Thematic Unit Description Paper Morgan McCallum Course Section TEAC 259 I. Unit Context 1. Write a description of the unit theme detailing what the students will be learning. Students will learn how to access and use internet sites, to look up pictures and information about the twenty different rainforest animals given in class. Creating a collage with pictures and information, students will be able to identify, draw, organize and talk about the different animals to their classmates. Along with the collage, and drawing, students will be able to recognize the animals through spelling content as well. 2. What is the target subject area/class? The target subject area for this thematic unit would be third grade language arts. Along with language arts this topic ties in with spelling, art, and some science areas. 3. How does this unit fit into the whole learning experience of the students? During this unit, students will learn a broad area of information about all the varieties of rainforest animals out there. Pointing out their habitats and food types as well. This unit is contained with so many other subjects that it can be used throughout their education years. Not only will internet research be a good review for the students, but it will broaden their knowledge with practicing on surfing the web, and learning how to site the sources they have used as well. 4. What is the setting or situation? Describe the classroom as you see it. Include information on what computers and other equipment are available to the students. For this thematic unit, a variety of settings will be used for the students. The research for the students can be done through literary context, but for this particular objective I will be mainly focusing on web context. The web source can be found in the numerous computer labs found throughout the school, or within the classroom that has five computers. For students purposes and understanding, both Macs and PC computers will be available to students to complete web context research on. Printers will be available for the students to print out their pictures for the collage they will create.
Students will be able to practice spelling through overhead usage, marker boards, and paper as well. Power points will be shown ton the overhead to help create a better visual picture for students to draw during the time after. II. Audience I. General characteristics: Describe the learners, including the size of the group, their age, interests, experiences, and aptitudes. In my classroom, I have 23 third grade language art students. The demographics of my classroom are: ‐‐9 White students ‐‐4 Black students ‐‐5 Latino students ‐‐5 Asian Students Other Characteristics of the students in my classroom: ‐‐Age: variety from 9‐10 ‐‐3 students with Behavioral Disorder ‐‐14 students are visual learners ‐‐1 student considered Borderline Gifted students ‐‐7 out of the 23 are ELL students 2. Entry competencies: What specific knowledge and assumptions can you make about them? Remember to describe their computer competence. Not all students will know where the Computer Lab is, but will realize it is where we will be doing most of the research. Some, but not all of my students will be aware on how to do internet research. They will know how to get to the site if told, but note taking, siting, and printing will need to be taught to most. Word documents will need to be refreshed so students will know how to copy and paste pictures to print from. II. State Objectives 1. State Goal The goal of this unit is to teach students how to use internet sources to find pictures of rainforest animals, create a collage and share with the class. Along with learning how to use internet sites, students will learn the basics of sitting pictures as well. They will become familiar with how to spell animals, and recognize each of the 20 animals in class as well.
2. State Objective 1 (a) Third grade students (b) will create a pictured collage (c) using different internet sources found online (d) using complete accuracy within one hour and presenting to the class. 3. State Objective 2 (c) After watching a power point on rainforest animals with pictures and information, (a) third grade students (b) will create an image similar to the presentation slides, (d) and present to the class a one minute description. 4. State Objective 3 (a) Third grade students, (b) will identify and recognize rainforest animal spelling (c) by practicing on smart boards, and marker boards, (d) meeting 100% accuracy with a time span of 4 days. III. State Methods 1. Instructional Strategy: Identify the instructional strategies you might use to deliver this unit. Review the ten instructional methods on p 16‐20 of your textbook. Which of the ten instructional methods could you use to deliver your unit? Explain how the methods and media will be used to create the learning environment. a. Method(s) for objective 1 Methods for objective 1 will be Presentation, Demonstration, and Discussion. I will present a book to the class on Rainforest Animals for a brief overview. I will then take students to the computer room to demonstrate how to use internet resources, site sources, and print out the pictures of animals as well. Concluding will be a broad discussion on each students collage that they created along with the pictures and sites they received them from.
b. Method(s) for objective 2
Methods for objective 2 will be Presentation, Demonstration, and Discussion. I will present to the class a 10 minute power point that I created on twenty different rainforest animals and some highlighted topics that will be shown through an overhead projector. I will then demonstrate to the class an example of a drawing and interesting topics to put on my paper. A class discussion will then follow, giving each student around a minute to present to the class what they accomplished with their rainforest animal.
c. Method(s) for objective 3 Methods for objective 3 will be Presentation, Demonstration, and Discussion. On day 1 of the spelling unit I will present to the class a list of the 20 rainforest animals that they will need to recognize and spell on day 4. Each day I will demonstrate through different techniques such as worksheets, games, and overhead projection to help the students identify each spelling word to 100% accuracy. Day 4 will conclude of a discussion when the students will be tested over the 20 rainforest animals that were taught and given to them.
http://kids.yahoo.com/animals
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/ http://www.teachersnetwork.org/readysettech/edelmann/edelmann.ht m