ࡱ> 9<8s %jbjb .kk!]$$$$$ 0$PffffAAAsuuuuuu,NB AAAAAffPA:ffs""AsssD t$${nsReflecting on the Process of Creating a Constructivist Unit Plan.by Tony Ambrose (  HYPERLINK mailto:sahambr@jinx.umsl.edu sahambr@jinx.umsl.edu ) THE NATURE OF A UNIT PLAN: A history textbook is subdivided into chapters each organized around either a cluster of related historical people or cause agents or around a dominant historical event. The internal logic of expository writing and the expansive descriptive power of narration establish historical causation and introduce the main players in the topic at hand. A history term paper narrows its focus on specific people or events, surveys relevant historical causality discussions, and hypothesizes a defended, but limited, interpretation of both what happened and its importance or significance. In their attempt to inform and convince, both a history text and a term paper have an interested, but ultimately passive audience in mind. A social studies unit plan is different. The necessity to inform and even to convince is still present; ...but also the need to develop skills and concepts in the students. Opportunities to develop reading, thinking, and communicating skills must be embedded in the educational activities offered in the instructional unit plan. Like the textbook and term paper, the unit plan focuses on specific people, period, or events; but a unit plan, of its nature, is designed for an active audience that is engaged in the acquisition of information, the building of understandings and knowledge, and the necessity to communicate what has been learned. DEVELOPING CONCEPTS: The social studies unit plan must not be a watered down survey of content and experiences loosely related to history, geography, or political science topics. It must be not an information dump designed to cover the text or keep students busy for an arbitrary period of time. The unit plan must have focus and purpose. It must have the potential to create and develop a teaching-learning process which can result in students developing certain skills and understandings. Social studies unit plans should be concept-based. THE PROCESS: Concept-based unit plans emphasize a systematic instruction concerning facts (details) , concepts (ideas and explanations which derive their definition and multi-layered meanings from an analysis of what is common among several related facts, details,and examples), and generalizations (supported statements which express the relationship among several concepts). An especially effective way to teach concepts is to provide in a cyclical fashion learning experiences based on several sources of information which is explained and analyzed so as to form more and more layers of meaning to the original simple definition-now-grown-into a concept. The unit plans either starts with the generalization ( with the rest of the unit leading the students to proving its validity and discovering its boundaries ) or ends with the generalization (formed from a conclusive discussion or the building of a broad explanation concerning the relevance, importance, and application of the the several concepts taught in the unit). THE CONTENT: WHERE IT COMES FROM.....WHERE IT IS GOING: This is the Information Age... Students need to learn how to learn...learn how to find, interpret, explain, and process a variety of information sources. It is best that units be built supported by information from a variety of sources in addition to the textbook: printed material, electronic material ( internet, etc.), and multi-media based material. A unit should present information, encourage the development of knowledge and explanations concerning the facts from a wide variety of sources, and provide the opportunity for students to communicate ( through multimedia enhanced presentations or projects ) what they have learned. Thus, content from a variety of sources, systematically encountered is transformed into a (multimedia) form which in turn simultaneously demonstrates knowledge acquired and builds resources from which other students could interact and learn. A FAQ: How to determine whether a given body of curriculum content, time permitting, should be included in the unit plan? An important rule of thumb: If the content or educational activity is related to the concepts being taught and if it clarifies and further develops those concepts, then it should be included.... If not, then not. The issue of conceptual integrity is important in order to maintain focus and purpose in the students learning. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES: WHAT THE TEACHER IS DOING...WHAT THE STUDENTS ARE DOING: Too often, unit plans describe in detail what the students are doing from day to day and lesson to lesson. It is equally important to identify what the teacher is doing to support, evaluate, and adjust to the needs of the students. This implies that the unit plan is a solid piece of long-range planning which needs to be fine-tuned on the spot every few days and sometimes within individual lessons. The quality of adjustment can be improved if the need for such is anticipated by the teacher. In general, a 4-weekunit should allow change of roles by the teacher and students: 1. first few days: focus on the time-duration and conceptual boundaries of unit...... state the problem to be solved or big topic to be learned.. 2. 1 week... very teacher directed.....students receiving direct instruction 3. the next week.... students process the information they have received. active learning, teacher-directed and student-directed discussions.... forming connections ... applying concepts to new situations or problems to be solved. 4. next 1/2 week..... students review and prepare presentations, projects, etc. 5. last 1/2 week... Evaluation... in addition to traditional tests ..students give presentations or whole class engages in activities which require them to relate to and make connects among all the topics, concepts and skills introduced and developed in the unit. THE LESSON PLAN....THE STRUCTURE...THE TRAP: Conceptually-based unit plans are structured around properly sequenced daily lesson plans. Keep in mind the power of cyclical teaching. ..introducing a concept with one lesson, teaching content related to other concepts on intervening days, and 2 or 3 days later giving further instruction on the already introduced concept ... and so on. thus, each additional educational activity further develops the students understanding of the concept and his ability to relate that concept to other circumstances. The lesson plan itself should contain some or all of the following parts: 1. Get the students focused on, interested in the topic of the day. (brief and spontaneous) 2. Relate the beginning of todays lesson to yesterdays or tomorrows lesson as appropriate.(brief .... but transitions are just as important here as they are in essay writing). 3. In terms the students will understand, explain the objectives and overview of the days lesson ( very brief). 4. Direct teaching: Teacher explains, demonstrates, etc. concept or skill to be developed that day. (10 min) 5. Active Learning: Students engage in some active ( or quiet) educational activity which gives them the opportunity to internalize the concept or practice the skill. (by self or group...15 min) 6. Teacher directed:.... New problem or situation or activity presented to students which requires them to apply the skills just practiced or concept just introduced. ( 10 min... maybe as homework also) 7. Evaluation:... can be short quiz... but does not have to be quiz as such... Can be informal summary of the lesson, answering questions of students as well as asking them... the teacher must OVERTLY make the connection between what was just done in class and what is coming tomorrow or with the conceptual sequence being developed in the unit. HOW todays class relates to the whole unit. --- There are two traps to avoid. (1) Dont assume that just because the objectives on paper are clear to you the teacher .... and dont assume that just because the activities and content of the unit is organized into some dynamite sequence... that students will automatically learn.. automatically recognize the connections. The development of real understanding in the short attention span TV-Video Games world of today's youth is dependent upon active Coaching by the teacher to make the student aware of his or her learning process.... (2) Help the students be aware of the fact they are actually learning something. VXY . C F R T Q!%%5>*B*CJOJQJB*CJOJQJ B*OJQJ5>*B*CJOJQJ0J$j5>*B*CJ$OJQJUj5>*B*CJ$OJQJU5>*B*CJ$OJQJ5>*B*CJ,OJQJ  . F G T OQ!hP9$  . 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