Unit Plan Overview and Rationale Jordan Logan

Overview:

This unit centered on La mto or the weather in English has been

structured around 3 core concepts within the French language that all

attribute to each other: the weather, locational pronouns, and the verb tense

faire. Through the scaffold methods of the unit, the objectives in the unit

are designed to provide the students with opportunities to acquire, apply,

and test their knowledge within the 3 concepts. The students will be

challenged to demonstrate their comprehension through oral, written, and

reading formats by which they will be presented through, and further

assessed in, based on their abilities. Each comprehension will address

various desired specific outcomes from the grade 7, 9 year Alberta program

of studies, and the intended outcomes will be addressed in both instruction

and assessment.

The unit plan table is set up in a format that outlines lesson

descriptions, teaching strategies, objectives from the PoS, SMART objectives

based on the PoS outcomes, and finally any resources or materials that will

be included in the lesson. In the description and teaching strategies portion I

will break up what exactly the students are doing in the lesson, any

differentiation that takes place in the lesson (at least until I get to know my

students better), and then how the teacher is responding or what the teacher

should be doing during the lesson. In the objectives section I will pull direct

outcomes from the PoS that are being touched on in the lesson. The SMART
objectives section will include a variety of SMART goals for the lesson based

on the PoS outcomes that are being sought after in the instruction of the

lesson. The final section of the unit plan will list any resources or materials

that will be used in the lesson. There will be several of these resources

attached with the unit plan, however most of the resources will be

constructed throughout the unit as I become more familiar with my students

and their learning preferences.

The second document associated with the unit plan is the unit

assessment plan. In the assessment plan I will initially detail any of the GLOs

addressed in the unit and then breakdown the SLOs that are associated with

the GLOs based on the desired student understandings or abilities to apply

their knowledge. Further on in the assessment I will breakdown each

objective in the unit and note any of the assessments that will incorporate

the objective. Finally, I will provide a detailed breakdown of each assessment

and how it will effectively assess the learning objectives. In each breakdown I

will provide the assessment description as to how the assessment will be

structured and any specific parts that are included in the assignment.

The context of the classroom plays an important role in the unit and

my associated planning of it. My class size is relatively small (14 students) in

which allows me to create a more hands-on approach to the lessons and

associated activities. There are no officially stated exceptionalities in the

classroom which means that I do not have to differentiate to suit any

learning needs that may be associated, however as I become more familiar

with the students I will be able to alter my lesson to agree with the preferred

learning needs. Within the classroom I plan to address any issues that need

attending to as they arise, this will include alterations to my unit due to time

restrictions, differentiation for various students, and any other circumstances

that may arise.

Rationale:

This unit was constructed to instruct the concept of weather at a fairly

basic level. I decided it would be most effective to split the concept of

weather into 3 associated portions to help build a scaffold of concepts to

build towards the overall task of using all concepts. I begin my unit with

introducing the basic vocabulary and common phrases associated with

weather. The students will use these various terms and phrases in the

following communicative activities (dice and drawing activity). The students

will be formatively assessed in these activities based on their ability to

communicate the information gap, rather than their accuracy of the

grammatical concepts. The activities will hopefully create engagement in the

lessons as the students will be encouraged to compete, share, and just

simply interact with their peers. The weather portion of the unit is pulled

directly from the PoS along with the incorporation of creating simple phrases,

knowledge of vocabulary, and other associated concepts.

 The continuation of the unit will introduce the students to location

pronouns a, en, et au, these pronouns will be linked to geographical

locations and connected to telling the forecast later in the lesson. I centered

the presentation assessment in this portion of the unit on exploring an event

in French speaking country to force the students to research other countries

that they may have not looked at earlier. The choice in not specifying

locations opened the exploration for the students and hopefully will inspire

them to explore the various cultures further and open them to a more

intercultural examination of the assignment. Through the instruction of the

lesson I will be sure to encourage the students to focus in on elements of the

culture and how they attributed to the event that they are researching. The

students will have a few work periods (some of which will be done at the

same time as the weather quiz) to complete the task which should be ample

time for the expectations that they will be provided. The location pronouns

will be incorporated in the presentation, these pronouns are associated with

various grammatical outcomes from the PoS that will be addressed in the

instruction, materials provided, and the presentations.

The final portion of the lesson will introduce the verb tense faire

explicitly to the students. The students will have been exposed to and

applied the verb tense during their work in the weather unit without even

being conscious of it. The students will be able to piece together the rules
inductively which should make the instruction of the tense rather simple. I

have decided to split the verb tense into 2 lessons based on the singular and

plural subject pronouns in an effort to not overwhelm the students and make

the material more comprehensible. The first lesson will focus on the singular

pronouns of the verb tense conjugation and will be taught to the students in

an deductive manner by which they will be presented with the rule and

practice it on the PowerPoint and then later further their application of the

rules in a worksheet. The second lesson will be done in an inductive manner

as the students are presented with a work sheet that uses the rules and then

once the students have a firm grasp we will review the rules as a class and

ensure that everyone has a firm understanding of the concept. The verb

faire is important in the French language and is highlighted in the PoS as an

outcome in the grammatical concepts. I will use this verb tense to tie all the

concepts previously in the unit together as the students move towards their

final performance task.

Each portion of the unit will have formative and summative

assessment throughout the unit, whether it be during teacher observation,

worksheets, presentations, or tests. The first quiz will be done orally with the

individual students, this will allow me to assess the communication abilities

of the students with focus on the fluency of the speech, straying away from

the accuracy emphasis that is normally associated with second language

acquisition classes. The event exploration presentation is the cultural core of

the unit by which the students will explore other countries and cultures from
around the world. I have incorporated this portion to further expose the

students to other cultures in the French speaking world and hopefully build

towards a base for more cultural awareness in the students. The final unit

test has been structured in a manner that includes a quick socrative portion

and then a hard copy test portion. I have included the socrative portion into

the test and grading to hopefully get the ball rolling and get the students in

the proper mindset prior to writing the test. Both portions will include

questions from all of the units with more emphasis on the weather portion

due to the higher importance in the PoS and in the students learning. The

final presentation is the grand scaffold product of the unit with all of the

portions playing a role in the assignment. The students will conduct a

forecast with the inclusion of the verb tense, covered vocabulary, and

locational pronouns that are all linked and should encourage a well

constructed product. I have incorporated a final presentation to combat the

unit test that will take place. Some students have a strong distaste for

testing hence why I have included the presentation and made it equal weight

of the final unit test.

This unit includes many choices that are outlined and only some of

which that are covered in this rationale, and the truth is that many of the

decisions and plans that have been made will probably change prior to me

being able to teach the lessons. The students in the classroom will determine

the direction of the unit based on their abilities, preferences, and attitudes
towards the French class. I have strong hopes towards being able to teach

this entire unit with all of its specific decisions, and to take the experience

from building and instructing a unit and put it towards helping me grow as an

educator.