EDUC 506 - Unit Planning Preparation Peter Worthington #315204 Submitted September 28, 2012 A motivator that brought

me into teaching English/Language Arts is not so much a love of literature or any specific writing ability, but rather the fact that absolutely anything can be written about. It is with this in mind that I started thinking about this unit plan assignment not by looking at the E/LA program of studies but the programs of studies for all of the other disciplines first. I have decided to focus on the sixth grade, as working with upper elementary students is what I feel I am best suited to and the level that I would communicate best with. My explorations of the Social Studies curriculum plan on the subject of Democracy, Action, and Participation turned up, among other things, focus on the concept of lobbying, both at the individual and group level. Further, I noticed in the Science curriculum that topic D for the sixth grade is based not around specific experiments or a subject such as aviation or sky science (two other units from the year) but is solely called Evidence and Investigation. Looking further into the E/LA curriculum, a great emphasis is placed on research practices and the expression thereof. All of these things, to me, seem to cry out for a unit that is not prescribed anywhere in the curriculum; one which is focused on the persuasive elements of speech. A unit in rhetoric, what makes an argument, and examining issues from all sides enough to argue for any of them convincingly. In terms of the framework I would be working within, I find myself drawn to a blend of sociocultural and critical literacy pedagogy, and so will have the students working with authentic texts and will attempt to have them thinking critically about concepts that may be a bit ahead of what is expected for their grade level. While this could probably be criticized for catering more to the advanced student than those who may have a learning disability or are simply behind, I would endeavour to have assignments that are scalable to a students comfort level and would hopefully

push them to move a bit beyond it. I am of the belief that a student struggling with specific skills would still appreciate the overall themes of the unit and if given the opportunity to work in formats with which they are comfortable (written, visual, aural, whatever) will be able to succeed. As such, whenever possible, the freedom to choose format will be given.

At the moment, I am envisioning the unit breaking into three unifying questions, with each week-and-a-half(ish) themed around a specific question, taking between four and five weeks total. Theme questions in my mind are things along the lines of Why do we argue?, What makes an argument a good one?, and ending on something a bit heavier, a variation on What is proof? (this has particular ties to the Science curriculums focus on evidence). As I think each subject could easily come into play here, I am thinking largely in terms of how all curricula could be combined into one very large unit. As such, centres in which there is more of a focus may be useful, with one table dedicated to science, one to maths, one to social studies, and one to specific reading and writing exercises/lessons. The students would rotate from one of these to another every 30 or 45 minutes, taking half days for this activity and then having things like gym, music, and languages for the other half of the day to prevent them from getting burnt out on the unit. This would be largely dependent upon the schools schedule, but I do feel in general that planning for half the day to be on this unit and half the day to be spent with other topics would be beneficial to the students, Given that the focus of this class is E/LA, Ill be much more specific on the projects in that subject for each week and just give the gist of what Id want to cover in other subjects over each unifying question.

Within each of these subject centres, I would likely have a daily activity for the students to accomplish, with some leeway being present for those ahead of or behind where my plan is. I

would select groups of students at the start of the day using some method of randomization (spinner, drawing names, etc) which would allow them to work with a different group of peers every day and keep them from merely going to the same station as their friends. This would keep those who are lagging mixed into the larger groups as well, allowing the students further ahead to scaffold their peers and enrich their own learning simultaneously. Group projects are emphasized strongly in the sixth grade program of studies (section 5.2) and those may require more than a one day commitment, so adjustments may have to be made to the random daily workgroup selection for that to occur when these assignments come up, but initially I plan to have the students work with as many different configurations of their peers as possible. By the final week, I would like to implement some kind of larger group project that would require the group to work together for the entire week, and would set aside a block each day for those specific groups to meet up and work together, splitting them up again into the random daily groups for the other blocks.

Students would keep a portfolio, duotang, or some other form of organizer for each subject, and I would attempt to meet with each student for a time at least once a week while the others are working at their tables in order to give feedback on completed and ongoing work and advise them on next steps where appropriate. As such, much of my time while the students are working would be spent either assessing portfolios or conversing with students about them. Given that I would view much of the unit as a whole, most of the assessment would therefore be formative. When the time does come to assign a mark for the unit, the current plan would be to go through a students portfolio and pick out the work that I think represents their best efforts and assigning a mark based on how well I believe that measures up to their potential. This would allow something of a sliding scale, as a struggling student that I can still see putting in a great

deal of effort and genuinely learning things would have the potential to outperform an otherwise strong student who is blatantly attempting to simply coast. While obviously there are essential skills that must be mastered, seeing a struggling student make a marked improvement I do feel should be worth more in terms of assessment than seeing a strong student produce work that is more polished than the other students but sub-par by their own standards. When the time comes for summative assessment, I will be using the entire portfolio to look at each students progression and assigning marks for them accordingly.

Physical space would be arranged into table groupings of five or six, depending on class size, and I would attempt to make each learning centre as conducive to that subject as possible, including the posters and resources around them. For example, vocabulary charts and punctuation/grammar guides around the E/LA table, a history timeline and some displays of Canadian demographic data for Social Studies, or info posters on famous theorists for Science. As stated, students would rotate from these tables every 30 or 45 minutes depending on the activities for the day, so the room would likely be in motion for much of the day.

For the first week and a half, I would like to have the unifying question of what an argument is. E/LA would have a worksheet on telling the difference between argument and simple disagreement, an analysis exercise in which students practice breaking down sample arguments into component parts, a journaling activity in which students recount their own disagreements with friends and how these resolved (multimodal is encouraged, images, music if appropriate, etc), and a short story analysis about reconciling different viewpoints, with an eye to showing that often neither side is definitively correct. I have not yet found a story for this lesson, but will be keeping an eye out for something relatively current as I flesh out the unit plan

in more detail. The structure exercises would address goal 4.1 (enhnacing artistry) of the guide, as well as 3.3 (focusing on the organizing of information). The students recounting their own stories with peers in various formats is also helping them to address outcomes pertaining to selfexpression (most of outcome 1, as well as 3.4). For Social Studies, this would include minilessons on differing viewpoints and why people may believe differently, which is greatly emphasized in the sixth grade curriculum. This would link into Maths, which has a focus on the graphing of data given in other ways, where students would take opinion data on various issues and practice graphing it in different styles. Science would look at a history of changing popular beliefs, with particular attention given to astronomy as sky science is a unit which would have wrapped up recently.

The second block of time would be based around examining how persuasion works, and what specifically can make an argument convincing. For E/LA, this would involve a mini-lesson on the subject of metaphor and ways in which it can be used to make your point more relatable. There would also be examination of authentic texts in newspaper and online editorials, as well as a discussion of what makes them convincing. Of note would the the use of the ellipse in quotes, as is mentioned in outcome 4.2 of the program of studies. A mini-lesson would be given on the ways in which the ellipse can be used to either enhance or obscure the original intent of a statement. Advertisement would also likely be a source of study during this week, as there are few texts designed to convince that a student will likely come into contact with more often in daily life. Students would be encouraged to find advertisements that they themselves enjoy and relate exactly what it is that grabs them about them. The end project for this chunk of unit would be for students to come up with their own advertisement, in the format of their choosing, over a three day period with a stable group. This would be assessed based on their ability to

demonstrate that they have a good comprehension of what makes advertising effective. For Social Studies, negotiation would be the main focus of this section of the unit, looking at the early native treaties that the curriculum focuses on, as well as a discussion of lobbying at both the individual and collective levels. Science would explore conflicting evidence and the ways in which seeming paradoxes have been resolved (or continue to baffle). Maths would take a look at statistics (ratios and percentages as prescribed by the program of studies) and the presentation thereof, with a brief exploration of the way that this can be manipulated.

The final block of the unit will focus on the concept of proof. I am tempted to begin the E/LA section with excerpts from Isaac Asimovs Evidence (in which a mans political campaign depends on whether or not he can definitively prove he is not a robot) but am wary that this may be too advanced a story. This could be remedied with a read-aloud and discussion with the entire class before breaking them into their work groups for the day. If a more suitable story could be found, it would be substituted. At any rate, a mini-lesson would emerge from this in which students would explore the idea of burden of proof and write a paragraph explaining their feelings on why or why not it was up to the man to prove he was human. A day would be spent with a poetry lesson in which students learn different forms of poem, after which the students will be asked to compose poems on the subject of how they know what they know. It would be greatly encouraged (and modeled by me) that the students include an aside in parentheses in their poem if at all possible, as proper use thereof is a learning objective for the grade six curriculum. They would work in their groups to compile a chart showing situations where they believe proof to be necessary, merely helpful, or unobtainable, and discuss what that would mean for disagreements over these topics (a mini-lesson on religious tolerance would be appropriate here, as none can be proven nor disproven and must therefore simply co-exist).

Social Studies would break off into a politics discussion here, springing from the campaign story of Evidence, and talk about our electoral system as per their curriculum. Maths would work with creating algebraic expressions of word problems derived from the stories and concepts the students have been sharing up to this point. Science would be looking at the scientific method itself and emphasizing the effort being on disproving existing knowledge to create the new, rather than just finding more and more supporting evidence for accepted knowledge. This section of the unit would likely be slightly shorter than the others in order to allow for a final group project to end the unit.

Finally then, in groups of five(ish), students would create a case. That is, they would collaborate on what may be called an outline for a position paper, but would be an end product in itself. The topic of argument would be selected from among whatever seemed to grab student attention best over the unit to that point (a topic that would spring to mind for me as an example would be whether manipulation is justifiable). Student interest will govern the direction that this takes, but the assignment would be the same. Groups will take a position, outline their argument, and finally, in a full-class exercise, have a moderated round-table discussion of the issue that they chose. Group representatives would rotate each time the group had a point to make, and everyone would be given the chance to become involved in the discussion. Naturally, I would be moderating to ensure that things did not get personal or too off-topic (though if off-topic is an interesting learning opportunity in itself, why not?), but the students would be given the chance to get involved as much as they wished. Several days would be given for groups to prepare for this and discuss among themselves what they feel their strongest points would be, and as an artefact for me to mark by I would ask them to write up a point-form outline of why they chose the position they did. This would be an important part of their final portfolio for the unit.

As a last additional component of the unit, there is a personal touch I would like to add. Being a nerd, I have an idea in my head that there is a board game which could hide lessons for most any unit (in fact, over the past year I have been buying new games every month or so specifically while consulting curriculum), and would like to have one of my things be to wrap up a unit with a day of thematically connected board games. For this one, I have in mind a game called The Resistance in which players are members of some nondescript rebel faction going on missions. Two players are double agents and can sabotage missions, and the group needs to work out who they are and argue their case in order to succeed in their task. Some of the most impassioned and meticulous arguments I have made and heard have been while playing this game, people walking the group through why this one specific person must be a double agent, sometimes because they are genuinely trying to ferret one out and other times to cover up the fact that they themself are one. At the end of a unit on how to convince, what makes an argument valid, and the art of persuasion in general, I believe this to be a fun and powerful way to have students explore their own abilities in this regard in a way which does not stick out as a lesson.

The materials I would need for this unit are not overly complicated. Before coming into teaching, I worked as a projectionist for seven years and have as a result become incredibly wary of depending on any sort of technology. I simply dont see it as reliable enough to base lessons on. As such, I would like to design lessons which would be possible during a power outage. My materials for the students would be journals, duotangs, scrapbooks, art supplies for those who would use them (paints, construction paper, scissors, etc), and perhaps some battery-operated audio recorders. If the school has a music room and a student is so inclined, I would attempt to arrange a students use of some instrument with the music teacher. Likewise for a video camera,

but I feel that time would not really allow for a recording in assignments that it would be appropriate for, more likely the students would need to act something out in front of me or the class as a whole. As for my own usage, I would get some kind of recording equipment in order to review discussions later, particularly in cases like the class discussion at the end of the unit, as well as posters for the various centres and large chart paper for recording group discussion on various issues (such as the proof chart in section 3). Copies of short stories, excerpts, editorials, and advertisements will need to be found for class review, some of which will need to be shown in video form, but thankfully not all, allowing some leeway if the technology fails us. As for other potential catastrophes, I will admit to still being unsure if it is a good idea to have each centre doing different subjects simultaneously, as it may make capitalizing on a learning opportunity with the entire class difficult. While the simultaneous idea is appealing to me and I decided to run with it in the pre-planning phase, it may yet be that I will need to structure the day more traditionally, give an intro talk each day, and then let the students get to work in their groups afterwards. Different subjects happening all at once is something Id like to try, but could quickly go wrong and require revision within the first week. While that would disappoint me, I am completely willing to do so. For the most part though, I am hoping that I have a wide enough range of activities and ways of students expressing themselves that if any one thing were to flop completely Id be able to quickly move on to something else without too much difficulty. I think that variety is one of the strengths of this unit, so hopefully that would prove bear out in the field.

While I worry that I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this unit, I believe it to be one which could be both entertaining and valuable to the students. I attempted to make the assessment scale-able to ability and as such accessible to students of all skill levels. I also believe

that I have a good amount of variety in the mini-lessons and projects I have thought of for students, though I will need to flesh these out further and come up with more to have a full unit. As stated, I am somewhat concerned that there are concepts which may be slightly too advanced, but feel that with patience and effort it would still be within the grasp of a sixth grader. I kept things as simple as possible in terms of materials, but some (hopefully reliable) digital equipment may be necessary. Overall, I am hopeful at the prospects of the early stages of this unit plan, if slightly daunted by the amount of work it may require.