Designing+a+unit

Designing a Unit

**Let's talk about the semester storyboard**

**Let's talk about a unit storyboard**

**Curriculum theories**   [|curriculum theories.doc] (printable version)

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At MSCD: we embrace [|Backwards Design] (a design strategy by Wiggins and McTighe as found in their Understanding By Design publications). =====

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We will not be exploring that design in this course, but here are the foundational questions to ask yourself REGARDLESS of the design principals: =====

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To implement curriculum, teachers give instruction in thematic segments call units. Consider a book in which you have chapters with subheadings and information, activities, and a logical sequence of information. =====

What is the importance of considering other disciplines in your teaching? Is there an authentic (real world) element?
 Would you teach this unit? If not, what would you change in order to adopt it?

 As you peruse these, pay PARTICULAR note to the activities (or lessons)!

 Elementary:  [] (4th grade Rain Forest)  [] (1st grade Spiders) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> [] (fabulous lessons (k-3)

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> Excellent Middle School Units: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> []

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> High School: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> [] (high school units designed by teams of teachers)

**<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">A typical semester of 9th grade Civics (this is a semester-long course) **
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> So, what concepts, knowledge and skills would be taught? How would we organize that information in a logical manner? What teaching strategies would we use to get students to understand and be able to use the concepts, knowledge and skills? Is there an inclusion of other disciplines? How would we know if the students have mastered understanding?

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> Step One: Consider the time you have to teach the subject. Unfortunately, time is a task master. For secondary schools, a course is taught in 18 weeks. For elementary, it is 36 weeks (the entire year). Of course, many of these days are lost to other activities (field trips, assemblies, no contact days, fire alarms, etc.).

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Step Two: Consider the units that will be taught and the length of time you will devote to each unit.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Step Three: Flesh out: key concepts to cover, knowledge to gain, skills to master.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Step Four: Consider teaching strategies and organization for implementing the unit.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> Let's take a look at the topics that will need to be covered (and uncovered): <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> [|Civics in Action Syllabus.doc]

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> Now, let's take a look at how a teacher writes ONE unit of instruction. Read this carefully--this is what you will be doing in this course!

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> [|genoCurric2.pdf]

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> When I sit down to write a unit, this is the exact process I go through. TRY IT! <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> [|How to write a unit.doc]

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">I've written hundreds of units (some good, some great, some awful), but I've written many. And, as a result of working on many of these collaboratively, this is a process that is sound and will work. Obviously, as you get more experienced, you will adapt it to your personal style or maybe design your OWN process, but PLEASE READ THIS and try it. =====

=**<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">Homework: **=

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;">PART I

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> 1. Go back and review the Scope and Sequence of your first choice of grade level/content area.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> 2. MAKE A DECISION: decide on a unit of instruction (2-3 weeks) you will teach in your grade leve;/content. You will be writing 10 complete technology-driven lesson plans for this unit. That's not to say that these 10 lessons may be the ONLY lessons you would need for the unit, but this will give you an opportunity to build a sample unit with lesson plans.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> 3. Use the form below and complete it based on your ideas of what concepts, knowledge and skills you will need to impart to learners. I know this is hard!! It requires some knowledge that you may not have acquired in school yet, and a great deal of creativity, but this is a huge part of teaching and you need to start thinking about how to do it! And this is a safe place to get a start.



<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> Things to think about before writing lessons: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --what concepts need to be taught <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --what knowledge needs to be mastered <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --what skills need to be attained <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --what is the authentic connection to the students' life <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --how will technology be used to enhance 21st century learning principles

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> PART II

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> 1. OPEN the document below, complete it to the best of your ability, and COPY AND PASTE IT in front of your lesson plan format.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> [|UnitTemplate-r-3610.doc]

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> The two parts of this document (the introduction and the lesson plans) represents one way of writing a lesson plan (albeit, a bit abbreviated). The purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about what content/knowledge/skills need to be taught in scope and sequence units and activities (lesson plans) that would effectively use technology to change the learning and/or teaching environment. For example, if you are writing a unit on Evolution for a 9th grade Biology course, what content and skills do students need to master? If the standards call for Colorado History in the 4th grade, what is the content and skills that students need to know/be able to do in order to meet the standard? If the Middle East is the area of focus for 7th grade social studies, how will you decide (from a vast knowledge base) what is critical for the students to know to understand the Middle East? These are the very beginning questions for designing a unit.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> As stated in your wiki assignment your "Teaching With Technology" page will have a minimum of 10 lessons effectively using different technologies that logically fit into your unit. Please do NOT embed the lesson plans, but DO copy and paste. The reason for this is simple: your lessons will be in a state of revision most of the time. Therefore, if you embed them in your wiki, you will always be downloading them, revising, then uploading. Also, when a hiring principal sees your lesson plans, you do not want them to have to download, then open them. Best to have them "viewable" instantly. However, HOW you organize the lesson plans is up to you. For example, you might want to create a table and then a separate page for each lesson, then create a link within the table. In this case, you would only put a link on the navigation bar to your table. Or, you could create a page with a description of each lesson and then link each lesson to a separate page. The decision is yours, but it must look professional, make logical sense, and be easy for someone to find your products.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> HINT: as you are thinking about inclusions in your unit or your separate lessons, consider that you might be including the following assignment types:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --Introducing a concept <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --Reviewing information <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --Enhancing reading <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --Using technology with writing <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --Small group cooperation/colaberation <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --Research project <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --Real world simulation <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --Presentation of student work (NOT IN FRONT OF CLASS!) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --mapping activity <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --podcasting project (like a radio show) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --timelining project <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> --digital storytelling

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> DON'T try to write your lessons now because you haven't seen the tools you will have to use in writing those lessons. Your job right now is to review the scope and sequence and determine where the above list of inclusions would logically fall.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> Remember: This document is a dynamic document--it will change and grow throughout the semester, so do not think this needs to be finalized today. That's not how curriculum is written--it is a journey, not an event.

<span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 22.4667px;">What do I turn in?
<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> What to turn in: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> 1. The completed chart ("Designing a Unit"). Embed this in your wiki on your Unit of Instruction page (under your embedded Scope and Sequence document)

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> 2. Open the "Intro to Unit", complete it to the best of your ability, and copy and paste it right above your lesson plan format on your Unit of Instruction page.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 120%;"> 3. Send me an email (with your wiki address in your email signature) and tell me you are done!