3. Unit Calendar
2-6 weeks per unit
No one long
unit—break it up
into subunits
Go back and
revise timeline
after each unit is
taught
4. Unit Names
Discipline Standard Strands Broad Phrase
Number Sense Biomes
Geography of South America Pyramid Design
Economics: North American Trade 1920s Art Contributions
Personal health: Drug Awareness Cold War
Systems: Human Body
Unit Names should NOT be: Resource Driven. For example: Chapter 2: Romeo and
Juliet
Look at other grades to develop consistency in unit naming.
5. Standards: Review Questions
Is there
alignment with
standards and
content/skills?
Are there too
many standards
listed?
Are you
teaching one
part of the
standard?
Stage 2: Are all
of the
assessments
aligned to a
standard?
6. Essential Questions
• 2-3 per unit
• Alignment
• Can it be answered?—if it
can, then it is not an
essential question.
• Is it engaging for the
students?
Enduring Understandings
• 2-3 per unit
• Alignment
• Is the enduring
understanding broad
enough that has enduring
value and will be asked
throughout one’s lifetime?
• Is it at the heart of the
discipline?
7. Content
• Topic: human body, fractions, WWII
• Concept: structure, functions, symbiotic
connections
• Noun (not a verb)
• Format: Noun, noun, descriptor
– WWII: Key causes for US Entry
– Double-Bar Graph: Up to 3 variables
– US Geography: Northeast Region
– Earth’s Moon: 8 Sequential Phases
– Number Recognition: 0-10
– Historical Fiction Text: Fact vs. Fiction
8. Skill Statement
3 parts of a skill statement:
1. Measurable verb
2. Target (how it will be measured…what mode)
3. Descriptor (details with relationship to content)
– Compare (measurable verb) in writing (target) 3 elements, line,
stanza, meter, using traditional and nontraditional forms of
poetry (descriptor)
– Justify (measurable verb) in writing (target) effects of economic
ebb and flow in relationship to target audience sales (descriptor
--Identify and define (measurable verb) in writing (target) 5
common literary devices used in diary-based reading:
structure, tone, theme, point of view, characterization
(descriptor)
9. Skill vs. Activity
Activities Skills
Role-play the Boston Tea Party
(Is role-playing the primary learning
expectation?)
Justify in writing ramifications of Boston Tea
Party in relationship to igniting American
Revolution from multiple perspectives
Walk around the room and interview
classmates while focusing on 3 techniques—
eye contact, restating of questions, clarifying
responses
(Is the skill they are learning---walking?)
Interview orally people focusing on 3
techniques: eye contact, restating of
questions, clarifying responses.
Look at artwork to see if the pieces
incorporate religious icons
Relate visually wooden artworks to religious
beliefs in 2 geographic regions: Africa, Asia
Put pattern blocks in arrays Create manipulatively arrays up to 4 x 4
Keep a daily personal fitness journal for 1
month
Self-evaluate in writing personal physical
activities that promote lifelong involvement
11. Stage 2
1. Identify Desired Results What is it that I want the students to
understand and know and be able to
do?
2. Determine Acceptable Evidence How will I know that they know what I
want them to know?
3. Plan Learning Experiences What do I need to do in the classroom to
prepare them for the assessment?
13. From snapshot to scrapbook
•Formative assessments
•Assist in adjusting instruction
•Gives immediate feedback
Informal Checks
for understanding
•Assess for factual information
and discrete skill
•Use selected-response (MC,
TF)
Tests and Quizzes
•Students involved in self-
assessing their learning and
understanding against
rubric/criteria
Self-assessments
•Constructed responses to
prompts
•Involve analysis and
evaluation
•Open-ended
Academic Prompts
•Real or simulated setting
•Require an audience
•Authentic
•Apply a variety of knowledge,
skills, understanding
Performance Tasks
Think of anchoring your unit with a quality performance assessment, but
use the other evidence along the way.
14. Intra-alignment
Standard
•Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the major ideas and
historical background of immigration policies.
Enduring
Understanding
•The US continues to debate the benefits and risks of immigration.
Essential
Question
•Who should be allowed into the U.S.?
Content
•Immigration policies: quotas, open-door
Skills
•Debate the controversial issue of immigration (quotas vs open-door policy)
Assessment
•Your goal is to promote an open-door policy for immigration. Your role is as a member of Congress and
your target audience is the House of Representatives. You need to convince them that the restrictive
immigration legislation should be repealed.
