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Unit Plans
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11 thoughts on “Unit Plans”
I made this for a woman who needed something called “Purpose Dimension Prompts”
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bLidmMXaq5sKvjycGosW_bx0vfY-RsnKWB4z7d6nNLY/edit?usp=sharing
And this is a non-targeted lesson plan idea I made for a teacher who was required, unbelievably, to have a printed copy of her lesson ON HER DESK daily in case some admin strolled in to look at it and match it up with what she sees in the classroom. It pretty much makes untargeting look like a lesson plan and offers flexibility enough to be doing the “objectives” in the lesson/unit plan.
You could stretch it out, maybe, and make your unit/yearlong goals and plans.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RN4TzPUKULFfIN-bHSHXijgVTKakDyLjVjT83Nmxrt0/edit?usp=sharing
I hope this helps. It is SO ONEROUS to have to submit lesson plans, I feel for you so much jen. I say the less the better on those.
It’s this kind of bull that leads to the current teacher shortage, which is a looming problem about to hit us all. Student teachers in Oregon are being told by their universities to not take the first offer that comes their way, which is the complete opposite of what it was like a decade ago when I was coming out of student teaching. I pounced on the first offer I got, and ended up being one of like two or three people in my cohort to start a full-time, contracted, permanent position right out of school. It was tough then. The salad days are yet to come. In the decade to come, we teachers will be courted like Scarlett O’Hara at Ashley Wilkes’ barbecue.
Wow, this was a lot of work, Tina. Thanks.
You know you liked that Southern Belle image Claire. 😉
Loved it!
Your lesson plan is all dressed up for the ball.
The second link is pretty darn good and applicable in many places.
“A lot of energy is now going into UNIT PLANS –which must all use the same template, all across the school.”
So which template is the school going to use? Is it a department template? Can you pick one and go with it?
I wouldn’t fret about the template. It’s just for admin to tell teachers what to do. You circumvent that garbage and do your thing. Unless you dread it so much that you don’t want to be there.
I read Bracey’s post and I have heard of admin wanting actual lesson plans a week ahead around here in central valley, California. Ridiculous, I would not work there.
Your unit could be a MT, novel, song, poem or other prompt and then all the scaffolding activities around it. circling, PQA, a mini story, a scene, readers theater, a dictation, textivate – all the ROA stuff.
So say you riff on Robert’s Harry Potter idea, and your unit is called There is nothing to Fear. You have a list of targets (plug your nose and document it), and then a list of all the ROA activities, which you fill in as needed.
The ROA is the Unit Plan template.
Would that shut them up?
BTW What kinda research are they touting to back up common unit plan templates across disciplines? As if Math units to see if concepts are mastered work in our domain?
Where’s the union on this?
Ooooh! Great question Alisa. Despite having 26 years under my belt before taking this current position, I am brandy-new to the whole system. My former school was a local independent school that was founded by members of an ashram. My formative teaching years steeped me and supported me in “the mystery of humility” as per my favorite teaching from one of the spiritual masters, Sant Kirpal Singh:
“There is a divine purpose behind the life of everyone who comes into the world. No one was born for nothing. We have something to learn from everyone. This is the mystery of humility.”
So…when that school shifted into mass media and marketing and everything that is false about the world, I hit the road (2 yrs ago). Now it is very clear to me why I was given the gift of my time there: so I could practice the mystery of humility in the real very gritty and often unpleasant world and focus on the beauty and tenacity of the kids who come into my room every day. I have been humbled to my core. I suck at what I do. And I’m ok with that bc I know that is my ego’s message.
Sorry to range off road…but my point is that all of the documentation, unit planning, lesson planning, templates, unions and such…all brand new to me and I have no idea how to tread these waters. Or whom to even ask about such things. I’m kind of playing the “ingenue” for now. “What? How does that even work?” “What am I supposed to do?” Not trying to appear clueless but since I am I’m riding that a bit to get thru this year.
In a meeting early in the year when the templates came up, I asked if I could find a template that is more in line with SLA research and was promptly shut down: “No. They all have to be the same. ” I may ask “What research backs up the common unit plan across disciplines?” Yes. I am going to ask that. Because I have research to back up why it does not work for my domain! Of course nobody knows what I do unless they have been in my room. Even those who have been still don’t know and they see it thru their filter of “concepts” and thru their prior knowledge/experience of language class, so they say things like “using the grammar and vocab” “practicing” and shit like that. I need to be more patient and kind in my thoughts about these comments.
TINA! THANK YOU FOR THOSE DOCS! Wow a TON of work. You do not win the “laziest teacher award!” Haha 🙂
So interesting, jen, your history in teaching.
I’m afraid that this time I’m going to turn away sharing any thoughts about unit plans. I just finished writing my last unit plans for the end of the year. Every time I write these I feel beaten down. Argh. I hope you can get through it with as much ease as possible.
Here is a curriculum proposal designed to help departments of diverse professional experiences work together from a common text with the hope that they can end up in a common focus on proficiency.
The question is What are the essential components of a good yarn? Although a tale could lean more heavily on one or another, I posit three components:
1. Narrative
2. Description
3. Dialogue
From these I propose that departments think in terms of three broad Can-Dos:
1. A Narrative Can-Do.
2. A Description Can-Do.
3. A Dialogue Can-Do.
Each component would have a different verbal focus:
1. The Narrative Can-Do would focus on action/TPR verbs (runs) and helping verbs (wants to…).
2. The Description Can-Do would focus on linking verbs (is, looks, smells).
3. The Dialogue Can-Do would use whatever verbs necessary.
In a book curriculum these are treated in separate lessons in disconnected way. What I am proposing is to allow for these to be included in every “lesson” or “unit” throughout the year and to to integrate them into a single tale.
How this may be accomplished has be done and demonstrated in the TPRS communities for over two decades. That would be a details issue.
The demand upon the learner would be stated and would depend upon the communicative level of the students. The Can-Do could be defined in terms of comprehension, negotiation of meaning, co-creation, independent creation and perhaps other degrees of demonstration of “Being Able to Do.” (I just began to conjugate “Can-Do).
Feel free to comment.