Work individually and in small groups giving guided
practice and/or remediation to students experiencing
difficulty in content areas. Focus on developing
instructional strategies to meet a variety of student
needs (exceptionality, diversity, learning styles).

Assessment: Create an Investigation Task Card to meet the learning needs of the individual student or small group. Design assessment for evaluation of student progress and task card relevance.

Investigation Task Card Rubric

Task Cards contain the following measures of critical thinking:

• Knowledge level tasks
• Comprehension level tasks
• Application level tasks
• Analysis level tasks
• Synthesis level tasks
• Evaluation level tasks

• Does assessment adequately measure student progress?
• Is the assessment equitable for diverse learners?
• Does the assessment enable students to generalize to other problems?
• Does the assessment assess higher levels of understanding in content and meaning?

Activity 2- Team Planning/Decision Making

Work on interdisciplinary unit with assigned team. Students will:

•  help plan the unit, conduct research related to the unit, and gather appropriate materials for the unit.
•  examine content standards, courses of study, and curriculum guides including a variety of instructional approaches related to areas of content expertise.
•  examine/develop appropriate means to assess student learning with authentic performance based assessments.

Rubrics

Lab Journal Entries

• Well organized thought including details and examples of events and processes
• Demonstrates an understanding of the interconnectedness of thought, word, and deed.
• Generates questions for further examination

•  Clear presentation of problem for discussion
• Solution oriented
• Generates questions for further examination

• Well organized and readable
• Contains all elements of the unit
• Reflects team philosophy and scheduling

• Identify philosophy and goals
• Determine responsibilities within team
• Examines content, resources, methodologies, and assessment
• Reflects discussion of unit's relationship to real world activity

Activity 3- Teach Mini Lessons

Teach a mini-lesson related to the interdisciplinary unit.
The lesson must be inquiry or problem based and
require student choice and group interaction.

Assessment: Lesson Plan including: Outcomes
(Cognitive and Affective), Objectives, Procedures,
Authentic Assessment, and Student/Teacher Reflection.
 

Rubric For Mini-Lesson Plan

• Reflects "best practice" in teaching
• Identifies the concepts being taught
• Identifies the related QCCs
• Explanation of how instructional strategies enable diverse students to meet lesson outcomes
• Explanation of assessment and accompanying rubric

 Activity 4- Middle School Organization Journal

Evaluate your lab site in terms of Middle School
Organization, Curriculum, Instruction, and
Assessment. Generate questions and concerns
about the use and effectiveness of middle school
concepts.
 

Assessment: Use Desktop Publishing to create a Newsletter that highlights middle school components. Infuse questions and concerns based on research on "best practices" for middle level education.
 

Newsletter Rubric

• creative design with graphics
• includes in-depth view of the effectiveness of such middle school components as block scheduling, decentralized decision making, teaming, exploratories, and a teacher- based advisory program,
• assesses site's use of curriculum effectiveness promoting reading/writing across subjects, critical thinking skills, interdisciplinary connectiveness, authenticity of experience, and meeting standards
• investigates site's use of such instructional practices as active learning, collaborative learning, instructional technology, alternative assessment, and heterogenous grouping