GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Guiding Principles: Project

CROSS-GRADE TEAMS

Having cross-grade teams creates a more authentic learning environment as each grade will bring their knowledge. It provides opportunities for teamwork and leadership. It also provides a means of accommodating different students as older students become mentors and helpers for younger students.

AUTHENTICITY

As Friesen (2009) notes in What did you do in School today?, students should be asked to undertake work that is worth their time and attention. Our approach demands students to understand the opportunities and challenges that are involved when trying to make a difference. They will complete work with the expectation that it can be implemented and will be shared with the community, not an end result that will be filed away in a cabinet.

INTERDISCIPLINARITY

This unit plan is interwoven with Social Studies, Science, and English concepts. We purposefully designed the unit plan to be interdisciplinary because we believe that engaging students through these disciplines allows them to apply the skills they are learning in their discipline-based classes in a holistic manner and allows for multiple entry points. They will learn to consider other perspectives and analyze from multiple viewpoints and lenses (Friesen et al 2015; Jacobsen, M., Lock, J & Friesen, S., 2013; Strober, M., 2010).