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It is well said that if you don't know where you are going, there is precious little chance you will get there. The key to unit planning is a well thought out set of instructional/behavioral objectives. When I plan a unit I start by first establishing what it is I want students to be able to do, and second, how I will know when they are able to do it. Only when those ideas are internalized do I begin to plan daily lessons.
The unit plan must be flexible, because as sure as God made little green apples, the students are not going to learn as fast as you think they will.
Keep in mind that anything you do that does not cause progress toward your stated goals is a waste of time. IMHO, this is easier if you are not chasing NCLB rainbows, but we can talk about that another time.
esconopeles,
In a typical unit, let's say one that lasts two weeks or 10 classes, how many objectives do you include in a unit?
What do you teach?
Hi all,
I would find it very useful if somebody posted a list of sample unit objectives. How many of them are low/high on bloom's taxonomy?
The question about how many objectives to accomplish is a two week unit is an interesting one. It really varies widely, and as someone else indicated, depends on how high up Bloom's taxonomy you are trying to venture. I sort of keep Bloom in the back in my mind and pay more attention to what I want kids to be able to do. Let me take a crack at listing a few goals for a two week unit. I taught oceanography to 9th graders. Tides was a unit that took a couple of weeks.
Goals;
1. Kids should be able to graph daily/weekly tides from a tide chart.
2. Kids should be able to identify the type of tide represented by the graph.
3. Kids should be able to identify the major contributors to tide height and indicate how each influences tide level.
4. Kids should be able to explain why there are two high tides each day, but only one moon.
5. Kids should be able to indicate at least three reasons why a knowledge of tides is important to people who live at or visit the coast.
OK, so I came up with five big ones. Lots of little ones under each of those, and the five listed are not of equal importance, but it does give an idea of how many would be found in a two week unit.
The next step is to decide what I'm going to do to achieve those goals. Lectures, labs, videos, and demonstrations would all go into this unit. I don't think two weeks would quite do it. With the tests/quizzes thrown in, I would probably figure 12 class periods, give or take.
BTW, however you define a unit, the reality is that two weeks is a workable time period. Shorter than that you end up disjointing your class. Anything much longer and you set yourself up frustration in trying to stay with your plan. Notice that in the ten minutes it took me to throw together this unit i am already putting in a 20% fudge factor on the timing.
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