Mid-Planning Blog

At this point I am feeling so much better about the progress of this Unit Plan. It appears as though my partner and I have finally been able to connect and make some things come together. Just within the last couple of days we have been able to develop a skeleton of four lessons that we would incorporate into the Unit Plan. The first two lessons I have created, while my partner has been working on the last two lessons. It seems as though the two of us are on the same track of wanting to create lessons that give students a chance to showcase what they have learned, and ways in which to incorporate the Media Center into each lesson. We still have to come up with a few more lessons to end the unit, but at least we finally have a good solid start on the unit. I suppose I am still a little unclear as to how many lessons we are supposed to have; unless we are supposed to base the number of lessons on how long it would take us to get through the unit itself?

The two lessons that I have been working on are the introductory lesson to Historical Fiction, and creating a timeline of the events that impacted the Civil Rights Movement. The first lesson is requiring the students to work on creating a K-W-L chart about Historical Fiction. I want to know what the students already know, and what they hope to learn while studying Historical Fiction. The second lesson will require the students to research important events that impacted the Civil Rights Movement, with the help of the school librarian, and present the information in some format, whether in a poster format, PowerPoint presentation, Publisher presentation, or any other form that they find appropriate. At this point in time, for the two lessons that I have created, I have not given much thought to the underrepresented groups in my classroom. As stated previously, these lessons are skeletons of what I hope to develop into more elaborate lessons.

I have really enjoyed working on this Unit Plan since we have been able to be in communication and get things going. Kirsten is really a good partner to work with. I have loved the input that she has been able to provide, and I just hope that I have been able to give her some valuable insights. I just hope that this Unit Plan develops into the unit plan that I think it can with the hard work we are now investing into it.