Integrating Unit Design with Field Experiences

Jesse Orth and Jackie Chaney

How can I authentically arrange for field experiences as part of my curriculum?

Goals:
S Engage in conversation about authentic field experiences
S Identify processes that support integrating field

experiences into a curriculum

S Examine specific examples of field experience integration
S Discuss how these processes can be used, and adjusted,

to meet your needs

Authentic Field Experiences

Engage in conversation about authentic field experiences

What is essential to pulling off an authentic field experience?

Processes for Authentic Unit Design

Identify processes that support integrating field experiences into a curriculum

Beginning with the end in mindthe why and how

Moving from Standards to the Classroom (Backwards Mapping/ UbD) Unpacking Standards Scrolling Identifying desired results Designing authentic assessments Designing authentic learning/field experiences

Unpacking
Unpacking Standards- Inside Out Method
Wiggins & McTighe 2012
STANDARD 3.NF.3 Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by reasoning about their size.

Stated/implied big ideas in NOUNS: Equivalence of fractions Cases Fractions Size

Stated/implied performances in VERBS: Explain Compare Reason

ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS: Special

Transfer Goal(s) Understandings The equivalence of fractions depends on their size in comparison to other fractions. Explain a fraction(s) on a visual model Compare fractions, based on size, to determine if equivalent Reason about their size(s)

Performance Task(s) Create a visual fraction model to compare two fractions and record with the symbols (<,>, or =) to justify your conclusion. Explain how you know you are correct.

Essential Questions How can you represent a fraction on a visual fraction model? What makes fractions equivalent? How do I best explain/reason about my comparison?

Criteria Correct placement of fraction(s) on model Correct symbol (<,>,or =) Valid explanation

Unpacking Standards
S S

Unpacking Standards: To implement the CCSS with fidelity requires a close read of the standards and appendices. In an effort to further understand the specific expectation of each standard, teachers unpacked the standards by identifying the verbs, nouns, and modifiers. This led to a professional conversation around WHAT was expected and HOW mastery would be demonstrated.

Scrolling
Integration Scroll

Scrolling

Scrolls: S Science and Social Studies as the backbone S ELA and Mathematics embedded in content S Authentic opportunities for integrations S Opportunities for transfer and performance

After reading Charlotte Danielsons Framework for Teaching -Domain 1: Planning and Preparation, our teachers identified a need to plan differently! We were disturbed and this led to the arrangement of learning through Big Ideas. Grade level teams dove into the standards, wrote big ideas on post-its, had conversations about what made sense, and developed a year-long map of curriculum plans.

Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions

S
S

EUs and EQs:

Standards are unpacked. Now what? What do the students really need to know and understand? Teachers worked diligently to create Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions that would be the foundation of all learning within units and learning experiences. These have become the simple statements that help make the learning meaningful and transferable.

Unit Planning
S S

Unit Planning Process: We have a scroll of the year now what? The old scope and sequence provided from our county would not workWCPS needed to change the way we arranged for learning. Understanding by Design was the answer to this dilemma: Stage 1- Desired Results, Stage 2- Assessment Evidence, Stage 3- Learning Plan. Many different planning templates were developed. This year, a process for developing a unit using UbD has helped grade levels collaborate/plan.

Summative and Formative Assessments

S

Assessment Photo Albums:

We use a photo album approach to assessing students both at the end of a unit and throughout a unit, as opposed to just a snapshot of their learning.

Learning Experiences

S S

Learning Experiences:
What really matters are our students learning? WCPS has shifted from a place of doing to a place of learning! Our students are engaged in meaningful learning experiences with clear and high expectations. There is coherence in what they just learned, are learning now, and will learn next! The teachers are empowered to make professional decisions based on knowledge of the standards and the students are equipped to demonstrate mastery!

Field Experiences
S

Field Experiences:

Now that students have had a variety of rich instructional experiences within the classroom, it is time for them to take their knowledge and skills beyond the classroom walls. Students now have the ability to go afield with a deep and abiding understanding of what they are seeing and experiencing. The field experience will enrich every aspect of the learning that was so carefully arranged for throughout the scrolling and unit development process.

This work in action

Examine specific examples of field experience integration

Sultana and the Chesapeake Watershed Courtney Leard; 5th Grade Fountaindale Elementary
S 5th grade teacher, Courtney Leard, received a grant through

Sultana for the 2012-2013 school year. Knowing that students would be participating in a once in a lifetime field experience, Courtney and her team worked diligently to embed authentic instruction and learning throughout the yearthat would maximize the experience. They began by closely examining the 5th grade standards and asking key questions
S S S

What are the performance expectations of these standards? Whats essential for students to know and understand? What will student do with this knowledge, and how will I know if theyve mastered these standards?

S
S

What authentic integration and teaching can be done along the way to prepare them for this experience?
How can this transfer into an exhibition of learning?

Sultana and the Chesapeake Watershed Courtney Leard; 5th Grade Fountaindale Elementary

Sultana and the Chesapeake Watershed Courtney Leard; 5th Grade Fountaindale Elementary

Stream Study James Barnhart; 4th grade Potomac Heights Elementary

S

James Barnhart, a 4th grade teacher at Potomac Heights Elementary School, has arranged for a fully integrated experience utilizing a yearlong theme of Environments. In each of the content areas, Mr. Barnhart and his team explore the word environments through multiple lenses. In social studies students explore political, social and cultural environments and how each of those environments are changed, altered and forced to adapt. In science, students explore environments through a close look at their surroundings and how one small change can raise a whole host of implications. As students depth of knowledge and understanding grows and expands, Mr. Barnhart asks students to consider the environment of Hamilton Run alongside our school. Students study every facet of the stream from water quality to location to human impact. Students will take numerous trips to the stream to collect data and test various theories. At the end of the year, students travel to numerous other waterways to expand upon their understanding of watersheds and the environment. As a final culminating experience, local leaders are asked to sit in on a hearing where students present their findings and make recommendations to protect the health of both Hamilton Run and the greater Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

Stream Study James Barnhart; 4th grade Potomac Heights Elementary

Wetlands, K-5 Fountaindale Elementary

Fountaindale is in its first year of building a wetlands and preparing for a stream restoration; the idea actually originated from a student who said, Can we have a rain garden? From there, resources and energy aligned. The school has partnered with 16 community organizations and sponsored a wetlands work day in which the learning community came together to plant, mulch, and design our Outdoor Learning Lab. In the spring, students will be completing their second round of outdoor learning. We also have two more work days in which planting will take place. Next year, the project will grow into further wetlands curriculum work and the beginning of the Hamilton Run restoration.

Wetlands K-5 Fountaindale Elementary

Wetlands K-5 Fountaindale Elementary

Wetlands K-5 Fountaindale Elementary

Next Steps
Discuss how these processes can be used, and adjusted, to meet your needs

Questions

S What questions do you have for us?

S What can we clarify?
S What would you like us to discuss in greater detail? S What ideas do you have that we can provide feedback on? S Other?

Our Contact Information

S Jesse Orth
S Potomac Heights & Emma K. Doub Elementary Schools
S orthjes@wcps.k12.md.us

S Jackie Chaney
S Fountaindale Elementary School S chanejac@wcps.k12.md.us