Michael Vander Wal

Unit Plan Context Section

In planning my unit for my internship, I will be faced with a very unique circumstance.

What is unique about City High is that they are all supposed to be at the same level academically.

City High brings all of the gifted students from the GRPS school system, and places them in

the same building. As such, I am supposed to treat the students as if they are all advanced

learners. There are supposedly no students in class with special needs or any difficulties with

thinking, writing, or language skills City High also likes to pride itself on diversity, so my class

has a mix of various ethnic backgrounds. There are four students who identify as African

American/black, nine who identify as white or Caucasian, eight Latin American/Hispanic

students, two Asian American students, and one who identifies as mixed race. All students Ive

observed in class are proficient in their English language skills, but some students openly speak

Spanish during group discussion, or when they have some down time.
As far as morals and spirituality goes, the learners in World History arent uniform at all.

Some students say they are Catholic, some are still trying to figure out who they are, some are

various forms of Protestant, and some have no religion at all. In the students social sphere, there

is a general attitude of excellence. From what Ive seen, good grades are the thing prized above

all else. Students will stay up very late to perfect a paper or project, and many times neglect

minor assignments to make sure they do well on the major stuff. Morally, they all seem to be

really good kids. Theyre polite, they respect authority, most genuinely want to learn, and they

even clap for me after I teach a lesson. What is mostly the same, however, is all of their political

affiliations. Out of the entire class, only two identify as Republican or leaning right. The rest all

identify as left leaning or progressive.

The classroom itself is fairly small, and all tables are arranged so that the attention of

students is on the teacher. Most of the time, the students will have a formative assessment at the
beginning of class (Do Now), which comes in the form of a reading quiz or a thought provoking

question on the previous days material. Students will then discuss this Do Now in groups

(Think, Pair, Share) for about five minutes. After these things are completed, the actual meat

of the class starts. The bulk of the class could consist of going over a difficult reading step by

step, receiving a lecture on the days topic, or even watching a documentary about certain

historical events. As this is the formula for virtually every class period, I will adopt the same

strategy for my unit plan.

The school itself combines middle school and high school, but middle schoolers are

generally kept separate from high schoolers. For instance, they not only have classes in different

areas of the school, but also have different lunch times. They are also not allowed to participate

in the same clubs. Statistics on socioeconomic status are hard to come by for City because every

student receives a free lunch and breakfast. Students think their households earn a below

average income, eleven students think theyre about average, and the rest think they have above

average income. I dont know whether this data is accurate or not, but it is really interesting to

see how students view themselves and their economic conditions. According to the National

Center for Education Statistics (2016), City High/Middle has 727 total students (2015 data).

Specifically, they have one American Indian student, 57 Asian/Pacific Islanders, 147 Hispanic

kids, 97 black (non-Hispanic), 389 white (non-Hispanic), and 36 kids who are two or more races.

These overall statistics of the school correspond fairly well with the statics of my class.

Although, there does seem to be smaller overall proportion of white students in my class. There

is no tracking going on at City, because all students have already been tracked. All classes are

supposed to be advanced, and all students are expected to be able to handle them.
Their curriculum standards for this unit have to factor in both Michigan standards and

International Baccalaureate standards, but most teachers pay closer attention to the requirements
under IB. All content under IB is required to have an international focus, which shouldnt be too

hard in a World History class (ibo.org 2016). This standard may, however, mean that Im going

to have to look outside of Europe when discussing World War I. Their textbook is the Advanced

Placement edition of a World Civilizations textbook, but I dont see any uniformity with regard

to a specific series of textbook being used more than another.

Students at City come from the broader Grand Rapids Public School region. All students

at the school are required to interact with their surrounding community through required

community service, some type of interaction with the arts, and required physical activity. All

students have to complete at least 20 hours (older grades 25 hours) in each category by the end of

the school year (grps.org 2016). The schools support base comes from the wider GRPS system.

Students are allowed to join sports teams from other GRPS schools, and the teachers at City

often coach sports teams from other schools.

Bibliography
Grand Rapids Public Schools, . (2017). Community, Action, Service, @ City High Middle.

In grps.org.

IBO.org, . (2017). http://www.ibo.org/professional-development/. In International

Baccalaureate. Retrieved March 13, 2017.

NCES, . (2016). City Middle/High School. In National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved

March 13, 2017.