Climb Higher

“We do not all have equal talents, but we all deserve an equal opportunity to develop our talents.” John F. Kennedy

Participants: Kerri Chase, Debra Favro, Nona Garrand, Jason Nisoff, Nancy Strack

Overview:

Climb Higher is a learning unit designed to match instructional tasks with students’ skills and understanding of the subject or topic. Tiered lessons center around a multi-disciplined learning unit based on the Renaissance and Elizabethan England. As students work on different tasks, they will focus on the same essential understanding and skills, but at different levels of complexity, abstraction and open-endedness. Tiered tasks allow teachers to address one of the most important differences in our students- that of student readiness. Tiered learning activities focus on developing concepts related to the Renaissance and its impact on future generations. Learning activities were designed to encompass all core subject areas and include a variety of scaffolding and differentiation strategies.

Grade Level of Audience: Mid and upper-elementary, middle, high school--Lessons will be written to match grade six curriculum, but offer tremendous flexibility and may easily be adapted to many learners.

Content Standards:

NYS Learning Standard(s) Addressed :

ELA Standards:

Standard 1: Language for Information and Understanding
Standard 2:Language for Literary Response and Expression
Standard 3: Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation
Standard 4: Language for Social Interaction

MST Standards:
Standard 2:Information Systems
Standard 3:Mathematics
Standard 4: Science
Standard 6: Interconnectedness: Common Themes
Standard 7: Interdisciplinary Problem Solving
Social Studies Standards

Standard 2: World History.
Standard 3: Geography
Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government

PCSD Standards:

Lifelong Learner
Critical Thinker
Effective Communicator

Essential Questions:

Are modern civilizations more civilized than ancient civilizations?
What is a renaissance?
How has the European Renaissance influenced our lives?
How does historical fiction better help us understand the past?

Content knowledge:

Declarative

Students will understand every learner has strengths.
Students will understand there are many routes to a learning goal.
Students will understand optimal learning occurs when material is focused slightly above level of mastery.
Students will understand their roles as learning partners.
Students will understand the value of positive interdependence.
Students will understand when to seek assistance from resources.
Students will understand the continuum of information technology.
Students will understand the term ratio and its importance to the Renaissance.
Students will understand how Newton’s Third Law of Motion affects objects in the physical environment.
Students will understand how scientific discoveries affect history.
Students will understand how scientific observations affect our understanding of the universe.
Students will understand how characterization in fiction makes history more meaningful.

Procedural

Students will be able to identify their strengths.
Students will be able to use resources to maximize learning.

Students will be able to acknowledge individual talents.
Students will be able to set individual and group goals.
Students will be able to write written responses to an invitation.
Students will be able to use multiple strategies to solve word problems representing life and art in the Renaissance.
Students will be able to explain characterization in fiction.
Students will be able to explain point of view.
Students will be able to identify major constellations in the night sky.
Students will be able to use compass directions and seasons to locate constellations.