Welcome to the Woodshop

For teachers This page follows stage 1 of Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe): results first, then the evidence, then the plan.

Transfer goal. On their own, when something at home or in the woodshop isn't working, students find the real problem first, then plan, build and test a fix. They use the same four steps in every capstone after Unit 1.

Students will understand that

1. A tradesperson is a problem-solver. Every trade shares that one skill.
2. Woodworking is making useful things out of wood. Useful means it does a job. A woodworker cuts wood into pieces, then joins them together.
3. Each trade has its own tools, but every trade measures, plans and works safely. So what you learn in the woodshop goes with you, to any trade.
4. Good builders find the real problem first, plan before they build, and test what they made. A test that says "not yet" sends you back to think again, and that is part of the work.
5. Pros often make a template first, from a cheaper material. A prototype is a first model you learn from.

Essential questions

1. What is the real problem here, and how do I know?
2. Why do builders plan before they build?
3. What do all the trades share, even with different tools?
4. How do I know my build works?

Students will know

• The six crew builders and what each one does.
• The six places in the front room and what each is for.
• What woodworking is, and what useful means.
• That plywood is thin layers of wood glued together, the layers crossing, which makes it strong.
• That pocket holes hide the screws that join a stool's steps to its sides.
• What a trade is, and what six trades fix: electrician, plumber, mason, welder, HVAC tech and roofer. And Mr. Spinozzi's own trade, carpenter.
• The four steps: Think, Plan, Build, Test. And the pro words: Assess, Plan, Build, Evaluate.
• The three ways to plan a build: write your ideas down, draw a sketch, or make a template.
• What a bird needs from a birdhouse: a roof, a small door, a perch and a seed tray.
• The five Shop Tips (one on each stop page).
• Shop words (on each stop page, and printable 3).

Students will be able to

• Find who does what on the crew.
• Find the parts of a wooden step stool, and say how its pieces join.
• Match six fixes to the trade that does each one.
• Put the four steps in order on a real job.
• Find the real problem in a small problem at home, and tell a plan to fix it.
• Make a plan for a birdhouse: a checklist, one extra and a drawing with labels.
• Build a cardboard birdhouse from a build card, or draw it.
• Check it against the checklist, and name one thing to change next time.

Predictable misunderstandings (as the lessons answer them)

Stage 2, the evidence, in one line. The performance task is the capstone birdhouse, planned with a checklist and a drawing, built from cardboard or drawn, and checked line by line against the checklist. Other evidence: the one game in each lesson, the warm-up questions at the start of Lessons 2 to 4, the things to try at home, the observation checklist and the reflection slips. Section 6 has the detail.

Stage 3, the plan, in one line. Each lesson is one job by letter, on the same eight beats: Arrive, The Letter, The Huddle, Look, Play and Find It (one game), Write Back, Try It at Home and Job Done. The capstone keeps Arrive, The Letter, The Huddle and Write Back, and puts the four steps in the middle: Think, Plan, Build and Test.

A sample block

For teachers

The settings in each lesson

On every setting, a wrong tap gets a clue, and a second miss lights the right answer alone. A drawing in place of a built birdhouse skips the two checklist lines that need a real model: it stands up on its own, and the gentle tap.

Foundations (7 to 10) and Builder (11 to 13)

Readers and pre-readers. Every line is spoken, by Mr. Spinozzi in his own voice or a crew kid in theirs, and shown in the speaker's bubble. Every Try It at Home card is read aloud in the lesson. Every step on Hana's build card is said by Hana. On paper, pre-readers can draw their reflection or say it while a parent or teacher writes it.

A kid who needs more time

• Replay any lesson. The beats are the same every time, so the shape is familiar.
• Split the capstone. The lesson waits at Build for as long as the build takes.
• Draw the birdhouse instead of building it.
• Do the thing to try at home out loud together.

A kid who wants a challenge

• The Builder goals on any stop page.
• The harder capstone checklist.
• The extensions below.
• Teach the four steps to a younger kid, with the Four Steps card.

Access notes

• In the woodshop, Rosa uses a purple wheelchair and Leo wears hearing processors. They are simply part of the crew, and the lessons never make them the topic.
• Seated builders: set the table height so the box and the tape sit at a comfortable reach.
• A kid who can't cut can still build: a parent or teacher cuts, and the kid tapes, folds and colors.
• Lessons are made for a computer or a tablet held sideways.

At home, in a class, in a co-op

Extensions

For teachers , and families who want more. Each uses what the family or class already has.