1. Love, Vanderpool, Wagner
SWHS Redesign
Love, Vanderpool, Wagner

2. Normal Unit - Taught in Isolation
Zombie Unit -
English -
Teaching I am Legend for theme, character, and producing a literary analysis
Only one level of analysis
World Geography
Levels of development taught through population pyramids
Basic understanding of factors that can be inferred from development
Biology
Cells taught at beginning of the year
Bacteria and viruses taught at the end of the year, with taxonomy
Human body systems taught in isolation

3. Redesign Unit - Cross Curricular
Project Driven Curriculum - Zombie Unit (redesigned)
Driving Question: How do I survive the zombie apocalypse? (What happens when there is some sort of disaster) - Knowledge Seekers
Final deliverables:
Prototype: “Go Bag” (Creative Problem Solver)
Justification: Written explanation of items in their go bag
Oral defense: Explaining to their community partner the rationale (Compassionate Communicators)
Community Partner: Expert to evaluate, that students are accountable to

4. TEKS will deviate from District Road Maps
Authentic Project
TEKS as essential knowledge to complete the project
Texts relevant to the project. (Cognitive Flexibility)
Accountable to a community partner.

5. First Project - Failure (Make a change to SWHS)
Expected to fail (Growth Mindset)
Have to conduct empathy interviews to serve the community (Student Ownership)
Every person has a role in the project (even ELL students helping to interview non-native speakers)

6. What we have learned about Empathy
Listen
Be patient
Don’t make assumptions
Don’t answer your own questions
Awkward silence = thinking time