The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) curriculum standards offer a set of principles for creating good social studies lessons, units of study, and curriculums. This article presents excerpts from "National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: A Framework for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment." The revised standards (published in…

In this unit of work, Year 3 children will learn to use the contents and index pages and to extract information about "Teeth and eating" from different types of non-fiction texts, including ICT (Information and Communications Technology) texts. After analyzing a non-chronological report, they will write a report on the subject of…

This book has a two-fold purpose: to provide lively whole class activities for teaching the Key Stage 2 sentence level objectives in England's National Literacy Strategy"Framework for Teaching"; and to explain and illustrate the varied forms which shared writing can take as a powerful medium for teaching writing. It is designed to help…

Developed for use in small groups, this unit is intended to help Key Stage 3 pupils in England who have attained Level 3 in English to improve their spelling further. The sequence of 18 sessions revisits and builds on objectives from the primary "Framework" in the way envisaged in the "Framework for Teaching English: Years 7, 8, and…

Developed for use in small groups, this unit of study is aimed at helping children in England who have reached Level 3 in English at Key Stage 2 but who may be making errors in spelling, particularly in the area of vowel choices. In this unit, pupils read realistic texts and investigate the spellings of words they find there. While spelling is the…

Adapted for whole class use, this unit is intended to help Key Stage 3 pupils in England who have attained Level 3 in English to improve their spelling further. The sequence of 21 sessions revisits and builds on objectives from the primary "Framework" in the way envisaged in the "Framework for Teaching English at Key Stage 3."…

In this unit of work, the children will continue to learn about the features of playscripts, through reading and analyzing a play and writing a play based on a narrative. In the course of learning how to interpret and write stage directions, the children will apply their knowledge of adverbs. In the discrete work on vocabulary and spelling, the…

These curriculum materials have been designed to help upper elementary students in England make a successful start at secondary school. These transition units consist of one unit involving 10 lessons at the end of Year 6 and a second unit of six lessons at the beginning of Year 7. The units use teaching objectives drawn from the primary and Key…

First in a series, this booklet contains suggestions for planning literacy in Year 6. This Year 6 plan for 2001-2002 and the short-term unit plan for narrative writing are a distillation of the work of a representative group of Year 6 teachers. It contains the Year 6 Term 1 Units 2 and 5 on Narrative Writing. It begins with an outline of the basic…

Second in a series of booklets designed to assist Year 6 teachers with planning instruction to meet objectives of the National Literacy Strategy, this booklet reproduces the medium-term planning for the Autumn and Spring Terms 2001-2002 and contains detailed planning for a further Autumn Term unit (report Writing) and two for the Spring Term…

Summer schools are an integral part of the Key Stage 3 of England's National Literacy Strategy. They play an important role in giving students, who are still at Level 3 in the National Curriculum tests, a flying start to their secondary school career by making links between the Year 6 and Year 7 curriculum. Students are expected to achieve the…

This book contains materials to help teachers and practitioners in England to teach writing in the Reception Year of the Foundation Stage and through Key Stage 1. It emphasizes the importance of shared writing and teaching from the objectives in the National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority…

Adapted for whole class use, this unit of study is aimed at helping children in England who have reached Level 3 in English at Key Stage 2 and who need further help with the skills of writing to enable them to achieve Level 4. It focuses on extending pupils' range and control of sentences in writing. The sessions include the proper use of…

Developed for use in small groups, this unit focuses on developing some of the reading skills pupils need if they are to progress from Level 3 to Level 4 of England's National Curriculum. It is meant to supplement, but not to replace, the English curriculum for Year 7 pupils. The unit builds on the successful approaches of the National Literacy…

Developed for use in small groups, this unit focuses on developing skills pupils need if they are to progress from Level 3 to Level 4 in English of England's National Standards. It is meant to supplement, but not to replace, the English curriculum for Year 7 pupils. The unit is intended for Level 3 pupils working towards Level 4. It sets out to…