Meeting 6/8: PBL & Organizing

Participants: Laura Sexton (@SraSpanglish) Jean Rueckert (@JeanRueckert) Bethanie Drew @lovemysummer

How do we reconcile Problem-Based Learning goals with proficiency goals?

Scaffold the problem by providing vocabulary and phrases that 1) are key to interpreting related texts and 2) useful to conveying answers.

• Frontload key words that students can expect to encounter in what they read/hear in related texts.
• Provide words related to the answers, like hobbies that they've expressed interest in.
• Practice standard sentence starters like "I like/don't like," "I want/don't want," "We need/don't need."
• Practice basic interrogatives for conversations related to the problem.
• Keep a running list of commonly used words for instructions and collaboration throughout the course, such as "discuss," "partner," "evaluate," and "upload."

Establishing routine operating procedures for approaching research, organization and planning, and presentation should also help maintain target language usage.

Where do we start the unit planning?

Let's begin with establishing themes we want to focus on, filling in Driving Questions and summative assessments first for backward design, then resources and activities and strategies, including the level(s) that each is appropriate for. We have collected some basic units on one Google Doc, and we can start consolidating them into themes on our Unit Themes Google Doc (Food is a definite!)

*Multiple smaller units can be grouped under larger headings, e.g. introductions and family under a pen pals unit.

What restrictions must we consider as we plan?

We will need to allow for different calendars, like trimesters versus quarter, as well as district or school-level curriculum expectations and assessments.