1. DI Project Guide
The color scheme gives you an indication of which boxes we focus on in each session:
Session 1 Lavender Generative Topic Educational Context
Session 2 Light Orange Understanding Goals Strategies for differentiating
learning environment and pace
Session 3 Light Green Entry Points Strategies for differentiating
content
Session 4 Pale Blue Understanding Performances Strategies for differentiating
process
Session 5 Light Yellow Ongoing Assessment Strategies for differentiating
products
Session 6 Rose Second Draft Reflection
Often changing one piece means you have to go back and change something somewhere else. So feel free to put
ideas in sections we have not yet discussed or to return and change sections that you have already worked on.
Then talk about those changes in your study group.
This DI Project Format Guide is meant to be easy to use. Just type over the grey text in each box and you are on
your way to a great project! The blank Project Guide is only 9 pages long, however by the end of your work – it
will be much longer than that!
1
2. Educational Context
Where and how the project will be presented; by and with whom
Unit name: India : A Land of Rich Diversity
Project Title: Learning Is Fun
Population addressed: This would be addressed to the Sixth Graders of The Sanskaar Valley School, Bhopal, India.
I would have two and a half hours to spend with them every week. There are 23 kids in the class from varied and
cosmopolitan background all of Indian origin. I am their Geography Teacher.
Brief Project Description: This project would be taken up with our own school acting as the field study area to the
children to understand the various facts and concepts of the unit “India: A Land of Rich Diversity”. Care would also be
taken so as to integrate and inter link other subjects so that the students can explore their area of strength and make it
an instrument to achieve the learning goals of the chapter. Sample surveys, questionnaires, poem writing, poster
making, power point presentations, charts, stage management, map making, song and play writing and music
composition are the various methods which the students would adopt to walk the path of achieving their learning goals.
Context: This project would be implemented in a day boarding private urban school with children coming from
cosmopolitan background and different learning abilities. The main constrain would be the time factor, with it (the
school) being a day school and a residential school working with the kids during after school hours is ruled out.
Rationale: Through this project the children could actually make use of the physical and human resource of the school
to respect, learn and see the practical applicability of the various diverse facets of India like plant and animal life,
different modes of transport, culture and environment.
2
3. Generative Topic:
Engaging, appropriate, important
India : A Land of Rich Diversity
is the topic central and important to one or more disciplines?
Yes very much so. It integrates subjects like English, Math, Science, Computer Applications, Art and Music.
How is the topic engaging to you and your students (who may be adults), because of your/ their age, needs, passions, backgrounds,
personal strengths and/or experiences?
It would be extremely engaging to the students because they would see their own country unfold its mysteries before them
and while on the project interactions with people whom they otherwise know would reveal so many unknown and
interesting facts.
Is the topic accessible through varied resources that are readily available?
Yes it is accessible through library, interactions with people (sample surveys) and internet.
Illustrate the connections to other topics in the discipline, to other disciplines, and/or to students’ non-school contexts
English:-
Geographical vocabulary and its relevance to cultural descriptions.
Describing cultural differences and listening to descriptions.
Adjectives and nouns to describe
Names of flowers and animals
Descriptive words about beauty of flowers
Locational, directional and descriptive nouns
Reading maps and keys
Reading maps as a part of following a route
Writing as a part of map making
Handwriting as an important cartographic tool
Presentation and play writing
Math
3
4. • Estimating size when describing physical/ human factors
• Handling statistics from surveys
• Measuring time and distance, counting, converting the percentages to degrees
• Shape and plan view
• Measuring down grids and coordinates
• Area as a part of mapping work
• Use of angles in mapping and showing direction on a map
science
Physical features and the processes acting on them. Classifying features
Adaptations of plants and animals
Scientific processes, observation, analysis and recording
Life processes, green plants, flowers, animals as organisms
Habitats
computer applications
Using graphics and ms word and excel to present work on various human culture
Logging and handling data collecting information
Using graphics to make pie charts and bar graphs
Power point presentation
Art
Understanding what gives character to different places and cultures
Recognising visual elements like space, pattern, shape, line, and form in different architecturally important places
Preparation of charts
Pictorial depiction of the collected data
Drawing a sketch map of the school
Poster designing
music
The musical culture and traditions of different places
Writing(composing), songs about birds and flowers and everything beautiful
Identification and appreciation of sounds of nature
4
5. Understanding Goals
focus on “the essentials”: understanding of key concepts,
processes, uses of, and/or genres in the subject matter
Tell how your Understanding Goals focus on “the essentials”: understanding of key concepts,
processes, uses of, and/or genres in the subject matter
(often, but not always, as defined by national, state, or local “standards” and by teachers’ expertise).
Are the goals explicit?
How are the goals made public to the learners?
Do they focus on key concepts, processes, and skills in the subject matter?
Understanding Goals are not behavioral objectives; they define and focus exploration of the Generative Topic.
Question Form Statement Form
5
6. 1.- Why does India have a lot of climatic diversity? 1.- Students will understand that the physical features
of the earth’s surface have an effect on climatic
conditions.
2.- What role does Geographic conditions have to play 2- Students will deepen their understanding that the
in determining the natural vegetation of India? physical features of the earth affect the natural
vegetation.
3.- How do the physical features of India play a role in 3.- Students will understand that the physical features
the peoples’ lifestyle? of India contribute to the climate and vegetation of India
and their lifestyles.
4.- 4.-
6
7. Entry Points
Are different ways a teacher can approach a topic so that students, regardless of their unique blends of intelligences,
experiences, and interests, can find pathways to becoming involved with disciplinary content.
Imagine the topic of study as a room with several doorways --entry points-- through which to enter the room / topic.
The narrative entry point allows access to a Read different stories of ancient India.
topic using a story or narrative related to the Narrate stories of India’s new emerging face and achievements.
concept
The numerical/quantitative entry point • Estimating size when describing physical/ human factors
employs quantitative methods to understand • Handling statistics from surveys
the topic • Measuring time and distance, counting, converting the percentages
to degrees
• Shape and plan view
• Measuring down grids and coordinates
• Area as a part of mapping work
• Use of angles in mapping and showing direction on a map
The existential/foundational entry point What If……
considers the philosophical aspects of the India had a different Geographical location….
concept How would things have been different?
The hands-on/experiential entry point • Map making
invites an approach to a concept through • Play writing and presentation
hands-on investigations • Converting maps
• Measuring areas of different locations in the school
• Nature walk
7
8. •Using graphics and ms word and excel to present work on
various human culture
• Logging and handling data collecting information
• Using graphics to make pie charts and bar graphs
• Power point presentation
• Preparation of charts
• Pictorial depiction of the collected data
• Drawing a sketch map of the school
• Poster designing
• Sample Survey
The social/interpersonal entry point allows • Sample Survey(Here they interview people of different regions of
access to a topic through a social experience the country, noting down all the geographical and cultural
specialties of the region the represent)
• Group Work
The logical entry point accesses a topic Sample Survey and its analysis in a group discussion.
through logical reasoning, examining the
logical relationships and implications of a
topic and applying deductive reasoning
processes
The aesthetic entry point emphasizes
sensory or surface features of the topic and Looking at the various picture clues provided and write your
involves using learning strategies that appeal deductions about India’s landscape and its lifestyle.
to learners who favor an artistic stance
Target Understanding Performances
UG # Show how the performances:
• align with Understanding Goals
• guide student exploration, appreciation and deepening understanding of Understanding Goals
8
9. • engage multiple modes of learning and forms of expression
Include a sequence of activities that ramp up from where students begin, through:
• Introductory performance(s) (in green)
• Guided Inquiry performance(s) (in blue)
• Culminating performance(s) (in yellow)
UG 1, 2 AND 3
• The Children would be narrated stories about the various lifestyles of the people of India.
People of different regions and how physical features, climate and natural vegetation plays an
important role in determining these life styles.
UG 1, 2 AND 3 They would be asked to conduct a sample survey on the various teachers and staffs and
know about their regions and their lifestyles. They would be divided into 6 groups ie. Our
School- A mini India; Plant and Animal life; Transport; Plan of the school; Environment. They
would take help of a questionnaire which they would formulate with my help and then go
about with it in discovering facts. They would interpret various physical, climatic, natural
vegetation and human geography maps to make their understandings more thorough.
UG 1, 2 AND 3
The children would then do a research using the resources available from the library and the
internet to substantiate their findings.
UG 1, 2 AND 3
• The children would then work on the different presentation forms like play,
graphical representations, Power point presentation, Preparation of charts, Pictorial
depiction of the collected data, Drawing a sketch map of the school and Poster
9
10. designing to get a first hand experience of their learning’s. Each of the group would
be given all the above mentioned criteria’s through which they would sum up and
showcase their learning’s.
Show how the Understanding Performances work together to guide students towards the
culminating Performances of Understanding.
The culminating performance is when the students are able to interpret the various maps, draw inferences and
present a play about their topic in the school assembly.
Ongoing Assessments
Align with goals and understanding performances, in that they support assessment of learners’ understanding of the
understanding goals and document student performance
How is assessment based on explicit and public criteria that relate to goals?
Are there frequent assessments with a public rubric?
Are there multiple sources of feedback – self, peer, teacher, other?
How is assessment used to gauge progress and inform planning?
Include example of Culminating Performance of Understanding.
Include a scoring rubric or other documentation of how assessment criteria are presented and used.
Include a list of things your students need to be able to do in order to succeed at this task.
10
11. RUBRICS FOR SCORING THE CULMINATING UNDERSTANDING PERFORMANCE
MAXIMUM MARKS :- 25
11
13. Documenting the DI Strategies used
Specify which DI strategies you plan to use in the different stages of your project
Remember the DI strategies included should be identified based on specific goals.
Goal or reason for choosing DI Name of DI Strategy used If this is not a
Strategy Where did you use the strategy? (UPs, OA, How did you adapt it to TFU element
other) your situation? include a resource
you would
recommend to
others who
wanted to use this
strategy(web site/
book / other)
Readiness / Ability NARRATIVE ENTRY POINT Read different stories of 1. Activities for
ancient India. Differentiated
Narrate stories of India’s classroom
new emerging face and - By
achievements. G.H.Gregory and
C.Chapman
2. Joyful
Learning
- By
Paula Kluth
Learning Profiles/Styles RUBRIC AND 2ND UP Gave 6 entry points to 1. Activities for
meet different learning Differentiated
Flexible Grouping styles and had flexible classroom
Adjusting Questions groupings and modified - By
questions according to G.H.Gregory and
learning styles. C.Chapman
2. Joyful
Learning
13
14. - By
Paula Kluth
Compacting Curriculum RUBRIC AND 3RD UP Made the curriculum 1. Activities for
more comprehensive and Differentiated
Peer Teaching took help of peer classroom
Learning Contracts teaching and learning - By
contracts to help achieve G.H.Gregory and
the summing up of the C.Chapman
content and achieve 2. Joyful
understanding goals. Learning
- By
Paula Kluth
14
