Week 4 of 15: It’s All Part of the Plan

One of the unique things about #PSUaged23 is that we had the privilege of attending the first-ever Student Teacher Bootcamp a little over a month ago. During Bootcamp, we got an accelerated preview of the unit planning process, and with that, we were off and running. A draft of our first unit plan was due for peer review on the first Friday of the semester. 

Since submitting the first draft of our unit plans that Friday, they have gone through two rounds of peer review. Each week, we were assigned a different peer to analyze our unit plan and provide feedback so we could edit it and resubmit it. This week our unit plans are due for a final grade.

What was My Ah Ha Moment?

When I first sat down to create my first unit plan, I was not sweating it. I looked at some templates and after some time, I was able to create one that works for me. Within about two or three hours, I had my unit complete, with the exception of my unit assessment. I felt confident, but I wanted to hear what others had to say. Were my lessons in an order that made sense? Where my objectives clear? Could another teacher or a long-term substitute pick this up and understand what they are looking at?

After getting my feedback from my first peer reviewer, I tweaked, added, and removed some things from my unit. When I went to resubmit for the second round of peer review, I could not think of much else to change. Surely enough, after my second peer reviewer went through my unit, they had more suggestions, changes, and additions for me. 

I began thinking, “How many other things can I revise until my unit is officially  done?”

Ah Ha! The moment hit me. My unit plans are never “officially done,” because the unit planning process is never really over. Unit plans are living documents, which we as educators should always be revisiting and revising to make better for ourselves and our students.

 

How Do my Unit Plans Relate to my Senior AEE  Courses?

Even though we worked through this first unit plan with our peers, I have been planning other units of instruction too. Throughout, I have been seeing more connections day after day as to how my units relate directly to my senior AEE courses, especially #AEE412. On Monday, we presented an E-Moment in class. E-Moments are engaging ways to incorporate multiple intelligences, learning domains, and learning modalities into our unit and lesson plans. As we presented our E-Moments to our cohort members, I was thinking about how I can incorporate these activities into my units to reach the most variety of learners with my instruction.

Speaking of reaching the most variety of learners with my instruction, we have been diving more into knowing who our learners are and how to maximize their learning. As we worked through class, it was mentioned that we should be asking ourselves if we are appealing to at least 2 or 3 of the 8 multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983) discussed in class. Becoming aware of this has helped me go back and edit my daily objectives in my unit plan to reflect this idea. I also started leaving notes in my lesson plans such as “move students out of their seats for this activity - visual/spatial,” so I know I am reaching these learners. I even saw one of my cohort members accommodate intrapersonal learners by having students circle the questions they knew, star the questions they were unsure of, and put a box around the questions they did not know the answers to on the unit assessment. I never would have thought of this!

 

Gardner's theory is that there 8 multiple intellegences

What Were Some of the Areas my Cohort Members and I Fell Short?

Like all things,  my cohort members and I were not perfect at planning a unit of instruction the first time. That is the beauty of being so close as a cohort, we are there to lift each other up and make each other the best we can be! The key to producing work that we can be proud of comes through hard work and keeping an open mind. 

One area I noticed my cohort members, as well as myself, struggling was with writing our daily objectives for each lesson. From objectives that had too similar of a Bloom’s verb to an objective not being measurable, we had to work on our daily objectives to make them clear and obtainable for our students. My suggestion to my cohort members struggling with writing clear, obtainable, yet diverse objectives is to keep practicing. Ask for help from other members of the cohort, the professors, or your cooperating teacher. 

Another place I saw was weaker for us was in writing our unit rationale. Most of the time, they just needed to be bulked up a little bit to really drive home the “why” for the students to understand the importance of the unit in their lives. My advice for cohort members struggling with writing their unit rationale is to include statistics about career prospects and relate the topic in some way to the community to add relevance. Examples online can help, and again, do not be afraid to ask for help!

 

 

Unit planning is a process, but the most important thing I learned (and I hope other members of my cohort learned too), is that it takes an open mind, a holistic approach, and an understanding heart to help yourself and your peers along so that they can reach their full potential. Socrates once said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing.”  So fellow members of #PSUaged23, lean on those who care and want you to succeed, keep working hard, and stay receptive; we're going to be just fine.

 

 

Thank you for your endless support,

 

Ms. Cusate