Wow! Do I ever feel overwhelmed! There is so much to think about with this unit that it feels like I don't even know where to begin. It seems like it has been a slow start, especially compared to my other classmates and what they have already posted on their wiki's. So far we have established that we will use the school district that Stacey works in for our demographics portion. This will be helpful since she is familiar with the school and students there. She also will have the other teachers there to gain insight on what the grade expectations are.
We are planning on focusing our unit on 8th grade language arts. The focus of our unit will be historical fiction. I have looked into the 8th grade level expectations and have found writing and reading expectations that we may want to focus on. The unit will be centered around one book with activities that will enhance their understanding of the time in history and their reading and writing abilities. The tasks surrounding the unit will be shared. We will both collaborate to create the lessons. With having the media specialist role, I will incorporate activities for students to be involved in at the library.
Some essential questions that I think should be asked are "How has history shaped our society today?" "What differences are there from the way people lived back then in comparison to present day?" "Are things better today or were they better back then?"
It feels as though this collaboration has been slow moving, but there are many factors that come into play. Busy schedules and finding time to fit everything in that needs to be done for starters. I find it is difficult to collaborate with someone when it is all done virtually. Especially for a collaboration such as this where in "real life" it would be done face to face. I feel that I am missing that aspect. I originally had a teacher that was willing help me who lived a few miles away, so that collaboration would have been much different than the one now. Hopefully we can get this project on its way!
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Kirsten,
ReplyDeleteHistory can be such a rewarding area to teach. In looking at your essential questions, they seem very broad. I wonder as you refine them if you could include one or two critically-oriented questions that address the history of people whose stories and perspectives are not told as often. In doing so, I think students would have an opportunity to practice critical thinking and understand that there are two sides to every story. If you translate that into concrete measurable skills that can be assessed, I would say that comparing and contrasting or persuasive writing are areas that could lend themselves to pre and post assessment. For example, you could do a quick assessment on what students know about a particular moment in history by having them do a brain drain or a one minute quick write. Then, once they have completed their research, you can go back and help them see how their knowledge was limited to a particular viewpoint and how there are other viewpoints on various historical events/periods.
When I talk about addressing the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners, the above suggestions would fit into that idea because you are working to acknowledge the diverse perspectives on history of different groups. So that to me is culturally responsible teaching.
Indeed virtual collaboration is a bit more time consuming at first, but I think it forces you to nail down ideas early on and create a road map for yourself that you may be inclined to put off in face-to-face collaborations.
Prof. K.