Paula's
Approach to Program & Curriculum Development
outlines the guiding principles that inform my work.
Search by curricular area:
| Program | Topic(s) | Interactive Elements | Grade Level |
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Peace It Together: Strategies for ViolencePrevention (16 part series) 1998 Telecon Awards, First Place, Best Distance Learning Program, K-12 1997 Telecon Awards, First Place, Best Distance Learning Program via the Internet (Peace It Together Community Center Web Site) | Parents, teachers and students gain access to community leaders and violence prevention practitioners to gain knowledge about violence, its causes and methods of prevention and intervention. Program topics include: what is violence?; vp strategies; coalition-building; the Community Based Justice Model; model vp programs; building a postitive peer culture; teen dating violence; substance abuse and violence; victim support groups; hate crimes, vp and the arts, violence against ourselves primary curricular areas: health, science, social studies
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one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, PictureTel (videoconferencing), Web site, live chats, bulletin boards, interactive Web 'zine, e-mail and comprehensive print and video curriculum kit of series screen shots of the Peace It Together Community Center Web site
| grades 8-12
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| Learning to Lead (national) (4 part series)
Under the Dome (state) 1998 Telecon Awards, First Place, Best Distance Learning Program, K-12 | Students across the nation interact directly with Congress, getting first-hand experience of the federal legislative process through researching, questioning, testifying, debating, amending and voting on proposed legislation on drugs or crime. (focus: HR 125 - Repeal of Assault Weapons Ban) At the state level (MA), students research, question, testify, debate, amend and vote on Sente Bill 148 - An Act Relative to Assault Weapons. primary curricular areas: history and social sciences, civics, government, citizenship, language arts and literacy
| one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, PictureTel (videoconferencing), Web site, live chats, bulletin boards, interactive Web 'zine, e-mail, and print curriculum kit; electronic field trips to US Senate and MA State House
| grades 8-12
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Memories, Voices and Choices: Lessons Learned from the Holocaust & Global Genocides (5 part series) 1999-2000 two-time Emmy Award Nominee 1999 Telecon Awards, First Place, Best Community Service Program via Distance Learning
| Through the powerful testimony of Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissman Klein and various Holocaust experts including Michael Berenbaum (Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation), the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Anti-Defamation League, we examine the history and lessons learned and educate about hate and global genocides today. primary curricular areas: history and social science (citizenship, ethics, authority, responsibility and power), service learning, language arts and literacy
| one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, Web site, e-mail, electronic field trips to US Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC, and Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
| grades 8-12
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| The Global Sweatshop (2 part series) | Students participate in the democratic process by learning concrete strategies to combat worldwide child labor. Students from the Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy, MA lead students through the 4 layers of ending child labor: consumer awareness and activism, corporate responsibility, legislation and its enforcement, education, and ending poverty. Participants learn the skills involved in social activism, how to set up a human rights group in their school, and how to organize around an issue. primary curricular areas: history and social science, service learning, social action, civic education, language arts and literacy | one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, Web site, e-mail, print curriculum kit | grades 8-12 |
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(4 part series) | Students learn about the diverse contributions of lesser-known local and national women who have helped shape US and world history. Through a culminating project, students write women back into the curriculum, celebrating the courageous leaps and the foundation-building small steps that women have made and continue to make. The guiding questions in this inquiry-based series include: (prog. 1) What do we know about women's and girl's work of the past? What obstacles did they face? (prog. 2) How can we learn about women and about the past? Why might it be more difficult to learn about some groups of women rather than others? (prog. 3) What changes did women make when they joined together in groups, associations, clubs and unions to overcome obstacles? (prog. 4) What achievements have women accomplished in the past and in the present? primary curricular areas: US and world history, women's history, science, language arts and literacy, the arts | one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, e-mail, Web virtual tour of Boston Women's Heritage Trail, and print curriculum kit | grades 3-5 |
| Rocky Times: Real Life in the Stone Age (5 part series) | This inquiry-based exploration of life in the Stone Age encourages students to imagine life without metal, without farms to raise food, and without permanent homes. Students challenge preconceptions, uncover evidence and create their own hypotheses. As a guiding questions throughout, we ask: "What makes us human?" Each program addresses suggested evidence of our humanity: evolution and physiology, using tools and technology, scavenging vs. hunting and cooperative and social behavior, housing, and art/spirituality (creativity and the imagination). primary curricular areas: social sciences, natural history, science and technology, the arts, language arts and literacy | one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, chromakey, e-mail and print curriculum; electronic field trips to Harvard University's Peabody Museum and Museum of Natural History in NY, NY. | grades 5-8 |
| History Is In the Making: Preserving and Interpreting Community Stories (6 part series) | Through the process of oral history, students explore how uncovering, telling, eliciting, interpreting and shaping stories both preserves local history and culture and imparts the skills involved in relating respectfully across differences. After learning the basic skills involved in doing an oral history project, students create their own community-based oral history projects and develop creative expressions (books, songs, Web sites, plays, etc.) to share their stories with the communities from which they gathered them. Students come to see themselves as makers and shapers of history. primary curricular areas: history & social science, oral history, folklore, language arts and literacy, the arts | one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, e-mail, interactive workshop on oral history, Web links, print curriculum kit, electronic tours of communities of Medford and Roxbury, MA | grades 5-8 |
| Digging History (2 parts, professional development)
Colonial Williamsburg (7 part series) | What are the sources of history? How can local history inform the social science curriculum? Through modeling a successful interdisciplinary middle school project, teachers learn how to use archaeology as a tool to engage students in local history.
Via electronic fieldtrip, students are linked to the largest living history museum in the United States and are invited to meet and talk with some of the people of the eighteenth century who helped shape our nation. primary curricular areas: history & social science, living history, education, civics, government, mathematics, language arts and literacy, the arts, folklore | one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, Web, e-mail, print curriculum kit. electronic field trips to Medfield, MA and the Wight Farm Homestead and to Colonial Williamsburg | grades 5-8 |
| Program | Topic(s) | Interactive Elements | Grade Level | |
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Los caminos (10 programs) This series explores the art, history, social and political issues of "el mundo hispano" from Latin America to the United States; students interact with native speakers and their peers; sessions are conducted entirely in Spanish. |
Programs: Salón 2000: Encuentro con Puerto Rico (PictureTel videoconferencing - dos partes) La sazón latinoamericana (PDF file) La otra cara de Colombia Dentro de la selva tropical: una excursión interactiva (dos partes) PDF file Una conversación entre amigos Enfoque: Los jovenes Diego Rivera y el muralismo Arte en la calle Los cuentos cubanos (curriculo) primary curricular areas: Spanish, history and social science, science and technology, the arts
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one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, PictureTel (videoconferencing) with students from mainland US and students in Puerto Rico, video and still chromakey of the Costa Rican rain forest, video chromakey of café for "Una conversación entre amigos" program,Web site, virtual excursions, student-made videos, live chats, bulletin boards, e-mail and print curricula for each program
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grades 9-12 | |
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Echanges (8 programs) This series brings current topics in francophone language and culture to your classroom; students interact with native speakers and their peers; sessions are conducted entirely in French. |
Programs: En direct avec Québec (2 parts) A découvrir: L'influence française en Asie du sud-est (PDF file) La cuisine du Vietnam et du Cambodge Coup d'oeil sur Häiti: une emission interactive (2 parts) La vie quotidienne d' adolescents primary curricular areas: French, history and social science, science and technology, the arts
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one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, PictureTel (videoconferencing) with students from Québec, Web site, live chats, bulletin boards, e-mail, virtual tours, sharing of student-made videos, and print curriculum kit
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grades 9 -12 | |
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The Global Classroom: Teaching World Languages at the Elementary Level (3 part series, professional development) The Global Classroom II: Next Steps (6 part series, professional development) |
Teachers become better prepared to organize curriculum and development teams for world language instruction in their school districts. A panel of local and national world language experts share successful planning strategies for curriculum development and program implementation. Topics include: introduction (review, research and goal-setting); program development; curriculum development; program implementation; assessment; future directions in foreign language instruction
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one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, PictureTel (videoconferencing), e-mail, interactive workshop,Web resources and activities and print curriculum kits for each series | prof. dev. | |
| Program | Topic(s) | Interactive Elements | Grade Level | |
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Wake Up Sun! (2 part series) |
What would you do if the sun threatened to stay in his sleepy slumber? Learn about what our ancestors from Sweden to Italy to Iran have done to wake up the sun and about the rituals of the Winter Solstice today. We explore the scientific, mythic and cultural explanations and responses to the Solstice, as well as hear stories told about it. Students also create original mythology. primary curricular areas: social studies, folklore, the arts, science and technology, language arts |
one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, video and still chromakey for Solstice story, Web activities and resources, print curricula for each program |
grades 2-5
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Tribal Rhythms
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Tribal Rhythms is a process that uses the theme of "tribe" and the arts to build community and satisfy the human need to belong by creating inclusive, nurturing learning environments in school and a variety of community settings. This process builds community among relative strangers by developing an elementary culture complete with shared values, symbols, decision-making, and ceremonies. primary curricular areas: social studies, folklore, the arts, science and technology, language arts
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one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, e-mail, Web resources and activities and print curriculum kit
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grades K-12
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Flying Into the Millennium: 2000 Flags
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As a part of Flying Into the Millennium: 2000 Flags, you join hundreds of other people of all ages who express their hopes, dreams and aspirations for the next millennium on brightly painted flags. Your flag-making journey will take you into self-discovery, critical thinking and problem-solving. It will set in motion your reflections on what life will be like in the coming centuries. primary curricular areas: social studies, the arts, folklore, science and technology, language arts
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one-way video, two-way audio, synchronous and asynchronous activities via telephone, on-line curriculum and Web site, virtual flag gallery, e-mail, print curriculum, flag making kit
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grades K-12 | |
©2006 Paula Sincero 781-784-1602 x1 (voice mail)
www.inquirylearn.com
e-mail contact: info@inquirylearn.com