The 4 Commandments of GID for Multiple Sites

Happy Tuesday!

As Buffy mentioned, we are going to give you a rundown of our unit, and hopefully, some awesome readers will be able to give us feedback to help us make it even better. I’m excited to get down to the nitty-gritty and tell you all about our unit plan so far. But before we get into that, I want to talk a little about the unique process of developing a unit for 17 different schools.

As we began planning this unit, it was immediately clear that each teacher librarian on the team had a different vision for their role in the instruction of the unit. Some of us anticipate co-teaching with the 5th grade teachers every step of the way through the unit. Others work in schools where the 5th grade team has been or will go to the Guided Inquiry Institute before teaching the unit, so we feel more comfortable handing the reigns to them. In my building, I could see myself being involved in a  few of the phases while letting the teachers handle the rest.

If there were so many different ideas on our planning team, then how would our unit be received by the rest of the district? Having only ever designed units for my own site, it was an exciting challenge to think about how to develop the unit in a way that was adaptable to every one of the vastly different elementary schools in our district. With varying populations, resources, and experience, the same unit could look different at each site.

For two weeks, I’ve been dwelling on this idea of unit adaptability, thinking about what to tell other educators working on a unit that will reach outside the walls of one site. Here are my commandments of Guided Inquiry when designing for multiple sites:

1. Thou shalt not dictate the roles of the learning team. In my own units, I usually carefully plan out each team member’s roles and responsibilities in the course of the unit. By leaving these roles more open-ended in the science unit plan, we are allowing each learning team to play to their unique strengths and take as much leadership from their librarian as necessary.
2. Thou shalt not limit the options. Our district is headed toward more technology in the next few years, and more devices will give us the ability to use some awesome digital learning tools. But right now, there is a huge discrepancy in digital access between schools, so we can’t exactly mandate a specific tool. Additionally, teachers may have varying comfort levels with instructional technology. Filling our unit plan with options allows for customization at each site.
3. Thou shalt not make them do all the work. In addition to the addendum, “collaborate with your teacher librarian” every step of the way, the planning team is doing the bulk of the work by building handouts, digital folders, YouTube playlists, and other necessary tools for the unit.
4. Thou shalt not forget about the future. More technology, new digital tools, changing student populations… there are a million factors that will influence how this unit is taught next year, in three years, or ten years from now. By building in room for change, we are ensuring that this unit stays relevant, accessible, and exciting for years to come.

Developing this unit has been different from any unit I’ve done before, but I think I’ve grown as an educator, and I’ve certainly become more comfortable with Guided Inquiry Design through this process. I feel very good about our unit plan so far, and I can’t wait to share it with you tomorrow!

Have you designed a unit for more than one site? What commandments would you add to my list?

Kelsey