1. Creating Your Unit Outline
ESE444
Assessment of Teaching and Learning in Secondary
Schools

2. Materials Needed
 You should go to the Houston Cole library on the fifth floor
or the Learning Resource Center in 102 Ramona Wood
Building and find a textbook (preferably a Teacher’s Edition)
in your content area that is within three years old.
 You will just use this book to create the unit outline.You will
not need it for the whole course.
 You will also need the unit outline template available on
Blackboard and access to the ALEX website
(http://alex.state.al.us/browseStand.php) for course of
study information.

3. Pacing
 For this course you will create a 10 day unit OUTLINE (not
a unit plan) that is based on ALCOS objectives. Each day will
have a student friendly learning target (SFLT) from which
test questions can be written.
 Pacing refers to the amount of time you spend on each topic
and is generally learned through experience. It might help
you to find a textbook that contains a pacing guide. There are
some examples in the next few slides.

6. Things to Remember
 You want to have a logical beginning and end, you will start
at the beginning of a chapter and finish at the end of a
chapter. Depending on your content area this might be one
chapter or it could be more.
 You do not have to use what the book defines as a “unit” for
this plan since it is only two weeks of class time.
 As a good rule of thumb, take what you think would be
possible in a day and make it into two days.You will find that
in the classroom, time runs differently than what you expect,
even if you think what you are teaching at that moment is
“easy.”

7. Dividing your unit:
 Once you have selected a topic, you need to go to ALEX and
find the Course of Study that aligns with that topic. Only
choose the standards that are DIRECTLY related to that
topic. Some textbooks already have the standards associated
with each section listed in the text.
 For the entire unit you should only have a few standards
because you cannot teach a standard a day.
 Each standard will have several topics (SFLTs) that combine
to meet the standard. There are some exceptions (i.e.
sometimes in Literature you might have more standards) and
some standards are more specific to a topic than others.

8. Dividing into days:
 Now that you have a unit topic and your standards selected.
go into the text and basically outline the unit by dividing it
into (1) major topics and (2) sub-topics.
 The major topics are going to be used to create your 10
SFLTs.
 The sub-topics (and you should have several for each major
topic) will be used later to guide your test questions.

9. Example:
 Course: Biology
Unit Topic: Cells
 Major Topics:
 Cell Theory, Structure, Transport, Energy, Division
 You do not have to have 10 major topics, it is likely that you will teach
multiple days on some of your major topics so you would have a
DIFFERENT SFLT for each day. (i.e. Cell Energy is split into two
sections-photosynthesis and cell respiration, Division is split into Mitosis
and Meiosis)
 Later you will break these SFLT’s into individual test questions.

10. What are SFLTs?
 SFLT means Student Friendly Learning Target (sometimes called




objective or daily objective.)
Purpose: Take difficult standards and create an “umbrella goal” in
language that a student can understand for the day
These should be broad enough that a number of test questions can
be gathered from each one.
They should also take into account Bloom’s taxonomy. They should
be level 2 or higher and you should have a mixture of levels over
your unit.(See Bloom’s Taxonomy List in Module 1 of Blackboard
for a review.)
Remember:You can only test them as high as the level of the SFLT.
If you say the student will define _____, then all you can ask them
on a test is to define terms.

11. SFLTs
 Begins with “The student will….
 Followed by an action verb that determines the level
(Bloom’s)
 Then the content….
 EXAMPLE: The students will evaluate the history of cell
discovery. (This SFLT covers cell theory, all major cell
discoveries, and cell theorists.)
 Make sure your SFLT is broad enough to contain a number of
questions
 This is basically a more user-friendly way of writing a part of
the ALCOS standard.

12. Sample SFLTs: Biology
 Biology Standard 2: Describe cell processes necessary for achieving
homeostasis, including active and passive transport, osmosis, diffusion,
exocytosis, and endocytosis.
 In writing the SFLT I would look at how many of my major topics are
included (in this case 1), and whether the standard should be broken
into multiple days (yes: 1 for active, 1 for passive)
 SFLT 1- The student will differentiate between types of active transport
and their uses.
 SFLT 2- The student will differentiate between types of passive transport
and their uses.
 Yes, these are the same in context but with different topics…these
SFLT’s allow me to ask for lists, terms, types, jobs, etc, because they are
higher up in Bloom’s level.

13. Sample SFLTS: Algebra 1
 Algebra I Standard 17.) Solve quadratic equations in one variable.
[A-REI4]
 In writing the SFLT, I would look at how many of my major topics
are included (in this case at least 4), and whether the standard
should be broken into multiple days (4+)
 SFLT 1- The student will solve quadratic equations by graphing and
using square roots.
 SFLT 2- The student will solve quadratic equations by factoring.
 SFLT 3-The student will solve quadratic equations by completing the
square.
 SFLT 4 - The student will solve quadratic equations by using the
quadratic formula
 Each day you are solving quadratic equations, but with different
methods.You may need more than one day per method.

14. UNIT OUTLINE
 For each day you are required to have the following:
 Student friendly learning target (each day should have a
different SFLT)
 Topic and a brief overview of what is included and how you
might teach it (no more than a paragraph)
 ALCOS correlation: This is simply the ALCOS standard that
aligns with that day’s SFLT.

15. Sample Unit Outlines
 I have provided some sample work in a folder under Course
Documents in Blackboard.
 These should give you an idea of how your completed unit
outline should appear.
 Remember, this is the foundation for your work in the course
so pick something with which you are comfortable and
knowledgeable enough to write test questions.
 As a side note, you are not allowed to submit book questions
or text generator questions for this course, anyone caught
doing so will receive a grade of “F”.