PHASE 1

Q: Which knowledge, skills, and understandings will I develop in this unit/project?

You will begin by identifying the key knowledge, skills, and understandings students need to successfully explore the world and take meaningful action. This is the foundation of your unit, as we ignite student passions and introduce global issues, ensuring that learners develop the skills and knowledge to engage critically, creatively, and compassionately. The ABLE phase aligns with your school’s standards and curriculum while setting the stage for deeper inquiry, purpose, and action in later stages.

Before beginning the Empathy to Impact stages, we need to clarify which knowledge, skills, understandings, or learning objectives we are helping students to develop through this teaching experience.

ABLE Steps:

• Step 1: Unpack your school’s curricular standards by selecting the academic content and skills to target in your unit or project design:
  What disciplinary knowledge or cross-disciplinary skills are essential for this unit? Which of your school’s curricular standards or learning outcomes will guide this unit?

  Familiarize yourself with your existing curricular learning outcomes, then summarize them here.

• Step 2: Write learning objectives that are clear and student-centered. Consider including key concepts, vocabulary, skills such as inquiry, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, or critical thinking

• Extension: Consider readiness and growth, and explore principles of Universal Design for Learning when considering your diverse learner population. Reflect on possible pre-assessments and formative assessments of key vocabulary, skills, and concepts. Use this data to scaffold these targets in your lessons.

Plan sufficient time for skill practice, reflection, and feedback.

Further Guidance:

Co-Curricular, Student Leadership, After-School Activities and Experiential Learning.

Whether the learning experience you’ve chosen is part of the curriculum, part of an advisory program, part of an after-school activity, part of a student leadership group or club, or an experiential learning trip, we must identify the key skills we aim to develop in our students. Clarity and articulation are key in all contexts.

Students might also need to develop other skills and understandings that support their actions. For example, if students are planning to host an event to raise awareness about an issue that they care about and build community engagement, they will need skills related to hosting an event. If they are planning to run a workshop, they may need to develop skills in designing an interactive learning experience for their audience. If students are going to collaborate across SES contexts or successfully navigate intercultural contexts, you may have to identify these supporting skills or non-curricular skills to teach and support. You might anticipate 21st-century skills like systems thinking, leadership, critical thinking, creativity, futures thinking, communication, among others, along with dispositions such as empathy, problem-solving, and resilience.

Review the knowledge, skills, and understandings in your unit and familiarize yourself with them as we will apply them throughout the next four stages of our Empathy to Impact planning.