Follow+My+Lead

Class/grade: Fourth Age group: 9-10 School: Alsup School code: 7346 Title: Follow my Lead Teacher(s): Lewis, Painter, Morgan, Patel (Angus) Date: October, 2008 Proposed duration: 20 hours over 4 weeks

1. What is our purpose? To inquire into the following: • transdisciplinary theme How we organize ourselves An exploration of human systems and communities; of the world of work, its nature and its value; of employment and unemployment and their impact.

• central idea Individuals impact society through their roles as leaders.

Summative assessment task(s): What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for? Students will set a goal that utilizes their individual their leadership qualities to impact society. Students will then prepare a paper or oral presentation explaining the goal.

2. What do we want to learn? What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry? Causation, connection, responsibility

What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

• Understanding leadership • Qualities/characteristics that individuals possess • Leaders create change • Connection between students themselves and leaders

What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

1. What is leadership? 2. What qualities do individual leaders possess? 3. What changes have leaders created? 4. What qualities do you have that are similar to a leader?

3. How might we know what we have learned? This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?” What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills? What evidence will we look for? As a whole group, students will brainstorm a list of leaders and the qualities that make them a leader.

What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for? 1. Students will record the qualities of a famous leader on a graphic organizer that includes supportive statements for each quality. 2. Students will complete a questionnaire self-assessing their own qualities. 3. Students will complete a short narrative. 4. A list of social problems and solutions will be created by groups of students.

4. How best might we learn? What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions? 1. Using videos, books and technology, students will explore the lives and qualities of famous leaders, both past and present. 2. Through questionnaires and role-playing, students will self-assess their own qualities. 3. Students will write a short narrative describing the qualities they possess that are similar to a famous leader. What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the attributes of the learner profile? 1. In cooperative groups, students will identify current social problems and brainstorm possible solutions. 2. Students will be given a block of time to practice being a leader of the class. A peer and self-reflection will follow the block of time.

5. What resources need to be gathered? What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available? High school student body president; United Streaming; McGraw-Hill; online questionnaires; related literature; power point.

How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry? Blocks of time to practice being leaders; high school student body president; social problems in the community; cooperative groups

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose? Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students’ understanding of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and teaching of the inquiry should be included. Students can distinguish between a leader and a famous person. Students taught a 10-minute lesson to their classmates that utilized the leadership qualities. After this activity, many students realized how a teacher feels while conducting lessons in the classroom. This activity promoted a great deal of empathy and self-reflection on the part of students. A few students were able to give a speech about how to utilize their leadership traits to solve a problem such as homelessness and obtaining a computer for each student. Students use new vocabulary in their everyday conversation. Students definitely understand the qualities that leaders possess to impact the world-either positively or negatively. How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea. Students needed more time to complete the task and to give specific examples on achieving the goal they set. We should define the scope of a societal problem to one in school or at home for students to focus on. We should definitely add an action piece to the assessment.

What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and the transdisciplinary theme? At this time, there was no evidence of a connection.

7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP? What were the learning experiences that enabled students to: • develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to learn?” • demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills? • develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes? In each case, explain your selection. During this unit, students created a class list of leadership traits, studied different leaders and their impact on changes in society. Each student completed a profile quiz that gave a picture of his or her leadership qualities. Many students made a connection between themselves and the leader they researched throughout the unit. Student gave speeches and presentations about their research. Each student was required to give a 10-minute presentation teaching classmates about a topic. Each student completed a peer and self-reflection after completion of the 10-minute presentation. Students worked in cooperative groups to identify social problems and possible solutions. Students were both risk-takers and communicators when presenting to their classmates. They showed cooperation while working in a group. Students were very reflective about themselves as possible leaders during this unit.

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning? Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning. 1. Is Saddam Hussein or Adolf Hitler a leader?

At this point teachers should go back to box 2 “What do we want to learn?” and highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the inquiries.

What student-initiated actions arose from the learning? Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability to reflect, to choose and to act. One student, who had lived in a homeless shelter at one time, related that information to her classmates and exhibited a great deal of empathy for homeless people.

9. Teacher notes

Lesson 1 Opening Anticipatory Set: Show ten images, students write down what leadership qualities each represented. Ask students:
 * 1) What is a leader?
 * 2) What kinds of leadership traits did we see in the pictures?
 * 3) How do leaders make changes in the world or in our school?
 * 4) Who in this school do you consider a leader?
 * 5) Have you ever been a leader?

Students go into 7 groups. Write three ideas of how they think a leader of the school should act with specific examples. Hang their lists along the tray of the white board. Groups take a gallery walk to view the other group's list. Consolidate into one list.

Each student writes which leadership trait from our list they think is the most important for a leader to have and why.

Lesson 2 Ss connect the International Baccalaureate standards to the 7 leadership traits on the master list that was created during the previous lesson to create uniformity of leadership traits and IB expectations that are promoted at the school level. Students will then have 15 minutes to plan how they will act out a scenario of each trait within a group of three.

Lesson 3 Draw images Discuss opposites/antonyms. Compare and contrast the difference between good leadership skills and bad leadership skills. Ss will talk about the opposites of their leadership traits. Ss look up the opposites of the postitive traits. Take turns presenting.

Create an illustration depicting the opposite of their trait. Present their illustrations. Use doc cam to present.

"Whip around" - name a person or an act that someone participates in if they represent one of the opposites of these traits. Ex: bullies, liars, people who cheat, terrorists.

Lesson 4 Positive/Negative Leaders Think about how one person can make an impact on others. Give examples of positive and negative actions can make pos/neg impacts.

Students write:
 * How has someone made an impact on your life?
 * Was it a positive impact or a negative impact?
 * How did it make you feel?

Students are put in 7 groups. Ss select a leader and read a corresponding article. Ss read it once, then go back again and highlight the times when a leader made an impact. They then fill out a graphic organizer about impacts. After their organizers were done they look up a picture and print it out.

Closing: Ss briefly write about what they could do to make a positive impact on the school or their classmates - it can be a big or small gesture.

Lesson 5

Ideas: find information about leaders when they were 10 years old. What was Obama doing at 10? Abraham Lincoln? Martin Luther King? Michael Phelps?

Lesson 8 Create a slogan