size of earthquake
and potential extent of damage. In a
similar fashion, a student could evaluate sample EEG's, MRI's, PET Scans and
write a "diagnosis" based on their findings.
·
A student
could conference with his/her science teacher to enhance written work such as
stating a purpose, making an hypothesis, and drawing conclusions.
·
A student could read a
science related book and write a review for a journal or newspaper.
·
A student
could explore the Plainsboro Preserve and make recommendations to the Audubon
Society about how it could be better utilized as an outdoor community resource.
·
A student could have additional opportunities to apply science to design
technology as is currently practiced in the design of solar cars and roller
coasters.
·
A student could
enhance his/her literacy skills in science by creating graphic organizers;
concept maps; note taking; vocabulary development; recording; organizing;
analyzing data; and creating and reading graphs and charts.
Examples
for how students could experience “LCA” in a social studies class
·
A student could pursue
connections between what is studied in social studies class and the modern
world that due to time constraints may not be covered within the general
curriculum. For example, if the class
was studying the development of democracy a student could research, debate,
write an editorial on whether democracy will be successful in Iraq. If the class was studying the Civil War
period, a student could compare the obstacles of reconstructing the South with
that of Iraq. If the class was studying
World War I, a student could research and discuss how the breakup of the
Ottoman Empire has led to the current crisis in the Middle East.
·
A student could read
additional primary source documents, magazine articles, or other non-fiction
texts that would further enrich the topic being discussed in class or that
represent an area of personal interest.
·
A student could
conference with his/her teacher on an essay assignment in order to improve
their thesis statement, relevance of their supporting evidence, or the quality
of their conclusion.
·
A student could take
part in a project funded by the NJ Law Center called Project Citizen. During this period students could identify an
issue in the community or school that they feel needs to be addressed (e.g.
bike safety, weekend options for teens) and conduct the surveys, interviews,
and meetings necessary to present findings and recommendations to the
appropriate decision making body.
·
A student could
enhance his/her literacy skills in social studies by creating graphic
organizers; concept maps; note taking; vocabulary development; recording;
organizing; analyzing data; and creating and reading graphs and charts.