During pre-school I worked with the other 8th grade science teacher and the science coach on unit organizers with SIM PDer Janice Creneti. I was able to introduce them to CERs and explain the SIM as well as give them a chance to read through some of the background of the research and value to students of the unit organizer routine. We went through the cue, do, review sequence and practiced the cue-do-review sequence to float a pre-made organizer. Thankfully Janice was there to help me when I almost forgot to give them a blank unit organizer to view and she reminded me to show them one of my completed unit organizer drafts. That helped to clarify how it starts and how it ends up looking. We went through the linking steps and worked on creating a unit organizer for a future unit.
The teacher, who had seen my unit organizers before, started to notice the connections the unit organizer could help the students make within and between units. The science coach felt this was a good way for us to plan together and create standards-based lessons together.
In continuing to implement the unit organizers we have met on a few occasions during planning to discuss the cue-do-review cycle and how and when to fit the unit organizer routine into the unit. One of the sticking points seems to be that the unit organizer is either for the start of the unit or the end, not necessarily the beginning, middle and end. We discussed different ways I have used it in all parts of my classroom instruction and he was able to brainstorm some ways he might implement it in other parts of his instruction.
The teacher, who had seen my unit organizers before, started to notice the connections the unit organizer could help the students make within and between units. The science coach felt this was a good way for us to plan together and create standards-based lessons together.
In continuing to implement the unit organizers we have met on a few occasions during planning to discuss the cue-do-review cycle and how and when to fit the unit organizer routine into the unit. One of the sticking points seems to be that the unit organizer is either for the start of the unit or the end, not necessarily the beginning, middle and end. We discussed different ways I have used it in all parts of my classroom instruction and he was able to brainstorm some ways he might implement it in other parts of his instruction.