Designing a Unit - One Approach
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As many of my readers know, this year I have been dedicated to using the 21st Century four Cs. The four Cs are a rubric of sorts that help align lessons to more reality-based learning and assessing.
As I design a lesson or assessment, I ask myself if what I've designed, or what the students must
master, correlates to the important skills of:
- Collaboration
- Communication
- Critical
Thinking
- Creativity
My lessons and tests must incorporate
one or more of of the four Cs to, in my opinion, be worthy of spending precious instructional time in the classroom.
On another note, the other short rubric I keep in my head is related to differentiating
my lessons. Looking at teacher and education author Dr. Carol Tomlinson's list of ways to differentiate in the classroom,
you'll notice that this aligns nicely with the four Cs above. Tomlinson explains that the four elements that lend themselves
naturally to differentiation are:
- Process
- Environment
- Content
- Product
OK, so in other words, I might sit down and think about something I want to do with
the students. I think about these two lists of four in a way to ensure that I am hitting as many learners as possible."
