Working with Colleague-3

My colleague and I met Thursday after school. We decided that we would begin our unit the third week of September 2009. Wanda will provide Language Art instructions, while I will provide the Science instructions for our students. Our students will be switching classrooms during this instructional time. We reviewed the three facets of understanding that she will base her teaching instructions on.
1. Students will assume the role of a Monarch Butterfly and/or caterpillar and write a story about their life.
2. Students will document their observations from a microscope picture of an aspect of a Monarch’s life.
3. Students will analyze facts from Nonfiction text and Websites.
The essential questions for Language Arts are:
How do we search for information/answers on a specific topic?
How do we analyze facts into our words?
How do we document changes in living organisms?
I explained the WHERETO’s to my colleague and we discussed the seven learning styles. She uses the seven learning styles in her teaching, but found the language different.
The first two weeks of school we will be introducing the attributes of insects. I will demonstrate how to use my Kidspiration template on the Smart Board. I have used this template in the past to help my students rethink their new learning. Wanda and I decided to do a cooperative project with our students. Working in groups, they will create insects out of a variety of materials.