Social Studies program

Learning One to One needed a comprehensive, four-year high school Social Studies program in five courses: Civics, US History, World History, Geography, and Economics.

Approach

The first units were due in four weeks, so there was no time to waste. I dove into:

  • mastering Learning One to One's pedagogy

  • compiling a library of examples to refer to throughout my work

  • examining the scopes & sequences of each course as presented by various other publishers

  • studying the Colorado state standards

Testing

  • I established weekly check-ins with the team leader to present unit ideas, get feedback, and reflect on learnings and insights.

  • I set up a series of feedback sessions with teachers to gather their reflections on the unit content and opportunities for improvement.

  • I took a trip to Bogota, Colombia, to visit model L1to1 schools

Insights

I learned through teacher sessions that variety of options was the name of the game.

I’d ensure that each lesson presented an even broader range of entry points and exploratory pathways.

Challenges

The biggest challenge for me was staying on top of the content. I tracked upcoming units for each subject area, then carefully dissected the language of the Colorado standards for content clues.

This helped guide my research and enabled me to organize the materials I was compiling for input and inspiration.

Outcomes

I delivered all units on time or ahead of schedule, and mastered the L1to1 model so well that they asked me to coach other writers.

A number of my units are still featured on the L1to1 website to show teachers how they’re supposed to be done!

A few years later, L1to1 would also tap me to run year-long trainings in two American schools implementing their model.