EDU 658 Reflection

Whew! This class threw me for a loop and didn't yell, "Hold on!" I get cranky when I don't understand something, and honestly, curriculum development is my Achilles heel. It doesn't seem to matter how many books or articles I read, or discussions I have with colleagues, I can't seem to "get" how to plan out a unit and get all the activities, lessons, and pacing to make sense. Even when I do have a semblance of order, I end up messing with the sequence, or finding something wrong, or skip parts when my students think something is "too hard."


Fortunately, I'm not easily deterred, and I want to do better with my curriculum work. So, I keep at it and reflect on the positives and work through the negatives. I feel like I've almost done a good job with this unit.
I planned my work as a blended unit for the book Night, by Elie Wiesel. This is a required text for my tenth graders, and it's one that brings great angst to me personally -- I teach in a rural area, and my students do not always "remember" to be nice to people who don't look like them. So, reading this book, especially in light of the current political climate, has the potential to have several flashpoints. In order for a blended unit to work in my class, I decided to create a webpage rather than use Canvas; the webpage gave me the flexibility of technology as well as the creativity to design something more public that I might share with my colleagues. I am diligent in teaching my students to use their public work as a way to set up their online personas -- so when a college or employer Googles them, the positives come up!! Therefore, if their work looks public, then students take more diligence in their postings.

To plan this unit, I used the ADDIE model and took all the paper-based work I usually assign and tried to zero in on what is most important. From there, I tried to decide what might work well digitally. My thinking process follows:


My final document is similar to my plan; however, there were several areas I had to leave off the webpage. As I teach this unit and students work through the modules, I will be able to see gaps or places where I need to make changes. 

I chose the technology purposefully. I wanted to incorporate apps that I've already introduced to students or where the learning curve wasn't too large. The timetable for this unit is only four weeks, and that is pushing my students; the bulk of their time needs to be spent thinking and planning their research, not learning a new piece of technology. I believe that the choices I made work well for this unit and my students.


Interestingly, the most difficult aspect of this work (after the curriculum rant I went on earlier), was

redesigning my presentations to make sense digitally. I suppose this is a more flipped classroom view than blended; however, going through the process of what I'd say in a whole group presentation versus how students could move through on their own was pretty daunting. I'm not sure I succeeded, but it's definitely better than I expected (Hopefully, no dumpster fires!). To make this better, I should record screencasts of the Slideshows; they might not make sense without my "teacher talk."

Finally, I'm pretty proud of this unit and the website. I connected it to my teacher website, so that will help my students find it when the time comes. I used technology that my students are comfortable with, but which will also push them to collaborate, create, and think critically. And, I found the heart of what is important in reading this book -- it really is how a reader connects to Elie Wiesel's story and sees him/herself as a citizen of the world who can have an impact on other human beings.

Final project website: http://mccabenightstudy.weebly.com/