Unit 4 – Conflict Resolution Part 1; Unit 4 – Conflict Resolution Part 2; Unit 4 – Conflict Resolution Part 3
Standard of Practice: Professional Learning, Subsection 6 – Teachers know a variety of effective teaching and assessment practices.
Program Theme: Secondary School Program
Context
For this particular entry I chose to discuss the outcomes of having worked on a unit design plan with some colleagues at OISE. This unit is titled International Institutions and Conflict Resolution: Is It Possible? and is part of the Grade 12 Canadian and World Politics course. It was an extremely long process, but one that offered a wealth of experience in dealing with the curriculum content and trying to create a resource that will be effective in helping students achieve their goals and experience academic success.
The difficulty throughout the process was in properly identifying how best to use my knowledge of the content and applying it to the unit design. As we worked through the backwards design process we found that linking our enduring understandings to the assessment and evaluation strategies we had planned on using was a challenge. By the end of the project, though, we were very proud of our accomplishment. We are all working experts in the material we need to cover under the Ontario curriculum guidelines, but our working knowledge of how best to assess and evaluate student learning and understanding has never really been put to the test. The feedback obtained upon the completion of the assignment was invaluable in ensuring that we would have a working understanding of how to effectively use our evaluative practices in a classroom setting.
Process
For our Politics teachable course we were asked to write up a unit plan for either the Civics or Canadian and World Politics Course in groups of 4. We were asked to use a particular process known as backwards design. The essence of the process is that the enduring understanding to be taken away from the unit, as well as the culminating activity that will be used to evaluate whether or not students have understood those concepts, are to be hashed out at the beginning of the planning stage. The rest of the unit would then be planned out, with individual lessons or activities focussing on the scaffolding process needed for students to then be able to succeed when it came time to work on the culminating activity.
The challenges to our group were not overly problematic, but nor were they insignificant either. First and foremost, we had to ensure that we would each do our part to complete the task at hand. Thankfully, we all put in our time and commitment, and I believe the hard work shows with the quality of the final product. At the same time, our biggest hurdles were how to organize our differing ideas into a coherent package that could be accessible by many other people. As we progressed through the process of selecting overall expectations and figuring out what enduring understandings would come from them, we quickly found that our overall idea of what kind of theme our unit would take really formed all on its own.
Finally, once all of the culminating pieces were put together, we each worked on our individual activity focussed on providing students with a particular skill set that would help prepare them for the culminating activity. As I have really taken a keen interest in the use of technology in the classroom, especially the use of podcasting capabilities, I wanted students to use some of that when looking at the material. Once all our individual components were accumulated we put it all into one massive file, which took the longest time to sort through in order to make sure the formatting was the same throughout the layout. Gratefully, it all ended, but the experience was certainly well worth the torment!
Learning
First and foremost, I learned, before having had to prepare much other than short lessons during practicum, how much thought and diligence goes into getting ready for an entire course. It is a lot of work, and the worrisome aspect is the fact that I really cannot be sure if any of it would ever work until I tried it. At the same time, there is also a sense, once it is all said and done, that having gone through that entire process would make teaching the material so much easier. Not only that, but the transparency through which the material is presented to the students makes it that much easier for them to get a grasp as to what they should be getting out of the lesson. This in turn improves their understanding and, following that, their academic success.
Secondly, it became clear when, as a group, we were trying to fill out our assessment and evaluation chart, that it is crucial for there to be effective tools to assess student learning throughout the unit placed in strategic locations, as well as for the final evaluation to have a strong sense of relevance to the enduring understandings. This was difficult for us to gauge as we had never really tried any of what we were proposing in a classroom. Who was to know if students could really put on an entire peace conference, representing different interests from various countries, and arrive at solutions to international conflicts? When I read that sentence back to myself, it certainly sounds like a tall order.
Lastly, I also learned how to better put the content that I know in context with the requirements as outlined in the Ontario curriculum. Yes, there are specific items that students must know by the end of a course. But at the same time, the curriculum does not necessarily outline what resources teachers must use when relaying that information to a class. As our group went through the process of designing the unit, it quickly became evident just how creative we could be. We had free reign to throw all our ideas on paper. The great thing was that as we made sure we could assess and evaluate students on certain learning, it meant that some of our ideas on resources and strategies had to be discarded because they did not fit the overall needs of the student in preparation for the culminating activity.
Goals
After having undergone this entire process, I believe one of my key goals moving forward will be to ensure that backwards design is something I will do in all of my planning. This includes my every day lessons. I believe that coming into a classroom knowing ahead of time just what it is that students will be taking away from that class is a key component of student success. If they are unaware of the purpose behind coming to class every day, why would they feel as though there is a need to come at all, or to be prepared, or even to bother studying and taking an interest in the material?
In addition, we as educators serve as role models. I want students to take a look at all of the work I put into preparing material and lessons for them and emulate that practice. I want to impress upon them the importance of putting in the work. That way, it does not appear as though I have a double standard in the sense that I present students with a set of expectations and invite them to exceed them, but have no set of guidelines for my own practice. Without this modelling from the top, students will not take what I present to them seriously, nor would my feedback have the same impact. In order for students to succeed, I need them to take what I have to say in regards to methods for them to improve with an urgency that begs their attention.
Footprints In The Mud 