Mid Planning Blog

Elizabeth and I have been looking at the big picture of what we want to include in our unit and then began deciding who would work on the different tasks. Using the scanned checklist provided on Blackboard, we chose the items that fit with our unit and made an adjusted chart for our use. This chart can be found on our Wiki page. Elizabeth agreed to be responsible for the tasks that dealt with testing and prior knowledge information since this is something that is done in the classroom on a regular basis. The remaining tasks will be completed jointly with one of us taking the lead to compile a draft followed by us reviewing it with our partner. We communicate regularly through email where we send attachments for the other to read over and alter in any necessary ways. Seeing the chart breaks down the necessary steps for us to work through in order to complete our unit successfully.

Early on, Elizabeth decided which GLCEs we could cover in our unit and I reviewed the METS. As of now, we have decided on 2 GLCEs and 3 METs that we want to focus on, even though there were some others that we will touch on with our lessons. Our 5 standards will be extensively covered in our unit and we would rather have fewer standards and succeed fully as opposed to trying to stretch ourselves too thin trying to fit in multiple objectives.

Another major task we have been working on includes taking past lessons that Elizabeth has used in the classroom and enhancing them to our collaborative unit. Some of these lessons will not require much tweaking while others will be completely reworked or scratched in order to fit in other ideas that we feel will benefit the students more. Interestingly enough, Elizabeth is currently in the middle of teaching this unit to her class which provides instantaneous feedback and evaluation on the lessons. One of the lessons that I suggested we add to the unit involves a PowerPoint presentation to showcase their research. After sharing this idea with Elizabeth, she decided to change her original plans and include the newly created and was impressed with how well it worked with her students.

Without delving too far into my next blog entry’s topic, Elizabeth shared with me how she has assessed her students in the past for this unit. She says, “I check their work on daily basis so that if someone is getting off track I get them right back on track. I collect their research each day to check for misspelled words, so as not to have to check all their papers in one night. It also allows me to check their progress. We’re all on the same step each day.” Using this information, we would like to create either a rubric or checklist to use throughout the unit. We are not sure how we will break it up meaning should we make rubrics/checklist to use throughout the process and the final product or will the final product be the only part that will have an official rubric/checklist and the above mentioned process be the assessment used for the process itself. This is something that we will need to think and experiment with before settling on a final choice.

As far as how much of a responsibility I will have in assessment, I plan to be involved in the development of rubrics/checklists since these items have a direct impact on the unit as a whole. Most likely, Elizabeth will continue to do the daily checks of the research while I focus more on the technology portions of the unit since she is not as comfortable with that area. In the end, she and I will review the final products together.

Since the class will move together each day throughout the unit, differentiated learning will occur with additional help from Elizabeth or me for those that may struggle. For those that excel in the research process, the students will be able to fine extra information on their animal and/or how they present it. The PowerPoint project could easily be taken up a level by showing the students how to add more than just a color to the background and/or animate the slide itself.