The goal for Weeks 3 and 4 is to learn how to design and assess "classrooms that work" based on results of the work observations and analysis in Week 2. The third week begins with discussions on approaches and options for curriculum and assessment design. At the end of the third week, each participant will be asked to present a first draft of his or her curriculum and associated assessment plan to the other teachers. The project faculty will provide coaching and direct teachers to use each other as resources for curriculum development. During the fourth week, teachers refine their projects or investigations, learn about students assigned to their experimental class, prepare their classrooms, and make a presentation of their experimental classroom design to other teachers, project faculty, and worksite mentors.
During this phase, some participants may discover that they wish to observe particular aspects of the worksite again. It may be possible to arrange for additional visits or to contact the appropriate worksite mentors or department supervisor for follow-up discussions.
The first step in the process of moving from worksite observation to instructional design is to produce a useful written summary of authentic practice based on the results of the job study. To do this, teachers make their first critical transition: from job tasks to authentic problems.
Faculty will brief teachers on authentic problems and authentic cultures of practice using as an example a written description of services for disabled travelers, "A Day in the Life of a Tour Manager for Handicapped People." The subject matter of the example has implications for the integration of academic science classes and the transportation and health care industries, providing a basis for making the distinction between "authentic" science and "school" science. Teachers will discuss examples from their own job study where distinctions between disciplinary and authentic practice become obvious.
Following this, a trainer-led discussion on the "disabled travelers" example will address the following dimensions:
Then, teachers will write a summary of authentic practice based on their worksite observations. The authentic practice summary will address the above dimensions. First, they will work individually for one hour, and then in same-subject pairs (e.g., math, English, science, and technology) for another hour. The written authentic practice summaries will then be exchanged for comment by still another teacher.
In this activity, teachers explore alternative approaches to curriculum development and integration. Participants will read and discuss selected modules from Getting to Work: A Guide to Better Schools to gain an appreciation for the breadth of alternatives[3] and the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
Module 2, Units 2 and 3 are employed as references that teachers may use to learn more about different industry frameworks and examples for designing curricula based on authentic problems (e.g., All Aspects of the Industry, Unit 3-8; Hoachlander's Alternative Aspects of Industries, Unit 3-9; and Industry Themes Used for Integrated Projects, Unit 3-10).
Finally, each participant must choose one approach for the curricular unit that he or she is developing; the approach may be a novel or synthesized one. Participants will describe the selected approach and the rationale in their draft instructional design.
This activity is the second critical transition point in the mini-sabbatical. Teachers shift their understandings about authentic problems and authentic culture of practice to instructional design that reflects the CTW model.
The activity begins with a discussion that again uses the disabled travelers example. After review of the authentic practice summary, elements of the instructional design for a hypothetical classroom are discussed: instructional goals, classroom design, teaching methods, and alignment with official curriculum. The example on the next page shows a completed document for the disabled travelers project that can be used in the discussion.
After the briefing, teachers begin work on their own draft instructional designs. Teachers must build their new curricula around a project or investigation that follows authentic practice and solving authentic problems. Teachers will use the CTW instructional model--with a modification of the "school context" dimension to that of alignment with official curriculum--as a framework.
Participants will produce a written (and perhaps drawn) document that explains their instructional design, using the template in the following example (included in Appendix B-1).
INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN Task: Determine the suitability (e.g., physical, social, and technical) of the Metro Red Line for use by a person dependent on an oxygen support system. Instructional Goals: Generic: Generate and evaluate assets Disposition: Persistence, question authority Domain skill: Human biology of oxygen use, transportation of elemental oxygen, research organization, research theory Classroom Design: Culture of practice: Students are consultants hired to lobby LACMTA to accommodate dependent persons Product: Develop intervention or briefing speech to the MTA board Teacher role: Supervisor to the consultant Team: Scientist, writer Teaching Methods: Coach, model research, reinforce continuum of expertise, exploratory learning Alignment with Official Curriculum: Biology Composition
This activity introduces teachers to assessment options. Teachers will read Getting to Work: Module 4, "A Practical Guide to Alternative Assessment" and "The Range of Assessment Strategies" (Appendix A-5).
The activity will open with a discussion of principles and types of assessments.
Teachers will review examples and discuss them. Following this background discussion, the strengths and weaknesses and evaluation criteria for assessments will be covered. The activity closes by turning to applications for curriculum units.
In a follow-up session, teachers will share and critique the assessments they design for the experimental curriculum unit.
This is a critical point for the mini-sabbatical. Teachers begin to explore their instructional and curriculum design skills and habits of practice. Teachers will work at their own pace and with products clearly understood: draft presentation of the instructional design due at the close of Week 3 and draft presentation of the curriculum and assessment plan due at the close of Week 4. Faculty monitor teachers' progress and provide support as needed.
In this activity, which will be repeated as Activity 4.3, participants receive feedback from peers and faculty that will help them improve their classroom design plans.
Teachers will be divided into two groups. Each member of a group will spend five minutes describing his or her draft classroom design. A group facilitator will elicit comments for another five minutes. When everyone has had a turn presenting, the entire class will reconvene for a trainer-led debriefing.
Teachers will need to have answers to the following questions:
The purpose of this activity is to provide participants with an understanding of what action research is and how it will be used during the fifth and sixth weeks when they experiment with teaching and assessing their CTW curricular units. Participants will read Bullough and Gitlin, Chapter 8, "Action Research." The faculty will lead a discussion on the value added to the mini-sabbatical by action research, and draw out teachers' expectations relative to sharing results. The faculty will urge teachers to tell their own stories in their professional journals and at professional meetings.
As part of action research, participants will make daily journal entries for the remainder of the mini-sabbatical. These will help capture teacher participants' new understandings and concerns.
Before moving to the campus classrooms, faculty and teachers will discuss location and parking directions, room assignments, getting students to the right places, schedule, and so on.
There will be a general discussion on the feasibility of setting up workplaces in classrooms and classroom and curriculum design aspects that might be altered without compromising essential aspects that facilitate learning.
Teachers will review student pre-course survey results for students assigned to their class.
This presentation is more formal than the one in Activity 3.6. Each participant will present his or her curricular unit and assessment plan before a panel of peers, mentors, and the mini-sabbatical project team. A school administrator may be included on the panel as well.
This time, emphasis will be on design of activities and resources for actually implementing the curriculum. Teachers will need to address the following questions:
The teacher will complete the "Curriculum Revision Log-Baseline" (see Appendix B-1) as a record of their curriculum design at the beginning of the teaching phase of the mini-sabbatical.
[3] We limit discussion of alternative approaches to those which can be accommodated by changes initiated by one or two teachers, rather than approaches that require organizational redesign and adoption by entire departments or schools.