Tag Archives: Sims

Lesson Planning Suggestions, Sims Inquiry Questions & an Intro to UBD Unit Planning: Update for Monday, 7 November 2011

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After a reminder about the Microteaching Analysis task due today and the Classroom Observation Task due next week, we got down to business.

Lesson Planning Suggestions

Dave and I require the you include both a Teacher Activity and Student Activity column in your lesson plans.  This will allow you to imagine what you will do as you teach and – perhaps more importantly – what the students will be doing as they learn.

We also urged you to include all of the Lesson Design components – mental set, stating the objective, input, modeling, checking for understanding, practice, and closure – whenever possible.  I made reference to the fact that 62 % of my non-management related comments to last year’s TCs on their 2-Week Prac referenced issues related to lesson design.  The better the design, the better the implementation and the better the learning.

You might be interested to see what my “What To Work On” comments were for last year’s TCs during their 2-Week Prac.  The first file is the comments I showed in class – the ones missing the management comments.  The second files contains all the suggestions.  Take a look and see if you can notice what themes emerge:

Sims Article Discussion


As a means of processing the Sims reading, Dave asked you to sort all of the questions she asks in the article into categories that made sense to you.  We then wrote those categories on the board and looked for some common threads.  The goal here was:

  • to consider the types of topics inquiry questions can deal with
  • to examine how questions can evolve
  • to consider the messy nature of inquiry.

Here’s a photo of the categories you came up with courtesy of Lovey’s writing and Eric Man’s camera (with a dash of Jan the ham mixed in):

Introduction to UBD

We started our look at unit planning today.  To that end, I shared a PPT slideshow that touched on some key ideas related to the Understanding by Design model.  Here’s that PPT presentation:

Also, here are the vignettes we played with in my session:

I will take a peek through your exit slips and comment on them at the start of next class.  Also, in that class we will take a deeper look at Stage 1: Desired Results.

Reading Entrance & Exit Slips


Here’s what’s due and when:

  • Monday, 7 November 2011 = Sims Exit Slip
  • Saturday, 12 November 2011 = Aoki (Reading #5) Entrance Slip
  • Monday, 14 November 2011 = Aoki Exit Slip

’til next time.

– LH

Sims Says, Assessment Evidence, & 315 Bits and Pieces: Update for Wednesday, 24 November 2010

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“Sims Says Inquiry Is…”

We started class by considering the EDUC 310 Inquiry Task.  I used a PPT slideshow to structure the lesson, and the presentation aimed to answer three key questions:

  • What are the qualities of teacher inquiry?
  • What’s involved in the inquiry project?
  • What constitutes a good inquiry question?

After recalling your prior inquiry-related knowledge to answer the first question and picking out a few highlights from the EDUC 310 Course Outline and elsewhere to address the second, we discussed the attributes of a powerful inquiry question through the lens of the article “How My Question Keeps Evolving” by Michele Sims.

Here’s the slideshow that supported this lesson:

At the end of this class, I assigned the exit slip – completing the EDUC 310 Inquiry Project One Pager – MIDDLE YEARS COHORT.   On the front of the page are some questions to stimulate thinking about research questions, if you’re stuck at the moment, and some sample questions drafted by Elementary TCs.  On the back of the page are four questions that you need to answer on the handout and bring to class on Wednesday, 2 December 2010.  Please note that, in a manner similar to what Sims experienced, this question may evolve as you think on it and as you spend more time in the field.

If, as Confucius declared, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” consider this your first, tentative foot forward.  A baby step. if you please.

Oh, that reminds me.  Here’s how Bob (Bill Murray) “baby steps” in the comedy opus, What About Bob?:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3JPa2mvSQ4[/youtube]

Bob sails, too:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrbY4hsNh64&feature=related[/youtube]

Here’s the one-pager in electronic form:

In the end, let’s hope your inquiry proceeds more smoothly than this woman’s:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FRVvjGL2C0[/youtube]

UBD Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence

In preparation for the completion of the unit plan you’ll use on your 2-Week Prac, I presented some information related to the assessment of your desired results via this PPT slideshow:

Here are a few key slides from that presentation, for your reference:

Lastly, here’s a good case for assessing beyond the test:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCuHTMHRBS4&feature=related[/youtube]

Bob and I will be meeting with you on Monday to discuss your unit planning. All meetings are in SCARFE 1310.  Please bring:

  • Your completed Desired Results
  • Your thoughts on possible assessment tools
  • Any key resources that you may use in your teaching to this meeting.

The Conference Schedule is in the previous post.

At the end of class, I asked you to pick up a handout with samples of and information on how to create engaging and well-constructed Performance Tasks.  Here’s that handout if you didn’t get one or if your dog ate it:

Check out this link for a website with more details on Performance Tasks. For even more info, use Google to search the Interwebs using search terms such as: “performance task” “rich task” “authentic assessment” and “authentic education”.

I did that and found this site – Authentic Assessment Toolbox – that has a huge collection of information on PTs, including a bunch of tasks created for all subject areas in middle school.  Here’s a screenshot so you can see what’s on offer:

That’s all for now.  Bob and I look forward to meeting with you on Monday.

‘Til then,

– Lawrence