CROSSROADS

Introduction: The High School Curriculum

The high school CROSSROADS curriculum is the product of the collaboration among high school social studies teachers in the Niskayuna School District, Russell Sage College faculty members representing teacher education, political science, and history, and the project historian, Richard B. Bernstein. Covering one year, the high school's twelve-unit chronological American history curriculum parallels the CROSSROADS Essays in American History and builds upon the middle level CROSSROADS curriculum.

Guidelines for Selecting and Organizing Content and Experiences

The combined high school and college team agreed upon three criteria which were to be considered when writing the individual units. These criteria related to (a) the nature of the learner, (b) the structure of the discipline of history, and (c) the context of the school.

  1. The Learner
    Curriculum should reflect the most current thinking about how people learn and the cognitive, personal, and social and emotional development of adolescents.

    1. All of the units are structured in ways that permit students to construct their own understandings of the past. This reflects the constructivist approach to learning. The suggested activities in most instances allow the student to construct knowledge using multiple pathways, reflecting the construct of multiple intelligences.

    2. Many of the activities allow for individual choice and both independent and small group methodologies. These reflect the adolescent's needs for independence and social affiliation with peers.

    3. Several activities require the student to either play a role or participate in a debate. Both require the ability to step outside personal experience and beliefs and take on another life and belief. The adolescent is quite capable of this type of reflective thinking and indeed enjoys it.

    4. All of the lessons begin with a rather detailed set procedure reflecting the belief that learning takes place best when students are provided with an advanced organizer which establishes the scope of the curriculum and the way in which they are to think about the content.

  2. The History Discipline
    The curriculum is based in the discipline of history and organized in a special design.

    1. The substance of history, like all disciplined bodies of knowledge, has a unique structure. The characteristics of the structure are clarified in Part II of the Introduction to the CROSSROADS Essays in American History. Each lesson is built around the most powerful concepts and content which we feel best identifies the themes which run through all historical discourse; and as often as possible the accompanying activities require the students to inquire as historians.

    2. While the lessons in each unit can stand on their own without having to depend upon prior study for the attainment of lesson objectives, the concepts developed within the middle level CROSSROADS curriculum are revisited in the high school curriculum at a higher level and different content and activities are suggested to avoid repetition.

  3. The School Context
    The organization of high schools and the curriculum standards of states vary; consequently, a national curriculum must consider the context in which it will be implemented. Nonetheless, we make several assumptions about the classroom as an active learning environment.

    1. All suggested lesson/activities in each unit assume heterogenous grouping of students.

    2. Lessons are designed to enable adaptation of content and methodologies.

    3. While textbooks may be used as supplemental resources they are not necessary. Locally created resources and primary documents are the major sources of content and experiences.

    4. Whenever appropriate, integration across subject matter is suggested.

    5. A variety of performances and products are embedded within the lesson/activities which allow for authentic assessment. The rubrics for scoring the various student performances and products are left for teacher and students to construct jointly to meet the local standards.

    6. For the vast majority of students this will be the last formal study of American history; therefore, all lessons require students to actively engage with material in some constructive way. Teacher lecture is minimized in an effort to avoid the problems created by different academic preparation of teachers.

Contributors
Niskayuna High School Russell Sage College
Paul Bachorz Richard B. Bernstein
Edward Crotty Edwin Cook
Nick Petraccione Stephen Schechter
Peter Warren

Organization of the High School Curriculum