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Full-Text Articles in Secondary Education and Teaching
The Play Is A Mirror: Looking At Human Nature In Romeo And Juliet [9th Grade], Melissa Manny
The Play Is A Mirror: Looking At Human Nature In Romeo And Juliet [9th Grade], Melissa Manny
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
Since reading Shakespeare for the first time often causes students to doubt themselves or quit from frustration, the purpose of this unit is to support students throughout the reading process so that they learn to appreciate drama as a means for better understanding themselves, rather than letting it defeat them from the beginning. Through an examination of character motivations, in addition to the language and dramatic conventions Shakespeare uses to bring their stories to life on stage, students will experience theatre as a mirror that reflects their own struggles and desires back to them. The relationship between the audience’s reaction …
Math And Me [9th Grade], Mckinley Rich
Math And Me [9th Grade], Mckinley Rich
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
The purpose of this unit is to have students question and analyze their opinions about mathematics. Students, particularly in math, have very strong perceptions of themselves as a learner. These self-perceptions have many different roots, and in this unit students will analyze the origin and perpetuation of such perceptions. Through a series of articles and some moments of self-reflection, students will look for answers to the questions: “What perceptions do I have about math?” and “What has shaped and will continue to shape my perceptions about math?”. While this is unlike 99% of math units, I believe that in order …
Africa [9th Grade], Kate Empson
Africa [9th Grade], Kate Empson
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
Students will focus on colonialism in Africa. The focus will be on natural resources and the geographic location of Africa and how these two factors led to European colonization of Africa. The unit will then move on to explain how the colonization and exploitation of Africa led to the cycle of poverty in which Africa is currently embedded. Students will use their knowledge of Africa to participate in a simulation. Students will be assigned a specific country in Africa to research. Students will also research the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and determine how these goals have affected Africa.
Breaking Bread: Finding Peace In The Middle East [9th Grade], Jessica Waltman
Breaking Bread: Finding Peace In The Middle East [9th Grade], Jessica Waltman
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
The goal of this unit is to introduce students to the Middle East region of the world. Through the themes of the resources of oil and water students will gain a deeper understanding of the conflicts that have plagued this region of the world. Students will focus on the essential questions "What creates allies and enemies?", "Why is there conflict?", and "Are humans the heroes or villains of the earth?" in order to better understand the perspectives towards and of this part of the world. The activities and daily lessons of this unit are built to aid students in their …
Personal And Group Identity [9th Grade], Alice Rasmussen
Personal And Group Identity [9th Grade], Alice Rasmussen
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
This unit is designed to purposefully set the tone of the classroom at the beginning of the year. As the year begins, I often get sidetracked with the business of starting a school year and the important process of orienting with the classroom, the teacher, and each other gets pushed aside. This unit is designed with the flexibility needed to allow for the business and logistics of the beginning of the year. It is also designed to allow for schedule changes. A student who enters the classroom after the first day will not be lost or behind. The unit is …
Fahrenheit 451 [9th Grade], Alice Rasmussen
Fahrenheit 451 [9th Grade], Alice Rasmussen
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
This unit is designed for the beginning of the school year in an English I Pre-AP classroom. It assumes that students have completed their summer reading of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Overarching themes for the year are “Why do people read?” and “Why do people write?” Thus, students will begin to explore one of the reasons we read and write fiction: insight about human experience. More specifically related to the themes of Fahrenheit 451, students will see the importance of reading, writing, and enriching our brains as a species. By reading the novel, students will see an example of …
Hero’S Journey, The Alchemist [9th Grade], Kristen Morgan
Hero’S Journey, The Alchemist [9th Grade], Kristen Morgan
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
Students and ninth-graders especially are in search of something to use to make sense of the world. I start the year with the students establishing goals for themselves both academically and personally. Then, we move into a unit that overviews the uses of genre. This unit on the hero’s journey is to extend their ideas of the novel and what it can do as a work of fiction using Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. Like Santiago, the novel’s main character, the students journey to understanding by reading the story. Understanding: The novel genre can be used for different purposes; it can …
Themes Of Geography [9th Grade], Jessica Waltman
Themes Of Geography [9th Grade], Jessica Waltman
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
Throughout this unit students will be introduced to the five themes of geography. These themes will be brought up in future units of study to help students better organize their understandings and perceptions of the world around them. In understanding the themes of Location, Place, Region, Movement, and Human-Environment Interaction, students will be prepared to answer the essential question of “Why is the where important?” The activities and lessons of this unit are built to aid students in their understanding of how humans interact with one another and their environments and to begin to see the differences and similarities of …
Genre (And The Category Is...) [9th Grade], Kristen Dylla
Genre (And The Category Is...) [9th Grade], Kristen Dylla
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
Making sense of the world and its complexities looms a difficult task for students in the ninth grade. This unit focuses on the understanding that one way to do so is to categorize information and ideas. The discipline-specific part of the unit will utilize the idea of genre as a category for organization, an essential understanding for the study of any text. The unit is done at the start of the year so that for the rest of the year, students have their ideas of genre to help them make sense of texts read. It would be preceded by an …
Latin America [9th Grade], Ruth Anderson
Latin America [9th Grade], Ruth Anderson
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
The students will recognize that where we live influences how we live. The students will know what important physical features of Latin America are and how Latin Americans have adapted to these various environments, how physical and human characteristics affect life in Latin America s rural regions, how the people of the Caribbean and Central America are affected by landforms and climate, what economic and environmental challenges the rainforests of Latin America face, how natural resources are utilized, how vertical climate zones affect agriculture, and in which ways Andean cultures have adapted to their physical environment. The students will recognize …
Reading, Writing And Voice [9th Grade], Faith Fugit
Reading, Writing And Voice [9th Grade], Faith Fugit
Understanding by Design: Complete Collection
The Houston Academy of International Studies is a public charter school that opened in HISD in fall 2006. As the freshman English teacher for HAIS, I wrote this unit during summer 2006, before many rules, routines and procedures for the school were hammered down. This unit is planned for the fall semester and aims to help students explore the concepts of literary and social voice while using their own voices authentically to shape our new school. As an opportunity to exercise voice, students participate in a semester-long school-improvement project for HAIS. Throughout our study of literary and social voice, students …