Early Planning

Kimberly and I have decided to focus our unit on financial literacy, a new hot topic in Michigan schools. It was very important to me that our unit would be beneficial and useful to Kimberly, and I am glad that we were able to find a topic that she will be able to use in her classroom. We have been brainstorming and comparing ideas through email for the last couple weeks, and I am pleased with our progress so far. I think we are both making a good effort to think critically about the unit and respond honestly to the ideas that are presented.

We created several essential questions for our unit, and we are prepared to make changes or fine tune our questions as we progress through the process. As we saw another group do, we also divided our questions into essential questions for the students, for the media specialist, and for the classroom teacher.

Student Essential Questions

1. What are sources of income and how do education and career choices affect income?


2. What is the difference between wants and needs?


3. How does a savings account differ from a checking account?


4. How is a credit card different than a debit card?


5. What are some types of investments?
   

Teacher Essential Questions

1. How can I incorporate the benchmarks for the Jump Start Coalition with the Benchmarks for Career and Technical Education?
   
2. What are ways that I can get the students to understand that financial literacy can affect them for the rest of their lives?


3. What are ways that I can take this information and make it relevant to the students’ lives?
   

Media Specialist Essential Questions

1. How can I ensure that the assessment is an accurate reflection of student performance?


2. How can I ensure that there are enough appropriate resources for each student, and that students have the proper skills to locate the resources?


3. How can I communicate the successful collaboration with teachers, administrators, parents and the community?


4. How can I ensure that the special needs of individual students are met?
   

We have also decided on a preliminary division of tasks. Again, we realize that these may have to be altered as we delve deeper into our unit. We also fully anticipate working together to plan for many of the tasks.

Division of Unit Tasks

Unit Narrative Intro - Susan
Roles (with explanatory paragraph) - Susan
Essential Questions - both
Standards (Tech and Academic) - Kimberly
Standards (AASL) - Susan
Assessments (with input from Kimberly) - Susan
Communicating Assessment - Susan
Student Accommodations (special needs and culturally underrepresented students) - Susan
Demographics/Student Info - Kimberly
Lesson Plans (with input from Susan) - Kimberly
Resources (print and electronic) - both
Organization/Page Layout - Susan

Looking Ahead

Our next step is to begin setting up our unit on the wiki. We have already had a chance to discuss the format, and Kimberly has found some clip art to add interest to our unit. By next week, we will have our basic layout arranged and can begin adding content to our pages.

I feel that Kimberly and I are on track for a successful collaboration. So far, everything has gone well, and I am pleased with our progress. We have had excellent communication, and I expect our teamwork to continue throughout the semester.