Reflection On Creating a Unit Plan

      The unit plan project that we did in this class was a very great experience for me. Throughout this first year of teachers college we have done many different lesson plans but it was a little different planning an entire unit. We had to complete one in science, but the unit plan that we had to plan in this course, I found to be more difficult, though educational. This specific unit plan, and in particular the template, was A LOT of work. 

http://bit.ly/24kCm52

     Although, I can say that it was very educational and informative planning a unit this way, this specific unit planning process was very in depth. However, there were a number of specific things that I thought were very interesting and useful from the template. I liked how Zoe provided us with the section on Instructional Strategies and Approaches for integrating all the different cross curricular subjects and issues such an equality/equity, Environmental Education, Financial Literacy etc. I thought that this was very useful because it allows you to quickly jot down ideas that you would like to incorporate within your unit. I can imagine that while planning a unit, many teachers have a bunch of different ideas about integrating learning and cross curricular integration etc, but when it comes time to execute the lesson they may forget these great ideas. I think that the template is great for this as it forces you to write your ideas down, which allows you to go back and look at the different ideas that you had, when preparing to execute each lesson from your unit plan. I also thought that the backwards design was a great way of creating a unit; starting with a culminating task based on a big question, and then plan your unit around your class being able to answer that big question and complete the culminating task. Working as a group was also beneficial to me, because this process is all new to me. 

http://bit.ly/1QPeMjH

    Being able to create this unit plan alongside my peers was useful as we became a community of learners, who have been helping each other figure out this process as we go along. We have been collaborating and bouncing ideas off of each other, making our unit plan stronger. Overall, I thought that this unit plan assignment was a great assignment. Not only did it foster great collaborative learning, it also provided a challenge for us to rise to. Furthermore, even though I do not think that I personally will go about planning my units this way, I think it is a great way to demonstrate different ways in which teachers plan units, and provides myself with a great point of reference for when I have to create other unit plans, in terms of strategies to implement cross curricular learning, as well as planning and organizational techniques.

   After my group and I have finished presenting our Unit Plan I will provide a link in this post for you to view our unit plan, as well as the template that Zoe provided us for planning!