Diane and I are working together on a unit that explores Elie Wiesel's book Night. The target audience is ninth grade English.
For our planning, we will attempt to create an inquiry based unit plan. Our main planning categories are Final Product, Learning Objectives, Content Standards, Resources, and Process. We will begin by identifying what we want our final product to be. From there we want to determine what the students should learn along the way and coordinate that learning to the content standards that are addressed. After that we will both gather resources and organize a time line for accomplishing each task.
This is the broad scope of our planning process intended to explore the new things I am learning about collaborative planning as a school library media specialist (SLMS). The reason we are trying to create an inquiry based plan is because this method has been identified as the most beneficial approach to teaching that enables students to have the most meaningful learning experience. The initial categories we have selected are very basic when in comes to inquiry planning. The reason is to give us room as collaborators to discover for ourselves what needs to be more specific as we explore the planning process. It gives us room to ask the questions how and why as we proceed.
My hope is that we will have a variety of ways to assess student learning during this unit. I would like to give students the opportunity to work in such a way that their specific gifts and talents might shine in the end product. I am certain that we will develop a rubric for the students and us to use as a guide in the creating and grading process. One specific area I would like to access is the students' abilities to ask good questions that lead them into the researching process.
Thus far, we have not had a major hindrances to our collaboration process. Our only challenge has been timing. Diane has spent this last week in Kosovo on a mission trip to teach teachers. If you would like to connect with us in a different way, check out what they did this last week here.
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Carrie and Diane,
ReplyDeleteElie Wiesel was a featured speaker at NCTE 2007. I haven't read his book Night, but I read great reviews of what seems to be a gripping tale of human suffering and redemption.I wonder how you will "hook" students initially and help them make connections with the text. Any ideas? I think showing videos (even youtube clips) can be a powerful anticipatory set for a unit.
As far as planning goes, inquiry-based units can be daunting as their is no linear path to follow. One suggestion I have is to have small benchmarks for students to keep track of their progress on different assignments leading up the the culminating project. You might consider grouping students for their final projects and have them share them with the larger community (beyond school) to educate them on this important history. Also, have you thought about having a field trip to the Jewish Museum in Southfield, MI (I can't call the name off hand)?
In terms of assessment, you mentioned supporting students' gifts. Any ideas on how to assess students' strengths and weaknesses beforehand? It could be as simple as having a one-on-one interview, or survey that asks students to list their strengths and weakness.
On your next entry, be sure to connect the text to the larger questions you will be asking for this unit. One of the things I noticed about covering difficult subjects like the Holocaust and African Slavery is that adolescents tend to not want to dig into these histories with a critical eye because they've been taught to talk around issues of race in school. It takes really open-minded educators who are willing to get "wounded in the field" to create spaces where youth can discuss these issues with a level of depth that they require. I hope you build in some time to discuss the novel with students and the larger implications of the history associated with it. What is your student demographic in terms of race/ethnicity? Mention that in your next blog because I think that would (or should) inform how you broach the subject.