Road+to+Unit+Plan

How to begin our journey....



Think of a "unit" you currently teach that could be altered to include the principles of constructivism.

What are the principles of Constructivism? Constructivism for Teaching and Learning

**Principles of Constructivism**

 * Prior knowledge and experience
 * Knowledge construction
 * Gaining a Deeper Understanding (evolves)
 * Actively engaged (find the experience relevant and interesting to be transferred into personal meaning)
 * Reflection (thinking and pondering about the learning process)
 * Social Interaction (collaborative interactions to gain multiple perspectives and discussions to develop a shared meaning)

Planning/Classroom Practices

 * Student prior knowledge is part of the learning and lesson plan design
 * Planning that acknowledges the needs of the diverse learner and provides support during the learning process.
 * Learning is built around primary concepts and big ideas to make connections to concepts and create meaning.
 * Learning is relevant, meaningful and interesting to the learner. (inquiry, problem-based; authentic). The focus is on the learners interest and experience rather than memorizing facts.
 * Variety of Resources. Resources are selected to support diverse learning needs and to expose learners to different opinions and perspectives.
 * Assessment for learning. Assessments are used as data to guide reflection on the learning and learning process.
 * Collaboration is viewed as an essential piece of learning.
 * Teacher functions as the facilitator and guide. Guiding and coaching students through the process of constructing knowledge.

Standards

 * Standards for Global Learning in a Digital Age (NETS) - Provided by the International Society for Technology in Education
 * Grade Level Expectations
 *  Common Core

Thinking and Learning

 * Costa and Kallick Habits of Mind
 * Bloom's Taxonomy
 * Depth of Knowledge
 * Framework for 21st Century Learning
 * [|Marzano's Levels of Thinking]

Unit Foundation

 * Habits of Learning Taxonomy - higher order thinking skills being targeted
 * Targeted Content, Benchmarks, and Technology Standards
 * Student Objectives and Learning Outcomes
 * Curriculum-Framing Questions (**Introduced Dec. 5th**)

**Curriculum-Framing Questions Examples:**
Which factors are most important? How will structural differences change how fast dominoes fall? What is a control? What is a variable? How can I communicate results to others? What is the relationship between energy, time, distance, force and motion? ||
 * **Essential Question ** || What is my role? ||
 * **Unit Questions ** || How can structural differences be tested? ||
 * **Content Questions ** || What is a factor?

How do officials determine where tax dollars will be spent? Is the allocation of tax dollars balanced fairly? || Who decides where tax dollars are spent? What diseases create the biggest threat to society? How do diseases reproduce and spread? Can viruses be controlled? ||
 * ** Essential Question ** || How does the environment affect life? ||
 * ** Unit Questions ** || How does the rise of disease threaten society and influence political decision making?
 * ** Content Questions ** || How much of a threat are pending viral diseases?

What are the building blocks of life? What are the components of a cell? How do animal and plant cells differ? ||
 * ** Essential Question ** || How do living things survive? ||
 * ** Unit Questions ** || How do life processes contribute to an organism’s survival? ||
 * ** Content Questions ** || What are the seven life processes?

How can understanding fractions make your life easier? || How do you add, subtract, multiply and divide? What are numerators and denominators? How do you change a mixed numeral into an improper fraction? ||
 * ** Essential Question ** || Why does accuracy matter that much? ||
 * ** Unit Questions ** || How can we use fractions to make sure a job is done right?
 * ** Content Questions ** || What is a fraction?

Where do you find cyclical situations? || What are parameters and are they calculated? What do sine and cosine equations show you? ||
 * ** Essential Question ** || How can I define a situation mathematically? ||
 * ** Unit Questions ** || Can all cyclical situations be defined mathematically?
 * ** Content Questions ** || What is the general form of a sine/cosine function?

What are the six traits of writing? What traits of writing does the author use? ||
 * ** Essential Question ** || What's your story? ||
 * ** Unit Questions ** || How do you write a story to make it more interesting? ||
 * ** Content Questions ** || What are the elements of a story?

What impact did early explorers have on the development of America and their home country? || Where did these explorers go? What did they find? ||
 * ** Essential Question ** || What does it take to change the world? ||
 * ** Unit Questions ** || How did early explorers change the world?
 * ** Content Questions ** || Who are some of the early explorers?

Information Literacy

 * What 21st Century Skills should be taught and utilized by students during the unit?
 * How will your organize resources for instructional and student use?
 * How will your resources meet the needs of diverse learners?
 * Information Literacy Skills Action Plan
 * Evaluating and locating credible information
 * Copyright and Fair Use

Unit Plan: Materials and Resources Required For Unit **
 * Add collected internet resources, necessary technology tools and skill development to unit plan.**

Assessment : Create an Assessment Plan using "Intel Assessment Course"

 * Assessment Timeline
 * Assessment Summary

**Example:**
> . || ** Journals to record notes, thoughts/reflections and findings (research). Students will keep daily journals or use Kidblog.org to organize their research, record notes, reflect on daily progress, and to generate questions they might have. Journals are apart of daily participation grades and help monitor student success. Each team will be given a checklist to help them organize each day and assign tasks to their partner or group members. Each class period will begin with face-to-face conferences with the instructor to review the group’s checklist and monitor their progress, which will also be a part of daily participation grades. Each team member will be assessed on their roles as a team member, creating the final product and presenting to the class. Their ability to relate the compounds to their importance in the environment will provide evidence of a deeper understanding of the function of elements and their role in forming compounds. Student projects will be graded with a project rubric. As a class students will decide on what characteristics should be present in the peer review rubrics and self-evaluation. Both rubrics will also be a part of the overall project grade (Depending on class size the projects can be completed as part of a partner or small group activity).
 * == ** Assessment Plan: ** == ||
 * ** Assessment Timeline ** ||
 * ** Before project work begins ** |||| ** Students work on projects and complete tasks ** |||| ** After project work is completed ** ||
 * Brainstorming || KWL || Science Journals || Project Design || Presentation || KWL ||
 * * As a class brainstorm a list of elements that are essential to life. Also discuss prior knowledge of the periodic table and how it is organized.
 * Use Concept Mapping to organize our discussion s. || * Present the unit objectives and complete a KWL chart on SB to check prior knowledge, and generate student questions
 * * As a class brainstorm a list of elements that are essential to life. Also discuss prior knowledge of the periodic table and how it is organized.
 * Use Concept Mapping to organize our discussion s. || * Present the unit objectives and complete a KWL chart on SB to check prior knowledge, and generate student questions
 * Group and class discussions.
 * Daily group or face-to-face conferences using anecdotal notes to assist in checking for understanding of compounds.
 * Use information literacy skills to research compounds made by man or found in the environment. || * Review the project rubric.
 * Brainstorm a list of vital compounds.
 * Design a game that pairs groups of elements to create compounds that are vital to man and/or the environment. || * Gallery Walk with peer review and scoring guide.
 * An oral presentation of how your game works and what compounds you chose and why?
 * Self-evaluation
 * Group evaluation || * After the presentations students will reflect as a class on what was learned during the unit. ||  ||   ||
 * ** Assessment Summary ** ||

=January 9, 2012=

Authentic Learning

 * Additional Resources
 * Holiday Waste
 * Natural Disasters
 * Down the Drain
 * 11 Days that Shaped 2011
 * Ballot or Bullet
 * Slavery Today
 * Wonderopolis
 * Math in Daily Life
 * Get Real
 * Performance Task Examples
 * Creative Educator
 * ThinkQuest
 * Digital Learning Day - Toolkits
 * Connections between classroom and community
 * Engaged in exploring real-world issues
 * Provides answers to...."Why do I need to learn this?"
 * Task should meet "standards" expectations and provide a deeper understanding of the concept