Task 5 - Group Written Reflection

● We formed a Social Studies PLT after “how might we” problem of practice questions
revealed similar themes in i​ ssues considering engagement and integration of
planning routines necessary to support assessment and scaffolding​.
● Our the initial group question considered “​ How might we use formative inquiry in
Social Studies to discover student’s needs and engage them to build knowledge
and skills?”
● The initial question considered both UDL (discover students needs) and inquiry-based
(formative inquiry) mindsets, and we first worked through the UDL mindset in our
inquiry. This UDL discovery with Josh Hill​ ​allowed us to realize​ we wanted to ​engage
students ​in a task of learning ​to get them talking and collaborating​ to make
meaning​.

● We further hybrided the “how might we” during Inquiry-based discovery with David
Scott, ​establishing ​a​ ​learning intention for students to consider Canada’s
national identity​ and how that affects governance systems and people
(nationalism, multiculturalism, immigration, regionalism).​ From there we consider
a i​ nquiry-based “hook” for students by promoting them to investigate a
professional Social Studies mindset​, and we brainstormed through Historian,
Journalist and Political Scientist occupations.
● We opted for the task of s ​ urvey polling as Political Scientist​ as it allowed us to
support summative learning tasks for students which​ require them to explain,
support, interpret and defend communication considering historic and modern
national unity, sovereignty, minority rights, multiculturalism, immigration and
two-tiered governmental systems (regionalism).
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● We ​prototyped two unit plan sketches, Inquiry-Based and UDL-structure​ and
engaged our​ ​prototypes in peer review and instructional feedback​ (see attached
documents)
● Feedback helped us​ further refine our unit plan as we ​considered learning
indicators, assessment loops, subtasks and representations of learning​; we
established a H
​ OOK inquiry question for the unit of “what is Canada’s core
national identity?”​ and began articulating routines across weekly thematic planning
sequences.

● As designers we most appreciated e ​ xploring professional mindsets in

Discipline-Based Inquiry​. We also gained a g ​ reat value in the UDL when
considering d ​ esign driven backward which seeks to attend to student
engagement and summative assessment requirements in tasks​.
● To conclude revisions before testing solution during practicum, we participated in
another round of instructional feedback. During this session we c ​ onverged on a
solution which centres around building an infographic style overview of the
Political Science design-thinking process students will work through in weeks
3-7​, during which time they will work to create an opinion poll on Nationalism.