Introduction

The fundamental enterprise of Communication Arts and Sciences is for a group of teachers, students, and parents to come together to create a learning community that nourishes and develops the whole student, with an emphasis on social justice, media literacy, communications skills and communication technologies. CAS is built around thematic core curriculum focused on social justice and an experiential pedagogy. We are committed to creating a heterogeneous grouping, by ethnicity and skill level, and our goal is to make school more successful especially for those who have not traditionally done well at Berkeley High.

The Course of Study included here is a public summary of the courses offered in CAS for the school year 2004-05. We have developed these summaries, as well as complete maps to guide the yearlong plan for each course, through years of collaborative work and a concentrated planning period during the past summer. We have learned that our most effective teaching evolves through close cooperation between teachers and through a constant process of feedback and engagement from students and parents.

A key aspect of CAS is the integration of curriculum. In examining the CAS curriculum compared to the large school, you will see that we have come together and agreed on content and skills that will be taught during each year as the student progresses through high school. These goals, as to what students will know and be able to do, are planned to progress in a logical way through the years. This is called "articulation." We also plan for students to get reinforcement for concepts and insights between the various classes. So not only will a student encounter certain concepts in English and history but it will also come up in Spanish, math, science, and even physical education. We are developing a much more integrated media program - with all the assignments and projects for media in grades 9 and 10 arising from the core classes. And at many points through the year, students will be pursuing projects that earn credit for two or more classes. This includes not only media projects but also service learning and other community based activities.

In designing the CAS curriculum, we have been guided by state standards as well as media and social justice standards developed by our school. We are able to use the standards to measure our work and to assure that students gain important skills and content knowledge. Of course, no one can simply teach each "standard" as if checking items off on a list. So we have approached the standards as a broad guideline and we have made sure that, over the four years, students learn the main information they need to know under each standard. Our plan for writing instruction, with the articulation of skills taught through the four years, can be found on page 5 of this booklet. You can find the California State Board of Education Content Standards on the following web site: http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/.

We have not been satisfied only with the state standards, however. CAS has evolved standards for social justice teaching - these are standards that guide our curriculum planning because they assure that the CAS theme is infused through all classes. We make sure that students encounter each of these standards at an increasingly sophisticated level each year. And we make sure that each class addresses the CAS standards for media literacy. These standards have evolved from our own experience as well as from study of educational leaders in countries which take media literacy much more seriously than in the US, especially Canada and Britain. Our media standards pertain to both critical viewing and to the production of media products. You can find the CAS social justice and media literacy standards on pages 6-7.

We organize our classes around a series of essential questions. Essential questions are questions that the class pursues as a way to organize its exploration of the world. You will find essential questions leading daily lessons, units, and even whole years. The key to the essential question is that it is open-ended. This means that there is no single or right answer and often the teacher is a seeker of answers along with the students. We have included a document that explains the key essential questions for each year, as this is another aspect of the articulation of student experience through the four years. The essential questions can be found on page 8.

We also will introduce the students to important habits of mind- ways to approach their studies and any investigation of the world that they will find useful for the rest of their lives. These were first articulated by Central Park East High School in New York by Deborah Meier. We look forward to strengthening these habits and approaches to learning for all students. The habits of mind can be found on page 9.

Finally, a few words about assessment and grading. We are committed to creating a series of performances and products which demonstrate what students have learned, what they know and are able to do. Sometimes assessment is used to give feedback to the teacher as to what the student is learning and what needs to be done. Other times assessment is used to make a determination of what the student has learned. Sometimes we use assessment to motivate and encourage students; sometimes we use it to rank them. We know that the most important assessments are authentic assessments - ones that show students doing important work, before a real audience (students peers, the wider community, etc.). But we also know we have to prepare students to get past the "gate-keepers" of standardized tests.

In all the complexity of assessment, we are clear that we want to use a wide range of measures of student progress. Wherever possible, we will be using rubrics (guides to what grade or what points will be given for different levels of quality of work). We are developing common CAS rubrics for major projects that they will encounter through the years (research projects, videos, and literary analysis, for example).

In future years, we are interested in developing new approaches to assessment, including a "mastery assessment" policy (where students only get credit for a class when they have completed the work to at least a C level - and if it is below that level, the student will continue working). And we will begin to experiment with narrative assessments (short written descriptions of student progress) ) to supplement letter grades.

We hope you do take the time to look through this packet of information. It is extensive, to be sure, but it is also only a beginning. From here, and with the experience of the coming year, we will be able to strengthen the course offerings, and the student experience, in CAS.

Sincerely,

BHS CAS STAFF

August, 2004