Language Arts Benchmarks addressed on tours

Applies to All Tours

Notes in italics explain how tours meet these benchmarks.

Kindergarten through Third grade

Acquisition of Vocabulary Standard

A. Use context clues to determine the meaning of new vocabulary.

Students will acquire new vocabulary by hearing definitions of new words explained and further clarified throughout the tour. Students’ oral and visual comprehension will be enhanced through story telling, photographs, historic artifacts, and group discussion.

Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text Standard

D. Use visual aids as sources to gain additional information from text.

Students will view a variety of visual aids throughout the tour such as real historic objects, buildings, photographs, and maps.

A. Use active listening strategies to identify the main idea and to gain information from oral presentations.
B. Connect prior experiences, insights and ideas to those of a speaker.

Students will work on active listening skills throughout the tour and ask questions/give comments for clarification of the information.

Fourth through Seventh grade

Acquisition of Vocabulary Standard

C. Apply knowledge of connotation and denotation to learn the meanings of words.
F. Use multiple resources to enhance comprehension of vocabulary.

Students will acquire new vocabulary by hearing definitions of new words explained and further clarified throughout the tour. Students’ oral and visual comprehension will be enhanced through story telling, photographs, historic artifacts, and group discussion. 

Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text Standard

C. Explain how main ideas connect to each other in a variety of sources.
E. Explain the treatment, scope and organization of ideas from different texts to draw conclusions about a topic.

Students will view a variety of visual aids throughout the tour such as real historic objects, buildings, photographs, and maps. All of our tours focus on a few main ideas that are expanded on and connected throughout the tour.

Communications: Oral and Visual Standard

A. Use effective listening strategies, summarize major ideas and draw logical inferences from presentations and visual media.

Students will engage in active listening throughout the tour in order to draw inferences from the information and materials peresented.

Eighth through Tenth grade

Acquisition of Vocabulary Standard

F. Use multiple resources to enhance comprehension of vocabulary.

Students’ oral and visual comprehension will be enhanced through story telling, photographs, historic artifacts, and group discussion.   

Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text Standard

C. Analyze whether graphics supplement textual information and promote the author’s purpose.

Students will analyze how the visual aids supplement the tour guide's effectiveness.

Communications: Oral and Visual Standard

A. Use a variety of strategies to enhance listening comprehension.

Students will actively engage in listening to the speaker, analyzing events, making predictions, and discussing to increase comprehension throughout the tour.

Eleventh and Twelfth Grade

Acquisition of Vocabulary Standard

A. Verify meanings of words by the author’s use of definition, restatement, example, comparison, contrast and cause and effect.
E. Use multiple resources to enhance comprehension of vocabulary.

Students will acquire new vocabulary by hearing definitions of new words explained and further clarified throughout the tour. Students’ oral and visual comprehension will be enhanced through story telling, photographs, historic artifacts, and group discussion.

Informational, Technical and Persuasive Text Standard

D. Synthesize the content from several sources on a single issue or written by a single author, clarifying ideas and connecting them to other sources and related topics.

Students will view a variety of visual aids throughout the tour such as real historic objects, buildings, photographs, and maps. All of our tours focus on a few main ideas that are expanded on and connected throughout the tour. Students will also learn how we have acquired our information from a variety of sources and how they have led us to draw conclusions and inferences.

Communications: Oral and Visual Standard

A. Use a variety of strategies to enhance listening comprehension.
B. Evaluate the clarity, quality, effectiveness and overall coherence of a speaker’s key points, arguments, evidence, organization of ideas, delivery, diction and syntax.

Students will work on active listening skills throughout the tour and ask questions/give comments for clarification of the information. They will be able to draw main ideas and evaluate the speaker’s effectiveness after the tour.