COLLABORATION IN ACTION (part 1)

In the first part of our unit plan assignments, we were asked to collaborate with a classmate on a unit plan/lesson plan - either inquiry or literature based.  My group (of 3) decided to choose an elementary literature-based unit for 4th grade.  We focused on an ELA unit on Native American literature and wanted it to be as cross-curricular as possible (we were thinking of how to tie it in with 4th grade NC social studies and possibly even geography).  The hardest part was choosing the unit that we were going to do and grade level, probably because this was so open-ended.  Overall, the collaboration went really well within our group.  We used digital methods mostly (google docs and email).  This made our communication very "to the point" and concise.  We operated on a high level (according to the taxonomy from our reading) of collaboration, involving one another in every aspect of the planning of our units even down to the assessment methods.  This, although it takes more time, makes the lessons and units so much more enriched.