InfoTech Review

SAS inSchool Curriculum Pathways: American Literature

SAS inSchool Curriculum Pathways: American Literature. SASinSchool, www.SASinSchool.com, 888/760-2515 ext. 10573. 2003. In NC, available at no charge at www.ncwiseowl.org. Contact Justin Karkow for pricing outside of NC and other information. [8-12, ELA] Curriculum Pathwaysprovides teachers and students an electronic environment in which to interact with topics in these five major subject areas: English, social studies, science, mathematics, and Spanish. English resources are organized into the following five broad categories: Language & Communications, Literary Genres, American Literature, English Literature, and World Literature. American Literature (the focus of this review) introduces students to culture, themes, and stylistic devices associated with literary periods and ethnic groups important in American literature. Eight chapters include images and questions as pre-reading activities, listening and study of quotations from important literary works, interpretive aids to help students gain a thorough understanding of material, and writing activities. Themes of the chapters focus on: Colonial Spirit, Romantic Spirit, Local Color, Modern Dilemmas, African American Quest, Asian American Transitions, Latino American Identity, and Native American Memory. Each topic, in turn, is developed in five ways. A Topic Overview provides a detailed series of unit goals, as well as a list of suggested readings. Three lesson plans accompany each topic. In the Web Lesson, students perform guided research on the Web. The Classroom Activity delivers detailed lesson plans with handouts. Finally, students apply the knowledge they have gained to new literary works and present their findings to the class in a culminating project. A Web Resources section contains teacher-evaluated Web sites, including links to online texts. With Web Inquiry, students read a representative work of fiction and visit outside Web sites to address a focus question. Student Interactivities consist of a Focus section in which students view a series of images and infer information about the American mind-set; an Explore section, where they examine a series of passages from representative works of literature; and a Respond section that walks students through the process of composing a piece of formal literary analysis. Weaknesses: The program will run on Macintosh OS10 except for the student Interactivities. Strengths: Curriculum Pathways: American Literature From large organizational and content issues to small details, this is an exceptionally well-designed product. The Teacher's Room includes tools such as checklists to facilitate implementation of portfolio assessments and project-based learning and tutorials on such issues as saving electronic images and citing online sources. Teachers also can easily access a list of state and national standards. The most valuable resource, though, is the student Interactivity, which, through commentary provided in pop-up windows, gives students insight into how authors employ literary techniques. Uses: The comprehensive scope of Curriculum Pathways makes it suitable for a variety of purposes, from supplementing traditional instruction to serving as the primary instructional resource in a technology-rich environment. Educators should be aware that several plug-ins will need to be installed to run the program. [Math, SCI, SL,SS]

Keywords: Internet activities, lesson plans, problem solving, thinking skills

Subject Areas: English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Second Languages, Social Studies