Introduction
Section 1 - Desired Results
* Essential Questions
* Enduring Understandings
* SWBAT's
* State Standards
Section 2 - Assessments
* Summary of Assessments
* Rubrics
Section 3 - Instruction
* Methods and Strategies
* Unit-at-a-glance plan
* Lesson Plans
^Day One - Mental Maps
^Push and Pull Factors - Class News Map
^Travel Writing - Compare and Share - Research for Country Profile
Section 4 - Thought Questions
* Diverse learners
* Technology
* ELL's
* Exceptional Learners
Examples of Student Work
Friday, June 5, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Thought Questions
Diverse Learners
I want to engage the minds of all of my students, and I hope that the active learning strategies used in this unit will help accomplish this. Thinking about it now, I wonder if there is anything in the unit to appeal to "naturalistic" or "bodily-kinesthetic" learners, but other than that the projects and lessons here should be adaptable to all kinds of minds. For example, if a student wanted to do a Country Profile focusing on the natural resources, parks, and environment of a country, I would see no reason to deny them.
Technology
Clearly, technology is a big part of this unit. I wrote this with a fantasy school of 1:1 laptops in mind. There are some of those, but most teachers would have to reserve computer labs forsome of these exercises. Like all endeavors involving students and computers, the teacher will have to set down ground rules and be vigilant about reinforcing them.
ELL's
There are a couple of strategies explicitly mentioned here that might help ELL's in this unit. The first is the Wordle tool used in the brainstorming activity. In addition, active learning strategies like Compare and Share will help ELL's by allowing them to share ideas with one or two partners and not the entire class.
Exceptional Learners
There will be students who, for whatever reason, are more adept at these skills than others. Many of these projects, however, put no real limit on how much work can be done. Interacting with online tools is something that cannot really be mastered; there is always something new to explore, a new skill to learn. That's a big reason why we can't keep students off the internet. Hopefully, this unit will harness that interest, and exceptional learners will be able to work up to their ability throughout.
I want to engage the minds of all of my students, and I hope that the active learning strategies used in this unit will help accomplish this. Thinking about it now, I wonder if there is anything in the unit to appeal to "naturalistic" or "bodily-kinesthetic" learners, but other than that the projects and lessons here should be adaptable to all kinds of minds. For example, if a student wanted to do a Country Profile focusing on the natural resources, parks, and environment of a country, I would see no reason to deny them.
Technology
Clearly, technology is a big part of this unit. I wrote this with a fantasy school of 1:1 laptops in mind. There are some of those, but most teachers would have to reserve computer labs forsome of these exercises. Like all endeavors involving students and computers, the teacher will have to set down ground rules and be vigilant about reinforcing them.
ELL's
There are a couple of strategies explicitly mentioned here that might help ELL's in this unit. The first is the Wordle tool used in the brainstorming activity. In addition, active learning strategies like Compare and Share will help ELL's by allowing them to share ideas with one or two partners and not the entire class.
Exceptional Learners
There will be students who, for whatever reason, are more adept at these skills than others. Many of these projects, however, put no real limit on how much work can be done. Interacting with online tools is something that cannot really be mastered; there is always something new to explore, a new skill to learn. That's a big reason why we can't keep students off the internet. Hopefully, this unit will harness that interest, and exceptional learners will be able to work up to their ability throughout.
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