What has been useful for me

Ah yes, the unit! Alex and I have been working really hard to stay ahead of the curve in terms of the material we need to produce, so I feel like were finally hitting the home stretch of this assignment. So far, Alex and I have been able to work off of one another’s ideas to create well thought out and clear unit maps that would guide us through the concepts with precision and with a great deal of scaffolding to support the student at every turn. I think that this process has been the most advantageous going forward with the unit development since it has helped us imagine the time necessary to make sure that our students will be able to do everything we are asking of them in the unit (which is quite substantial, since we demand rigor!) I feel as if I have truly embraced the backwards design model that we have been talking about in both 481 and in ED 330, and having this lens in which to look through when making big decisions about the unit has helped me understand just how easy it can be for teachers to miss something critical (like providing proper scaffolding or planning for times when students need additional help on a particular assignment) that can throw off an entire unit plan. I find it very comparable to lesson planning, in that if you do not plan for things to not go perfectly (which they almost never do) by having a plan B or by not properly explaining to the students what is being asked of them, then the whole lesson can be wasted or the material the students produce is not at the level you were hoping for. This kind of responsibility always falls on the teacher; never the students.

Alex and I have worked together to help aid our individual efforts to plan for and execute a multi-genre project. We both share the view that multi-genre projects are a great alternative to more traditional formal and summative assessments, but that designing a structured and measurable multi-genre project is quite complex. This is where the backwards design model has once again aided me. In trying to assess a project that will look different with every student, it can be difficult to fairly grade and evaluate student learning, but with the backwards design model and the ideas of Tom Romano in mind, I have been able to create a rubric and prompt that I believe are clear and achievable for both students and the teacher.

The last thing that aided me in my unit design has been Sarah’s constant questioning and probing for justifications and scaffolding. When I first starting designing the unit, I was thinking that we as a class would spend about a day a week working on multi-genre projects, without considering that each piece of writing I am asking the students to produce has to be properly modeled and discussed first; something Sarah has been on us about when creating these lessons. This threw me for a loop at first, but then I figured out of to allot for time for all of these things without pushing too hard. Keeping in mind all the complexities and scaffolding needed to execute a multi-genre project and a unit plan has allowed me to create what seems like a solid plan that is adaptable yet structured.

Good luck everyone, were almost done! (Then we get to do this for the rest of our lives!!!)