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Curriculum Resources

Unit Planning

Lesson Planning

Syllabus Creation & Classroom Set-Up

Uplift Williams

July 26, 2017

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Curricular Documents

Overarching Question: How would you use this document for planning &
teaching?

https://uplift.blackboard.com
Your Blackboard login will be your Uplift username, and the password is
uplift. You have the option to reset this password to a custom password
after you login.
Humanities Nimisha Thakore nthakore@uplifteducation.org
English - Michael Tibbets - mtibbets@uplifteducation.org
Math - Stefani Rubenfeld - srubenfeld@uplifteducation.org
Spanish - Gabriel Alcantara - galcantara@uplifteducation.org
CTE - Chris Lahvic - clahvic@uplifteducation.org
Science - Michael Brinkman - mbrinkman@uplifteducation.org
Arts/PE - Sophia Kwong - skwong@uplifteducation.org

Blackboard-Information Dig

Where would you find What would you find Where would you find IB

curriculum from years information on an online Subject Guides?

past? textbook or other

technology resources?

Find your first Unit Plan. Are there network Where would you find

What is name of the unit provided texts for your the TEKS for your class?

plan? subject? If so, where

would you find them?

Course Structure-Information Dig

The purpose of the course structure document is set a vision of excellence

for your content at Uplift Education. Establishing a shared vision is a

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fundamental part of achieving our goal of pushing all scholars to and

through college. Understanding that visions naturally tend towards lofty

and sometimes intangible, the Course Structure provides concrete

guidance as to how an Uplift teacher might go about achieving the vision in

his or her classroom.

1. Skim through the document.

2. Find the section on assessment. What is the purpose of this section?

How would you use this information for planning & teaching? What

type of rubric do you think would be best with assessment?

3. Find the section on lesson types. What is the purpose of this section?

How would you use this information for planning & teaching? Which

lesson type would you use?

4. Find the section that provides strategies. What is the purpose of this

section? How would you use this information for planning & teaching?

Google 1 strategy that interests you and read more about it.

5. Read through the document in greater detail. What are 5 of the most

key skills or concepts youll want scholars to have learned by the end

of the year?

6. Discuss with your group- What are you excited to use from this

document? How will you use it to improve your planning? Teaching?

Scope & Sequence

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1. Read the cover page. Green sections are requirements. Orange

sections are suggestions.

2. Go towards the end of your scope and sequence. Read through the

calendar. Put the important dates, such as the end unit dates, into

your phone calendar or outlook calendar.

3. Read the scope and sequence information for the first unit

thoroughly. We will be unit planning today and it will help you to

have this information. What are 2 key skills or concepts you will

want students to know by the end of the first unit?

4. Discuss with your group- What are you excited to use from this

document? How will you use it to improve your planning? Teaching?

Common Assessment

1. Take the first common assessment yourself. If you do not have time to

finish it, thats okay. Its important to take the assessments so you can

start to predict what student misconceptions will be and how to pace

your content.

2. Discuss with your group- What did you learn from taking the CA

yourself? How will you use it to improve your planning? Teaching?

3. What questions do you still have for your CTL?

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Unit Planning

Unit Plan Sections as Defined by Uplift Williams

GLOBAL CONTEXTS (grades 9 & 10 only)

Why are we engaged in this inquiry?
Why are these concepts important?
Why is it important for me to understand?
Why do people care about this topic?
How does this global context relate to the unit?
How will I make explicit and authentic connections to the global context throughout the unit?

KEY CONCEPT(S) (Choose 1-2 from your subject guide) (grades 9 & 10 only)
What are the key concepts for this specific content area?
How will I make explicit and authentic connections to the key concept throughout the unit?

RELATED CONCEPT(S) (Choose 2-3 from your subject guide) (grades 9 & 10 only)
Scholars will be able to add importance or significance to their conceptual learning, demonstrating connections to the world. What are the big
ideas? What do we want our scholars to retain for years into the future?
How will I make explicit and authentic connections to the key concept throughout the unit?

STATEMENT OF INQUIRY (grades 9 & 10 only)

What larger conceptual statement will we address through this unit and its summative assessment?
Describes a complex relationship that is worthy of inquiry
Explains clearly what students should understand and why that understanding is meaningful
Can be qualified (using phrases such as often, may and can) if it is not true in all situations, but is still an important idea
Can be formulated at different levels of specificity

Should tie the global context, key concept, and related concepts to one another

TRANSFER (grades 11 & 12)

How will I make explicit and authentic connections to the key concept throughout the unit?

How can students transfer skills and knowledge among disciplines and subject groups?
Utilize effective learning strategies in subject groups and disciplines
Apply skills and knowledge in unfamiliar situations
Inquire in different contexts to gain a different perspective
Compare conceptual understanding across multiple subject groups and disciplines
Make connections between subject groups and disciplines
Combine knowledge, understanding and skills to create products or solutions
Transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies
Change the context of an inquiry to gain different perspectives
TOK Knowledge Question-A higher-level question that can be explored within the TOK course (related to your unit)
INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS
What connections to other content areas will occur throughout this Unit? How will this connection be executed in the Unit? This unit will be
connected to the following content area(s):
How will this connection be executed in the Unit?
PERFORMANCE TASK/ASSESSMENT
What task(s) will allow students the opportunity to respond to the statement of inquiry?
Describe the relationship between the summative assessment task(s) and the statement of inquiry. If helpful, use the GRASPS format:
GOAL: Establish the goal, problem, challenge, or obstacle in the task.
ROLE: Define the role of the students in the task.
AUDIENCE: Identify the target audience within the context of the scenario.
SITUATION: Set the context of the scenario.
PRODUCT: Clarify what the students will create and why they will create it.
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STANDARDS and CRITERIA: Rubric

CONNECTION TO THE STATEMENT OF INQUIRY

Explain the relationship between summative assessment task(s) and statement of inquiry:

CONTENT OBJECTIVES/ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Which specific MYP objectives will be addressed during this unit? Which MYP assessment criteria will be used?
What rubric(s) will be presented to ensure scholar expectations?(Please include rubric here, or at the end of this document)

APPROACHES TO LEARNING
How will this unit contribute to the overall development of subject-specific and general approaches to learning skills?

LEARNING EXPERIENCES & TEACHING STRATEGIES

Hook all scholars and hold their interest. Equip scholars to perform assessment. Organize instruction to maximize initial and sustained
engagement as well as effective learning.

DIFFERENTIATION
How will you differentiate to reach all scholars? What grouping methods or instructional practices will you use? How will you provide
feedback? FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
(Need to be listed by class period)
What strategies will you put in place to assess how scholars are learning the necessary knowledge and skills on a daily basis?

REAL WORLD CONNECTIONS

What real world connections and relevant examples can you activate for your scholars through this Unit? How will these connections be carried
out? Why are these real world connections important for your scholars and their lives?

RESOURCES
What materials and/or texts are needed to execute this plan?

Directions for Unit Planning

Go to Blackboard and pull up your Unit 1. If you teach more than one

course, focus on only one course for right now.

Save the Unit to your laptop, adding the words Revised 7-26-17 by [your

last name] to the end of the document name.

Add your name in the section for Teacher. Read the rest of this page to
understand the vision for the lesson.

Review the TEKS and the Knowledge & Skills. These should not be revised.
You may want to highlight this section to remind yourself.

This year, we are focusing school-wide on the Approaches to Learning

skills of reflection and critical thinking. Select one of these and add it to
this section with an explanation. Please see below for suggestions but be
sure to customize it to your specific unit.

This year, we are focusing on inquiry from IBs Approaches to Teaching.

Consider that as you plan your Teaching and Learning experiences; they
should be student-centered and inquiry based. Consider your common
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assessment & assessment tasks when planning your experiences because

the experiences should prepare them for the assessment.

Unsure what types of experiences to include? At this point, focus on

creating experiences that involve no more than 10 minutes of teacher-led
lecture & read this article for a few strategies to get you started:
http://edut.to/2tY8HxL
If time allows, start modifying the day-by-day part of Backwards Planning
to reflect the new experiences you have incorporated.

Approaches to Learning Suggestions

Critical Thinking
How can students think critically?
Practice observing carefully in order to recognize problems
Gather and organize relevant information to formulate an argument
Recognize unstated assumptions and bias
Interpret data
Evaluate evidence and arguments
Recognize and evaluate propositions
Draw reasonable conclusions and generalizations
Test generalizations and conclusions
Revise understanding based on new information and evidence
Formulate factual, topical, conceptual and debatable questions
Consider ideas from multiple perspectives
Develop contrary or opposing arguments
Analyze complex concepts and projects into their constituent parts and
synthesize
them to create new understanding
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Propose and evaluate a variety of solutions

Identify obstacles and challenges
Use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues
Identify trends and forecast possibilities
Troubleshoot systems and applications

Reflection
How can students be reflective?
Develop new skills, techniques and strategies for effective learning
Identify strengths and weaknesses of personal learning strategies (self-
assessment)
Demonstrate flexibility in the selection and use of learning strategies
Try new approaches to learning and evaluate their effectiveness
Consider content (What did I learn about today? What dont I yet
understand? What questions do I have now?)
Consider ATL skills development (What can already do? How can I
share my skills
to help peers who need more practice? What will I work on next?)
Consider personal learning strategies (How efficiently and effectively
am I learning?
What can I do to become a more efficient and effective learner? How
can my understanding of personal strengths and weaknesses help me
develop my own strategies for learning?)
Consider ethical, cultural and environmental implications
Keep a journal to record reflections

Lesson Planning Instructions

Open the Lesson Plan Template from: https://www.smore.com/puyma
Read the Lesson Plan Example on the next page.
Go back to the Course Structure from your Blackboard course. Review

the information on Lesson Plan (gradual release or inquiry). You can

use either one with the Uplift Williams Lesson Plan Template.
Begin planning your lessons for the 2nd week when your unit actually

begins. Remember that we are on a block schedule.

Once you finish week 2 lesson plans, begin gathering the resources you

will use and ensure that they already have higher-level questions or

you have annotated them with higher-level questions. You will submit
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these resources when you submit your lesson plans.

We will go into more detail about how to submit lesson plans and

resources next week.

Unit #6: Waves

Lesson #1: Periodic Motion 4
Date: Monday, February 24

Objective(s):
SWBAT use Hookes law to determine the spring constant of a spring and calculate the amount
of potential energy stored in a spring.
SWBAT explain periodic motion of a pendulum and calculate the length of a pendulum.

Time Lesson Teaching Multiple Response Strategies

Component Strategy/Learning (note CS when complete sentences are an
Experience expectation)
5 min. Do Now Vocabulary flashcard Cold call
practice
3 min. Hook Video with focus Stop and jot
question
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12 Direct Instruction PowerPoint Turn and talks, Think-Pair-Share, Cold Call

min.
5 min. Practice Group practice Whiteboards-write
problems
10 Direct Instruction PowerPoint Oral Choral, Think-Pair-Share, Cold Call
min.
5 min. Practice Partner practice Active Monitoring, Cold Call-talk
problems
25 Independent Independent practice Active Monitoring-write/CS
min. problems
10 Exit Ticket Multiple step problem Turn in exit ticket-write
min.
1 min. Closure Lightening Vocab Quick Response-write/CS
Homework

How will you differentiate for specific scholars/groups of scholars?

Peer leaders repeat modeling of problem during practice sessions
During practice, SJ, MK, LM will have equation in simplest form
SJ and LL worksheets have scaffolded questions written on them

Syllabus and Classroom Set-Up

Return to the Smore and open the Sample Syllabus. You will delete the

information in yellow and replace with course-specific information. Due next

Thursday.
Return to the Smore and open the Classroom Set-Up link. Due next Friday.

11th & 12th grade teachers-swap Global Contexts box for Transfer box (see pg.

2 diagram)