Phase 1 Sample
Phase 1: The prelude in which the classroom teacher and the teacher librarian announce/construct the umbrella question, build background knowledge with learners, build basic expertise in a topic/problem, promote essential hard and soft skills, encounter the basics or inquiry, use technology assists, and build some type of product to share with other learners in the class.
The steps below investigate the various steps of an umbrella question learning experience where deepening content knowledge is supported by various types of process skills.
Step 1: Based on the classroom teacher’s content expectations, the teacher librarian pulls from the repertoire of the LIIIITES Model, and using the Problems/possibilities jigsaw model, the best strategies that will boost deep learning, creativity, and collaborative intelligence. Appropriate assessments by both adults are designed.
Example: Based on the desire to help every student have a disaster plan for their family, the teacher librarian and the classroom teacher choose to incorporate the best of the information world and the instructional design needed to stimulate the best result for every learner. Assessments will include both individual and group knowledge, hard and soft skills.
Step 2: The adults develop the umbrella question under which individual or small groups of students will concentrate their efforts.
Example: How can I and my family survive a particular disaster that might happen to me/us?
Step 3: The classroom teacher and teacher librarian introduce the umbrella question and give students a choice of what subtopics they would like to investigate either as an individual or as a small group.
Example: For your location, urban or rural, what kinds of disasters might we study? Fire, earthquake, shooting, flood, tornado, etc. Then form groups or individuals that want to study a particular disaster in depth. Scenario: Your family has just survived a __________ but you decide that many mistakes were made. You decide to make a new plan for that disaster just in case it happens again.
Step 4: Adults help students accomplish their investigations using a wide variety of information sources and technology that will help them learn what they need to learn and produce some sort of product that will help others in the class understand what they know and can do.
Example: Individuals and small groups work on the question: What could I and my family do to survive ____________the best way possible? What kind of product would help the whole class survive the disaster I/we chose to study? The adults guide the students through the creation of some informative product for the family.
1. Click here for The LIIIITES Model poster and further resources.
2. The Problems/Possibilities Jigsaw Models can be found in the book referenced below: Loertscher, David V., Carol Koechlin, and Sandi Zwaan. Beyond bird units! Thinking and Understanding in Information-Rich and Technology-Rich Environments. Refresh Edition. Learning Commons Press, 2011. Available from: LMCSource.com
