Submitted by: Julie Counts
School: Deep Run High School
Summary
In this unit, students continue their development of the ability to read, appreciate, and interpret short stories. The teacher places students in teaching teams and assigns a short story to each team. The team is responsible for teaching the short story to the class. Each team will develop a lesson plan; present pertinent author information; develop a reading check assessment; display knowledge of text, criticism, and elements of fiction; create a technological tool, and turn in a MLA formatted works consulted page. The teacher meets with teams during class time to offer suggestions and insights about the story.
TIPC Ratings
This project reached the approaching stage because students were asked to research and apply information to create their 40 minute short story lesson.
This lesson is approaching in this category as students only shared their knowledge within their classroom community. Having students work in teams facilitated working collaboratively regardless of time zone or physical distance (i.e. students collaborated via google docs, email, and texting).
This lesson was approaching because when working in teams, the students shared and extended their knowledge by becoming the “teacher” rather than the “student.” By having the teams take ownership of the story and the lesson, students took on the role of the “questioners” to help peers with critical thinking.
Working in teams, the students had to synthesize knowledge to create new ideas and products, and most importantly they were allowed many personal choices in the development of the lesson.
