Unit and Lesson Plan Development

1. Unit and Lesson Plan Development

2. Overall Unit Title • Think of a catchy title that really defines what your unit is all about. • Be creative – brainstorm several ideas with your partner and choose the best (not the first) idea. • Pitch the idea to a couple of people – can they tell what the unit will be about?

3. Past Examples of Unit Titles • Janet &Erin: "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" (a unit on Migration and Unemployment) • Quinn & Kaitlin: “Hot Off the Press” (a unit on the future of newspapers) • Ellen & LeighAnn: “Water Water Everywhere” (a unit on accessible drinking water) • Karen & Janele: “The Last Water Dinosaur” (a unit on sea turtles)

4. Planning for 4 Days at Camp • Recall from last summer that you will need to plan for 4 days of instruction at camp. These four days included about 70 minutes of instruction per day for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. • Remember Thursday at camp is the day you complete final preparations for the family visits.

5. Each Day = Active Learning • The temptation is to do LOTS of lecture and pack the kids’ heads full of information on Monday since you are trying to build background knowledge. AVOID THIS. • The temptation might also be to “have kids do research on the internet.” This is not an active learning strategy and there is probably a better, more interactive way to teach them. • There should be interactive, interesting activities planned for each day of camp.

6. Planning for a Product • Another temptation is to try to do most of the work on the product on the last day of camp (Thursday). This is a mistake and you will probably not end up with a high quality product. • Instead, schedule a little bit of time each day for the students to work on their product (i.e., one day they might write a script, another day they might do a voice over, another day they might add pictures to a PSA).

7. The ‘Hook’ • Do you remember learning about the ‘hook’ in your undergraduate education program? This is the time at the beginning of the lesson when you GRAB your students’ attention and get them interested in what you are about to teach. • There are many interesting ways to ‘hook’ your students, including: sharing a very short video clip, citing a piece of interesting factual information, showing pictures, etc.

8. Example of a great ‘hook’ for a lesson on bridge building Building Bridges - teachers could show the following clip of a group of goats crossing a bridge prior to discussing the optimal design for bridge building. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSBHpJmjk9k&feature=player_detailpage

9. Example of a great ‘hook’ for lesson on Architecture - teachers could show the following clip to get students interested in the study of architecture. Who built these places, anyway? http://youtu.be/Hw679ml4jfg

10. Unit Goals and Objectives • For this Module, you will work with your partner to create two overarching goals that will span the content of your entire unit. • These should not be the same as the goals/objectives from the NC Standard Course of Study - we want you to write your own. You may, however, want to use the NCSCOS to guide you. If you use the NCSCOS as a guide, be sure to look at the goals and objectives at least two grade levels above the students that you will be teaching (i.e., if you will be teaching 5th graders, you can look at the content standards for 7th graders or beyond). You do not have to use the NCSCOS.