Recommended Instructional
Time Allotments

Suggested Minutes per Week
Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary and Middle School Levels

Learning takes place when students are engaged in the academic tasks planned for them by their teachers. The time must be allotted for the class and the teacher must protect the time from interruption so that the students may be engaged in meaningful work.

The weekly time allotments are based on recommendations for the Department of Education.

Language Arts

Lower Elementary	700 - 1000 Minutes Per Week
Upper Elementary	500 - 800 Minutes Per Week
Middle School	450 - 750 Minutes Per Week

Mathematics

Lower Elementary	150 - 300 Minutes Per Week
Upper Elementary	225 - 300 Minutes Per Week
Middle School	250 - 300 Minutes Per Week

Social Studies, Science, and Health

Lower Elementary	150 - 250 Minutes Per Week
Upper Elementary	150 - 300 Minutes Per Week
Middle School	250 - 300 Minutes Per Week

Physical Education

Lower Elementary	50 - 150 Minutes Per Week
Upper Elementary	75 - 200 Minutes Per Week
Middle School	100 - 200 Minutes Per Week

Art

Lower Elementary	150 - 300 Minutes Per Week
Upper Elementary	225 - 300 Minutes Per Week
Middle School	250 - 300 Minutes Per Week

YFSD Approved
Secondary Courses

English must be taken in each year of the 9-12 program.

One credit is defined as 135 clock hours of instruction

Language Arts

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
English l	1
English ll	1
English lll	1
English lV	1

English l

• 1 Credit English l is comprised of two parts: Composition and World Literature. First semester reviews the basic of grammar and usage. Students learn to put together well-organized , thoughtful sentences, paragraphs, and essays. Emphasis is on concise, technical writing. Second semester is focused on World Literature. Students explore literature by authors from around the world. Culturally diverse, famous pieces are the basics for discussion and expository writing.
  

English ll

• 1 Credit English II is composed of two parts: Advanced Speech, Composition, and British Literature.
• First semester is based on composition. The writing process is emphasized, and students are encouraged to do a great deal of writing to express opinions, capture detail and use sensory language. First semester also includes an oral component. Students will be required to write and deliver 3-5 speeches as part of this course.
• Second semester of English II is focused on British Literature. Continental authors and works range from the 1300’s to today. Meaningful, insightful text is the basis for discussion, composition and debate.
  

English lll

• 1 Credit English lll is a study of American Literature and U.S. Literature.
• First semester is focused on American Literature from the top of South America to the Polar Region. Students explore works from colonization of the Americas to the late 18oo’s. Short stories, essays, novels, and plays will be offered. Emphasis is on literary analysis, comparison and contrast.
• Second semester focuses on American and U.S. Literature from the turn of the century to the present. Contemporary authors, modern literature and modes of communication by mass media are covered. A term paper is a requirement for completion of this course.
  

English lV

• 1 Credit English lV is divided into two parts: Communication and Creative Reading/Writing.
• First Semester explores modes of modern communication. Literature, music, video, cinematography, and on-line communications are utilized to acquaint students with all the major methods of modern communication and information access. Students will participate in activities related to gathering and effective communication.
• Second semester offers students a chance to read preferred authors and try their collective hand at writing for enjoyment and mastery. Emphasis is on individual preference and Alaskan Literature.

Mathematics

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Advanced Mathematics	1
Algebra l	1
Algebra ll	1
Integrated Mathematics l	1
Integrated Mathematics ll	1
Calculus	1
Geometry	1
Pre-Algebra	1
Trigonometry	1

Advanced Mathematics

• 1 Credit This course culminates the process of acquiring fundamental skills in algebra, geometry, and trigonometry.
  

Algebra l

• 1 Credit This course emphasizes signed numbers, integer exponents, solving equations, systems of two linear equations in two unknowns, coin problems and unit conversions. The course also includes perimeter, area and volume in irregular geometric solids, and unit multipliers with English-metric and metric-English conversions. Surface area problems involving prisms, cylinders, cones, and spheres are also practiced.
  

Algebra ll

• 1 Credit This course completes the automation of fundamental skills of algebra by including motion problems, chemical mixture problems, nonlinear and simultaneous equations with two and three variables. The course alsi includes all concepts of geometry and 70 problems in trigonometry. Emphasis is placed on rectangular-to-polar and polar-to-rectangular coordinated, addition of vectors, similar triangles, problems on the equation line, complex numbers, completing the square, and deriving and using the quadratic formula.

Geometry

• 1 Credit This course is designed to acquaint the student with the basics of plane geometry. Areas such as lines, planes, angles, congruent triangles, polygons, constructions, loci, area, and volume of solids, coordinated geometry, and transformations are considered.

Integrated Math l

• 1 Credit This course bridges elementary math and high school math. It includes the study of fractions, decimals, percents, word problems, geometry, perimeter, circumference, area, pi, volume, ratio, proportion, exponents, scientific notation, signed numbers, mean, median, mode, sales tax, solving equations, and unit multipliers.
  

Integrated Math ll

• 1 Credit This course is a continuation of Integrated Math l.

Pre-Algebra

• 1 Credit This course automates the use of fractions, mixed numbers, and decimals. It includes procedures for solving simple word problems.

Social Studies

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Alaska Studies l	.5
Alaska Studies ll	.5
Alaska Native Land Claims	.5
U.S. Government	1
U.S. History	1
World History	1

Alaska Studies l

• ½ Credit This course includes an overview of the six main geographical areas of Alaska and how these relate to Alaska’s natural and human resources, transportation and communication.
  

Alaska Studies ll

• ½ Credit This Course is a continuation of the first semester course and surveys Alaska’s history from the first appearance of people in Alaska to the present, including a look at local, state, and federal governments in Alaska and current Alaska issues.
  

Alaska Native Land Claims

• ½ Credit May be offered in place of Alaska Studies ll. The 1971 act is the event around which the course is organized. Achievement of the settlement act shapes the historical sketches that make up the first part of this course; the act’s provisions-as implemented in 1975 and additional changes- define the topics for the second part of this course. The focus of the course is Alaska Natives and their destinies. Students will be able to tell why and how Eskimos, Indians, and Aleuts achieved a claims settlement and to explain what the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act provides.

U.S. Government

• 1 Credit The course covers the basic principles, structure, and operations of national, state, and local government. Participation in the political system, policy making, and contrasting economic and political systems are also studied.
  

U.S. History

• 1 Credit This course presents the values, ideals, and attitudes of Americans and significant themes in American History. Major topics include colonial settlement, the Revolutionary War, the development of the federal government, the Civil War and Reconstruction. Additional topics include industrialization, the First World War, Franklin Roosevelt, the Second World War, and contemporary international and domestic development.
  

World History

• 1 Credit This course gives a brief overview of world history from the Stone Age to the 1990’s. Course topics include the rise of civilization, the Greeks and Romans, early Asian empires, African and American cultures, the spread of Islam, the development of Europe through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and the European colonial system.

Science

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Biology	1
Chemistry	1
Integrated Science l	.5
Integrated Science ll	1
Integrated Science lll	1

Integrated Science l

• ½ Credit This course provides an overview of physical science, biology, geology, and chemistry.
  

Integrated Science ll

• 1 Credit This course provides more in-depth study of physiology, physics, earth science, biology, and chemistry.
  

Integrated Science lll

• 1 Credit This course provides more detailed study of physiology, physics, earth science, biology, and chemistry.

Physical Education

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Physical Education	1

Physical Education

• 1 Credit Students will be able to recognize the components of fitness, develop positive attitudes toward fitness and sports activities, and demonstrate cooperation and respect for rules and sportsmanship in all activities. Some team sports are flag football, soccer, floor hockey, basketball, volleyball and softball.

Health and Family Living

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Health	.5

Health

• ½ Credit This course provides an overview of health. It studies the effect that life-style can have on one’s overall wellness and the ways in which people can maximize their physical, emotional, and social health through positive life-style choices.

Fine Arts

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Dance	.5
Drama	.5
Music	.5

Dance

• ½ Credit This course is designed to provide physical exercise, improve stamina and increase knowledge of the performance arts. Students will engage in various forms of dance including jazz, modern and ballet. Students will also study basic movement and the great performances and performers. Traditional Athabascan dance will also be included.
  

Drama

• ½ Credit This course is designed to explore and study the performance art. Students will study the great performances, playwrights, and actors/actresses from early civilization to the twentieth century. Students are expected to take part in several one-act plays, reader’s theatre and improvisational theatre. There will be one major production per year, and all students must participate.

Music

• 1 Credit This course is designed to study the art of music. Music appreciation, basic structures and music origin will be taught the first semester. Modern music and music video/multimedia production will also be taught. The second semester will be based on choral singing. Students will learn the basics of vocalization, rhythm, and sight-reading. Students will be required to participate in all performances.

Electives

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Gwich'in Language Studies l	1
Gwich'in Language Studies ll	1
Gwich'in Studies	1
Journalism	.5
Native Crafts	.5
Principles of Technology l	1
Principles of Technology ll	1

Gwich’in Studies

• ½ Credit The goal of this course is to incorporate traditional practices of the Gwich’in people into a classroom learning experience. To ensure that we meet our educational objectives, the bilingual instructor will introduce an extensive Gwich’in vocabulary list with each unit. This course will be facilitated by the regular classroom teachers, but much of the instruction will be presented by local native speakers of Gwich’in. Gwich’in history will introduce the course, and will be part of each unit. Oral traditional stories as well as published material will be used in this course.

Gwich’in Language Studies l

• 1 Credit Introduction to Gwich’in, the language of the upper Yukon Flats. This course provides a framework for learning to speak, read, and write the language. Consideration given to dialect differences.
  

Gwich’in Language Studies ll

• 1 Credit The course is designed to learn to speak and understand Gwich’in. Focus on communication in everyday situation. For speakers the course provides literacy and grammatical analysis.

Journalism

• ½ Credit All aspects of the news profession are examined through a balance of objective and subjective questions. Written work includes the development of a student newspaper.
  

Native Crafts

• ½ Credit This course includes building skin canoes, snow shoes, sleds, drums and beading.

Principles of Technology l

• 1 Credit The student will learn traditional physics concopts in the context of their relationship to four energy systems - mechanical, fluid, electrical, and thermal. This course allows students to discover and experience physics first-hand by exposing them to modern technical equipment with over 90 hands - on laboratory activities. Students learn both the underlying mathematical and scientific principles behind techonology. Units during the first year focus on Force, Work Rate, Resistance, Energy, Power and Force Transformers.
  

Principles of Technology ll

• 1 Credit The second year deals with Momentum, Waves and Vibrations, Energy Converters, Transducers, Radiation, Optical Systems, and Time Constants.

Vocational Education

Home Economics

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Basic Home Economics	.5
Child Development	1
Healthful Living/Human Relations	.5
Clothing and Sewing	.5
Skin Sewing	.5
Independent Living/Family Living	.5
Basic Foods and Nutrition	.5

Industrial Arts

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Construction / Carpentry	.5
Electricity / Wiring	.5
Power Mechanics	.5
Snowmachine Maintenance and Repair	.5
Small Engine Repair	.5
Outboard Engine Repair	.5
Vocational Drawing and Drafting	.5
Photography	.5
Welding	1
Woodworking	1
Chainsaw Maintenance and Repair	1

Business and Management

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Accounting	1

Business and Office

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Recordkeeping	.5
Bookkeeping	.5
Computer Business Applications	.5
Keyboarding / Typing I	.5
Keyboarding / Typing II	.5
Journalism	.5

Marketing

COURSE TITLE	CREDITS
Marketing and Distributive Education	.5
Applied Communications	1
Work Experience	.5
On - The - Job - Training	.5

Applied Communications

• 1 Credit Students develop awareness of human relations. Students will develop competencies in communications skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students will develop competencies in business vocabulary and electronic communications.

Cooperative Learning

These notes on cooperative learning are primarily based on David and Roger Johnson's Circles of Learning, with some deviations from their advice on Assigning Students to Groups. You may "jump" directly to a section in this document by selecting from the following menu.

Why Cooperative Learning is important

• An essential instructional skill that all teacher need is know how and when to structure students' learning goals competitively, individualistically, and cooperatively. Each goal structure has its place; an effective teacher will use all three appropriately.
  The Choice
• Teachers can structure lessons competitively so that students can work against each other to achieve a goal that only one or a few students can attain. Students perceive that they can attain their goal only if the other students in the class fail to obtain their goals. (grading on a curve)
• Teacher can structure lessons individualistically so that students' work by themselves to accomplish learning goals unrelated to those of other students. Individual goals are assigned each day, students' efforts are evaluated on a fixed set of standards, and rewards are given accordingly. Whether a student accomplishes his or her goals has no influence on whether other students achieve their goals in an individualistic learning situation.
• Teachers can structure lessons cooperatively so that students work together to accomplish shared goals. Students are assigned to small groups and instructed to learn assigned material and make sure that the other members of the group learn the assigned material. Individual accountability can be checked randomly by selecting a paper from each group to grade. A criterion - referenced evaluation system is used.

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What is Cooperative Learning

• Cooperative Learning is not having students sit side-by-side at the same table to talk with each other as they do their individual assignments.
• Cooperative Learning is not having students do a task with instructions that those who finish first are to help the slower students.
• Cooperative Learning is not assigning a report to a group of students wherein one student does all the work and the others put their names on the product, as well.
• Cooperative Learning is much more than being physically near other students, discussing material with other students, helping other students or sharing material among students, although each of these is important in Cooperative Learning. Here is what Cooperative Learning is, described in four (4) basic elements.
  

Positive Interdependence: This is achieved through mutual goals: divisions of labor; dividing materials, resources, or information among group members; assigning students differing roles; and by giving joint rewards. In order for a learning situation to be cooperative, students must perceive that they are positively interdependent with other members of the their learning group.

Face - To - Face Interaction: It is the interaction patterns and verbal interchange among students promoted by positive interdependence that affect education outcomes.

Individual Accountability: The purpose of a learning situation is to maximize the achievement of each individual student.

Interpersonal and Small Group Skills: Students must be taught the social skills needed for collaboration and they must be motivated to use them. Students must also be given time and procedures for analyzing how well their learning groups are functioning and the extent to which students are employing their social sills to help all group members to achieve and to maintain effective working relationships within the group.

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The Teacher's Role in Structuring Cooperation among Students

• Clearly specify the objectives for the lesson.
  
• Make decisions about placing students in learning groups before the lesson is taught.
  
• Clearly explain the task, goal structure, and learning activity to the students.
  
• Monitor the effectiveness of the learning groups and intervene to provide assistance or increase students' interpersonal and group skills.
  
• Evaluate student achievement and help students discuss how well they collaborated with each other.

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Strategies for Structuring Cooperative Learning
Objectives
Specifying Instructional Objectives

• The teacher must specify the academic objective and the collaborative skills objective.

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Decisions
Deciding on the size of the group

• The more group members you have, the more chance to have someone who has special knowledge helpful to the group and the more willing hands and talents are available to do the task.
• The larger the group, however, the more skillful group members must be in providing everyone a chance to speak, coordinating the actions of group members, reaching consensus, and keeping all members on task.
• The materials available or the specific nature of the task may dictate group size.
• The shorter the period of time available, the smaller the learning group should be.

Teachers with students who are just beginning to use cooperative learning groups should start with pairs or threesomes. As students become more experienced and skillful, they will be able to manage larger groups. Six may be the upper limit for a cooperative learning group in most schools.

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Assigning Students to Groups

• Teachers should emphasize homogeneity of students. This prevents the more able students from tending to dominate and the less able from expecting others to do their work for them.
• Students should not select their own groups, teacher selected groups are generally more effective.
• Groups should stay together the length of an instructional unit. Some teachers keep groups together for a full year, semester, or quarter. Don't break up groups that are having trouble: the students won't learn the skills they need to collaborate with one another.

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Arranging the Room

Group members should sit in a circle and be close enough to each other to communicate effectively without disturbing other learning groups, and the teacher should have a clear access lane to every group. Teachers should try avoid setting students at rectangular tables where they cannot have eye contact with all the other members.

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Planning the Instructional Materials to Promote Interdependence

When a group is new or when members are not very skilled, teachers should distribute materials in carefully planned ways to communicate that the assignment is to be a joint (not an individual) effort and that students are in a "sink or swim together" learning situation. Three ways of doing this are:

• Materials Interdependence: Give only one copy of the material to the group. Students will then have to work together to be successful.
• Information Interdependence: Group members may each be given different books or resource materials to be synthesized. This requires every member to participate for the group to be successful.
• Interdependence with Other Groups: Materials may be structured into a tournament format with intergroup competition as the basis to promote a perception of interdependence among group members.

All of these procedures may not be needed simultaneously. They are alternative methods of ensuring that students perceive that they must work together and behave collaboratively to succeed in the learning situation.

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Assigning Roles to Ensure Interdependence

• Cooperative interdependence may also be arranged through the assignment of complimentary and interconnected roles to group members. Each group member is assigned one or more responsibilities that must be fulfilled if the group is to function. Each group should have a:
• Summarizer-Checker to make sure everyone in the group understands what is being learned.
• Researcher-Runner to get needed materials for the group and to communicate with other learning groups and the teacher.
• Recorder to write down the group's decisions and to edit the group's report.
• Encourager to reinforce member's contributions.
• Observer to keep track of how well the group is collaborating.

With these decisions made and the appropriate materials prepared, the teacher is ready to explain the instructional task and the cooperative goal structure to the class. The less experience the students have in working in cooperative learning groups, the more important it is that teachers explain carefully what cooperation is.

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Explaining the Academic Task

Teachers must consider the following:

• Set the task so that students are clear about the assignment.
• Explain the objectives of the lesson and relate the concepts and information to be studied to students' past experience and learning to ensure maximum transfer and retention.
• Define relevant concepts, explain procedures students should follow, and give examples to help students understand what they are to learn and to do in completing the assignment.
• Ask the class specific questions to check the students' understanding of the assignment.

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Structuring Positive Goal Interdependence

Communicate to students that they have a group goal and must work collaboratively.

• Ask the group to produce a single product, report, or paper. Each member of the group should sign the paper to indicate that he/she agrees with the answers and can explain why the answers are appropriate.
• Provide group rewards. A group grade is one way the necessity for collaboration. Some teachers reward groups where all members reach a preset criterion of excellence with free time or extra recess.

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Structuring Individual Accountability

The purpose of cooperative learning is to enhance the learning of each member. In order to ensure that all members learn and that groups know which member to provide encouragement and help, teachers need to assess frequently the level of performance of each group member by:

• Giving practice tests
• Randomly selecting members to explain answers
• Have members edit each other's work or
• Randomly picking one paper from the group to grade

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Structuring Intergroup Cooperation

Bonus points may be given if all members of a class reach a preset criterion of excellence. When a group finishes its work, the teacher should encourage the members to help other groups complete the assignment.

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Explaining the Criteria for Success

At the beginning of the lesson the teacher should clearly explain the criteria by which the students work will be evaluated. The criteria for success must be structured so that students may reach it without penalizing other students and so that groups may reach it without penalizing other groups.

Teachers may structure a second level of cooperation not only by keeping track of how well each group and its members are performing, but also by setting criteria for the whole class to reach.

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Specifying Desired Behaviors

Teachers need to define cooperation operationally by specifying the behaviors that are appropriate and desirable within the learning groups. There are beginning behaviors such as:

• Stay in your group and do not wander around.
• Use quiet voices.
• Take turns.

When the groups begin to function more effectively, expected behaviors may include:
bullet Have member explain how to get the answer.

• Ask each member to relate what is being learned to previous learnings.
• Encourage everyone to participate.
• Listen accurately to what all group members are saying.
• Criticize ideas, not people.

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Monitoring and Intervening

• Monitoring Students Behavior
• Whenever possible the teacher should use a formal observation sheet to count the number of times they observe appropriate behaviors being used by students.
• Look for positive behaviors, which are to be praised when they are appropriately present and those which are a cause for discussion when they are missing.

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Providing Task Assistance

• In monitoring the groups as they work, teachers will wish to clarify instructions, review important procedures and strategies for completing the assignment, answer questions, and teach task skills as necessary.

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Intervening to Teach Collaborative Skills

• The teacher may notice the group does not collaborate well. The teacher should intervene to suggest effective procedures for working together and effective behaviors for students to engage in.

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Providing Closure to the Lesson

• At the end of the lesson, students should be able to summarize what they have learned and to understand where they will use it in future lessons. To reinforce student learning, teachers may wish to summarize the major points of the lesson, ask students to recall ideas or give samples, and answer any final questions they may have.

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Evaluation and Processing

• Evaluating the Quality and Quantity of Student Learning
• Student learning needs to be evaluated by a criterion - referenced system.

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Assessing How Well the Group Functioned

• Even if class time is limited, some time should be spent talking about how well the group functioned each day, what things went well, and what things could be improved.
• Groups new to this process may need an agenda which includes specific questions each member must address; i.e. Name two things they did well, one thing they need to do even better, or would like to work harder on.

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Teaching Students Cooperative Skills

Assumptions

• A cooperative context must be structured
• Cooperative skills have to be taught
• Peers are the key
• Peer pressure to learn cooperative skills must always be coupled with peer support for doing so
• The earlier students are taught cooperative skills the better
  What skills need to be taught?
• Forming: The bottom line skills needed to establish a functioning cooperative learning group.
• Functioning: The skills needed to manage the group's activities in completing the task and maintaining effective working relationships among members.
• Formulating: The skills needed to build deeper level understanding of the material being studied, to stimulate the use of higher quality reasoning strategies, and to maximize mastery and retention of the assigned material.
• Fermenting: The skills needed to stimulate conceptualization of the material being studied, cognitive conflict, the search for more information, and the communication of the rationale behind one's conclusions.

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Forming

• Move into cooperative learning groups without undue noise and without bothering others.
• Stay with the group.
• Use quiet voices.
• Encourage everyone to participate.
• Use names.
• Look at the speaker.
• No "put-downs".
• Keep one's hands and feet to one's self.

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Functioning

• Give direction to the group by:
• Stating and restating the purpose of the assignment.
• Setting or calling attention to time limits.
• Offering procedures for how to most effectively complete the assignment.
• Express support both verbally and nonverbally, and seek others ideas and conclusions.
• Ask of clarification of what is being done in the group.
• Offer to explain or clarify.
• Paraphrase and clarify another member's contributions.
• Energize the group when motivation is low by suggesting new ideas or with humor.
• Describe one's feelings when appropriate.

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Formulating

• Summarize what has just been read or discussed as completely as possible without referring to notes. Each group should summarize from memory all the important ideas and facts.
• Seek accuracy by correcting a member's summary, adding important information he or she did not include.
• Seek elaboration by asking other members to relate the material being learned to earlier material and to other things they know.
• Seek clever ways to remember important ideas or facts by using drawings, mental pictures, and other memory aides.
• Demand vocalization to make overt the implicit reasoning process being used by other members and thus open to correction and discussion.
• Ask other members to plan out loud how they would teach the material to another student.

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Fermenting

Create academic controversies by asking the students to think divergently about the issue, find more information, or argue constructively about alternative solutions or decisions.

Skills involved in academic controversy include:

• Criticize ideas, not people.
• Differentiate where there is disagreement within the learning group.
• Integrate a number of different ideas into a single position.
• Ask for justification of why the members answer or conclusion or answer is the correct one or appropriate one.
• Extend another member's answer or conclusion by adding further information or implications.
• Probe by asking questions that lead to deeper understanding or analysis.
• Generate further answers by going beyond the first answer or conclusion and producing a number of plausible answers from which to choose an alternative.
• Test reality by checking the group's work with the instructions, available time, and other examples of reality.

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Cooperative Learning and the Writing Process

• Writing Process Activities = Cooperative Learning Strategies
  
• Pre-Writing = Cooperative Brainstorming Discussion Groups
• Drafting = Students become sources of input when they contribute ideas in language that is familiar to their peers. After the teacher mildels a lesson, students themselves can also serve as models.
  
• Revising/Editing Peer responses = The teacher can check on groups and can also show students how to do so within their own group.
  
• Publishing = Share products with other groups and school-wide / community-wide

Variables in Education