Unit Timetable:

August 20 or 25 - We will discuss what a unit is and generate a list of possible topics.

August 25 or 27 You will select a topic and sign up with a small group of people (4-5) to work on that topic. We will develop criteria for evaluation of group membership.

September 3 - Each member of the group will bring in 3 books and other related information to share about the topic. Each group member should also bring in copies of the relevant pages from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. These are available on the Internet. Each group member should also find at least one useful reference from the Internet.

September 8 &11 - Every member of the group should become an expert on this topic. Continue to collect resources and read widely on your topic.

September 22 or 24 - Group Work Session- Read Chapter 4. Bring in teaching ideas and be ready to brainstorm other ideas related to the topic. Teaching plans should help children develop "critical understanding, problem solving skills, enjoyment and appreciation, and strategic application of specific skills."

September 29 Unit Draft Part 1 is due. Your group must submit a draft that includes your topic, grade level for which you intend the unit, rationale for why you want to teach this topic, behavioral objectives, preassessment, references and resources list and most relevant pages from the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. Specific guidelines follow this time table. Continue to work on the activities for the unit.

October 13 Unit Draft Part 2 is due. This draft must include: Teaching Activities, and Evaluations of Objectives. Include your first draft with the second. Bring in enough copies of your lessons so that each of your group members can have a complete unit to work on.

October 29- For this work session, you should bring in all have copies of your unit with my comments. Each group member should read and critique the other lessons. Read over your lessons and make necessary revisions for your group to respond to. Use this class time to go over all lessons carefully. Give help and suggestions wisely. I will need a summary of your group activities as a measure of effort and attendance. Check your unit to be sure lessons are arraigned in logical order and that all goals and objectives have been adequately covered. Remember, you are all responsible for the final draft, which will be due on November 10.

October and November - Continue to revise your drafts, I will be happy to consult with group members to give feedback in addition to the comments I make on your drafts. If you do not understand my comments, please come and see me.

Your group should function like a helping group to give each other feedback. Check to be sure that corrections have been made. Be sure that activities, objectives and evaluations match and make sense. All parts should flow logically.

November 10 - Final drafts of Unit due. Include all rough drafts .

Parts of your unit:

Topic, Goals and Rationale Group Section - Give your unit a title that describes the topic. Include the grade level for which the unit is intended. Write at least one goal for each group member. Goals should give an overview of important learning, which should come from the study of this unit. Write a clearly developed rationale several paragraphs in length. Your rationale must include explicit reference to the NC SC of S and should explain why you have chosen this topic for this particular age of children.

Objectives Each person in the group should write 2 objectives that he or she wants to develop into activities. As a group, organize the objectives into a coherent list. Write out a list of 8 to 10 objectives, which cover the important kinds of learning, which you want students to engage in during the unit. Include objectives, which help children develop "critical understanding, problem solving skills, enjoyment and appreciation, and strategic application of specific skills." As you select objectives consider the following questions: What meanings do you wish to convey to your students? What information do you want children to understand more deeply? What areas of appreciation and enjoyment do you hope to foster? What learning strategies will children practice using? What kinds of problem solving objectives can you include? In order to be able to know if the children understand what they are learning, you need to write your objectives in behavioral form. That is, you must use an observable verb in each objective. Do not say, "The student will understand ..." say instead "The student will identify/discuss/ describe/ or write." Number your objectives from 1 to 8.

Preassessment Group Section - Different children at the same grade level will differ widely in how much they know about any given topic. You will need to involve students in planning all units you use in your classroom. In this section of the unit, you need to discuss ways you can assess childrenís knowledge of and interest in the topic. Outline questions you might ask and procedures you might use for gathering data.

References and Resources Group Section - After you have selected a topic and consulted the NCSCofS, you need to research your topic. Go to the University library and to your school library and find out what books and audiovisual resources are available. You should use a variety of children's books, film-strips, and videos with most units. Children will need resources to do their own research. They also need to see and feel as well as hear about a topic. Plan to find materials that will make the topic come alive. Children need hands-on experiences whenever possible. Real things like plants, animals, crafts, rocks, Native American pottery, and various natural resources are examples of invaluable resources. Each group member should also find some information on your topic from the Internet. You need to become an expert on your topic. This means that you need to read widely about your topic. You need good sources for your information objectives and for the information, which you will present in your unit. For this section of your unit make a list of specific books and other resources that you plan to use. Read the books to clarify your content knowledge of the unit topic. List children's books, adult reference books, and audiovisual resources separately. This bibliography must include complete references to sources. Use author (last name first and initials), date in parentheses, name of book (either in italics or underlined, city of publication, colon, publisher. For example: Keats, E. J. (1962). The Snowy Day. New York: Viking. I expect a minimum of 20 to 30 references and the more the merrier.

Relevant Page(s) from the NCSCofS Make a Xerox copy of the pages from the NCSCofS which are most relevant to your topic.

PART 2:

Activities for teacher and student Each group member should take his or her 2 objectives and write an activity for each objective. The activity section will tell what you, the teacher, will do and tell what the students will do. Number your objectives. Describe the activities you will use to help the students master the objective. Include activities you will teach and activities the children will do as guided or independent practice. Include relevant content information in your activity section. Use enough detail for me to clearly understand what you plan to teach and do. As you describe the activities, tell how you will teach and help children learn, do not just mention the concepts. Include key content that you will teach. DO NOT say "I will read a book or show a video" without including the name of the specific book or video in your activity or materials list. There should be 2 activities for each group member.

Activities must have obvious educational value, and be creative. Be sure to have a variety of types of activities. Your activities should promote strategic application of skills rather than provide fragmented skill and drill practice. They should be set in real world contexts as much as possible. Activities should emphasize understanding rather than accuracy. Activities should provide for student involvement in exploring and manipulating materials. List necessary teaching/ learning materials with each activity. Avoid skill and drill worksheets. If you plan to use creative worksheets, they must be included.

You may find teacher activity books, magazines like Instructor, or books like Project Wild that have good ideas for activities for your unit. Use them freely. BUT remember, you must put someone else's ideas into your own words and you must give credit to the source from which you got the idea. Avoid direct quoting when ever possible. These materials should be referenced with the activities and should be included on your list of References and Resources.

Evaluation For each objective and activity, plan a way to evaluate student progress toward the objective. Be sure the evaluation plan clearly matches the objective, is appropriate for the age of students, and will provide you with good feedback. If you plan to give a written evaluation, like a test, include it in your unit. Put each evaluation directly after the appropriate objective, activity and materials. You should have pages that have the following information on each page: (Start each set of these four things on a separate page while you work on your rough drafts, for the final draft you may want to conserve paper.)

Objective, Activity, Materials, Evaluation

Rough Drafts If you hand-write your rough draft, please write on one side of the page only. Don't just pull pages out of a notebook. Try for neatness. I need neat drafts in order to be able to read them and give you good feedback. Word processing is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Use a separate page for each objective, mode, materials, activity, and evaluation. Staple together pages of each draft. SAVE all rough drafts! They must be turned in.

Final Draft The final draft of your unit must be typed! If each group member types his or her own section try to use compatible fonts. I would advise using a word processor for all drafts. Although I will accept readable rough drafts, which are not typed, editing on a word processor is a breeze. You do not have to recopy the whole thing. Remember to turn in all rough drafts with your final copy. Use a large paper clip to clip together the two rough drafts and your final draft. Do not staple all the drafts together. I do not want any folders or any of those plastic holders. Yes, you should include the pages from the Standard Course of Study with your final draft also.

Try to make your unit the highest quality you can. In order to earn an "A" on your unit and lesson plan, the final drafts must be close to perfect. Anything, which was confusing to me, must be clarified. There must be no spelling or grammatical errors - this includes typos. Use spell checkers on word processors and/or see the people in the writing center if you have problems in these areas. I will try to catch errors as I read drafts but I make no guarantees. Be sure to complete your final draft in time to carefully proof read for mistakes. YOU are responsible for a clean, clear, excellent model to take with you to student teaching. Use these instructions to check your final draft. Be sure to follow directions carefully. In order to grade the final draft, I must have your rough drafts.