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Methods course documentation
Supporting the planning of the first illustrative unit (D6.4)
Logistics and scheduling information (by Raffaella Borasi)

Although I had concluded that, because of logistical reasons, it would be impossible to require student teachers to implement one of our illustrative units, I still thought that it would be worthwhile to ask pre-service teachers to plan one of these units with the support of the materials we had especially created for this purpose -- especially since I could not provide the same kind of scaffold for other topics the students might have been interested in focusing on for their "innovative unit." I made clear to the participants, however, that this task was likely to remain an academic exercise, since it was not likely that they would be able to actually implement such as unit during their student teaching experience.

This task was assigned over the Winter break, after the conclusion of the Methods course and prior to the beginning of the second student teaching experience. This scheduling decision was based on the consideration that students would need considerable time to get acquainted to the Supporting Materials (even if they had the advantage of having experienced as learners at least one of the illustrative units) and to actually write a detailed plan for one of these complex units. I also thought that this experience would be most meaningful in preparation to the new student teaching experience, before student teachers would be expected to plan lessons they would actually teach.

Students were expected to turn in their plans at the very beginning of the next course, share and discuss these plans with the rest of the class, and then make some revisions based on this discussion as well as the feedback received individually from the instructor. Detailed written instructions for this task were provided (see Instructional materials) especially in consideration of the fact that the students would work on this assignment on their own over vacations, and they had not been explicitly introduced to the contents and structure of these unusual instructional materials before.

This experience has usually been a real eye-opener for pre-service teachers, making them realize how complex and demanding it is to plan good inquiry experiences for their students, and thus developing early on more appropriate expectations about the time and effort required for planning lessons in their student teaching experience.

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