Current Criteria and Curriculum

Curriculum- Heritage Focus for 2008

Our focus for the year is learning and exploring our heritage and cultural differences that have contributed to who we are today. We are using the topics of geography, natural history, history and cultural studies to help focus our content. Following are questions to think about as you keep the big idea of the theme and the smaller focus areas in mind.

Questions we are asking ….
Who am I?
Where am I in the universe?
What's my place?
How do I contribute?
What are my needs?
How do I effect the environment?
How do I affect people around me?
How do I affect my surroundings and the natural environment?
What is my culture and history; my family's and history culture, my town's culture and history, My countries culture and history and peeking at world events and cultures that have and still contribute to who we are today?
What events make me who I am?
What has contributed to building my culture?

We have been working on many activities to introduce the big ideas and questions and providing opportunities for students to build relationships with each other and staff. Students have focused on the question who am I and where do I live. They are currently finishing collages, self portraits, self inventories, PLOPs (a written description of themselves), goals, several pieces of poetry that express who they are. Students are also learning and defining the ideas of democracy. What does democracy look like in our school culture? They are solidifying their rights and responsibilities for WVMS (Bill of rights). They have just begun to renew their training or be trained for the first time in conflict mediation. Students have spent time getting to know their garden, designing garden experiments and learning about how people started farming g long ago. We have also looked at the big picture of where are we in the universe and have explored ideas of gravity, inertia and the solar system. We have been planning and designing adventure trips to better understand our natural environment and to have fun finding some treasures that make up Central Oregon.

Criteria - Heritage Focus for 2008

Native Research and Speaking Criteria

• Choose a Tribal Region of Oregon to investigate
• Read and take notes about each group of people.
• Create a poster that shares their culture.
• Discover the 6 elements of their culture:
  Substance- food and water
  Protection- shelter
  Reproduction of the Culture- children, kinship (family), traditions, education
  Explanation, Why?- religion, traditions, beliefs, science philosophy
  Communication- art, music, language
  Balance Individual and Group Needs- laws, government, traditions, and ethics
• Include specific vocabulary.
• Include a map.
• Include how their basic needs were met.
• Use pictures, symbols, drawings and sketches.
• Think about what might have happened when another culture collided with them.
• Be prepared to share with group.
• Follow the Speaking Process

Ideas and Content
Include a clear, focused and well-suited purpose or main ideas that have strong, supporting details.
Inform your audience about your topic.

Organization
Include an effective introduction, middle and ending.
Use smooth transitions and share carefully selected details for impact.

Language
Use precise, descriptive and vivid language that makes a strong impact.

Delivery
Use eye contact.
Speak at an appropriate rate, volume and tone.
Enunciate your words.
Include appropriate nonverbal techniques (i.e. facial expression, gestures, body movements, stage presence) that help convey the message.

Family Scrapbook

• Create a family history book.
• Use your skills as an archeologist, anthropologist, and historian.
• Research your family history.
• Use scrapbook technique.
• Create a chronological plan of all your pages i.e. a storyboard.
• Share with a facilitator. Before you begin building your pages.

Building your pages:

• Use a Bare Book for your final product.
• Create a background, focal point and detail to enhance the pages.
• Use unity and balance when creating our final pages.
• Create a story, title or date for each page.
• Mount page or pieces of page in your bare book.
• Be sure to include the title, date and story behind each page.
• Follow the writing process.

Scrapbook Contents:

• Include a page that shares all the things your family likes or dislikes.
• Include family photographs and the significance behind the photos.
• Include the names of your family and their origins i.e. family portrait and a description of your family.
• Include an introduction that describes the big picture of your family.
• Include a family story illustrated.
• Research your name: meaning origin, and how your name was chosen for you.
• Use sketches, newspaper clippings, photographs, interviews, and pictures, and sketches or photos of family heirlooms or artifacts.
• Use different tools i.e. timeline, family tree, kinship chart, narrative or a family map.
• Decide on other items to include:
  More than one family story, family recipes, family crest, family traditions, immigration map, …

I Am From Poem

Create a poem about your self using symbolism.
Connect the poem to your family roots.
Think about how you get to be from a place.
Start with a list using the starter "I am From."
Use the recipe to guide your rough draft.
Follow the writing process.

This is What I Know Criteria

Use the questionnaire, the survey and the packet of activities to record what you know about yourself.

Respond by using drawings, paintings, sketches, and images collected.

Bring items from home that share who you are.

Spend time looking through your portfolio for evidence of who you are academically.

Reflect on who you are emotionally by thinking about how you solve conflict in your life and how you communicate your feelings.

Reflect on who you are socially by thinking about friendships, choices you make with friends and how you communicate with friends.

Reflect on your physical attributes. What do you look like, how do you move and what is your fitness level?

Brainstorm dreams and goals.

Smart Goals

Create goals that are specific to your academics, home, social, emotional and physical self.

Record baseline information on each goal.
Make the goal measurable and decide how you will measure it.

Make the goal attainable. Get agreement from your support crew ( family, facilitators and friends) that it is attainable.
Create goals that will result in you being a lifelong learner.

Make sure the goals are time specific.

What is in Your Head Criteria

Create a silhouette collage.
Think about all the information you have gathered about yourself.
Get your profile traced.
Use art paper.
Find images that represent your inner self, emotional self, physical and academic characteristics, passions, friends, family, likes and dislikes, dreams, goals and how you relate to your the world, (your outer self).
Use magazines, newspaper, and computer pictures.
Create balance and unity.
Cut the images and arrange them on your silhouette.
Arrange the images on your profile and mount on black paper.
Create a title that is a metaphor that reflects who you are.

Self Portrait Criteria

Create a self-portrait.
Draw contour line of yourself.
Use a mirror.
Include your outer self.
Transfer your portrait into a collage.
Use shapes from your portrait to create the pieces.
Use a combination of construction paper and newspaper.
Paint the collage paper with tempera.
Create a background.
Arrange the shapes on your contour line drawing.
Use colors that represent your outer self.
Title your self-portrait.