First Lessons Using Design Thinking Process

At the school that I work at, each teacher is required to have an overall essential question for their class and an essential question for each unit that they teach. The example that is below is from a 10th grade US History class.

The Overall Essential Question: How Achievable is the        American Dream?  

Before students are introduced to historical content, they will use the Design Thinking Process (DTP) to analyze the American Dream. Below are a unit plan with learning objectives and lesson plans for each step of the process and so that you can see how it can work both at the macro and micro level. Additionally, you will also see how using the words of Design Thinking will help influence students to think in the DTP framework even if the learning objectives are not specifically going through the process. Lastly, you will also see how I have incorporated quizzes and tests into the Unit to provide opportunities for students to practice their test taking skills for standardized tests.