Frederick Douglass unit
Amplify asked me to build a rich, 12-lesson unit on the American classic, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
My mission was to get kids so excited about the book's powerful message that they'd demand to read and write about it.
Approach
After reading the Narrative, then re-reading it a couple more times with heavy annotations:
I mapped out the book's major plot points, personalities, and themes.
I consulted secondary works and SMEs to refine my thinking about the book.
I devised a culminating project that simulated a real-world event that took place during the Abolition movement.
Then I used my theme mapping to sequence the lessons toward the culminating project.
Insights
A key insight I gathered from feedback session with implementation specialists was that lessons would live or die based on the instructor's notes.
I created a template for building and sequencing instructor's notes to lighten teachers' cognitive load and ensure clarity and completeness in every lesson.
Challenges
The biggest challenge in developing this unit was the numerous layers of editorial input we had to work through, leading all the way up to Q&A.
I learned through this project that products are never the flowering of solitary genius, but are the result of long, patient, consistent teamwork.
Outcomes
I wrote two full units from scratch, substantially re-wrote two others, supervised the development of the program's Holocaust unit, and made revisions to every other unit in Amplify's arsenal.
The program earned the highest marks from the notoriously tough reviewers at EdReports.
