Education Commons^™

Cultural Anxiety And Arthur Miller’S The Crucible, Lauren Lee

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit is designed to begin the school year with a study of culture as well as anxieties that permeate cultures and perpetuate fear and conflict. Ultimately, students should reach the greater understanding that fears produced by a group mentality are oftentimes a result of the people in power enabling that mentality. These fears further separate those in power and the people they control, and frequently result in that culture committing acts they might otherwise find morally deplorable but nonetheless condone out of group think.

Within the context of these greater understandings, students will work on summary-response writing skills, understanding …

Romanticism: Past And Present [10th Grade], Amy Anderson

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Exploring the Romantic Movement and its influence on our culture today, this unit focuses on identifying and explaining how the characteristics of a literary genre are reflected in a work of art or piece of literature. Students will refine their explication skills and learn to make connections between literature, art and music.

The unit culminates in a differentiated multimedia project, which allows students to show what they know about Romanticism and its connections to our lives today.

Ecology – Energy Flow, Environments, And Habitats [7th Grade], Alex Wallender

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By the end of this unit students will understand that life depends on energy flow through systems. They will recognize the many energy transformations that take place, and focus especially on the transformation of radiant energy to chemical energy in the process of photosynthesis. Students will also understand that as energy is transferred throughout an ecosystem and is used or transformed along the way. They will be able to diagram the flow of energy in a number of manners including: food chains, food webs, and energy pyramids. Lastly, students will leave this unit understanding that organisms and their environments; both …

What’S The Story? [9th Grade], Alice Rasmussen

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This is a 6 week unit over the books The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. Students were to choose one of these books for their summer reading, and this unit asks students to re-read (or read for the first time) their book at a closer, deeper level. Students will be assigned to smaller reading/discussion groups for the unit. They will read together and at home, complete close reading assignments in class, ask thought-provoking discussion questions, and record their thoughts and reflections in an online …

“Who’S Coming To Dinner?” – Understanding The Middle East Culture [6th Grade], Bethany Lorge, Linda O'Connor

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The goal of this unit is for students to understand the cultures and conflicts that result from these cultures in the Middle East. Students will begin by learning about the geography of this region of the world through various mapping activities. They will begin to learn how the culture of this region is influenced by its geography and climate. Students will be able to explain how the predominance of Christianity, Judaism and Islam has led to conflicts in this region of the world. Students will also learn about the major impact that oil has had in the Middle East and …

Slavery – A Problem Of The Past? [7th Grade], Becky Orsini, Nick Thomason

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This interdisciplinary unit focuses on the institution of slavery and the many forms in which it manifests. Students will be challenged to look at slavery in all of its forms and determine its impact on the lives of those who experienced it. In Texas History the students will look at the political, social and economic factors that caused slavery to be a dominate force in the growth of Texas. In ELA, students will look at slavery from the point of view of a former slave as they read the historical-fiction novel, “Spartacus”, by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. For their Performance Task, …

Días Inolvidables (Cápitulo 1-1) [9th-12th Grade], Carol Arnold

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This unit was designed utilizing the Realidades 3 Textbook from Prentice Hall for a Spanish 3 level class. I also included some differentiation for Spanish 3 Pre-AP along with supplemental activities at the end of the unit. The goal of the unit was to have students investigate in an authentic manner the positive and negative effects of tourism on Spanish-speaking countries.

Throughout their investigations, students are exposed to and expected to use the preterite and imperfect tense in a real-world context through camping and tourism. One of the other goals of the unit is to have students create a presentation …

Citizenship [2nd Grade], Christy Custer

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This unit is designed to be taught within the first few months of second grade. In this unit students learn the qualities of a good citizen. Through examples from literature, history, and daily life, students learn what it means to be a good citizen. They can then apply these good citizen traits such as respect, honesty, kindness, self-discipline, responsibility, and fairness to their role as citizens of a school. At the end of the unit students will be able to identify these good citizen traits and apply them to the classroomand school community. For the final project students will inform …

Getting To Know Me [9th Grade], Carrie Susong

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This unit is written for a fourth grade English Language Arts class at a bilingual school in Honduras. It is designed to be taught at the beginning of the school year, within the first 3-4 weeks. Since the unit focuses on classroom-community building and basic grammar, it could be adapted for a primary grade class of native English speakers or for a level 1 class of foreign language learners. Suggestions and resources for differentiation are mentioned for several lessons.

Julius Caesar: The Power Of Persuasion [10th Grade], Devon Erlich

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As we approach the Shakespearean tragedy, we are going to not only study the dramatic terms utilized, but also the ways in which characters are persuaded. The essential question, “What makes a person persuasive?” will lead us through the reading of Julius Caesar when looking at the actions of all of the characters. We will discuss their use of ethos, logos, and pathos to persuade others, and we will also look at each character’s understanding of his audience. While we will study and practice persuasive techniques in advertising, writing, and speech, we will also focus on the audience’s perception of …

Clothing Creativity And Cost [9th-12th Grade], Jonelle Bailey

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This Unit provides a cultural perspective of clothing as well as other factors that influence clothing choices, styles, and costs. Students will learn new clothing vocabulary as they assess the impact of weather, profession and personal choice or personality on the clothing that a person or group of people wear. The information provided throughout the unit allows students to understand that there are various things that influence clothing cost, creativity, and choice.

Getting To Know Me (Myspace/Glogster) [9th-12th Grade], Jonelle Bailey

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This Unit gives students the opportunity to obtain a broader perspective of the benefits of language communication in understanding themselves and others in light of culture and prospective possibilities. Students will study greetings, farewells, and other pertinent vocabulary. However, even more importantly, students will define for themselves a personally significant and globally relevant understanding of the significance of learning another language.

Artists As Storytellers: Designing A Personal Comic Book [6th-8th Grade], Elizabeth Bendele

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In this unit, students will examine and interpret past examples of storytelling, and will tell their own story by designing a comic book panel illustrating a momentous event or experience in their lives. As this unit encourages personal expression and imparts the significance of individuality and creativity, it was written to be the first unit of the term; it will give students a structured roadmap for the year, and will also give the teacher insight on where each student stands not only as an artist— but as a writer, reader, thinker, and class participant as well.

Ancient Egypt [6th Grade], Jeanine Capitani

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This unit on Ancient Egypt is one of five units I teach about ancient civilizations after completing a study of what culture is and how it defines us. This unit focuses on the geography, religion, and social structures of ancient Egypt. It also emphasizes an understanding of the different time periods of Egyptian society from 4,500 BC- the 18th Dynasty. At the end of this unit on Egypt, the students will demonstrate knowledge of the culture of Egypt by writing and illustrating a story where they go back in time and describe two aspects of Egyptian culture as well as …

You Are Unique /Tú Eres Único [9th-12th Grade], Jennifer Falcon, Jodi Ingersoll

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Identity is a question that we are all faced with. Students struggle with this question as it is one that is multi-faceted and is ever changing. Adolescence is a time in which the opinions of our self as well as that of others can change on a daily basis.

In the Spanish curriculum the idea of identity or knowing who you are is begun in beginning level and continues to develop in the upper level coursework. The purpose of this unit is to transform the novice understanding of identity into an understanding of grammatical concepts, vocabulary, and a deeper understanding …

Bond…Chemical Bond [10th-11th Grade], Katie Fitch

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In the unit, Bond…Chemical Bond, students will learn about chemical bonds. Students will learn how to illustrate, name, write formulas, and characterize the three main types of chemical bonds: ionic, covalent, and metallic. Students will begin with an anchoring activity exploring how the nature of different types of bonds affect properties such as conduction of electricity. At the end of the unit they will demonstrate that they have mastered the skills of illustrating and diagramming bond types, naming compounds and writing correct formulas. They will also demonstrate a conceptual understanding of bonding by identifying and explaining the nature of bonds …

Loss In Joyce’S Dubliners [11th-12th Grade], Lauren Lee

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This unit, written for a primarily senior college preparatory English Literature class, uses several short stories from James Joyce’s Dubliners to focus on the thematic idea of loss, grief, and coping to build on students’ understanding of research, creative writing, discussion, reading, making connections, and literary terms. At the unit’s conclusion, students will demonstrate their mastery of these skills and understandings in a Wikispace in which they conduct first-person research on a culture, as Joyce did, and emulate some of his creative writing skills to develop vignettes about that culture working independently or in groups. Some activities that will lead …

Exploring Personal Responses To Reading: A Wwii Book Study [4th Grade], Jennifer Wray

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This unit arose out of students reading passively and not responding to their texts. In order to inspire a response in students, these picture books set in the WWII era are particularly powerful and typically evoke passionate responses. The unit focuses on understanding different perspectives in history and an author’s purpose for writing. The other main focus is teaching students how to have a personal response to a text. Authors of these books specifically wrote their stories to learn from the past and create peace for the future. Therefore, the performance task at the end invites the students to use …

Out Of Chaos Came The Middle Ages [4th Grade], Laura Eberle, Hannah Rinn

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This is a unit on the Middle Ages written for fourth graders in a Core Knowledge school. The unit covers the time period from the Fall of Rome to the Black Death and the end of the feudal system. While learning about this transitional time in history, students will gain an understanding that societies grow and evolve over time, adapting to circumstances and advances that arise. Key figures during the Middle Ages will be introduced, such as Charlemagne, Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and William the Conqueror. Through these examples, students will also begin to understand that the ideas and …

Cultura Y Idioma (Culture And Language) [7th-9th Grade], Merida Elizondo

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In this unit students will investigate the influence that culture has on language. Students will focus on when to use formal versus informal forms in conversation as well as how cognates have shaped the Spanish language. Loan words will be discussed and regional differences in the Spanish language will be explored. This unit is designed to be taught at the beginning of the year when students are at a very novice level of Spanish. The vocabulary includes introductions, greetings, saying hello, and saying goodbye. The major grammar concepts included in this unit are the subject pronouns and cognates. This unit …

Who Are You? Who, Who! Who, Who! [7th Grade], Kara Brown, Jean Yang

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The goal of this unit is for students to write their own personal narrative. Students will understand that writing a personal narrative is not only applicable to the classroom. They will understand the value of reflecting on past experiences and use that knowledge in the future.

They will take an essay through all five steps of the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing). Throughout the unit, students will be introduced to and apply new strategies to their own writing to help with pre-writing, revising and editing. These strategies will improve their writing, and students will be able to …

Why Is Africa Underdeveloped? [9th Grade], Robert Stafford

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Students will focus on levels of development in Africa and investigate why many parts of Africa are underdeveloped. Students will examine how physical geography impacts development, the effects of European colonization on African development, and contemporary issues (famine, conflicts, diseases, and political instability/corruption) that hinder development.

Students will then use this information to compare levels of development in African countries, explain why the developmental levels vary, and develop strategies to encourage development in struggling countries.

“What’S Your Problem?” Research Project [12th Grade], Sherry Brown

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Students will develop a project around a social or environmental issue which is important to them. In groups, students will research their topic and write a précis with a works cited page. In groups, they will then develop and present a multimedia presentation on their topic. The presentation will present the points from their précis, include music, photos, and videos, and incorporate elements from art, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. They must also engage in primary source research or a community action component. Finally, the students individually will write a personal reflection and connection paper. Through this process, the students will …

In Defense Of The Indefensible [9th Grade], Patricia Rogers, Sarah Berce

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Through the study of To Kill a Mockingbird, students will understand the importance of empathy in human relations, the effect of point of view in a story, and the power of words and actions in an argument. As students read, they will discover the theme that “to fully understand others, we must wall in their shoes.” They will explore how perspective and point of view shape a story and the reader’s understanding of that story. Modeling the rhetorical devices Atticus uses in his closing argument, the unit’s culminating activity will be for students to defend themselves in an apology from …

In The Space Between Action And Reaction Individuals Have Choice: Romeo And Juliet And The Consequences Of Choice [8th-9th Grade], Monica Gonzalez, Tina Harper

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Middle school students struggle with the internalization that choices have consequences. Adolescence is a time in their life when, perhaps for the first time, their choices have lasting ramifications. At the same time, students are acutely aware that life is full of contradiction; certain events in life are indeed beyond their control. The choices they make in these situations may determine their direction into adulthood.

The purpose of this unit is to allow students to examine the consequences of choices made in a world that is controlled by adults. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet serves as the vehicle toward understanding the …

Independent First Grade Writers, What? It Can Happen. Beginning Writing Workshop [1st Grade], Megan Nitcholas, Audrey Tan

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This unit is designed as a beginning of the year unit in 1st grade writing. Students will have had very limited exposure to writing.

Students will be introduced to the writing workshop format and develop their confidence as beginning writers. Students will discover the power of writing as a tool for communication. Throughout the unit students will practice becoming independent writers. They will learn how to generate personally relevant topics. Through mini-lessons, students will learn that writing is an ongoing process and that their writing is continually evolving.

The unit will conclude with students demonstrating their learning through creating a …