Zheng Lu Jia

Dr. Sponagle

Steppingstones to Curriculum: A Biblical Path, Chapter 7

April 3, 2017

Outline:

- Nine Steps in Planning Classroom Units

- Adapting Units for Your Classroom
- Reviewing the Main Points

Notes:

- An integral unit is a portion of a course or program that has a clear thematic focus and

that:
1. Has internal unity
2. Has external consistency
3. Includes pertinent and meaningful aspects of reality that are related to, and may even

go beyond, the main discipline focus of the unit.

- NINE STEPS IN DESIGNING A UNIT
1. Consider the suitability of a proposed topic.
2. Brainstorm ideas, possibly using a planning chart or web diagram.
3. Formulate your unit focus (e.g., a thematic statement, guiding questions, and intended

learning outcomes; or Egan's narrative structure with binary opposites or transcendent

values).
4. Design, balance, and sequence learning activities. Include a motivational introductory

activity and a culminating summative one.

5. Review linkages with state or provincial standards and/or curriculum guides, adding

or revising learning activities accordingly.

6. Plan a schedule.
7. Select your resources.
 8. Plan student assessment. Throughout the unit, consider what evidence will show that

you have met your intents.

9. Review the effectiveness of your unit.
- DETERMINING THE SIGNIFICANCE AND RELEVANCE OF A TOPIC
1. How can the topic advance understandings needed for responsible and responsive

discipleship?
How can the topic introduce students to a Christian worldview, biblically based

values, and our Christian and cultural heritage?

2. How is the topic relevant for your students?
How can the topic expand previous knowledge and deal with significant issues?
Is the topic too general, without a dear focus? or too narrow, restricting substantive

learning?
3. Can the topic meet students' learning needs?
Is it suitable for diverse backgrounds, learning styles, aptitudes, and developmental

phases?
Can it engender interest and encourage personal, meaningful response?
Can it include skill development in different modes of knowing?
Are sufficient resources available?
- Questions to Guide Your Thinking About Learning Activities
1. Does each learning activity contribute to your unit's thematic statement and ILOs?

Does the set of activities do justice to your overall theme?

2. Will the activities help meaningful learning to take place? (e.g., students have the

prerequisite knowledge and aptitudes; the level of difficulty is suitable; activities are

adaptable for special needs)

3. Do the activities include a range of pedagogical strategies? Is there a suitable balance

of the four phases of learning? learning styles? the modes of knowing or multiple

intelligences? Do the activities include varied student products so that students can

demonstrate their understanding in different ways? Is there adequate involvement and

response?
4. Do the activities encourage the learning of enduring understandings, worthwhile

skills, important values, and higher level thinking skills at a high but attainable level

of achievement?
 5. Are there motivational introductory activities based on students' experiences that set

the stage for the unit? Are there culminating activities that review and pull together

the main themes?

6. Will the necessary resources be available?
- Make assessment of student learning an integral part of your unit design.
- Emphasize formative assessment feedback.
- As much as possible, align learning outcomes, learning activities, student products, and

assessment strategies.
- Use state standardized tests as only one of a broad array of assessment strategies.
- Remember that not all intended learning outcomes can be assessed immediately. Also,

learning activities may have outcomes that are unintended.

Reflection:

It is extremely important that to align objectives, delivery, and assessments in designing a

unit plan. Teacher should clearly know what goal they want their students to achieve. And then,

they need to know how to make sure that their students achieved. Sometimes, when I design the

part of delivery in unit plan, I feel hard to make the delivery suitable to the objectives of the

whole unit plan. On the other hand, I should not only try to make the learning activities funny, so

that student may be engaged to the class, but also to make them useful, so that they may really

learn something from my class.