Timeline
When thinking about a timeline for your IMP, you need to consider whether the project will take a day, several days, a week or a month. You also need to decide whether the IMP will be done during the regular class period, during blocks of school time, or as homework.
Teachers and students both benefit from a timeline for the IMP with specific due dates and regular check ins. This kind of timeline will help students learn how to manage their time, take more responsibility for their work, and schedule the small steps that will lead to the finished project. More frequent check ins may be especially helpful for at-risk students.
How detailed the timeline needs to be depends on the content goals, objectives, and essential questions that need to be answered by doing the project. Your students' ability to follow through and their technology skills also need to be taken into account as you develop the project timeline.
Here are some of the other things to consider:
- How much time will the students need for the project in order to meet the goals, objectives, and essential questions?
- What else needs to be included to make the timeline helpful for you as the teacher?
- What needs to be included to make it helpful for the students?
- What tool will you use to make the timeline: Google Docs Spreadsheet, Google Docs Word document, to-do list on the class web site or wiki page, paper calendar in your classroom?
- Understanding your project needs and knowing your students, how detailed does a timeline need to be? Does it need to be more detailed for at-risk students? Does it need to be more detailed for enrichment activities for gifted students?
- Anticipate problems: it is always best to build some slack into your timeline because problems will inevitably come up.