Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
Version Description
Course Description:The purpose of this Pre-IB course is to prepare students for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (DP). As such, this course will provide academic rigor and relevance through a comprehensive curriculum based on the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards and standards taught with reference to the unique facets of the IB. These facets include interrelatedness of subject areas, a holistic view of knowledge, intercultural awareness, embracing international issues, and communication as fundamental to learning. Instructional design must provide students with values and opportunities that enable them to develop respect for others and an appreciation of similarities and differences. Learning how to learn and how to critically evaluate information is as important as the content of the disciplines themselves.
General Notes
Special Notes:Pre-IB courses have been created by individual schools or school districts since before the MYP started. These courses mapped backwards the Diploma Programme (DP) to prepare students as early as age 14. The IB was never involved in creating or approving these courses. The IB acknowledges that it is important for students to receive preparation for taking part in the DP, and that preparation is the MYP. The IB designed the MYP to address the whole child, which, as a result, has a very different philosophical approach that aims at educating all students aged 11-16. Pre-IB courses usually deal with content, with less emphasis upon the needs of the whole child or the affective domain than the MYP. A school can have a course that it calls “pre-IB” as long as it makes it clear that the course and any supporting material have been developed independently of the IB. For this reason, the school must name the course along the lines of, for example, the “Any School pre-IB course”. Source: What is meant by “the pre-IB”? Published 12/06/2010 Updated 05/23/2011
Mathematics Benchmark Guidance – Social Studies instruction should include opportunities for students to interpret and create representations of historical events and concepts using mathematical tables, charts, and graphs.
Instructional Practices
Teaching from well-written, grade-level instructional materials enhances students’ content area knowledge and also strengthens their ability to comprehend longer, complex reading passages on any topic for any reason. Using the following instructional practices also helps student learning:
- Reading assignments from longer text passages as well as shorter ones when text is extremely complex.
- Making close reading and rereading of texts central to lessons.
- Asking high-level, text-specific questions and requiring high-level, complex tasks and assignments.
- Requiring students to support answers with evidence from the text.
- Providing extensive text-based research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).
General Information
Equivalent Courses
Student Resources
Original Student Tutorials
Discover the origins and meaning of the document known as Magna Carta in this short video.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about public policy solutions and how public opinion, the media, and interest groups all influence decision-making about public issues with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
This is Part Two of a two-part series. Learn to identify faulty reasoning in this interactive tutorial series. You'll learn what some experts say about year-round schools, what research has been conducted about their effectiveness, and how arguments can be made for and against year-round education. Then, you'll read a speech in favor of year-round schools and identify faulty reasoning within the argument, specifically the use of hasty generalizations.
Make sure to complete Part One before Part Two! Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify faulty reasoning in this two-part interactive English Language Arts tutorial. You'll learn what some experts say about year-round schools, what research has been conducted about their effectiveness, and how arguments can be made for and against year-round education. Then, you'll read a speech in favor of year-round schools and identify faulty reasoning within the argument, specifically the use of hasty generalizations.
Make sure to complete both parts of this series! Click HERE to open Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address in this interactive tutorial. You will examine Kennedy's argument, main claim, smaller claims, reasons, and evidence.
In Part Four, you'll use what you've learned throughout this series to evaluate Kennedy's overall argument.
Make sure to complete the previous parts of this series before beginning Part 4.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address in this interactive tutorial. You will examine Kennedy's argument, main claim, smaller claims, reasons, and evidence. By the end of this four-part series, you should be able to evaluate his overall argument.
In Part Three, you will read more of Kennedy's speech and identify a smaller claim in this section of his speech. You will also evaluate this smaller claim's relevancy to the main claim and evaluate Kennedy's reasons and evidence.
Make sure to complete all four parts of this series!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
This is Part Two of a two-part tutorial series. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice identifying a speaker's purpose using a speech by aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. You will examine her use of rhetorical appeals, including ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos. Finally, you'll evaluate the effectiveness of Earhart's use of rhetorical appeals.
Be sure to complete Part One first. Click here to launch PART ONE.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
This is Part One of a two-part tutorial series. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice identifying a speaker's purpose using a speech by aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. You will examine her use of rhetorical appeals, including ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos. Finally, you'll evaluate the effectiveness of Earhart's use of rhetorical appeals.
Click here to launch PART TWO.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice writing different aspects of an expository essay about scientists using drones to research glaciers in Peru. This interactive tutorial is part four of a four-part series. In this final tutorial, you will learn about the elements of a body paragraph. You will also create a body paragraph with supporting evidence. Finally, you will learn about the elements of a conclusion and practice creating a “gift.”
This tutorial is part four of a four-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 1)
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 2)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 3)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 4)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to write an introduction for an expository essay in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is the third part of a four-part series. In previous tutorials in this series, students analyzed an informational text and video about scientists using drones to explore glaciers in Peru. Students also determined the central idea and important details of the text and wrote an effective summary. In part three, you'll learn how to write an introduction for an expository essay about the scientists' research.
This tutorial is part three of a four-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 1)
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 2)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 3)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 4)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to better conduct research in this interactive tutorial. You'll learn to distinguish relevant from irrelevant sources when conducting research on a specific topic. In addition, you'll practice identifying authoritative sources and selecting the appropriate keywords to find quality sources for your topic.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how speakers use rhetoric to achieve their purpose. In this interactive tutorial, you'll learn how speakers can achieve their purpose through the use of pathos, ethos, and logos. Using excerpts from President Wilson's "War Message to Congress," you'll analyze how speakers use rhetoric to make their case effectively.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In this tutorial, you'll practice identifying and analyzing how specific concepts are addressed in texts from two different time periods. The featured texts include the Bill of Rights and an excerpt from the "Four Freedoms" speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. You'll practice analyzing the similarities and differences in how the two texts address certain concepts.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the relationship between mutations, the cell cycle, and uncontrolled cell growth which may result in cancer with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Assessment
Test your knowledge of American imperialism and the Age of Empire with this 9-question multiple choice quiz!
Type: Assessment
Lesson Plan
Tutorials
In this tutorial video from Khan Academy, you'll learn about the origins of the Cold War. This unusual conflict pitted the United States (and its Western democratic allies) against the Soviet Union (and its communist satellite states). Although these nations never went to war directly, their rivalry would shape the world for decades!
Type: Tutorial
Learn about the factors that drove United States imperialism and the acquisition of territories in this short video provided by Khan Academy. Helpful graphics illustrate the content.
Type: Tutorial
Explore key events from the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s in this webisode from PBS. During these decades, America closed out the Vietnam War era, saw the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War, and experienced a rise in terrorist attacks against Americans abroad and on American soil. In this resource you can examine primary source documents and photographs, listen to segments of key speeches, examine a timeline and glossary, take a quiz, and explore additional resources connected to this era. Enjoy this journey into American history!
Type: Tutorial
In this tutorial, you'll use maps to explore the various theaters of war during World War II. Pick a region to learn how the Axis first dominated--and then fell to--the Allies. The resource contains other activities that will help you learn about WWII.
Type: Tutorial
Video/Audio/Animation
View a 10-part video on the Battle of Yorktown, the culminating battle of the Revolutionary War. With French aid, George Washington led American troops to a victory that ensured American independence.
In addition to the video, you will find primary source documents and a graphic organizer to help you analyze the Battle of Yorktown in greater detail.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
Worksheet
The Florida Holocaust Museum and USC Shoah Foundation have joined efforts to create digital classroom resources built around video testimony of local Holocaust Survivors on an educational platform called IWitness. IWitness is a free educational website offering audiovisual testimonies for use across the curriculum. Through this partnership, lessons are built based on video testimonies of Holocaust survivors who settled in Florida. This activity was created by The FHM’s Curator of Education & Director of Research, Ursula Szczepinska. It provides students with information about various forms of resistance (violent, non-violent) among Jews during the Holocaust, with the focus on non-violent forms. The activity features video testimony of Helen Fagin and Sam Schryver.
Lesson objectives:
- Students will examine the ways in which Europe’s Jewish community was affected by the Holocaust.
- Students will consider the long-term impact of the Holocaust on the 20th and 21st centuries.
- Students will examine how the Nazi dehumanization of Jews allowed them to commit atrocities.
- Students will learn to work with primary sources: artifacts and personal stories from the Holocaust.
Type: Worksheet