Baltimore Curriculum Project

Draft Month-by-Month Content Lesson Plans
based on the Core Knowledge^® Sequence

Introduction

BCP Draft Lessons
On this website, you will find draft lesson plans developed by the Baltimore Curriculum Project [BCP]. The lessons are organized by grade level, month (September - May), and discipline.

These lessons generally follow the grade-by-grade topics in the Core Knowledge Sequence, but they have been developed independent of the Core Knowledge Foundation. While the Core Knowledge Foundation encourages the development and sharing of lessons based on the Core Knowledge Sequence, it does not endorse any one set of lesson plans as the best or only way that the knowledge in the Sequence should be taught. Other teacher-created, shared lesson plans are available from the Core Knowledge Foundation. 

You may feel free to download and distribute these lessons, but please note that they are currently in DRAFT form. At this time the draft lessons on this web site do NOT have accompanying graphics, such as maps or cut-out patterns.

The lessons will be revised in response to comments from reviewers and teachers. If you use these lessons, we welcome your comments and suggestions. We encourage you to send your thoughts and suggestions on these draft lessons to:

Baltimore Curriculum Project
711 West 40th St., Suite 301
Baltimore, MD 21211
e-mail: bcpinfo@baltimorecp.org

Complete sets of lessons with graphics included are available for purchase. Please contact BCP at the above address.

Who Is BCP?
The Baltimore Curriculum Project, funded by the Abell Foundation in Baltimore, is a not-for-profit institution organized in 1996. BCP brought together experienced teachers and curriculum writers to select and develop curricula for Baltimore schools participating in an effort to raise student achievement and build strong foundations of early knowledge.

Skills Programs Selected by BCP
BCP has chosen to implement a number of Direct Instruction skills programs in participating schools. These programs, published by the SRA division of Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, include:
• for reading, the "Reading Mastery" program
• for language arts, the "Reasoning and Writing" and "Spelling Mastery" programs
• for math, the "Connecting Math Concepts" program.

For more information on Direct Instruction, contact:
Association for Direct Instruction
P. O. Box 10252
Eugene, OR 97440
(800) 995-2464
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~adiep/

BCP and Monthly Content Lessons
In order to provide systematic instruction in important content, BCP is working to develop month-by-month lesson plans based on the Core Knowledge Sequence (copyright Core Knowledge Foundation, Charlottesville, Virginia).

The Core Knowledge Sequence provides specific grade-by-grade content guidelines that outline important topics to be taught in history, geography, mathematics, science, language arts, and fine arts. For more information on the research and consensus-building behind the Core Knowledge Sequence, contact the Core Knowledge Foundation at www.coreknowledge.org, or at 801 East High Street, Charlottesville, VA 22902; tel. (434) 977-7550.

Based on the experience of a number of Core Knowledge schools, the Core Knowledge Foundation organized the topics in the Core Knowledge Sequence into a draft month-by-month planning guide. The lesson plans developed by the BCP generally follow the Core Knowledge Foundation's K-8 Guide (copies of which may be ordered from the Core Knowledge Foundation). (Note: The lessons for Visual Arts are an exception, in that they are sometimes based on works recommended in the Core Knowledge Sequence, but sometimes on works for which slides or reproductions are available from Baltimore museums.)

Both Skills and Content
The BCP lessons cover literature, history, geography, science, art, and music. In participating BCP schools, they are used in conjunction with the Direct Instruction skills programs in reading, language, and math. If you use or adapt these lessons, keep in mind that they are meant to address content and the application of skills. You will need to use other materials to ensure that children master skills in reading, language, and math.

BCP Lesson Format
These lessons plans present annotated bibliographies of books commonly available in public libraries, background material for the teacher, and suggested language for presentation by the teachers to the students. The suggested language for teachers is often written in the form of straightforward directives-- for example, "Ask: How many states make up the United States? Say: Out of the 50 states in the United States, there are 48 states that are touching one another." These directives are simply meant to be efficient and concise, and not intended as a "script." Rather, our intention is to present the lessons as completely and specifically as possible so that teachers can focus more attention on observing and evaluating their students' responses to the materials.

BCP expects that teachers who have developed their own lessons to cover these topics will continue to follow their own plans and borrow as they see fit. BCP hopes to hear suggestions from these teachers about "how to build a better mousetrap."

FOLLOW THIS LINK TO THE DRAFT BCP CONTENT LESSONS

Baltimore Curriculum Project, Inc.

Tel: 410-235-0015

Fax: 410-235-0032

Executive Director: Herbert Thomas

President: Dr. Muriel Berkeley

Baltimore Curriculum Project, Inc. is funded by:

The Abell Foundation

Core Knowledge curriculum published by the Core Knowledge Foundation

MSDE Standards prepared by Maryland State Department of Education