Reimagining a Unit of Science, or Evolutionary Plans
The world was my curriculum, and the unit plan was easier than I thought it would be.
My school year has been out of the classroom this year. I have been working with a central office public schools team tasked with designing new schools and redesigning existing school programs. This year has been filled with learning and student-centered design thinking practices.
Part of my personal learning journey has been reimagining the classroom-level experience. I have been giving myself challenges to work on alone or with partner teachers and leaders from other schools. One of my challenges that recently finished-ish was redesigning a unit of study for a high school science (Biology) course.
I chose Evolution as the unit to redesign for a few reasons. I felt the content would be a challenge to bring design processes and/or project-/performance-based work into the unit. It was an end of year unit, and I thought if I could get myself together often enough on evenings and weekends to have time to pilot the plan.
Alas, life gets in the way. My evenings and weekends were mostly spent not working on work. It still got done, just later than anticipated. So. Much. Later.
Imagine my frustration with myself when I actually added the time it took to complete the plan!
TLDR: Scroll down to Resources for links to the Evolution Mastery Learning Arc and the Template used for planning.
Planning an Arc of Learning
Maybe I’m just geeky, but I LOVE planning learning experiences and learning arcs. I have loved planning since I was a new teacher. Back then, I was planning out more conventional learning pathways. I always enjoyed finding the places in conventional plans to add in new discussion protocols, hands-on learning, and new techniques to try.
I went into this project with that same playfulness. But unlike years past, my belief in modern learning experiences that enable agency and inquiry and center students made this one different. I wanted to create a unit with the mindset of having the world as my curriculum. I chose to disconnect from any packaged curriculum.
My starting place was reviewing the standards of learning. For science teachers, there is a great reference called The NSTA Atlas of the Three Dimensions (not an affiliate link). I wish every content area had a document like this showing interconnectedness of the subject across grades and topics. I identified the important standards for high school from the Atlas and from state standards. (30 mins)
I used a pair of tools from my days as a lead teacher in the Urban Advantage program - Science Matters and Making Sense of Secondary Science (not affiliate links). These were to help me identify what science literate adults should understand (Science Matters) and where there might be misconceptions in student understanding (Making Sense…). I was surprised by the lack of misconceptions about evolution and natural selection! It only talked about Larkian evolution as a misconception. (95 min)
With all this background information in hand, I began sorting into two categories: Critical Knowledge and Nice to Know. I reviewed cross-cutting concepts to ensure they are included as part of learning. I also pulled in and reviewed the traditional Habits of Mind to see which might apply. The destination of the learning journey is clear. (25 min)
I knew where we were going, but before I stepped into how to get there, I wanted to ensure that this learning experience would center students and their lived experiences. I am a HUGE fan of Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s Cultivating Genius (not an affiliate link) and the HILL Framework. I have been through many professional development sessions, coaching sessions, and helped lead a school through a year-long professional development series on using the five pursuits of genius in planning. This familiarity helped me quickly consider connections to all five pursuits in this evolution learning arc. (25 min)
Planning the Daily Learning Journey
The expected outcomes and a Mastery Performance task had all emerged from the dive into standards, adult literacy (relevance), and culturally-responsive planning. I created a template for planning a full arc of learning and daily experiences that could build to these outcomes. (40 mins)
It was time to draft the daily learning experiences - the journey to Mastery. I started with a handwritten outline in my notebook to get a sense of how many days the unit would likely take through the learning journey - from novice awareness to Performance Assessment. I mapped out 13 days with a basic learning objective each day. (35 mins)
Next, I needed to add more detailed views of the daily learning experiences into the learning arc document that was being generated. I worked one day at a time, building the learning day after day, experience after experience, to guide students to the knowledge they could use to respond in the final performance assessment. This might have been the longest part of the planning. It certainly felt the longest. In the end, I had 14 days prepared for learning. (250 mins)
Something Wasn’t Right
I couldn’t stop the feeling that something wasn’t quite right with the full learning arc. I shared the plan with colleagues on my school design team. They said that it looked good, though some commented that they liked more structure in the learning spaces. And that’s when it hit me - I could enable more agency, get out of the way even more, and give more control of the path to students.
I immediately set to work on an Alternate Path for learning for students that are ready for more agency and less structure - for those ready to take the lead on their learning while I stepped back as a facilitator and documenter. I had to reimagine the experience from Day 1. So I did, and it prompted changes across the plan. It created another 14 days of learning with students leading the work. I felt better. (60 mins)
Is It Ready for Implementation?
I decided to do a final reflection on the design of the learning arc using the 4 Shifts Protocol to guide my self-reflection. I’m really glad I worked through this protocol. It illuminated areas where I had strengths in planning, and areas where I need to still question and reframe some of the work. I’m saving the questions and next steps at this point until they can be answered with teaching partners and students. (60 mins)
It was ready. A final-ish product. It took me working in small sprints over many days across many months to complete this project. Imagine my surprise as I tallied up my total time spent planning! It took me approximately 610 minutes to develop this learning arc. That’s just over 10 hours. Working alone and with no curriculum as a guide, I was able to create, what I think, is a pretty solid unit of study with multiple pathways for students.
An hour a day for 10 days, by myself, and I can likely create a unit of study from start to finish with no curricular guidance. It’s fascinating how a little knowledge can change how you see some aspects of work. How it can reframe what is possible. I would never have known this had I not gone through this process.
I am currently collaborating with teacher leaders from multiple schools to see if we can pull off something similar in an Algebra 1 unit. And just for fun, I’m going to play with an Earth Science unit on my own. I hope to post both soon. After all, I can expect Earth Science to take about 10 hours to plan. An Algebra unit, probably longer.
I hope you find some value in the process and resources I shared above and below. Please connect with me on LinkedIn, Twit, or SubStack - @BryanGEdu - or in the comments below. What did you think? What would you add? Remove? Improve?
Resources
Click HERE for a copy of my DRAFTy Evolution Mastery Learning Arc.
Click HERE for a copy of a blank template I used for the Evolution Mastery Learning Arc.
The NSTA Atlas of the Three Dimensions - science standards across multiple content areas and for all grade levels, interconnected
Science Matters - book that shares what science content is good for being a scientifically literate adult
Making Sense of Secondary Science - helps identify misconceptions in student understanding across all of secondary science
Habits of Mind - site with ways of thinking to improve thinking and innovation
Cultivating Genius - I use the five pursuits of genius to ensure my learning experiences center young people and their experiences while also being critical of systems structures that create harm for the self, others, living things, and our shared planet
4 Shifts Protocol - tool to analyze your existing units and lessons to ensure they are giving opportunity for Deeper Thinking and Learning, to enable Agency and Personalization, and infuse Technology.
Everything is evolving into crabs. https://www.popsci.com/story/animals/why-everything-becomes-crab-meme-carcinization/