It's all Greek to me!

Rachel and I spent hours pouring our hearts, minds, brain matter, cookies and the like into developing a Unit Plan that would be engaging, motivating, historical and sincere to a group of students we didn't really know. It was not easy, to say the least. 

It was frustrating. Let's say that. 

Direct Lesson is important, I know this. My Constructivist ways, aka Hippie Ways, feels different. But Direct Lessons are needed. Sometimes I feel we throw so much Inquiry Based Learning, Cooperative Based learning into theory and debate that we stop talking about the importance of Direct Lesson. It is so important. As Rachel and I began the process of constructing a durable Direct Lesson, we found ourselves changing and reformatting and changing yet again almost all of our work. Here, we would agree, we have our prerequisites done. And then we would begin the lesson only to realize, oh actually we don't. We would move onto Inquiry and realize that we had to take a step back because that wasn't covered in Direct. Cooperative would have forged ahead, and then we would stop and look at each other with panic, realizing we hadn't touched on the topic during Direct. Direct was the master key, everything else was just extra. 

Now that we have created our Unit Plan, run through it with one another, taught it to a class, I can say wow. Even after all our careful planning, scrutiny and demands of our Unit Plan, it still wasn't enough. And it was good! It had hiccups, many, but it was good. The kids were engaged, they were motivated, they were given tasks that were approachable and friendly but scholarly and demanding. It was so exhausting. 

What can I say about Direct Lesson? I need to keep studying it, it is the beast of burden of the Unit Plan, it paves the way for higher order learning. In a way it is the glue to the Unit Plan, the chore that must be done before anything else. 

Because up my sleeve I have some really cool riddles for us to solve.