Lesson+overview

Our approach to this assignment suggested a larger body of work than we are producing. For one thing, we felt that by grouping students together across three disciplines, the duration of the project should be longer than one lesson. We felt that the skills involved in understanding information and creating a body of work as a part of a team and individually would work best over a weeks period of time (or even two weeks). Thus, our original goal was to present 5 days of curriculum for 3 different disciplines, which is approximately 750 minutes or 15 teaching hours. It is assumed that some of the work would have been done outside this timeframe, and we estimated that the project would consume 1000 minutes, or 20 hours. At some point during this time, reality set in, real hard, and reminded us that we would never be able to finish this project - especially given the fact that collaboration between the three of us became a pipe dream. Oh, but what a dream! (Alan here: I don't know it was a pipe dream, just that we had trouble lining up our schedules, and started with widely different understanding of the scope of the assignment). The following lesson plan that has evolved from this process will integrate all our efforts towards one day of the curriculum, however there are a few things that need to be added in order to understand the full thrust of the effort. The following should help accentuate the reader to understand our approach to the assignment. I. Parameters
 * 16 students with groups of 4; 15 students with groups of 3. We see no real difference in the number, but we are concerned with the way in which the groups are formed. Because students will be focused on a case study in history class, and will need to constantly refere to demographic and economic information in both math and economics class, it is felt that the groups should stay the same and consistent throughout the weeks period of study. Some of the lesson objectives can be about the study of group formation and behavoir. Should the groups be combinations of people who do not normally function together, or should they be grouped by their natural affiliations? It is also posited that some students may be strong in one discipline and weak in another, so that one teacher's view of a balanced group may not be so in another discipline. Thus, teachers must spend some time before the assignment to group students.
 * Case study packets would be available to each group. Whether 4 or 5 groups, there would be a study packet for each student. Each group would represent a country and would have approximately 8 articles included in the packet. Students would not be required to read the packet, but would quickly understand that reading the information would be necessary in order to relate the research to understandings in class. In this way, any teacher can call on students to supply information that they would retrieve from their study packets. An example of the information found in a study packet about Russia is included as an appendix to this assignment. As well as information about the Soviet Union and Russia, there are some articles about GDP/GNP rates internationally, along with demographic information. To some degree, the information in the study packets, then, would be used by everyone in class, and especially by teachers to provide examples that could only come as the result of collaborative efforts between students, groups, and teachers.
 * A group contract would be presented on day 1. It would include all the assessment items of all three disciplines as well as an outline of the topics to be covered and suggestions as to reflection topics on a daily basis. The contract would outline the ways in which students conduct their activities and research in order to finish all the tasks. The final task in history, for example, is for groups to calculate the changes that would occur in their case study countries should there be a) a decrease in population by 10% b) a natural disaster that increases inflation by 20%, and c) an aging of population so that the majority of population begins to live 20 years longer than before, and at the same time decreases population by 25% (students will be provided an example, but the final assessment will be different than the example. Anyway, students will have a picture of what skills they need to develop in order to meet the needs of the example -- these same skills will be tested in the final assessment.
 * A reflective journal would be submitted on the 2nd-5th days. Each student would provide reflection that would be observed over the period of study.
 * The 3 disciplines would be linked by the research and application. For example, on day 2 students would be learning about the many factors in determining GDP (history/economics) how those factors work together (economics/math); how they fit into formulae (math/economics); how changes in factors can effect GDP (math/economics); and what causes changes in factors (economics; history). By using case studies, then, students will ask questions that relate to the information they are dealing with, and finding that their questions and answers will differ from group to group. It will be an overall understanding of theory and application that will come about throught the efforts of students to basically compare the case studies in order to find patterns. Thus, by collaborating and allowing students to lead in asking questions that are directly pertinent to them, teachers are able to guide them to theory as a result of the example.
 * All results and student production would be completely transparent.
 * Day 5 (or last day) would be assessment and an opportunity for students to look at the work of their peers. Maybe have a party, who knows.

What follows from here, is not a week long curriculum, but just one lesson from each teacher, and it should be recognized that these lessons may not all fall on the same day, so would not be linked as we would like, and what we feel would naturally occur if we could all get together in the same room and actually collaborate.

So, David, do I understand correctly that we each just make one of the lessons? Couldn't we just edit together what we have into the first lesson? I love what you guys have done, but still am unsure where to start in making a single lesson out of it. I don't want to edit it down without consensus.

//**On Mar 27, 2011 11:33 PM at 11:33 PM, Dillin, David (daviddilli196500) wrote:**// Guys,

My outline is on the bottom of the wikipage workpage in blue.


 * don't think i have ever understood this assignment. Are we all three to design 1 lesson? Just 1 50 minute lesson. Who teaches it? Seems kind of strange to have 3 teachers in the room to deliver a 50 minute lessson. What happens in the other classes that we are not teaching while we all focus on the one? I don't get this part at all.

I also don't get the concept of creating teams across disciplines and then observing them -- without comparing notes. It seems ridiculous to me to have a collaborative effort of design that is not collaborative in assessment and reflection. Surely, the nature of the assignment reflects an entire curriculum strategy overall, and not just one class.

If I were teaching the one collaborative class, then how could I even begin to cover the math part, if I am not a math teacher. Are you guys confident with historical relevance or the history of each case study presented in groups? I don't think collaboration is to undermine the entire process.

My understanding of this assignment is to create one lesson, each of us, that is joined together by ROPE and POOO. By using the research packet, the same topic, and the focus on similar assessment items, we achieve this end. It is written into the overview statement.

The reason that Juan and I came up with a large period of study, aside from the fact that he submitted a freggin novel, is the fact that in order to collaborate, much time is needed for students to comprehend new information and then use these new understandings in the classroom. It doesn't happen in a day, unfortunately. It takes time for them to process information, choose the important from lesser so, apply it and begin to predict results by changing factors. This is the essence of mathematics, economics, and historical relativism.


 * Please present the overview. Each lesson from each of us. The study packet russia. Reflections**. Unless anyone has another idea or thinks that my approach is off -- which is entirely reasonable and acceptable, since I don't really understand the assignment well, and if it is as those ladies presented -- I am baffled as to why we would waste so much time to produce something that is not real world or applicable on many different grounds (some mentioned in the purport of this letter).

I will add my part once I see what you guys are focusing, since I can fill in the spaces. I have outlined my lessons in the blue outline on the wikipage at the bottom, if you want to see my entire weeks schedule, but I can adapt to your emphasis, no problem.

Best wishes,

david

Hi David,

My understanding of the assignment was that we collaboratively write a single 50 minute lesson, the lesson was to be collaborative for the students as well using the block of four Starters (SCM p. 147), and we would all three be in the room while teaching it. It didn't seem like that big of an assignment to me.

Alan