Science

2. Students develop and use a range of strategies to analyze and make sense of the following texts common to the history/social sciences curriculum: • Maps Textbooks Historical documents Expository texts • Visual explanations (charts, graphs, time lines, etc.) Primary source documents (letters, diaries, etc.) • Demographic and statistical information Stock market reports • Documents concerning historical patterns and trends • Students develop and use a variety of strategies to help them read and analyze different texts, which include but are not limited to: Speculating Predicting Questioning • Evaluating Comparing and contrasting • Students read analytically in order to determine the influences on, and cause and effect of, different historical events and trends. Students analyze historical texts for examples of bias, motivation, validity, philosophical influences, and alternative explanations. • Students evaluate the validity of information, probability of events, and rhetorical content of different arguments throughout history, taking into consideration such contextual factors as culture and the era. • Students analyze and explain historical trends and other observable patterns using such tools as maps, graphs, and charts to organize their information and convey their understanding. • Students identify and explain the flaws in arguments, interpretations, and documents, taking into consideration such factors as bias and the original context. • Students compare and contrast different explanations of historical events in light of their original context and their current explanation. • Students read and critique those primary source documents by which the world was organized and governed, focusing on their influence, structure, argument, philosophical principles, cultural values, and historical effect on the world and its people. • Students develop and apply different strategies to analyze financial, economic, philosophical, and historical trends and patterns throughout history.

4. Science • Students evaluate and make decisions about the validity and credibility of information contained in different texts in different media. • Students know and ask the appropriate questions to help them make sense of different texts in different media. • Students identify and analyze the form and functions that characterize scientific, expository, media, procedural, and functional texts, which include but are not limited to: • Elements of design • Pattern formations • Observable behaviors and features • Experiments • Systems • Equations • Directions • Students know and use the appropriate concepts, symbols, and terminology for this subject. • Students develop and use different strategies to help them read and interpret such devices as computer-linked probes, spreadsheets, and graphing calculators, maps, or computerized simulations while performing tests, collecting data, analyzing relationships, and displaying information. • Students call upon and use strategies from different branches of science to analyze situations and solve problems encountered while interpreting incoming data in different (i.e., visual, statistical, behavioral) forms. • Students develop and apply logic and skepticism in order to determine what is important and what is insignificant, what is fact and what is opinion. • Students identify and analyze the relationship between the individual elements that make up an experiment, an observable formation, or other phenomena they are studying, using inferences to support their interpretations. • Students read data and other texts to determine what is known as well as what is not known. • Students read expository essays about the field as a supplement to their more formal scientific or procedural texts in order to expand their scientific thinking.

6. MATH • Students develop and use a range of strategies to analyze and make sense of the following: • Word problems Equations Symbolic expressions • Arguments Probabilities Theorems • Geometrical shapes Statements Graphs • Tables Charts Diagrams Patterns • Students develop and use appropriate strategies to help them make sense of mathematical texts including: • Inductive and deductive reasoning Spatial and algebraic reasoning • Speculation Prediction • Testing hypotheses Trial and error • Students use these strategies in order to: • solve a range of problems, perceive logical subtleties, develop sound arguments, determine mathematical hypotheses, and • determine the validity of arguments and data • Students learn to perceive logical subtleties and develop sound mathematical arguments before making conclusions. • Students learn to identify and explain the flaws in an argument and any errors in reasoning by analyzing the components of the argument. • Students know how to judge the validity of an argument by analyzing its components and testing it against various reliable sources. • Students demonstrate understanding by identifying and giving examples of undefined terms, axioms, theorems, and inductive and deductive reasoning.

7. BUSINESS • Students develop and use a range of strategies to identify and explain how the following types of text convey meaning and affect the reader: • Laws Reports Contracts Commercial advertisements Product packaging Functional documents (maps, directions, etc.) • Graphic texts (diagrams, charts, graphs) Web sites • Students develop and use a range of appropriate strategies to interpret the message conveyed by different media • Students identify and synthesize the ethical, ideological, and psychological positions advanced in the text, drawing examples from the text to support their analysis. • Students read, identify, and draw meaningful conclusions about different types of information and raw data to help them make informed decisions. • Students identify and analyze the form and functions that characterize financial, commercial, legal, media, procedural, and functional texts, which include but are not limited to: • Brochures Newsletters Product packaging • Statements Resumes Letters • Commercial advertisements (print, online, and television) • Product support materials • Students evaluate and make decisions about the validity and credibility of information contained in different texts in different media.

8. VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS • Students read, critique, analyze, and interpret the following: • Instrumental or vocal scores • Informal and formal theatre, film, television, and electronic media productions • Dramatic performances of plays from different cultures, eras, and authors • Critical reviews and analyses of visual and performing arts productions • Students explain how the elements of a text – i.e., musical score, painting, or play – function and relate to • each other in order to affect the audience for that production. • Students know the meaning and function of symbols, terms, and conventions common to each of the visual • and performing arts. • Students identify and explain the political, cultural, and historical influences of/on a particular work of art. • Students develop and use a range of strategies to identify and explain how visual and performing artists • employ the following to convey meaning and achieve certain effects within the reader: • Language Sound Images Color Form • Students develop and apply aesthetic criteria to different works of art in order to evaluate the quality and success of a given work, using specific examples from that artwork and their rubric to support their interpretation. • Students infer the possible meanings of an artwork by analyzing the form, function, and relationship between different aesthetic components. • Students interpret a work by examining the artist’s intentions, the context in which the work was created, • and the work’s relationship to past and subsequent works on the same subject by this and other artists.