THE FOCUS OF THE UNIT

This unit is designed to foster entry-level desktop publishing skills with the following software: Microsoft Word, Adobe PageMaker, and Adobe Illustrator. The overarching understanding goal is for students to come out of Desktop Publishing with both a critical eye that appreciates the design and presentation of publications and the ability to design, construct, and publish meaningful, self-reflective products. The activities in this unit all involve creating simple documents in the above applications, which are ultimately merged into the final product - a set of individually designed holiday cards produced by students for their community members.

Students are assessed throughout the unit based on their completion of individual steps towards the final product. For example, students first learned how to word process with Microsoft Word and were assessed on their completion of a thank you letter to community businesses. These individual letters were then combined and evaluated by the class to form one standard letter to be used in the final holiday cards. School administrators mailed the students' cards as an expression of appreciation to community organizations and individuals.

THE CONTEXT OF THE UNIT

At the beginning of the 1997-98 academic year, the Desktop Publishing course at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School was a good site for applying the Teaching for Understanding framework to a curriculum using new technologies. The school was beginning its second year of a five-year Technology Plan to realize its magnet theme as Boston's technology high school. The school was equipped with a state-of-the-art laboratory of Macintosh computers.

The energetic teacher Susan Strand had an advanced degree in Education and 30 years of teaching and administrative experience. She had taught the Desktop Publishing course only once before, however, and had limited familiarity with the software and no money for support materials such as textbooks, tutorials, or extensive training. She knew that she needed to teach Microsoft Word, Adobe PageMaker, and Illustrator, but she did not have a lot of practical experience with or knowledge of these software programs. Susan did understand the school's learning standards and the need to facilitate the students' design, construction, and publication of meaningful products that reflected their own thoughts and feelings.

Susan was assisted by Kirsten Johnson, a graduate student at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Kirsten was a former high school journalism teacher and publication advisor who was familiar with publishing software, but not with urban education issues. Together, Susan and Kirsten were able to collaborate in way that allowed each to share skills with the other. While Kirsten was able to help Susan with new technologies, Susan was able to share her vast classroom teaching experience and especially her knowledge of urban education issues. Through her work at Harvard, Kirsten learned about the Teaching for Understanding project and applied its framework in her consultation with Susan. Neither Kirsten nor Susan received much support in learning how to work with TfU.

Approximately 20 students were enrolled in each of two sections of the Desktop Publishing Course. The majority of students were immigrants, several of whom spoke little English. Over half the students were classified as Special Education students and many of them had difficulty reading directions. Students whose academic skills were at grade level and who spoke English tended to move along faster and ended up coaching the other students through the unit.

The Community Holiday Card unit was the first of several units throughout the course that Susan and Kirsten designed with the TfU framework. It was intended to allow students to work collaboratively on small projects that culminated in the publication and presentation of their work.

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• A Detailed Look at the Unit