I did several unit or curriculum redesigns as part of my learning throughout this program. Some were completed as part of the requirements of a course, but others were my own initiatives and attempts to put into practice what I had learned throughout the program.
One of the key unit redesigns was the redesign I did of our Unbroken unit. I approached this redesign by focusing on incorporating both the Learner-Centered Principles and the Universal Design for Learning Models. I taught this lesson according to initial unit plan for two lessons and noticed that my students needed a lot of validation of their choices and examples and needed support in determining how to explain their evidence. Because of the structure of school day, I had an opportunity to change the lesson and implement those changes. I noticed that after I made those changes, which increased student-student engagement and incorporated more student choice over the means of action and expression my students were dramatically more engaged, more motivated and sought |
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support from their group members before seeking support from me. This strongly increased my students' engagement and autonomy in the lesson and in the classroom.
Another unit that I redesigned was the district Independent Reading course that I help to facilitate. I taught this course in the Spring of 2018 and the Fall of 2018 and in between course offerings, I drastically changed the the curriculum. In this particular case I focused on incorporating the R2D2 (Read, Reflect, Do, Display) protocol in the design of the unit. Using this as the basis for my changes had several major impacts on the design of the course and the outcomes for my students. By structuring every meeting of our course according to the R2D2 model, I was forced to make sure that there was time for reflection and opportunities for students to display their learning. Because I was trying to make the unit more learner-centered, I found myself stretching myself beyond my own pedagogical comfort zone. I found myself applying new and different and applications and trying other teaching strategies. |
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