https://fog-alpaca-7a7.notion.site/The-Water-Cycle-Unit-4ca902c5cee84ed180933b45d7fd0ff3
Hi Zoe, Kathryn, Alecia, Hannah, and Morgan. Thank you for sharing your interactive resource about the water cycle. I love your chosen topic because it is so important to learn the water cycle, and it is not complex to understand for the learning context you have chosen.
Overview: I enjoyed reading the overview and thought you outlined the project very well. You mention your learning demographic, the importance of teaching the water cycle, and what skills students will have once they have completed the learning resource. This makes it easy for the reader to understand the goal and rationale behind choosing to teach the water cycle. I also thought adding how to navigate the website to reach the lessons helpful, and this is especially important if your learning demographic is Grade 2 students who may still be new to using technology or online platforms.
Learning Resource on Notion: I thought your choice of using Notion to display the learning resource is an excellent idea as it makes it easy to find the information that learners need. The headings and the information are shown clearly as well. One suggestion I have about the format of the homepage is adding pictures since your learning resource is focused on teaching Grade 2 students. Visuals in classrooms encourage students to make connections with the material much quicker than written content (Bowman, 2018). I noticed that you perfectly used visuals in your lessons.
Learning Outcomes: I like the learning outcomes that you have chosen, as they are short and precise. The reader can see clearly what students will learn after completing the lessons. One suggestion is adding two more learning outcomes because there should be as many learning outcomes as there are people in your learning pod. Perhaps another learning outcome could be focused on teaching how students can play an active role in taking care of water resources and connecting this idea to the water cycle. This would allow students to interact and combine their learning from the first lesson that identifies the importance of water.
Lessons: I believe your lessons are very organized and easy to follow along, especially with the numbered sections, so students know when they can move to the next step. A suggestion I have is adding citations when you are explaining the steps in the water cycle. Adding citations provides more information to the learners as they can refer back to the source for more information if needed. I also thought the language you used for the lessons was excellent for Grade 2 students to learn.
Diverse Learners: Your plan for inclusion is well thought out, and I liked your ideas on the considerations to support each diverse learner. I also thought adding how to use subtitles on YouTube in the lessons is a great idea to help learners who have hearing loss or students who would prefer to see the subtitles while learning. I would suggest clarifying the two contexts your group has chosen for diverse learning (colour blindness, English language learners, loss of hearing, or a different chosen context, etc). Another suggestion is adding a section that explains your learning demographic. You mentioned that you are teaching Grade 2 students, but I recommend adding a rationale to why you have chosen this age group and how your lessons are created to match the learning stage the learners are currently in.
Overview of Assessment: Your chosen assessments were well thought out for the learning context that you have chosen. One suggestion for the final copy is adding how each learning outcome is assessed in this section. This would allow the reader to understand better how the outcomes are connected to the bullet points you have created.
Overall: I really like your learning resource on Notion, and you have all done a fantastic job organizing the website to make it accessible and easy to read. It shows that you have spent time and effort creating the unit. Overall, my suggestions are: adding more visuals, in-text citations, two more learning outcomes, more specific on diverse learners, a learning context section, and a connection between learning outcome and assessment. Great job on your interactive learning resource draft, and I look forward to seeing your final draft.
References
Bowman, J. D. (2018). Making the Most of Visual Aids. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/making-most-visual-aids/