Week 14: Final Projects Workshop

We will only be meeting on Tuesday this week.

Please bring a hard copy of Parts A, B, C, and D to class for peer review. See below for descriptions of Parts C and D.

Option 1: (if teaching a lesson by December 3 is not an option)

For this assignment, you should analyze and adapt an existing lesson or short unit so that it will support students’ disciplinary literacy learning in your current (or anticipated) professional context. You will need to select a specific lesson or short unit on which to focus. The starting materials can be ones that you have designed/taught, or they can come from a curricular source or publisher.

Part A: Select a focal lesson/unit. Attach it (scanned pages are fine).

Part B: Analyze the lesson or unit to determine the extent to which it already supports disciplinary purposes and practices.  What will be most important to change in order to use this plan for disciplinary literacy teaching?  Why? Connect your analysis to class readings. Length: 1.5-2 pages.

Part C: Adapt your focal materials to create a new lesson or short unit for disciplinary literacy teaching. Incorporate: 

• Ways to engage students in disciplinary inquiry
  • What will students be investigating? 
  • How will they investigate it? 
  • What texts will they read and write? 
• Ways to support students’ success
  • How will you support students’ disciplinary reading and writing?
  • How will you support their disciplinary talk?
• Ways of assessing students’ learning
  • How will you gather information about what students are learning?
  • How will you gather information about how their disciplinary reading, writing, and reasoning is developing?

Part D:  Justify your changes.  Why have you made the specific decisions that you’ve made? How did you draw from and adapt the ideas in the class readings? What would you want to do next after this lesson/unit? Length: 2 pages. 

Part E: Works cited

Part 2: If teaching a Lesson by Dec 3 is possible

For this assignment, you should design a lesson or short unit so that it will support students’ disciplinary literacy learning in your current professional context. Then, try it out with your students and reflect on how it went. You should only select this option if you are able to complete a full cycle of lesson design, lesson enactment, and lesson reflection by December 3rd.

Part A: Design a lesson or short unit that will engage students in a disciplinary literacy within a disciplinary inquiry cycle.  Incorporate: 

• Ways to engage students in disciplinary inquiry
  • What will students be investigating? 
  • How will they investigate it? 
  • What texts will they read and write? 
• Ways to support students’ success
  • How will you support students’ disciplinary reading and writing?
  • How will you support their disciplinary talk?
• Ways of assessing students’ learning
  • How will you gather information about what students are learning?
  • How will you gather information about how their disciplinary reading, writing, and reasoning is developing?

Part B: Justify your lesson design. Why have you made the specific decisions that you’ve made? How did you draw from and adapt the ideas in the class readings? Length: 3 pages.

Part C: Enact the lesson or unit in your classroom.  Attach a sample of student work here (scanned documents are fine).

Part D: Reflect on how your lesson/unit went.  To what extent did students have opportunities to engage in a disciplinary inquiry cycle? How did you support their disciplinary literacy practices? What evidence do you have of student learning and engagement?  What would you do differently next time? What questions does this experience raise for you about disciplinary literacy teaching? Connect your analysis to class readings as helpful. Length: 1.5-2 pages.

Part E: Works cited