Having trouble finding a topic?  Do you have a topic that seems kind of interesting but not really exciting?   Consider the difficulties these pilot teams had.

 

Making Winter Positive  This team struggled for three meetings to find a topic, but stuck with it and came up with a unique and useful unit.  The science teacher had some physical science benchmarks to cover and wanted to do something with temperatures.  The social studies teacher needed to cover northern Europe and was interested in comparing regions. The mathematics and English teachers were confident that they would be able to make their topic areas fit anywhere.

 

Should rivers be dammed?  This team quickly settled on the topic of rivers.  The Science teacher had been wanting to do something on rivers, and the Social Studies teacher was immediately interested in the topic because of the issues around the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.  The English teacher and the Mathematics teachers could see strong connections with their disciplines.  Many resources and local tie-ins came to mind; however, they did not want a topic that would just meander around.  Although the team was not particularly excited about the topic, they trusted that the unit development process would work to give their unit an edge. 

It was not until Step Three, when a focus question is defined, that there was excitement.  When they thought of the focus question “Should rivers be dammed?”, the topic suddenly had an edge and a higher level of critical thinking  for students.  The resources they had thought of fell into line and new resources came to mind.

 

At this point, you might have a topic idea that feels like it could work.  This is a topic you should explore.  However - decide to be flexible.  Don’t get attached to a topic you may need to discard later.