November has been quite the busy month for us Teacher Candidates! We have been doing a lot of reflecting on our experiences and applying our knowledge gained in the classroom to more hands-on situations in our Community Service Learning classes. In addition, we have all had the opportunity to begin thinking about and planning lessons for our future classes. To take lesson planning even further and open our thinking to the bigger pictures in lesson design, we are now looking at the ways in which we plan entire units of study. Some of the major concepts coming out of our learning about designing lessons and units can be read about here: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/109051/chapters/[email protected]
To apply the knowledge and understanding we are gaining through classroom discussions and theoretical explorations, we divided in groups and we planned our very own unit of study in a collaborative way. Links to my planning colleagues' own personal websites can be found here: Rachel Andrusek: http://educationra.weebly.com/ Stephanie Arn: https://stepharnblog.wordpress.com/ My group decided to create a unit revolving around the Grade 3 Social Studies curriculum, specifically targeting expectations from the People and Environments strand. The overall expectations which students should meet through working in this unit is to "demonstrate an understanding of some key aspects of the interrelationship between the natural environment, land use, employment opportunities, and the development of municipal regions of Ontario" (Social Studies Curriculum, p. 90). Our unit also integrates expectations from The Arts, Language, and Mathematics curriculum from the Ontario Ministry of Education's curriculum. To access our entire unit plan, entitled: "Landforms and My Community", follow the link below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18fHX-5U6eUXEuoUJ7IPc3UFAOOmETR3ceTvIRyNtxpA/edit?usp=sharing This entire planning process was quite eye opening for me for a variety of reasons. First of all, the amount of time that it takes to fully think through all facets of a unit, is incredible. We must consider what are the expectations we wish for the unit to meet, how we will design learning experiences for our students so they can meet these expectations, and what evidence will we be able to gather to prove that our students know what they know. As we have learned, it is essential to start at the end (what do we expect the students to be able to know/do/understand by the time this unit is completed?), and work our way "backwards" to figure out what types of learning experiences would allow for these expectations to be met. Secondly, it is very easy to stray from the expectations when we begin the planning process due to all the creative ideas we might have about what to do with our students. Maintaining focus and purpose is actually much more difficult than I originally assumed. We are incredibly proud of our work, but understand that as our very first endeavor into unit planning, there is still much to learn! We hope you find our unit planning interesting and exciting, and as always, would love any and all feedback you may have to offer! Miss Coleman
0 Comments
|
AuthorJessica Coleman holds a Bachelor of Education as well as an Honours Bachelor of Social Sciences, both from the University of Ottawa. She is an Ontario College of Teachers certified teacher, currently working towards a Masters of Education degree at uOttaw, as well. Archives
September 2018
Categories |