Tools for Curriculum Development:
Checklist of BPS Citywide Learning Standards

Many curriculum planning templates ask for a list of the BPS Citywide Learning Standards that are included in a project or program. This page, which includes selected standards from the high school level, is designed to let you easily create a list of the standards you are addressing. From the checklist below, check the standards addressed in your project. Click the SELECT button at the bottom of the page. Your list will appear. Highlight and COPY the text and then PASTE it into the document you are working on.

For a complete list of Boston Public Schools Citywide Learning Standards visit: http://boston.k12.ma.us/teach/curriculum.asp.

Learning Strategies

Teaching and Learning in BPS. Learning is an active, constructive, creative, and often collaborative process that involves a variety of distinct cognitive strategies. These learning strategies - which should be reinforced throughout all curriculum - include the following:

Yes  Read, write, and think a lot about topics and ideas of importance to them. Yes Set goals or purposes for their learning. Yes Make personal connections between the content and other knowledge, experiences, text, or media. Yes Ask questions as they read, listen, or view. Yes Clarify the meaning of words or content they don’t understand. Yes Listen or watch for important elements, themes, or issues. Yes Create sensory images. Yes Make predictions, inferences and judgments. Yes Get “in the shoes” of characters or participants. Yes Create ongoing summaries or syntheses. Yes Build on their understandings by sharing and discussing them with others. Yes Assess their learning and make mid-course corrections.

English Language Arts

Oral Presentation and Discussion
 Use agreed-upon rules for informal and formal discussions in small and large groups.
 Facilitate discussion groups independent from the teacher.
 Organize and present ideas in a logical order.
 Ask for clarification when others’ responses are unclear.
 Actively listen, respond to, and build on ideas generated during group discussions.
 Use information to inform or change their perspectives.
 Support their responses with evidence or details; expect and request the same of others.
 Summarize and evaluate what they have learned from the discussion.
 Evaluate the productivity of group discussion using group created.
 Deliver informal and formal presentations, giving consideration to audience, purpose and content.
 Identify elements and organizational structures of effective speeches made for a variety of purposes.
 Work collaboratively to create and use an appropriate rubric or criteria to prepare, improve, and assess presentations.
 Conduct interviews for research projects and writing.
Language
 Identify and use correctly idioms and words with literal and figurative meanings.
 Demonstrate understanding of reference materials.
 Identify and effectively use sentences along the continuum from simple to compound-complex sentences.
Reading and Literature
 Develop fluency, accuracy and understanding when reading different texts.
 Select books for independent reading.
 Use before, during, and after reading strategies.
 Use background knowledge to make inferences, predictions and personal connections.
 Ask questions to clarify information.
 Identify the topic and main idea of sources.
 Understand genres and organizational structure.
 Identify the logic and use of evidence in an author’s argument in informational and expository texts.
 Identify and analyze their knowledge of the purpose, structure, and elements of informational materials.
Composition
 Collect information for writing from different texts and sources.
 Maintain a process for recording, collecting, referring to, and sharing ideas and information for writing.
 Write for different purposes and for different audiences.
 Select appropriate genres and organizational structures for drafts.
 Select appropriate strategies for developing ideas into drafts.
 Select appropriate strategies for revising work.
 Use their knowledge of standard English conventions (mechanics, grammar, and spelling) to edit work.
 Write well-organized stories, essays or scripts.
 Write a well-organized paper that proves a thesis statement.
 Write in a well-organized manner using logical organization, effective supporting evidence, and variety in sentence structure.
 Use different levels of formality, style, and tone when composing for different audiences.
 Formulate key questions and apply steps for obtaining and evaluating information from a variety of sources.
 Document sources in a consistent and standard format, and present research.
 Use group-generated MCAS-like criteria for evaluating different forms of writing and explain why these are important.
Media
 Identify visual or aural techniques used in a media message for a particular audience.
 Create media presentations that effectively use graphics, images, and/or sound to present a distinct point of view on a topic.
 Apply established criteria for assessing the effectiveness of the presentation, style, and content of films and other forms of electronic communication.

Mathematics

Number Sense and Operations:
 Understand meanings of operations and how they relate to one another.
 Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates.
 Use estimation to judge the reasonableness of results of computations and of solutions to problems involving real numbers.
 Express real numbers in fractional and radical form as well as in exponential form using integral and fractional exponents.
 Use logical reasoning as well as estimation and mental computation to determine the validity of a solution in algebraic, and statistical problems.
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
 Develop and evaluate inferences and predictions that are based on data.
 Collect and graph data (using graphing calculators and/or computers when appropriate) and express relationships between variables, both verbally and symbolically.
 Collect, organize, and analyze data from real problems using graphing calculators and other technology to create tables and graphs.
 Use scatter plots of sets of data points to graph a line of best fit.
 Understand and apply basic concepts of probability.
 Use the basic set of operations with the help of Venn diagrams.
 Describe and explain how the relative sizes of a sample and the population affect the validity of predictions from a set of data.
Patterns, Relations, Algebra, Functions
 Represent and analyze mathematical situations and structures using algebraic symbols.
 Describe, complete, extend, analyze, generalize, and create a wide variety of patterns, including iterative, recursive (e.g., Fibonacci Numbers), and linear functional relationships.
 Translate between different representations of functions and relations: graphs, equations, point sets, and tabular.
 Describe a sequence recursively and use that description to list its terms with a graphing calculator.
Measurement, Geometry
 Calculate perimeter, circumference, and area of common geometric figures such as parallelograms, trapezoids, circles, and triangles.
 Use diagrams, models, and other manipulatives to determine methods of finding relationships and measurements of the two and three dimensional shapes.
 Use appropriate measurement tools along with calculators and computers to solve problems in science, technology, consumer education, and other areas as well.
Discussion, Presentation, Composition
 Use agreed upon rules to participate in discussions in large and small groups.
 Express ideas in an organized way.
 Explain their mathematical thinking in writing.
 Maintain a system for collecting, referring to, and sharing their work.

Science

Inquiry Skills
 Pose questions and state hypotheses based on prior scientific observations, experiments, and knowledge.
 Distinguish between hypothesis and theory as scientific terms.
 Either individually or as part of a student team, design and complete a scientific experiment that extends over several days or weeks using appropriate controls, variables, equipment and measuring tools.
 Predict, observe, classify and record results clearly in journals or logs.
 Simulate physical processes or phenomena using different kinds of representations.
 Identify possible reasons for inconsistent results, such as sources of error or uncontrolled conditions.
 Revise scientific models.
 Communicate and defend a scientific argument.
Unified Science Areas
 Earth and Space Science
 Biology
 Chemistry
 Physics
 Human Anatomy and Physiology
 Ecology
 Evolution and Biodiversity

Social Studies

History
 Be familiar with the historical key people, places, events, documents, movements, and other details.
 Order events and construct timelines.
 Demonstrate an understanding of cause and effect, and the relations between events.
 Make connections between key people and events.
 Compare and contrast ideas, rituals, customs, and concerns.
Economics
 Scarcity and Economic Reasoning
 Supply and Demand
 Market Structures
 The Role of Government
 National Economic Performance
 Money and the Role of Financial Institutions
 Trade

Technology

Technology Skills
 Word Processing
 Database
 Spreadsheet
 Electronic Research
 Email
 Multimedia
 CAD
 Web Authoring
 Networking
 Tech Support/Repair
 Graphing Calculator