STEPPING STONES CH.

7 REFLECTION 1

Chapters outline:

I. Nine Steps in Planning Classroom Units

A. Consider the significance and relevance of a topic

1. Determining the significance and relevance of a topic

a. How can the topic advance understandings need for responsible and

responsive discipleship?

b. How is the topic relevant for your students?

c. Can the topic meet students learning needs?

B. Brainstorm ideas

1. Work out your worldview for the topic

2. Consider which aspects of reality are part of the topic and issues

C. Formulate your unit focus

1. Thematic Statement

2. Guiding Questions

3. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

D. Design and choose learning activities

E. Incorporate government standards

F. Plan a schedule

G. Select resources

H. Plan student assessment

1. Make assessment of student learning an integral part of your unit design

2. Emphasize formative assessment feedback

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3. As much as possible, align learning outcomes, learning activities, student

products, and assessment strategies

4. Use varied assessment strategies

5. Uses state standardized tests as only one of broad array of assessment

strategies

6. Remember that not all intended learning outcomes can be assessed

immediately. Also, learning activities may have outcomes that are

unintended

I. Review the effectiveness of your unit

II. Adapting Units for Your Classroom

Reflection

According to the book itself, planning and creating a unit plan might be the hardest but

also the most important or compelling element of curriculum planning (Brummelen

2002). The lessons that consist the unit plan must be coherent to one another as it focuses

on a particular theme, and it comes in all shapes and sizes. The specifics of a unit plan

depends on the teacher making it. The chapter displayed nine steps in planning classroom

units. These steps mentioned in the book does not have to be exactly in order because

there are various ways a teacher can plan a unit, however these are the steps that teachers

must consider in planning or creating unit plans. I am still a student and making lesson

plans and unit plans are still new to me and something that I still need to practice. I

thought it would not really be complicated and tough to create a unit plan because I never

thought making lesson plans was that arduous. However, when I started making one in
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our Instructional Alignment class, my thoughts and assumptions were proven wrong.

Creating a lesson plan is tough because you not only plan what to teach to your students

but every part should be connected to one another. In the same way, creating unit plans is

much difficult because you have to create lesson plans for the whole week, month, or

year and just like a single lesson plan, it has to be connected to the other lesson plans in

the unit. If there is but one thing that I have learned in making lesson plans and units

plans, it is relevance. And the sureness of my lesson plan or unit plans relevance can

only be made if I know my own focus and intent in teaching the lessons. One of the intent

of a teacher is allowing the students to see the connection and importance of the biblical

principles with the subject lessons. In the book, the chapter has a figure of an example on

relating a Christian worldview for a unit theme. This, I believe is very important, but

might be overlooked. As a future teacher and a current student, I must practice on

connecting a Christian worldview on the subjects that I plan to teach.

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Reference

Van Brummelen, H. (2002), Planning Classroom Units, In Steppingstones to Curriculum

(Second ed., pp. 167-198), Colorado: Purposeful Design Publications.