Teacher(s) Name: Mr. Browne, Mr. Kaufman, Ms. Paul, and Mrs. McCrickard
School: ACE at Highland Springs
Grade Level(s): Grade 9,Grade 10,Grade 11,Grade 12
Content Area(s): English, CTE
Lesson Summary
This is a cross-curricular and cross-school collaboration between HSHS and the ACE Center at Highland Springs High School. The Criminal Justice, Nursing, and Radio Broadcasting departments all focused on further developing literacy into their curriculum by developing projects relating to the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Criminal Justice students wrote a mock indictment against the character Andy Evans, Radio Broadcasting produced a news piece on the indictment, and Nursing students created brochures about suicide awareness and/or anti-bullying. The English 11 students at HSHS created symbols to represent who they are as students, drawing textual inferences, and will be writing a final essay explaining their symbolic representation.
TIPC Ratings
Research & Information Fluency
Rating:Developing – Explanation: Students were required to navigate information outside of their usual content area by examining a text thoroughly, finding connections with their ACE Technical Center content, conduct research, and create a final product that demonstrates both knowledge of content and narrative literacy. They were given questions to guide their research and a variety of tools from which to choose as they worked through their objectives.
Communication & Collaboration
Rating: Approaching – Explanation: Students worked with peers outside of their classroom, in other vocational areas, to more clearly see the common threads and connections that span across industries.
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Rating: Approaching – Explanation: Students had to think outside the box and bring their technical skills to work in a realistic scenario that better prepares them for work outside of the classroom. Nursing students researched and produced information brochures to give to high schoolers considering suicide, Criminal Justice students developed a criminal indictment for a character in the book, and Radio Broadcasting students created a radio news story… all of which sharpened student skills in their vocational area while focusing on literacy.
Creativity & Innovation
Rating: Ideal – Explanation: Students across all content areas were engaged and worked together to generate new ideas. Students reflected with the teachers upon culmination of this project on its success, and on the connection between their ACE Technical Center program and their experiences with more traditional English coursework.
Student Artifact
Click below to listen to the news program developed by a Radio and Broadcasting student for this project. To see student examples from English, Nursing, and Criminal Justice, check out the Google Drive folder under “Lesson Materials!”
Lesson Materials
