When I first started writing my first Unit Plan a few weeks ago, I was overwhelmed. How can I know all of this right now? How should I assess my students? What should my unit goals be? WHY am I teaching this unit; what is its relevance to the community? The list could go on and on. Not to mention that I wrote my first draft before we learned how to write SMART objectives. But after submitting my first draft to peers for feedback and making edits on my draft, I believe I have come a long way in my knowledge about unit plans and how vital they are for effective instruction (with much more to learn...). Here are some takeaways from this process:
1. Identifying materials needed for a unit is important.
This week in AEE 413, our Program Planning course, we talked about budgeting for an Ad Ed program and it blew my mind that you pretty much have to know all of your materials you will need for the year around the time the fiscal year ends in June. That helped me realize why it's so important to list realia on your unit plans. In my first draft, my peer feedback helped me realize realia lists were lackadaisical. When I revised I really tried to identify the major materials I would need for each lesson in the unit. Especially for the labs we would be conducting.
2. Make sure your essential question and the level of objectives align.
When I was writing all of my essential questions, I first had a hard time organizing them in logical way. I knew this was important because the First Principle of Teaching and Learning states, "When the subject matter to be learned possesses meaning, organization, and structure that is clear to students, learning proceeds more rapidly and is retained longer." I also had a hard time making sure my objectives would ensure my students would know "How do you make biofuel?" for example. In fact, this is something I am still working on and I feel that it will come with practice. But, I am definitely more aware of it now as I work on my other unit plans.
I'm looking forward to improving my unit plan writing skills throughout the semester, and I'd love to hear your tips/thoughts! Thanks!
Rose, managing all the materials you need can be tough, especially when you teach multiple courses like most ag teachers do! Did you find a creative or useful method to get all of them listed in an organized manner? Linking objectives and essential questions can also be a challenging task, but there are ways to make them play off of each other and align. As you become more comfortable writing objectives, the ability to design purposeful essential questions will get easier too!
ReplyDeleteRose,
ReplyDeleteBudgeting and material organization is certainly a tedious task for anyone. Finding a method that works for you is always the way to go, I have spreadsheets with my materials for each class so I can easily take inventory at the end of each year. Additionally I keep a budget needs sheet in my lesson plan binder, each time I finish a lab and note aomething will need for the next year I wrote it down, it goves me a good starting point for beginning to budget. Overall it will be about what works best for you.
Keep up the great work thinking through your unit plans and connections, the up front work now will pay dividends when your "in the trenches" of the daily lesson planning grind. Although you may shift lessons and activities the general road map will be there for you to follow.
Rose,
ReplyDeleteGlad you are seeing connections across the coursework. More importantly I am glad you are thinking through how to make the learning meaningful for your students and what effort that will take on your part.
Glad I was able to read and give feedback on your unit plan. Little by little it will be easier.
ReplyDeleteKeep plugging away. You will always be working on unit plans but just in different stages of your course developments. At some point in your life / teaching career, you will hopefully be on more of a "known" cruise control with courses you are seasoned at teaching, which will allott more time for the new ones that come along the way. This helps you manage your brainpower. It also helps you provide time for all the other things in life like family. It gets easier with time.
ReplyDelete