Educating & Empowering Digital Citizens

10/17/2023

Burke’s K-8 Digital Citizenship Curriculum is a comprehensive program designed to empower students to be responsible digital citizens from an early age.

Our Digital Citizenship scope and sequence is based on the Common Sense Media curriculum which “was designed and developed in partnership with Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education -- and guided by research with thousands of educators. Each digital citizenship lesson takes on real challenges and digital dilemmas that students face today, giving them the skills they need to succeed as digital learners, leaders and citizens tomorrow.” Head of School Michele Williams serves on the Bay Area Common Sense Media Advisory Council and Burke’s is designated as a Common Sense School.

Fran Yang, Director of Curriculum and Innovation, believes, “Through this curriculum, students are better prepared for the real world, where technology is an integral part of daily life. Overall, our goal is to help students develop critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication skills to navigate the online world safely and successfully.”

Burke’s K-8 Digital Citizenship Curriculum Sequence

While our youngest learners spend little time on devices during the school day, we have a “1:1” technology deployment, where each student uses a dedicated computer, tablet or other digital device supplied and maintained by Burke's to be utilized for teacher interaction and school work.

We invite you to read through the grade-level scope and sequence to learn more about how we are educating, encouraging and empowering our students as a generation of responsible digital citizens.

Kindergarten

Media Balance Is Important: Know why and when to take breaks from device time.
Pause for People: Learn why it's important to be aware and respectful of people while using devices and practice self-regulation strategies for transitioning from technology to face-to-face interactions.
Safety in My Online Neighborhood: Discover that the internet can be used to visit faraway places and learn new things and consider how staying safe online is similar to staying safe in the real world.

First Grade

Pause and Think Online: Understand the importance of being safe, responsible and respectful online.
How Technology Makes You Feel: Students learn to recognize the different kinds of feelings they can have when using technology and what to do when they don't have a good feeling.
Internet Traffic Light: Understand that being safe online is similar to staying safe in real life. Students learn to identify websites and apps that are "just right" and "not right" for them.

Second Grade

We, the Digital Citizens: Understand that being a good digital citizen means being safe and responsible online.
Device-free Moments: Recognize the ways in which digital devices can be distracting. Identify how they feel when others are distracted by their devices.
That’s Private: Recognize the kind of information that is private. Understand that they should never give out private information online.
Digital Trails: Learn that the information they share online leaves a digital footprint or "trail." Explore what information is OK to be shared online.
Who is in Your Online Community? Compare and contrast how they are connected to different people and places, in person and on the internet.
Putting a STOP to Online Meanness: Understand what online meanness can look like and how it can make people feel.
Let’s Give Credit: Explain how giving credit is a sign of respect for people's work. Students learn how to give credit in their schoolwork for the content they use from the internet.

Third Grade

Your Rings of Responsibility: Examine both in-person and online responsibilities and think about how our behavior affects ourselves and others.
Password Power-U: Define the term "password" and understand why a strong password is important.
This is Me: Consider how posting selfies or other images will lead others to make assumptions about them.
Our Digital Citizenship Pledge: Define what a community is, both in-person and online, and explain how having norms helps people in a community achieve their goals.
The Power of Words: Understand the importance of thinking about the words we use because everyone interprets things differently.
Is Seeing Believing? Recognize that photos and videos can be altered digitally and discuss different reasons why someone might alter a photo or video.

Fourth Grade

My Media Choices: Learn the "What? When? How Much?" framework for describing their media choices. Use this framework and their emotional responses to evaluate how healthy different types of media choices are.
Private and Personal Information: Identify the reasons why people share information about themselves online. Explain why it is risky to share private information online.
Our Online Tracks: Identify ways they are -- and are not -- in control of their digital footprint. Understand what responsibilities they have for the digital footprints of themselves and others.
Keeping Games Fun and Friendly: Describe the positives and negatives of social interaction in online games. Create an online video game cover that includes guidelines for positive social interaction.
Empathy and Digital Citizenship: Two-day presentation by MyDigitalTaT2 on online friendships.
A Creator’s Rights and Responsibility: Define "copyright" and explain how it applies to creative work. Apply copyright principles to real-life scenarios.

Fifth Grade

Find My Media Balance: Consider what "media balance" means and create a personalized plan for healthy and balanced media use.
Beyond Gender Stereotypes: Define "gender stereotypes" and describe how they can be present online.
Is it Cyberbullying?: Recognize similarities and differences between in-person bullying, cyberbullying, and being mean.

Sixth Grade

Finding Balance in a Digital World: Reflect on their common online and offline activities and identify ways to "unplug" to maintain a balance between online and offline activities.
Digital Drama Unplugged: Reflect on how easily drama can escalate online. Identify de-escalation strategies when dealing with digital drama. Reflect on how digital drama can affect not only oneself but also those around us.
Who Are You Online?: Reflect on reasons why people might create fake social media accounts. Identify the possible results of posting from multiple or fake social media accounts.
Chatting Safely Online: Analyze how well they know the people they interact with online. And reflect on what information is safe to share with different types of online friends.

Seventh Grade

My Media Use: Make an inventory of their media choices and how those choices make them feel. Brainstorm personal strategies for balancing media use and promoting healthy media balance.
The Power of Digital Footprints: Define the term "digital footprint" and explain how it can affect their online privacy. Analyze how different parts of their digital footprint can lead others to draw conclusions -- both positive and negative -- about who they are.
My Social Media Life: Identify the role of social media in their lives. Reflect on the positive and negative effects social media use has on their relationships.

Eighth Grade

Digital Media & Your Brain: Explore ways that different digital media are -- and aren't -- designed to help them make good media choices. Think about how to develop good, healthy habits when using digital media.
Being Aware of What You Share: Reflect on the concept of privacy, including what they feel comfortable sharing and with which people. Analyze different ways that advertisers collect information about users to send them targeted ads.
Responding to Online Hate Speech: Examine and respond to a piece of artwork about the power of technology. Analyze an online hate speech dilemma and identify specific actions to positively affect a situation involving hate speech.

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