Week+4

** Home | Course Overview | Week #1 | Week #2 | Week #3 | Week #4 | Week #5 | Writing Expectations | Class Email Archive ** ** Screencast Overview of Week #4 and #5 **

Week #4 Schedule - July 1st
It's time for us to put some of our learning into practice...or plan for practice, anyway. During our final two weeks together, you will be working to create lesson plans that utilize what you have read and learned regarding best practices for curriculum development, differentiation and technology use. These final assignments are designed to be flexible enough to meet your needs. If the options listed do not seem to match what works in your setting, please offer another proposal to get the most out of your learning and efforts.

This Week's Actions:
 * 1) Read through the Week #4 Readings
 * 2) Continue working on the third assignment, Gifted Resources Project - you will work on this until the end of our course.
 * 3) Begin work on the fourth assignment - either an Online Learning Space or a UBD Unit
 * 4) Click on the Discussion Board link. Read the message under each of the threads.
 * Post a response to the Week #4 Reading Response.
 * Respond to the other participants postings
 * Post plan for unit or online learning space
 * Post work from online learning space or UBD unit
 * 1) Complete a brief self-reflection.

**Assignment #3 - Gifted Resources Project ** This link will take you to the directions for our Community Gifted Resources assignment.

Our final assignment is a choice - either an Online Learning Space or a UBD Unit - click on the links to learn more about each.
 * Assignment #4**


 * Developing Lessons - The Big Picture**

Once again for this week, the readings are here for you as a resource. Choose the ones you think will be most helpful in developing your unit's focus and the first lessons. Here is a list of the ideas you will want to consider in order to complete this week's assignments:
 * What is a "Big Idea" and how do I write one for my unit?
 * What are "Essential Questions" and how do I write them for my unit?
 * How will I take my students through all stages of Bloom's Taxonomy for the unit I am creating?
 * How will I incorporate technology effectively for my student population?
 * How will I meet the needs of my students through differentiation of content, process and/or product.

For the purposes of discussion, plan to read from 2-3 different educational blogs and share what you have learned or comments you have. Be sure to respond to at least two other posts in this area by the middle of Week #5.
 * Weeks #4 & #5 Readings**

Choose 2-3 blogs from this list - or one of the following sites - that look interesting (or if you've already found some of your own, that's fine too). This will be a part of your reading for weeks four and five. Blog entries are usually pretty short. Read the number of entries you for which you have time. In our discussion board for each of weeks #4 & #5 plan to post one thing of interest from a blog entry you have read and comment on two other participants' posts.
 * Educational Blogs You Should Be Investigating**

From the blog of Mrs. Smoke - Making Teachers Nerdy - because being a nerd is a GOOD thing. Turns out she is an edmodo fan - I knew I liked her for a good reason! And here is [|her list of web tools] no teacher should start this school year without!


 * Educational Blogs by Discipline This link is to Scott McLeod's wiki for school tech leadership. He canvassed his followers for their blog favorites and the result is this list.


 * Top 100 Educational Blogs Well, this site is from 2006 but it still has some good stuff on here.


 * Educational BlogsHere is another great list of educational blogs for your perusal!


 * Identifying Enduring UnderstandingsEnduring understandings is another term for "big idea" from the Understanding by Design curriculum development camp. This link is to chapter 4 of the Understanding by Design book by McTigue & Wiggins. It goes into detail to explain what a big idea is all about. Skip to the end to see examples of big ideas from different units.


 * Developing Goals and ObjectivesA nice short overview of the Understanding by Design lesson development with additional sources.


 * Writing Essential QuestionsOnce you identify your big ideas, you need to write questions to let students know what they are aiming for in their learning. Here is a simple summary with some examples.


 * Resources for Lesson Planning: **

The resources for Weeks 4 & 5 are mainly tools to help you in completing your assignments for this and next week. I have annotated each one to help you know what is contained in each. Read only those you think will be helpful to you in completing your tasks.


 * Writing Essential Questions - **David Jakes

 The effectiveness of your lesson plan design, and therefore your inquiry-based Project Page, depends on the quality of your **essential question**. As all educators know, effective questioning strategy by teachers is required to promote thinking by students. The ability to ask great questions often separates great teachers from good ones.

We define essential questions as any question that requires one of the following thought processes:  •a a question which requires the student to develop a plan or course of action.  •a a question that requires the student to make a decision.  The essential question directs the course of student research. As such, essential questions are powerful, directive and commit students to the process of critical thinking through inquiry. Ultimately, the answer to the essential question will require that students craft a response that involves knowledge construction. This new knowledge building occurs through the integration of discrete pieces of information obtained during the research process. Answers to essential questions are a direct measure of student understanding.
 * Getting Started: **

Writing questions such as "What is cancer?" simply asks students to move information from one point (the resource) to another (their paper). By asking this type of question, you license the student to plagiarize. Instead of the above question, we may ask students the essential question:  "What plan could you develop that would reduce your likelihood of developing cancer?"  This is a more powerful question than "What is cancer" but the question is not yet finished. At this point it is helpful to visualize the answer. In this case, a student could answer this question by developing a list of strategies. They are still moving information. A much better question is "What plan could you develop that would reduce your likelihood of developing cancer? Your plan can have only two strategies. Defend why you selected those two strategies." In this case, the question requires students to discriminate among the potential list of strategies, and then defend their choice.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">From Point A to B: Avoiding the Simple Question. **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">At this point, it is appropriate to list additional examples of essential questions. Our work with teachers during staff development events indicates that when building Project Pages, framing an essential question is often the most difficult part of the process. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> •a Is it acceptable to clone human beings? (decision-making) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> •a What invention of the 20th Century has had the greatest impact? Justify your response (decision-making). <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> •a Who was the greatest home run hitter in baseball history? (decision-making) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> •a Which credit card should is best for me? (decision-making). <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> •a What plan could be developed to reduce the impact of zebra mussels on the Great Lakes ecosystem? Your plan can include three strategies. (developing an action plan) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> •a What is the best plan for losing 20 pounds? Your plan can include 3 strategies. (developing an action plan) <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> •a What plan could I use to prepare for a 5K run? The plan can include 2 strategies.(developing an action plan)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">More examples: **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"> Copyright 2002 by David Jakes and Internet Innovations, Inc. All rights reserved.[]


 * Another Perspective on Essential QuestionsI like the way this teacher shares her thoughts on the mistakes administrators have made as early adopters of the Understanding by Design approach. Her ideas helped to clarify my own ideas about essential questions and how powerful questions can be in the classroom for student learning.


 * The Question is the AnswerJamie McKenzie, educator, technology advocate and author has a lot to say about the power of technology and the importance in creating the right environment for learning. This article talks about questioning in the context of teaching students to be saavy in their pursuit of information online.


 * Framing Essential QuestionsAnother Jamie McKenzie article focusing on how to write an essential question.


 * A Questioning ToolkitAnother great article from Jamie McKenzie getting into the types of questions to ask to achieve different objectives.


 * Bloom's Taxonomy VerbsI find this resource helpful when framing objectives and activities for students.


 * Bloom's Taxonomy - Educational Objective ExamplesAnother Bloom's resource with sample objectives.


 * Dare to Differentiate - a wiki with links to different curriculum models and a presentation about gifted curriculum planning. Links on the side also go to resources which demonstrate different models for differentiating lessons (Tiering, R.A.F.T., Choice Boards, etc...)


 * Susan Winebrenner on Differentiation


 * Gifted Resources - Susan Winebrenner's blog


 * Ohio Academic Content StandardsI probably should have included a link to this site earlier. But somehow, I'm thinking you may already have it bookmarked ;).

Discussion Board - Here you can find a Jing Screencast where I discuss using the discussion board.


 * @http://edsp583.collaborizeclassroom.com **

**Week #4 Self Reflection**

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida grande',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">Write a concise reflection that responds to the work you did with lesson planning this week. Turn in your reflection to edmodo no later than Monday, July 8th.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida grande',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">**Week #4 Assignment Checklist**

These items should be completed no later than Sunday, July 7th. Class discussion will be more interesting if you can post your reading response by Wednesday...:
 * Read resources in Week #4 Readings list (Assessment = Discussion Board Post - see below)
 * Respond to reading and one of the "Big Picture Questions" in Week #4 Discussion Board (Assessment = discussion board rubric )
 * Continue working on our third assignment - Gifted Resources Project
 * Post project plan and link to or attach week #4 work completed on unit plan/online learning space in edmodo.
 * Turn in self-reflection to edmodo (will be accepted through Monday, July 8th) (Assessment = Completion)

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida grande',Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">This is just a checklist reminder for organizational purposes. Please check out the detail for each assignment posted on this page before completing your work on any of the items in the checklist.