1 Melissa Lin

Unit Preface Part A Collaboration by: Sarah Bailey and Melissa Lin

1. Describe your school: Burley is part of the Albemarle County Public School system, and its current principal is Mr. James Asher. Home to 532 6th-8th graders, Burley feeds into both Albemarle and Monticello High School. In the 2012-2013 school year, 16 students were suspended for various offenses including alcohol possession, fighting, theft, and using inappropriate language. In 2011, the passing rates for English and Math SOLs in the 6th grade were slightly higher than the average passing rate in Virginia. There is a 16:1 teacher student ratio and there are currently nine 6th-grade teachers for about 150 students. The demographics at Burley are as follows: Asian 4%, Black - 19%, Hispanic - 10.51%, Native American - .40%, White - 65.45%. 37.1% of Burleys students are receiving free or discounted lunch.

2. Group Profile This 6th-grade class is labeled as ELA Collab, a class where the students tend to struggle in Language Arts and require more specialized instruction. There is opportunity for the two teachers to select students who require more support and work with them in small group settings. There is a variety of reading and writing levels within the class. Some students were not placed in this Collab setting because of lower reading and writing abilities but because of specific learning disabilities or behavioral issues. For example, there are ~5 students in 1st block, and ~6 students in 2nd block with IEPs. Out of the 5 students with IEPs in 1st block, 3 of them have been identified with autism.

3. Student Profiles a. Jamal is an African-American student who reads on a 3rd-grade level. Jamal has been identified with high-functioning autism and resultantly struggles with fluency and comprehension. In addition, he has difficulty with writing tasks, failing to apply the most basic of grammar rules such as ending sentences with punctuation and capitalizing the first words of each sentence, proper nouns and I. His handwriting is barely legible, and he requires a lot of time to type. Head usually hooded, Jamal displays very little motivation in class, often refusing to do classwork and playing games on his laptop (which every student receives due to the 1:1 initiative) instead. His eyes glaze during one-on-one instruction, answering every question the instructor poses with I dont know or silence. Receiving very little support at home, Jamal does not get encouragement about completing homework or studying. Contacting parents about his performance and attempting to set goals with them has proved futile. b. Jennifer is a white student whose mother passed away 3 months ago. She now lives with her aunt, whose financial situation is not stable as she has just lost her job. Gaunt and fatigued, Jennifer often comes to school without having eaten breakfast. She is showing signs of severe depression: lack of sleep, extremely low motivation, and emotional breakdowns. She has missed several days of school and is having trouble 1

making up all of her work. Before the death of her mother, Jennifer excelled in Language Arts. She made all As, scored high on her 5th grade SOL tests, participated fully in class, and interacted with her classmates. It seems that depression and her aunts financial situation are the only barriers to her success. c. Allie is a female, ELL student. She and her family moved to the United States from Mexico when she was eight years old. Despite English being her second language, Allie, quick and enthusiastic, has learned English quickly over the past few years, and is no longer taking ESL classes, though her vocabulary, spelling, and grammar still need improvement, and she is still not entirely proficient in the English language, yet. Overall, Allie seems very willing to learn and has no problems with participation in class, though she is more quiet than some of the other students. Reading has not been a major problem, though there are sometimes words that she will have trouble pronouncing, and the teacher has to define them for her. Supporting her academic studies, Allies family is always willing to attend parent-teacher conferences. They seem to have a healthy and close family relationship. However, both her parents speak limited English and conferences with them can be difficult because of the language barrier. Allie has friends both inside and outside of class who have been willing to help her on in-class worksheets, especially when encountering difficult vocabulary. She enjoys collaborating with them on group work, her eyes lighting up when the class is given the opportunity.

Part B The Big Idea, Targeted Skill, & the Rationale Primary Focus: Teaching students that they can make change happen in their lives and in society: Social justice http://smago.coe.uga.edu/VirtualLibrary/Gendron_2012.pdf a. Why will your students be interested in it (the concept/theme)? I think this is such a great and powerful theme. Even though this unit was made for 10th-graders in mind, I think its a theme that is relevant to students in my 6th-grade class. The theme of making a difference in the society is one that resounds in almost all ages- though I will argue that students need to be a certain age to feel compelled about this subject and its prompt for change. I feel that 6th-graders are at the age where they are starting to think about what it means to be more, or they should be introduced to this theme to get them thinking. I believe that students will find the texts of this unit to be compelling, heartfelt, and will be able to use the messages of the book to apply it in their own lives. In relation to 6thgrade curriculum and standards, this concept will be more obvious for students to pick out theme in the texts, and it will be easier for them to relate the themes of social justice to their own lives, as it very applicable. b. Why do your students need to study this? I think that this is a theme that students are starting to explore and question in their lives. And, if they havent given it thought yet, its a time in their lives where they will have to make decisions and start encountering these questions of what it means to stand up for something you believe in. This theme is so 2

important to their lives, not just on an individual basis, but also in the community they live in. How can they change their community for the better? How will they better themselves and the people around them? What does it mean to have courage in the face of trials and what does it mean to endure?

c. Would this concept be appropriate for constructing the first unit of the school year? I think that this concept would certainly start the school year off with a bang. The topic can be emotionally changing, and will require students to be comfortable sharing in order to make it a dynamic unit. A lot of the activities I would pair this unit with are associated with sharing during discussion or writing. In order to have students give their best in these activities, I would prep the unit with a lot of bonding activities. In addition, I will be separating the students into teams of four. That way, students will already have cultivated a community of trust and will feel safe sharing their experiences.

Part C

BACKWARD DESIGN Unit Planning

What is it? It is a three-stage planning model, one currently used in Albemarle County and widely adopted in school systems nationwide:

Stage 1

Identify Desired Results Ask yourself, What is worthy and requiring of understanding? You begin with the end result you want, i.e., plan backward from the understandings and skills that you want students to achieve at the conclusion of instruction

Determine Acceptable Evidence of Learning Ask yourself, What is evidence of understanding?

Stage 2

You identify what will be acceptable evidence that those understandings and skills have been achieved, i.e., what assessments will demonstrate what students know and are able to do?

Stage 3

Design Learning Experiences & Instruction Ask yourself, What learning experiences and instructional methods promote understanding, interest, and excellence? You plan content, methods, and activities that will support students development of the target knowledge.
3

OVERARCHING (UNIT) UNIVERSAL CONCEPT These are the overarching big ideas targeted for deeper understanding

1._________________Social Justice _____________ (The BIG Idea at the heart of your unit, i.e., a concept or theme)

2. _________________Multi-genre_Writing________________ (The targeted essential skill; your secondary focus, e.g., persuasive writing, literary analysis, plot structure, etc.)

ENDURING UNIVERSAL UNDERSTANDINGS (Generalizations about the overarching concept/objective) * Consider: Are the targeted understandings enduring, based on transferable, big ideas at the heart of the discipline and in need of un-coverage? * Four is a reasonable number for a 3-week unit, though you may have fewer or more. * Students will understand that... 1. __ Change for improvement is worth fighting for.

2. __ Moral courage and endurance are often needed to make change happen.

3. __ Life difficulties are usually similarregardless of era, location, and situation.

4. __ Each individual has the power to change his/her life and make a difference.

CRITICAL CONCEPTS (This is the conceptual vocabulary necessary for arriving at the enduring understandings) Identify the number of concepts you feel you can reasonably teach in the length of your unit. 1. __Change__ 2. __Moral___ 3. _Endurance__ 5. Courage 4 4. _Betterment

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS (These are the overarching questions that drive teaching and learning within a course/unit; they represent the questions for which you want students to formulate answers over the course of the unit.) * Consider: Are these questions provocative, arguable, and likely to generate inquiry around the central ideas (rather than a pat answer)? Are they kid-friendly? Will students view them as relevant? * The number of questions is negotiable; keep in mind the length of your unit! 1. __ What are changes are needed in our lives or in our world?

2. __ What do we need in order to improve ourselves?

3. __ What have history and literature taught us about the effects of change?

4. __ How are the problems from the past similar to problems we face today?

CRITICAL STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES These reflect the big (i.e., general) student learnings (and what you will eventually assess): cognitive (to know and understand) affective (to feel/value) & non-cognitive performative (to do) * With the exception of the affective goals, these correspond to the KUD model for developing objectives you practiced in EDIS 5401. Select up to 3 cognitive, 3 affective, and 4 performative critical learning objectives, i.e., what I want my students to learn. This is the most you would want to tackle in a 3-week unit. COGNITIVE (to know and understand) 1. Students will know the relationship between writing and action. (6.7, 6.4) 2. Students will understand that they have the ability to make change in the world. (6.5) 3. Students will understand the theme of change through the texts from the unit (6.5) AFFECTIVE (to feel/value) & NON-COGNITIVE 1. Students will feel empowered with their capabilities to make a difference. 2. Students will value the importance of fighting for change of improvement. 3. Students will feel comfortable challenging norms and suggesting ideas for change. PERFORMATIVE (to do) 1. Students will be able to demonstrate the association between writing and action through writing of their own (6.7). 2. Students will be able to write about themes from the literature studied in class. (6.7) 3. Students will be able to share in small and large groups their understandings of change and how it affects their lives. (6.5)

VIRGINIA SOLS: Select at least 2 related SOLs (at your units grade level) that fit into your learning framework. Give them the numbers that they carry in the State Department SOL document. These SOL objectives should be added to the appropriate Objective category above as well. SOL# SOL Objective

1.

6.5 The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of fictional texts, narrative nonfiction, and poetry

2.

6.7 The student will write narration, description, exposition, and persuasion

3.

6.4 The student will read and learn the meanings of unfamiliar words and phrases within authentic texts

CCS#

CCS Objective

1. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.9 Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics. 2. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.3 Describe how a particular storys or dramas plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.

TEXTS/TOOLS/RESOURCES Enter your list of possible tools and resources from which you will eventually select those that best support students deepened exploration of the critical concepts that lead to the more enduring understandings identified earlier in this graphic). Relevant print texts: o Primary: [Your selected short story/prose text will be one of these.] Short story: The Lottery http://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_ lottery.pdf

o Secondary (supporting, excerpts, etc.): Poem: The Ballad of the Landlord Langston Hughes Common Sense, Declaration of Independence, 1863 Gettysburg Address, and I have a Dream (quotes) Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr. Picture Book: The Librarian of Basra: Elizabeth Kennedy http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/productreviews/fr/librarian_basra.htm Relevant media (audio/video/film clips, ads, etc.) Video: Kid President How to Change the World http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z7gDsSKUmU Music: Too late to Apologize http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZfRaWAtBVg&feature=c4overview-vl&list=PL63D8987721EB3C48 Video clip: Libertys Kids http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1SJcu2G6J0

Models (Texts, graphic organizers, etc.) Poem as Mentor Text Personal writing as Model Text

Technology (based on school site evaluation of resources) Elmo White board Computers

Supporting handouts (informational, graphic organizers, etc.) Vocabulary list for pre-reading of texts Pre, During, and After-reading Guides Graphic organizers

INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES Brainstorm a list of possible activities (both process and product) that would involve students in the kind of learnings identified by the course/unit critical learning objectives (identified earlier in this graphic); actively consult methods texts for activities and strategies. Identify for each the critical learning objective that the activity or strategy would primarily serve.

ACTIVITIES (Processes & Products) [Cite activities by text/ page no.] Processes
1. Quick write and small group discussions. Or, Think-pair-share. 2. Presentations of elements of narrative writing using model texts for support. [etc.]

Products
1. Outline that prepares students for summative assessment. 2. Narrative piece from students that addresses thematic questions from the unit. [etc.]

ASSESSMENTS [Note: Cite all sources for assessment tools.] How will you assess students learning? Brainstorm possible assessment tools and approaches. Each assessment is defined by rubrics, ideally some of which are co-created with students; the rubrics developed form the basis of instructional focus so that students are assessed for what they have been taught. (Assessment and rubrics will be discussed later; this represents your initial thinking only.)

PROCESS ASSESSMENTS: Formative Students will jot down ideas about what change means to them, and discuss in small groups about where theyve seen the need for change in their lives and in the world. Students will note the specific elements found in writing by highlighting and annotating.

Summative

Students will present in groups on the elements they found to be common in the multigenre texts.

PRODUCT ASSESSMENTS Formative - Students will hand in an outline for their multi-genre project, including rough draft of works. -

Summative Gallery Walk: Students will turn in a multi-genre project in which they talk about their ideas about change, why it is important, how they can personally contribute to making a change for improvement.

Part D E: The Importance of Creativity & Its Role in this Units Learning Belief Statement on Creativity: Creativity is essential in the process of learning because it helps students connect what is being read and written to their own lives. Literature gives us the ability to connect with different experiences, time periods, and places we have not personally experienced, giving us so much knowledge and understanding we would otherwise not have. Creativity is a key part of this experience. The ability to imagine yourself in someone elses shoes and to be there with the characters is all a part of creativity. This is part of the learning process and is so important for our students! In terms of teaching, I think that creativity plays an equally vital role here. Coming up with this unit plan and getting all the parts to work coherently together, being able to modify lessons for differentiation, coming up with engaging activities, or finding new ways to explain a concept to studentsthis is all part of creativity as well. Its important that teachers have this ability because it makes their teaching so much more effective! What you see the arts serving in the ELA curriculum? The arts serve as a way for students to produce work that reflects their thoughts about what they have learned. Many forms of writing (such as poetry, memoirs, etc.), projects, and even drawings can be a part of the ELA curriculum in a way that students can demonstrate what they have gotten out of the unit. And how you have integrated some aspect of the arts and/or drawn on students creative resources in ways that activate students imaginations? In my unit plan, students will have a chance to look at forms of art, such as media, writing, etc.

10

and be able to collect their thoughts about the concept of change from these forms. Students will then use what they have gathered and produce their own works that argue their ultimate thoughts about the concept at the end of the unit. Students will be asked to imagine themselves in the shoes of different character, each of whom is experiencing something in regards to change, in a way that students have not experienced themselves. By placing themselves in these different positions, students will learn the importance of change in the world around themeven if it is not directly related to their own personal lives.

F: Technology Tools/Resources & Rationale for Use Articulate what importance technology has for 21st century learning. What are the resources available to you in your field placement school/classroom for advancing learning? How will you integrate it in support of the units literacy goals? As students graduate, they will likely have jobs that incorporate basic technology use, such as computers, SmartBoards, etc. Thus, it is important as teachers to prepare students so that they have the skills available to them. In my placement, there is a 1:1 initiative, meaning that each student is giving a computer to use. This allows the teacher to incorporate online research into the curriculum. In my unit, students will be using the computer to do an inquiry on the topics they have chosen for themselves.

G: Units Working Title Social Justice: A necessity for change

11