Course Development

Learning Strategies, an elective, has been piloted through developmental course procedures of the Commission on School Accreditation whereby a school district may develop a new course not appearing on the list of state approved courses in Appendix E of Accreditation Requirements of the State Board of Education, Bulletin 171. Columbia School District proposed the course and piloted the course content at Columbia High School from fall of 1988 to June 1992. In July 1990, Columbia submitted a summative evaluation of two pilot years. In 1991 the Commission on School Accreditation approved the course to be added to Appendix E, Accreditation Requirements of the State Board of Education, Bulletin 171, eleventh edition, Mississippi State Department of Education, 1992. In 1991-92, the district refined the course to consist of the core objectives listed in the attached curriculum. The course content began the administrative procedure process April 17, 1992.

Course Description

Learning Strategies, an elective, is a compensatory education course designed for high school students whose academic achievement is poor but who do not score low enough for special education. The course may also be taught in grades 7 and 8. Teacher certification for this course is English, K-12 Reading, Psychology, Specific Learning Disabilities, Educationally Handicapped. The course is designed as a one-year course receiving one Carnegie credit when it is taught in high school.

The course consists of core objectives, which by law must be taught. AS the example below indicates, the core objectives are organized in categories or "strands" and grouped under outcome statements or "strand goals." An overarching course goal appears at the beginning of the course outline at the top of the page.
 
 

The Law

The core objectives for elective courses, such as Learning Strategies, must be included in the local instructional program. School districts may elect to add other objectives to the local instructional program. In the Mississippi Curriculum Structure the Mississippi State Board of Education sets forth what should be the outcomes and core objectives for courses in the public schools. Section 37-3-49, Mississippi Code of 1972 as Amended 1991 stipulates:

    1. The State Department of Education shall provide an instructional program. . . in the public
        schools as part of the State Program of Educational Accountability and Assessment of Performance

    2. (b) The local school board must adopt the objectives that will for m the core curriculum which
        will be systematically delivered throughout the district. . . .

    (d) Standards for student performance must be established for each core objective in the local program
        and those standards establish the district's definition of mastery for each objective.

    (e) There shall be an annual review of student performance in the instructional program against locally
        established standards.
 
 

Learning Strategies, an elective, is designed to enable under-achieving and low-achieving students to become independent learners and to transfer learning skills to other academic areas. The course helps students develop more effective ways of acquiring, integrating, storing, and retrieving information. Learning Strategies can be taught in grades 7-12. *

Planning

 
The student will use time management techniques to expedite completion of assigned tasks.

03. Estimate time needed to complete a given task.

04. Prioritize tasks.

Retrieving and Integrating Information

The student will use listening comprehension to evaluate information and make judgements.

05. Listen to an oral presentation and formulate who, what, when, where, and why questions.

06. Discern fact and opinion in an oral presentation.

07. Detect bias, prejudice, propaganda in oral presentation.

08. Draw inferences from an oral presentation.

 *The italicized sentence was added as a result of administrative procedures.

The student will use listening comprehension to gain information.

09. In an oral presentation identify factors, such as body language, facial expression, attitude, mood, voice inflection, and diction which affect communication.

10. Recall facts after an oral presentation.

11. Recall the main ideas in an oral presentation.

12. Summarize an oral presentation.

13. Follow oral directions.

The student will use note taking to organize information.

14. Condense a presentation.

15. Develop class notes with main points and supporting detail.

16. Use notes as study aids.

The student will formulate and answer questions.

17. Develop questions from a paragraph of a content textbook.

18. Ask questions about complex directions to increase comprehension.

19. Develop questions from an oral presentation.

The student will scan to locate specific content ands answers to questions.

20. Scan an alphabetized list for specific information.

21. Scan an unalphabetized list for specific information.

22. Use scanning to find the answer to a question in an unfamiliar textbook.

The student will skim to gain an overview of material and to locate information.

23. Skim to locate information or get the main idea within a specified time limit.

The student will use textbooks to locate information and answer questions.

24. Determine which part of a textbook to use, such as the table of contents, index, glossary, and appendices, to answer content questions.

The student will use visual aids to locate information and reinforce content learning.

25. Use a variety of graphs, maps, grids, tables, or diagrams to find specific information and answer questions.

Communicating Information

The student will use appropriate writing skills to communicate information and answer questions.

26. Revise sentence fragments, preferably from student writing, to make complete sentences.

27.Compose sentences in sequential order to form a paragraph.

28. Write topic sentences for paragraphs.

29. Write a paragraph with specific given details.

30. Identify and compose a clincher sentence.

31. Write a paragraph on a given topic, using pre-writing strategies, multiple drafts, and revision.