unit-plans

Moral Ambiguity: Good and Evil

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 05:24:31 +0100

Below is the unit plan I completed in the July 2010 as part of Stacy Golden's ED620 - Educational Seminar. The Unit, based on ASD's 11th-grade Language Arts Curriculum Guide, focuses on exploring the ideas of "Good" and "Evil", drawing on Shakespeare's Macbeth (just finished) and the Five People You Meet in Heaven (just starting).

Moral Ambiguity: Good and Evil
Lesson#1: Introducing Eddie

Podcasting Lessons

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:40:08 +0100

For this project, \created as part of Jason Ohler's ED632 Educational Technology course, I learned how to create podcasts and demonstrated mastery of this new skill by creating a satirical podcast (called “stupid questions”) with the help of my 3^rd-hour class, ( click here to watch it on YouTube). Then, I used backwards design to create a series of six English-content-area lessons that utilize podcasting. I can’t wait to use podcasting in my classroom!

Podcasting Lessons

Media Literacy / Persuasion

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:28:14 +0100

Using backwards design and based on the ASD 9th Grade Language Arts Curriculum Guide, I taught my 9th grade students a 6-week unit on media literacy and persuasion, with an emphasis on recognizing persuasive techniques used in advertising. As culminating projects, they composed persuasive essays and created public service announcement posters. In November 2010, as part of ED620 - Curriculum Development, I wrote up this unit in more formalized backwards design format. I include some of the handouts that I used to teach the course below.

Unit Plan - MediaLit/Persuasion
Public Service Announcement Poster Guidelines
Persuasive Techniques Note-Taking Guide / Commercial Analysis Outline
Poster Analysis Outline

Uniquely Alaskan Unit

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:07:04 +0100

In Spring 2011, as part of ED600 - Alaska Studies, taught by Tom Pennington, I created a "uniquely Alaskan Lesson Plan". This backwards-design lesson plan teaches students about the literary movements of naturalism and realism as they read Jack London's "To Build a Fire" and incorporates lessons on hypothermia (including a fun quiz), lessons on writing descriptively using the five sense (after getting semi-hypothermic), a "uniquely Alaskan" class speaker, and a lesson in writing proper thank you notes (for the class speaker).

Uniquely Alaskan Unit
Hypothermia Quiz
To Build a Fire by Jack London
To Build a Fire / Naturalism Questions
Thank You Notes

Cultures at a Crossroads: American and Alaskan Civil Rights

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:32:03 +0100

This Unit was designed in August 2010 as a final project for both ED680 - Multicultural Education (Jody Smothers-Marcello) and ED631 - Educational Psychology (Karin Macklin). Special focuses of the unit included incorporating the Alaskan Cultural Standards, accommodating students of different developmental levels and abilities, and creating curriculum that is accessible to students of all cultures in my learning community (West Anchorage High School). This unit was part of a collaborative cross-subject area curriculum developed with Ben Clark (social studies) and Carl Blackhurst (physical education), both of Sitka, Alaska. I taught some of the lessons in this unit in conjunction with my teaching of To Kill a Mockingbird in Fall of 2010 at West High School.

Educational Psychology Format: Unit Plan: Cultures at a Crossroads (E) (includes collaborative version)

Multicultural Education Format: Unit Plan: Cultures at a Crossroads (M) <-- see this version for all portfolio writing references
except the writing from section 2.b.

House on Mango Street

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 02:41:43 +0100

I developed an informal unit with my own original lessons and handouts for the purpose of teaching the House on Mango Street to my English 10 class during the fall semester. The unit was designed using standards from Unit 2 of the ASD 10th Language Arts Curriculum Guide. In June 2011, I created a formalized unit plan and three lesson plans for the content I had already created for my ED693 class, taught by Emily Davis.

This unit focuses on the idea of the American Dream, the immigrant experience, and insights on the evolving roles of American women. Skills developed include the ability to recognize and interpret figurative language (similes/metaphors) and, in turn, use figurative language to create powerful writing. I have included the teaching materials below, with the exception of the warm ups. Final essays were written using MYAccess!

Unit Plan
3 Lessons
Anticipation Guide - the American Dream
Handouts for Lesson #1 - Literary Device Analysis teaching materials
Handouts for Lessons #2 and #3 - "What is in a Name?" (name poem)
Final Essay - Essay Planning / Graphic Organizer / Rubric
Reading Section Workbooks: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Sentence Expansions