Reflection:

My teaching partner and I both chose the topic of "Solidarity during times of war and genocide." We thought this to be important, because we both believed that students have the right to know about the real story behind the formation of the U.S. especially in the lens of empire. Once we chose this topic, we created two essential questions we wanted students to be able to answer by the end of the unit. This helped us efficiently backward plan using the unit plan template to ensure that students would be able to answer the two essential questions we created. Having the topic and essential questions led us to choose the two case studies we wanted to teach that would help us scaffold and differentiate the material in a useful manner. We approached the summative assessment by asking, "What can students produce based on the content we are teaching and what are different modes of production students should have available to them?" Early on we noticed that some of these questions would not be answered until we meet the students and have more classes with them. The unit plan was changed throughout our summer program in order for it to reflect our class progress and skills.