EDSS 541 Week 1 Reading Responses

RR 1 - IDENTIFY research-based instructional strategies you can use in you ITU.

Upon reading the NEA’s “Focus On” articles, I feel that the most important research-based instructional strategies are those that coincide with Dr. James Banks’ “The Transformative Approach.” In my Interactive Thematic Unit, I plan to enable my students to view concepts, themes, and/or problems from perspectives that are meaningful to them. Our group’s ITU will focus on the Lagoons of Carlsbad and the overall conservation effort that goes along with preserving these precious land forms. Our group will exhibit cultural relativism toward our students so that their perspectives will help shape the way this ITU turns out. The goal is that our students will find the content of our lessons to be relevant to their lives, thus creating an enduring understanding that essentialist classrooms often fail to achieve.

RR 2 - COMPLETE Activities 7.1 & 7.2, pgs. 172-173
7.1
1. The sources we consulted before selecting an appropriate theme included: course handouts and readings, textbook references, California standards, and Internet resources such as Google and local news websites.

2. Theme: Carlsbad Lagoon
   Word/Phrase Associations: preservation, conservation, plants, animals, fish, soil, CO2, hiking trails, people/visitors, city workers, taxes, freeway, history, native americans, tides, global warming, nature, money, beauty, littering, endangered species, migration, land area, math, chemistry, biology
 Web:

3. In creating common theme for our group’s ITU, we agreed that it was important to have a local aspect. We all have a love for nature and respect for the environment, so the idea of conservation and preservation was in our heads from the get-go. We noted that the relative exclusivity of the lagoons in Carlsbad fit perfectly. It wasn’t hard to think of possible lessons that would integrate into each of our discipline areas or Math, Chemistry, Soil Science/Marine Biology, and English. I am excited about our decision and I feel that the rest of my team has the same enthusiasm.

7.2

Theme: Carlsbad Lagoon

Essential Questions:
  1) What role do the lagoons play in our lives?
  2) What role do the lagoons play in the lives of native plants and animals?
  3) How much responsibility does a community have for preserving its natural resources/landscape?
  4) How do current issues affect the preservation of the lagoons?
  5) How can the economical aspects of the lagoons be expressed mathematically?

RR 3: MAKE a list or highlight models & resources to share with your ITU team.

I highlighted sections and shared with my team in class. I noted, among other things, Figures 1.4, 1.5, and 1.8. I also made sure to talk about various learning styles and the role that culture can play into an individual’s learning style.

RR4: IDENTIFY what tasks you would be well skilled at leading and contributing to for the ITU assignment.

I feel like I can be an effective contributor to all of the ITU assignment tasks. Some tasks that I think I will be best suited for, however, are Tasks 8 (Technology Applications), Task 4 (Unit Rationale-Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions), and Tasks 13-17 (Unit Differentiation).

RR5: As a school team, IDENTIFY a theme for your ITU and SHARE ideas and a draft for a Cover Sheet with you ITU team.

Theme: Carlsbad Lagoon Preservation

Ideas for Cover Sheet: Emphasis on the local nature of the theme.


RR 6: CREATE a Personal Learning Network (PLN)

Gmail: rpg.cbad@gmail.com
Blog: spring2012rpgordon@blogspot.com
Twitter: rpgordon87
Also a part of Grouply, Edmodo, Diigo, and following CSUSMedu.