Case-Based Questions

CASE 11.A

The methods instructor has assigned Julie Sandrock and you to work as a team to plan a Project-Based Science unit. Neither of you have ever done lesson planning on this scale before. Later in the semester, you and Julie will actually have the opportunity to teach the unit you both plan. So far, the two of you have met the cooperating teacher, talked with her briefly about what lies ahead, and toured the school and the classroom. The sixth grade classroom is well-equipped with science materials and equipment, and there is easy access to the schoolyard, which is a large open field with an acre or two of wooded area at its edge. From your brief discussion with Mrs. Pearson, the cooperating teacher, you find out that you have six weeks to teach a unit that deals with the topic of the water cycle. Mrs. Pearson gives you and Julie the textbook the class has used throughout the school year, and she briefly orients both of you to the chapter on the water cycle. You ask Mrs. Pearson how long each period is and how many sixth grade classes you and Julie will be teaching. Mrs. Pearson says that each class period is fifty-five minutes long and it meets the same time each day, Monday through Friday. The three classes are in back-to-back periods running from the second hour through the fourth hour.

After your site visit you meet with Julie to begin the planning process. Julie suggests that the two of you should use the driving question, "What's in our water?" She reasons that this will save the planning time needed to brainstorm a question for the unit because she knows that it is a question that has already been commercially developed. The only downside of this choice is that neither of you have any of the curriculum materials for this question, but you would have to find materials no matter what question you chose. As you plan further, you and Julie begin to wrestle with the following questions:

1		What are the important factors that teachers must consider when planning a project-based unit? (Chapter Learning Performance 11.1)
2		Julie asks you for your suggestions. You suggest creating a concept map of the content related to the water cycle. Julie asks you why you want to do that. What do you say to Julie to justify the value of concept mapping the content of the unit? (Chapter Learning Performance 11.2)
3		Julie begins to believe that she does not have enough resources to plan a high quality project-based unit about the water cycle. So far, she has just looked at the textbook Mrs. Pearson gave you. What other resources should you and Julie investigate? (Chapter Learning Performance 11.3)
4		You suggest to Julie that you and she enlist the help of other sixth grade teachers in Mrs. Pearson's building to think about integrating the unit with other subjects across the curriculum. Julie says, "That sounds like a lot of work. What's the value of doing that?" How do you respond to Julie's question? (Chapter Learning Performance 11.6)
5		Julie is a little unclear about the procedural steps for planning a project-based unit. Describe the steps to planning a Project-Based Science unit for Julie. (Use Figure 11.2 on page 454 to help you.) (Chapter Learning Performance 11.4)

CASE 11.B

You are interviewing for your first teaching position as a middle grades science teacher. A committee consisting of the principal and three teachers who work in the prospective school building has been describing the position and asking you questions in an effort to determine if you are a match for this position. One of the teachers begins to ask you questions about curriculum integration and how to meet the learning needs of all students.

The other two teachers and the principal agree that this is a very important area of the interview because the school serves a diverse population of students and because teachers jointly plan integrated units. Thus, curriculum integration had become part of the teachers' professional subculture at the school.

Questions 6-10 below are the interview questions that the committee asked you. You respond by saying:

6		What is the central idea of multiple intelligence theory? (See pages 465-466 in your text.) (Chapter Learning Performance 11.5)
7		What does multiple intelligence theory imply about curriculum integration? (Chapter Learning Performance 11.5)
8		Under what circumstances or conditions should curriculum be integrated and when should it not be integrated? (Chapter Learning Performance 11.6)
9		Suppose you have students who come from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in science. What does curriculum integration do to help them succeed in science? (Chapter Learning Performance 11.6)
10		How does a Project-Based Science approach (you talked about Project-Based Science earlier in the interview) support curriculum integration? (Chapter Learning Performance 11.1, 11.4)