Stage 2 and 3 Collaboration

Margaret Nerney
Integrated Unit Collaboration
Due: May 13, 2009

In discussing Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the Backward Design process with my colleagues, it became clear how important experience is to the field of teaching. Tom Piekart and Paula Roy are two distinguished educators who not only embraced this unit, but also exemplified goal-oriented unit design.

From the beginning of this unit planning process, we agreed that our goal was not only to educate students about the Wabanaki people, but also to stress to them the interconnectedness of our respective subjects. For example, we want the students to hear about the Wabanaki hunting practices in social studies, learn how those practices were handed down through Wabanaki storytelling in Language Arts, and see the effects of those practices on animal populations in science class. It is through this interconnectedness that deeper learning and true understandings can be attained. Over the past few weeks, we have discussed the need to structure one stage 2 G.R.A.S.P.S. to really suggest this interconnectedness to our classes. By all of us using the wiki as a final assessment of their knowledge, those overlapping understandings can be best represented.

As for meeting the facets, this will be done through uniquely engaging lessons. Tom Piekart will be focusing on the more hands on approaches of his science curriculum, while Paula Roy will arouse investigation through her inquiry-based explorations. They both have years of experience and time-tested activities that guide their teaching. Tom’s hooks truly exemplify real-life connections. In fact, his trimester will end with students earning their adult-level hunting license. Each individual lesson has a similar real-life hook such as exploring a tree stand or using laser firearms to practice proper tree stand and firearm safety. He seamlessly answers the “why” through his hooks. Throughout the trimester, students will be explaining tree stand and firearm safety, interpreting law books to understand the real meanings of laws and compare them to Wabanaki practices, examining perspective by reading “Fair Chase,” empathizing with different perspectives through problem-solving scenarios, and gaining self-knowledge that will allow them to define their own hunting and environmental ethics. Although Tom has a true strength in logical and kinesthetic learning styles, he is going to work on incorporating more drawing and other right-brained activities in his lessons. Overall, he does a wonderful job of including reading, discussions, jigsaws, guest speakers, and hands on opportunities such as tagging grasshoppers for later analysis; but he knows that he has areas for improvement in daily lessons.

As I mentioned earlier, Paula will be more research and inquiry-based in her approach. She structures her lessons according to Hook, Book, Look, and Took. Hook allows her to engage the students with something relevant to them or interesting about what they are studying. Book represents the resources and knowledge that she will need to bring or that they will need to have. Look involves students applying what is learned to their own lives. Took embodies what can be taken away from the lesson by the student and used elsewhere. In lessons organized in this way, Paula will have students explain tribal origins on a wiki page, compare and contrast (interpret) adaptations to the environment by different tribes around the country, apply their understandings of different tribes through case studies, examine perspective through simulating a European explorers first encounters with Micmac people, empathizing with modern Natives and their quest to hold onto their heritage and culture, and evaluate self-knowledge as they explore current events in order to see past connections and change stereotypical perceptions. Paula answers her ‘why’ through her basis in real-life connections and problem-solving skills. She works hard to prepare students to find the answers to their own questions and to help them to work through their own problems. Even with all of these strengths, Paula is still going to work on the challenge to meet every learning style by focusing less on her strengths, verbal and aural, and more on her weakness, kinesthetic. She currently works hard to do this through fishbowl activities and case studies, but understands that there is room to grow.

Even with their strong educational backgrounds, I have still found areas to help them grow. Throughout the remainder of the school year and at times during the summer, I will be working with both Paula and Tom on using wikis. They have both explored and integrated the use of First Class Ed. in their classrooms to facilitate digital conversations, but I have convinced them that a wiki can provide that same level of interaction in a cleaner format. My hope is that we can create a page for each of them on the sample wiki that I presented to the class. This would be a way for them to really practice what it is to make a wiki and it would give our sample a more finished feel for future classes. I have also agreed to organize our stages 1-3 into a folder for each of them so that we can remember our goals next fall and maintain a united curriculum. It is not enough to know what each of us is doing independently in our own classrooms; we must see our connected elements and capitalize on them.