EDU616: Week 1 Lesson and Unit Planning

EDU616 Week 1 Lesson and Unit Planning

My curriculum is working okay for me currently. Last year(my first) my co-teacher and I were able to modify some projects within our foundations classes. This has worked for both of us, but we have one teacher who has been reluctant to make any changes to the way they run their classes(this isn’t just for this class). I am currently happy with the sequence and flexibility, but hope to refine that over the remainder of the year and onward. I am also rewriting curriculum for my two other preps, that has worked out so far as I’m adapting it based on my notes from last year/this year.

One thing I hope to better figure out is how to transition longterm projects in my foundations course. For example when we work on large building projects such as the siege machine project some groups finish much earlier than others. There is required documentation and other things that each group must do as well as additional siege machine testing I can do, but I’d like to figure out a small series of independent projects that could fill up time in a constructive way for exceptional students. What this looks like I’m not sure, but I’d like it to somehow plug into future Level I & II or Capstone work for them without feeling like too much extra or a heavy lift.

Feedback:

I can really relate to what you are expressing here. One of the biggest challenges for me is how to manage long term projects for my foundations level students, as well. I think that perhaps breaking up larger projects into smaller pieces or “chunks” over a period of time might be a great way to provide a comprehensive assessment without overloading the students all at once. Maybe for a larger project, you could have them work towards smaller “check-in” objectives that accumulate and build toward the final product? Have them use what they learn from each “check-in” project (peer review, one-on-one conferencing with you during a workshop) to strive for improvements on the next piece.

Best of luck to you this year!

My applied tech students work at their own pace. If one group gets a little ahead, I’ll have them help out the other groups or give them time to work on their monthly homework assignment. If some of the students are way ahead, I let them work ahead at their own pace- with the understanding that there will always be work. A couple of my students were under the impression that if they finished all the projects they could bum around for the rest of the year. One of them slowed down after I disillusioned them. The other two are still working ahead and they’ll do an independent project at the end of 4th marking period.