Description: The artifact included for this indicator is an example of the Lesson Plan Transformations (LPTs) and feedback created by students in EDU 365, Teaching Integrated Social Studies in Middle Grades.  The process of creating these transformations demonstrates strategic curricular design to promote critical thinking and problem solving among teacher candidates.  Students enrolled in an undergraduate social studies methods course employ specific strategies in order to create lessons aligned with NCSS/NCATE standards, CCSS, and TPCK Activity Types for Social Studies (Hofer & Harris, 2009).  This model provides examples of curriculum development conducive to leadership training for pre-service teachers, effective 21st century instruction and an adherence to standards for national accreditation.  Pre service teachers were asked to take ten lesson plans currently being used in a public middle school social studies classroom and transform them by utilizing technology in a pedagogically sound manner.  Each of the lesson transformations represented one of the ten NCSS-NCATE themes for integrated middle school social studies.  This promising practice allowed numerous opportunities to collaborate with their peers and design lessons that emphasized clear learning objectives aligned to authentic assessments, attention to the management of time and materials, and plans for differentiation for all learners.  The reflective statements from the students signify satisfaction with the process and acknowledgement of learning.

 

 

Reflection: This curricular practice provided the necessary multiple opportunities for my students to practice 21st century design principles and to collaborate to solve authentic problems (Koehler & Mishra, 2008).  The need to equip pre service teachers with essential knowledge in content, pedagogy and technology is well known. Teachers tend to teach as they were taught, yielding an entire generation of new teachers unfamiliar with the nuances of authentic, purposeful and deliberate uses of technology to enhance content (Lee, 2008).  This practice of lesson plan transformation is content centric, which better equips pre service teachers to teach with a tool that meets content goals (Koehler & Mishra, 2005).   The reflections from the students at the end of the course confiemed the activity as a valuable and effective practice.  The principles and theories this activity is built upon are those I gained from several courses in my doctoral program.  The collaboration between my professor, Dr. Carbonara and my cohort member teaching in the K-12 field taught me to think critically and intentionally in my design, making sound decisions regarding how I wanted my students to learn.