Part+4

Student Instruction Project Part 4 Understanding by Design GRASPS Task Prompts

Your task is: Over a semester, explore what is essential for early settlers through various scenarios of a growing village. Use critical thinking skills and group discussion to simulate problem solving strategies used by city planters.
 * **Goal**

The goal is to: As a student, my role is to learn what is needed for survival and understand how to work in a group for a successful outcome. In the end reflect on some of the problems in past of building a village to problems of a big city today. Learning to work together is even more challenging with various views (cultures and values).

The problem or challenge is: Working with others in a group setting and arriving at a consensus; deciding what is the best solution for the presented scenario. Understanding that more than one answer may be acceptable, but that one answer may be MORE right than another. (Student). Overseeing and making sure learning is occurring in the group settings; checking for meaningful discussions and adequate progress throughout the assignment. Managing multiple groups working at different levels, especially if some earn the "city" title and some do not (Teacher). Incorporating technological resources/outside resources (i.e. articles or books) appropriate for the assignment. Helping students publish their work and city drawings so other students can benefit from their work. (MS/TS). || You are: As a member (student) of a group of early settlers, we must select a leader and a secretary to keep a written record of events. Decide as a group on the best answer; every member of the group is a valuable contributor.
 * **Role**

As a teacher, we could have students hold elections for the various leadership roles with term limits for the different scenarios.

As a MS or IT, we could have electronic voting. We could also have a Wiki for students to post their brainstorming activities. Brainstorming could also be done through Google moderator.

You have been asked to: Develop (by assigning roles and group norms) a working village that is presented with different scenarios/challenges (Student). Oversee/Implement an assignment where students learn how to solve problems and come to a general understanding of survival as an early settler (Teacher). Develop/Provide resources to assist the teacher and students to complete the assignment (MS/TS).

Your job is: As a student, we have to work together to solve problems, understand various problems to find solutions and discover of options available. As teacher, you will facilitate a performance based assessment, and guide students as they think critically. As a MS, we could provide video clips of early settlers, as well as print resources of information and drawings of early settlements. IT could provide software to draw various villages with characters or even embedded videos of different students describing different areas or points of interest in village. || Your clients are: Middle/ High School Students
 * **Audience**

The target audience is: Middle/ High School Students

You need to convince: Need to convince middle/ high school students the important of working together to create the type of community that meets the majority of people’s needs, as well be embracing for those with less of a “voice.” As points are predetermined and presumably awarded by the educator, the teacher/media specialist/instructional technology specialist must also be convinced.

*NOTES OF CONCERN: 1. This is where the current lesson plan may not be as sensitive. In Scenario 2, extra points are rewarded if you build a place of worship to a god. What if they are Existentialist or atheist or multiple types of spiritual groups co-exist? This seems to force beliefs of a god/higher power on the community. Our democracy is supposed to be built with separation of church and state, so how does providing a place of worship to a god in a location of scarce resources warrant the expenditure? Maybe allow a space for a question mark here. Students could then decide based on their group and the "worship center" possibly could becomes a community center to allow for everyone to meet sharing a variety of spiritual or community objectives. 2. In Scenario 5, fifty points are given to send “men” off to fight and the rest of the men are to protect the women/children and etc. This is another example of the teacher’s bias. 3. In Scenario 6, it again assumes that you have to add the right thing to become a city and a temple to a god is the first option. What are the right things for students to add needs to be left up to them. As a MS, I would include video, books or articles about how too much power (superstitious beliefs-secular or religious) for one individual or a certain group can cause a loss of inclusiveness and a lack of progressive and cultural ideas. || The context you find yourself in is: We find ourselves working in an early settlement without the same tools, storage abilities and pre-planning is at a premium for survival.
 * **Situation**

The challenge involved dealing with: It is a challenge to deal with nature (weather, disease, mold), lack of knowledge, and in a time when many thought “might makes right” – reason we even had early European settlers in North America. OK/OK not what you want students to concentrate on…. The challenge is how to work and collaborate with a variety of personalities and the lack of resources in an unforgiving environment. This can help students understand the reasons we must cooperate with various nations in today’s fleeting resources. Thinking in terms of earlier civilizations, rather than modern society. Students may struggle with putting themselves in those scenarios of survival without the technological advancements of our time. Even "basic" tools in a toolbox might be unfamiliar to the settlement in question. || You will create a: Students could produce a video blog from different leaders, shop keepers, or community news reporters etc. Requirements of the lesson include the drawing of the village, perhaps using software, and justification of elements in the village would be provided on the map. MS could provide options for students to learn the material, as well as print resources to guide the way a building in the area might look/function. When dealing with the sewer system, the MS might have multiple sources to show how different civilizations dealt with this problem. IT could provide the resources to embed video blogs of information into virtual village.
 * **Produce, Perform, and Purpose**

In order to: Learn from different villages (student communities) what they are creating to bring new ideas and know how back to each individual village. So students can learn why it is important to create working relationships with the various communities surrounding one's village. This will be important with scarce resources, as well as protecting future land (environmental areas) for the common good.

You need to develop: A written plan that is organized for easy understanding and that clearly and completely solves the presented scenario.

So that: students can understand how to create working relationships and come to a consensus/solution to a problem. || Your performance needs to: fully and clearly address all issues within the presented scenarios.
 * **Standards and Criteria for Success**

Your work will be judged by: how well the group members worked together; the types of solutions (different point values)

Your product must meet the following standards: Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms. ||