Education Commons^™

What’S The Weather? [1st Grade], Lisa Hoveland

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

Students will engage in a twelve day unit delving in different facets of weather and the seasons. Lessons give students the chance to explore the differences between hot or cold, clear or cloudy, rainy or icy, and calm or windy. Students will learn to observe and record changes in the sky during the day and at night. They also learn how to interpret a thermometer. Students also have the chance to learn about the seasons, realizing that there is a difference between the seasons in Texas and the seasons in New England. At the end of the unit, students have …

Explorers [4th Grade], Carrie Sites, Melissa Cole

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

Students will understand that people explore and settle or different purposes including riches, land, and the spread of religion. Students will also know the history or background of explorers and how that defines the cultures of Texas. At the end of this unit students will independently demonstrate their learning by summarizing an explorer’s accomplishments and reasons for exploring by creating and interacting with a Fakebook page.

The Times They Are A-Changin’: Civil War Through Reconstruction [7th Grade], Becky Orsini, Nick Thomason

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit was written as an in-depth look at the Civil War and Reconstruction. It is an attempt to provide enduring understandings of the changes that took place in the United States, specifically in the southern states, due to the impact of the Civil War and the provisions of Reconstruction. During the unit, students will have several opportunities to look at how changes have occurred in the past that influence them today. Students will do a self-examination of the changes that have taken place in their own lives and apply those understandings to the lessons of the Civil War and …

Culture And Identity In Your Community And The World [6th Grade], Stephany Weaver, Anne Daly

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

“Culture and Identity in your Community and the World” is an interdisciplinary unit designed to stimulate questions about identity and culture and how those two things relate. This unit is meant to be taught at the end of the first semester and the beginning of the second semester. Students have already established an understanding of literary elements in fiction and will now be searching for those same engaging elements in non-fiction.

As the students read the memoir Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang in Reading, they will be studying the effects of culture and community on a single person’s identity …

Energy Resources [5th Grade], Lindsay Freres, Kristen Miceli

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit is designed to guide students in the discovery of how sedimentary rock and fossil fuels are formed, what nonrenewable and renewable resources are, and how alternative energy can be both useful and harmful to our environment. Students will compute labs that show how sedimentary rock is formed and how this process is similar to the formation of fossil fuels. They will also discuss the different forms of alternative energy, stating both pros and cons for each. Students will use writing, illustration, and oral explanation throughout the unit. The final performance task will allow students to apply, explain, and …