Week 7: Collaborative Unit Mid-Planning Stage

At this point in the semester, my partner and I are now in the mid-planning stage of our collaboration project.  So far, Nichole and I have been "meeting" online for the past three Saturdays to discuss our project and plan out what we hope to accomplish during the upcoming week.  At the moment, things are going really well.  We've been using Google Docs to write up our unit plan and have started creating pages within the wiki for each section of the assignment.

In terms of assignment tasks, I think Nichole and I have divided them fairly evenly.  Since Nichole is a teacher at the school we selected, we decided she would work on the school narrative.  Also, since Nichole is more familiar with social studies and the students, she has been gathering the appropriate standards, clarifying our essential questions, and writing up some of the unit objectives.  As much as I can, I try to offer suggestions that I think will improve the unit.  For my part, I have focused more on identifying resources for the students to use, gathering the AASL standards we will address, and planning out the research related lessons.

As for assessment, we are still thinking that we want to assess three aspects of the project: the written law brief, the in class presentation, and the research process.  In terms of grading, Nichole and I decided that she would be responsible for grading the first two components and that I would be responsible for the research process.  After looking at the AASL standards, I can now see that there are several skills and dispositions that I would like students to demonstrate as they research.  I am thinking that perhaps we could have a rubric that covers aspects of the research process such as source citations, use of multiple sources, evaluation of sources, collaboration with others, etc.  I may even include some self-assesment opportunities for students to complete as they progress through the research process.

Additionally, Nichole and I have begun to look at how we can address the needs and abilities of historically underrepresented students in our unit plan.  In the case of Nichole's class, these students are primarily English Language Learners and resource students (students with IEPs or 504 plans)  Apparently, her school has received a number of Middle Eastern refugees in recent years, some of whom have had little or no experience in a traditional school setting.  Since Nichole has experience working with these students, she came up with two different sets of accommodations: 1 set for resource students and 1 set for non-native English speakers.  Examples of accommodations we plan to utilize include cooperative grouping, use of a translator, use of visuals, extended time for assignments, and teacher created templates.  I am also thinking we may want to utilize K-W-L charts to access the students' background knowledge.  While the Middle Eastern students may not be familiar with the United States court system, they may be able to draw on knowledge of similar institutions in their home countries.