WHERETO

The **WHERETO** Elements in Instructional Planning – Questions to Guide Discussion and Completion of Form

**W** - Ensure that students understand **WHERE** the unit is headed, and **WHY**. Where are we headed? Where have we come from? Why are we headed there? What are the student’s specific performance obligations? What are the criteria by which student work will be judged for understanding?

**H** - **HOOK** students in the beginning and **HOLD** their attention throughout. What are powerful, thought-provoking “hooks” for engaging all students in the big ideas and performance challenges? In what experiences, problems, oddities, issues, and situations can I immerse students to make the big ideas immediately interesting, concrete, and of clear importance? What approaches to this material will generate interest and inquisitiveness into the topic and work at hand? What kinds of opportunities will sustain the interest of learners, especially when the going gets difficult? What are the most off-putting features of typical schooling that minimize risk taking, imagination, and courage to question, and how can those be undone?

**E** - **EQUIP** students with necessary experiences, tools, knowledge, and know-how to meet performance goals. How will students be engaged in exploring the big ideas and essential questions? What learning activities, guided instruction, and coaching will equip students for their final performances? What homework and out-of-class experiences are needed to enable students to develop and deepen their understanding of important ideas?

**R** - Provide students with numerous opportunities to **RETHINK** big ideas, **REFLECT** on progress, and **REVISE** their work. How will students be guided to rethink their understanding of important ideas? How might student products and performances be improved through revision based on self-assessment and feedback? How will students be encouraged to reflect on their learning and performance?

**E** - Build in opportunities for students to **EVALUATE** progress and self-assess. How will students be guided in self-assessment, self-evaluation, and adjustment? How will learners engage in a final self-evaluation to identify remaining questions, set future goals, and point toward new learning? How will students be helped to take stock of what they have learned and what needs further inquiry or refinement?

**T** - Be **TAILORED** to reflect individual talents, interests, styles, and needs. How will we differentiate instruction to accommodate the various developmental needs, learning styles, prior knowledge, and interests of students (while remaining true to the desired results)? How will we tailor the learning plan to maximize engagement and effectiveness for all learners?

**O** - Be **ORGANIZED** to optimize deep understanding as opposed to superficial coverage. What sequence of learning experiences will best develop and deepen student understanding, while minimizing likely misconceptions? How will we organize and sequence the teaching and learning to maximize engagement and effectiveness?

** Part 2 Form Name: ** Here's a copy of the lesson plan : [|Humane & Environmental Sound Future - lesson plan.doc] EQ - from LMS How do I do locate the best materials to research this topc so my team can provide the best answer? || Teacher - will define for the students where and why this is going in terms of the content. LMS - identify research EQs and goals. Explain to the students the WHY they want to the do the best research -- so they don't overlook something, get the most accurate answers, etc. || LMS - get video or images IT - if video - zamzar so can be used at school. If images - compile into compelling digital story. ||
 * ||  || ** Present in Current Plan ** || ** Needs to be Expanded ** || ** Role of Teacher, Media Specialist, Technology Specialist ** ||
 * W || Ensure that students understand WHERE the unit is headed, and WHY. || ﻿ ﻿No. While there are goals and objectives stated in the lesson plan they are not defined for students. || Essential Question: What would an ideal society look like, and what can I do make it achieve it?
 * H || HOOK students in the beginning and HOLD their attention throughout. || None. || Use data relevant to content area (ex. statistics on climate change) and show video of devastating effects - baby seals floating away on iceberg, people devasted by floods, etc. || Teacher - get statistics
 * E || EQUIP students with necessary experiences, tools, knowledge, and know-how to meet performance goals. || Several reading options and texts are listed in the plan to introduce students to future scenarios. || ﻿Technology needs to be implemented and explained to the students. Group discussions, group projects, and group debriefings can enhance the learning application in order to reach performance goals. Some examples of technology applicable: computer lab time (research/groupwork), class website (wiki sources), and online blogs (tech sources). || Teacher will facilitate the classroom goals, discussion groups, and debriefing elements. Media specialist will manage resources to aid the student's learning experience by equiping the students with the media resources. She will also teaching them citation skills and the value intellectual property and of copright using an online citation source. Technology specialists will supplement all technology resources with more knowledge and experience with the equipment which aids the teachers and students. ||
 * R || Provide students with numerous opportunities to RETHINK big ideas, REFLECT on progress, and REVISE their work. || Because much of the activity is group activity and requires collaboration, an opportunity for rethinking is provided. Students may rethink their viewpoints when other group members disagree.

Reflection opportunity is given during the "reflective evaluation of presented scenarios".

//Talking and writing about revision// is barely provided for, but not //actual revision// of the paper or presentation.

Overall, not enough specific opportunities are provided for rethinking, reflecting and revising. || The lesson plan states, "the goal in each group is to reach consensus. If that is not possible it is not important that the minority voice be heard." The minority voice should be heard regardless, in a group discussion and consensus should be reached only after all voices are heard. The teacher should give a handout listing specific steps for successful group discussion: identify a discussion procedure, assign roles such as note-taker, conflict resolution person, stay-on-task person, etc. Another handout on group discussion rules would also help: time limits for each student, each student should contribute at least three ideas per discussion area, etc. This should aid in providing opportunities to rethink big ideas, since one member would not be taking charge to the neglect of the quieter members' points of view who might otherwise just go along with the more vociferous member(s).

Reflection on progress //during// the activities needs expanding. Currently, it is only at the end. A timeline for group discussion and paper writing would be helpful for students to track their progress.

A revision opportunity could be to have group members read and edit rough drafts of each others' papers. || All teachers in the learning process can enhance the rethinking the big ideas by having debriefings at each level of the process: classroom, media, and technology levels || 2. Some sort of synthesizing piece is needed for the reflective evaluation of all the scenarios following group presentations. 3. An evaluation piece - to be completed by the student - is needed in order to allow students to assess their group members, group work and then to evaluate the assignment itself. || The __**teacher**__ would be responsible for creating and/or adapting the rubric for grading the scenario. The **__Tech. Spec.__** could be used to help find and teach an online assessment or survey tool to allow the students to complete the evaluation piece. There are several sites that allow a person (the teacher) to create a survey that the students could then take to provide the feedback desired. || Styles - No Needs - Y/N || Provide other means to express information than report. For example, the creation of a digital story. || Teacher cultivates an environment of free expressions where all students can explore their interests. ||
 * E || Build in opportunities for students to EVALUATE progress and self-assess. || The plan provides a basic outline of areas for evaluation and offers specific goals and criteria to be evaluted, it does not provide specific ways, rubrics, or scales in which to assess and evaluate the work of the groups or individual students. || 1. A rubric is necessary for grading the entire scenario.
 * T || Be TAILORED to reflect individual talents, interests, styles, and needs. || Interests - Yes
 * O || Be Organized to optimize deep understanding as opposed to superficial coverage. || Teachers need to be organized in "variety". Challenging students through application of information in their lives, as oppose to taking a test. Check for understanding as you go. "How do you apply the new information in your lives?" || Lesson plans need to be changed according to understanding of students. A detailed list of expectations needs to be given to the students as the assignment continues. The lesson provides an overarching expectation - but for classroom application, there needs to be smaller pieces of the assignment. If the understanding levels are not within your objectives and goals, teachers need to reevaulate the lessons and make adaptations. Revisit the goals, questions, and objectives first used when making the plan. An affecitve teacher is constantly making changes to teaching methods, lessons, assessments, and adaptations. All elements making up the procedures should be expanded. The more the group expands the procedures and elements, the more application the students can expand. || The **__teacher__** would decide the sequence of learning experiences, since he/she probably has the most classroom experience about sequence and organization. The **__Technology Specialist and Media Specialist__** could look over the teacher's sequence and organization and suggest changes if needed. The **__Media specialist__** could also schedule use of projector and resources by checking his/her calendar for the media center. The **__Technology Specialist__** could schedule the computer lab as needed. ||