The following is a list of edits that were made to this website and unit plan as informed by feedback from three of my peers. Thank you, friends and colleagues, for your gracious efforts in helping me grow professionally.
1. The original title, "Change: Reinventing Self & Concepts," was modified to be, "Change: Reinventing Perceptions & Concepts of Self."
1. The original title, "Change: Reinventing Self & Concepts," was modified to be, "Change: Reinventing Perceptions & Concepts of Self."
- The feedback indicated that not only the title but also some of the content implied a perspective that children have "imperfections" and need to fix them. The title and activities have been edited to reflect the intent that children have a "private" self and a "public" self, and that through art and art making they can gain better understandings of their own perspectives of who that public vs private self is. As well, they can use art to envision how this self-perspective might affect their concepts of the roles they might play in each of these contexts. In student-friendly language students would contemplate the following:
A. "How do I perceive myself in the role of (student, sibling, child, community member, artist, designer, teammate)? B. How does this perception affect my concept of what it is to be a (student, sibling, child, community member, artist, designer, teammate)? |
2. Another category of feedback dealt with assessing student learning. One peer commented that generally the assessments appear to assess the kinds of learning the unit indicates but recommended that tailoring the assessments more to this particular unit itself would be helpful in documenting student achievement that is more closely aligned with the activities and key concepts of this exact unit. However, I am not changing the assessments at this time. Based on my research of what cornerstone assessments are and how they can be written and used, I feel that leaving the terminology in more general terms allows for a greater diversity of student responses to the questions, issues, and discoveries being addressed in this unit. I want the assessments to guide students' thinking towards personal inquiry and understandings of concepts and ideas, not just towards project ideas.
3. The final area of discussing from peer feedback deals with differentiation. The feedback was split; two peers said the differentiation for individual learners was apparent and good, allowing for students to develop their own ideas on their own terms and levels. One requested more clarity in "modifications that could be made to the lesson plans for students with cognitive delays and physical impairments." I addressed this requisition for clarity of differentiation by indicating media or technology accommodations as needed.