Pardo

Fall 2015
EDUC 360: Secondary Principles
Assignment: Online Learning Experience
Unit Plan Overview Template
Your Names Lindsay Watkins & Holly Brinker

Unit Title/Topic The Things They Carried - Tim OBrien

Previous Unit The Odyssey

Next Unit Night

Subjects/Disciplines English

Grade/Class Grade 10 Literature

Link
Paste the link to the Online portion of the unit. Double check to make sure the link will
work. You may need to make the work public, or add me as a student, or provide me with
a password. If there are special directions such as these, include them here.
STAGE 1: DESIRED RESULTS
Overarching
Essential Question

I can use various strategies while reading a novel for pleasure. What
are some different strategies I can use? Which strategies work the
best for me to understand the text?

Content Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its
development over the course of the text, including how it emerges
and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective
summary of the text.

Learning Goals

By the end of the unit, the students will be able to comprehend the
text that was presented in class through a variety of different
reading strategies that will aid in their understanding.

Essential Questions
throughout the
Unit

What are some different strategies I can use? Which strategies work
the best for me to understand the text?

Key Concepts

Identify different ways to read and comprehend a text and to apply

them in reading a novel.

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Fall 2015
Unit
Abstract

During this unit, students will experiment with ways to read a novel
and understand the information that the text is giving them. This is
a unit that would more than likely be done in a special education
classroom, i.e. resource room, for students who struggle to
understand what they are reading. For the unit, we will assign one
specific reading strategy per day/per chapter for the students to use
to understand what they are reading. By the end of the unit,
students will have a greater understanding of different things that
can be done to understand the text that they are reading, and can
use that knowledge and apply it to other areas where they may need
to read in the future.
STAGE 2: ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE

Formative There are a variety of different formative assessments that will be used
throughout the unit; one for every class period. These range from summarizing what was
read during the chapter to completing worksheets, assignments, and activities relating to
the chapter that are assigned in class. For more information, see the learning plan below.
Summative The students will complete an assessment regarding their understanding of
the book and the different strategies used at the end of the unit (see attachment).

STAGE 3: LEARNING PLAN

Day/Lesson #
Lesson
You must have a
For each lesson, include a lesson title, objective, instructional
minimum of ten
activity, and assessment.
lessons (quiz/tests
or presentation days
do not count as
lessons). Add more
rows as necessary.
1

Title: Chapter One

Objective: Students will comprehend the chapter using a visual
graphic organizer.
Instructional Activity: Students will receive a visual graphic organizer
with key words filled in. They will use this graphic organizer to fill in
the information that they understand from the chapter.
Assessment: The graphic organizers will be collected and graded by
the teacher.

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Fall 2015
2

Title: Chapter Two

Objective: Students will comprehend the chapter using by creating a
visual that illustrates a symbol.
Instructional Activity: Students will each be given a piece of blank
paper. Their assignment will be to use that piece of paper to
illustrate a theme that was shown in the chapter.
Assessment: The assignments will be collected and graded by the
teacher.

Title: Chapter Three

Objective: Students will use vocabulary notecards to understand the
chapter better.
Instructional Activity: Students will be given notecards to write 5-10
vocabulary words that they struggle to understand during the reading
of the chapter.
Assessment: Students will turn in their notecards and later will be
asked to use the words that they wrote down in a sentence.

Title: Chapter Four

Objective: Students will comprehend the chapter using a vocabulary
list that they will create.
Instructional Activity: Students will be asked to write down a list of
10 words that they struggle to understand while reading the chapter.
Assessment: The vocabulary lists will be collected and the teacher
will look through them to find the most prevalent words found on the
students papers. The teacher will use that later on to build a
vocabulary unit.

Title: Chapter Five

Objective: Students will comprehend the chapter using a PreP.
Instructional Activity: Students will use a PreP model to help them to
understand the chapter while reading it.
Assessment: The PreP will be collected and graded by the teacher.

Title: Chapter Six

Objective: Students will read the chapter using a text-to-speech
reader.
Instructional Activity: Students will be allowed to read the chapter
using a text-to-speech reader application on their iPads.
Assessment: The class will have a discussion after the students are
finished reading their chapters. Student participation will be their
assessment for this day.

Title: Chapter Seven

Objective: Students will use questioning to understand what they've
read better.
Instructional Activity: Students will be asked to write down three to
four questions that they have about the chapter while reading. These
can range from vocabulary questions to questions about content or
even what-if questions.
Assessment: The class will be given time to converse with one
another to answer each others questions. This will be done in
partners while the teacher walks around and helps provoke
meaningful conversation.

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Fall 2015
8

Title: Chapter Eight

Objective: Students will read the chapter twice to promote better
comprehension.
Instructional Activity: Students will be given time to read the chapter
to themselves initially. Once that time is over, the teacher (or
students) will reread the chapter out loud.
Assessment: The class will have a discussion after reading the chapter
alone and then again after reading it aloud. Questions that cannot be
answered after reading the chapter to themselves can be further
discussed after the students have read the chapter for a second time.

Title: Chapter Nine

Objective: Students will take guided notes in order to enhance their
ability to understand the chapter.
Instructional Activity: The teacher will use an overhead projector or
something similar to lead the class in a guided notes lesson. While
reading the chapter, the teacher will write down different notes
about the content of the chapter. Students will follow along.
Assessment: The class will have a discussion about the chapter where
they are allowed to use the notes that they took during class. They
will also be allowed to add their own notes as well and be active
participants in the guided notes.

10

Title: Chapter Ten

Objective: Students will be read the chapter aloud.
Instructional Activity: The teacher will read this chapter aloud to the
students.
Assessment: The class will summarize what they were read in an exit
slip with things that they took away from the chapter.

11

Title: Chapter Eleven

Objective: Students will use highlighters to illustrate the most
important parts of the chapter.
Instructional Activity: Students will be given highlighters and asked to
read the chapter to themselves. They will highlight 1-2 sentences per
chapter to point out what they seem to think is the most important
part of the page.
Assessment: The teacher will walk around and make sure that each
person completed their highlighting. The teacher also may ask the
students which sentences that the students highlighted on each page.

12

Title: Chapter Twelve

Objective: Students will demonstrate their understanding of the
chapter using Blooms Taxonomy.
Instructional Activity: Students will be given a Blooms taxonomy
graphic organizer to complete during the reading of the chapter. This
will allow students to demonstrate their knowledge on a variety of
different levels.
Assessment: The students will turn in their worksheets once
completed at the end of class. They may work with a partner..

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Fall 2015
13

Title: Chapter Thirteen

Objective: Students will increase their reading ability by echo reading
this chapter with the teacher.
Instructional Activity: Students who struggle with reading will be
given time to work with a paraprofessional. During this time, the
teacher will read a paragraph and then the students will repeat what
was read to them.
Assessment: The students will write down on one page everything
that they learned throughout the chapter.

14

Title: Chapter Fourteen

Objective: Students will illustrate the chapter and show what they've
done to the class.
Instructional Activity: Students will be given time in class to read the
chapter and then for homework, asked to illustrate the chapter in
some way. This could include art, dance, music, etc. or any other
creative way to demonstrate what they've learned.
Assessment: The completed assignments will be collected and graded
for completion.

15

Title: Chapter Fifteen

Objective: Students will answer questions on a study guide.
Instructional Activity: The teacher will give the students a guide of
questions to answer while reading the text. This is to be completed
while reading, not after.
Assessment: The teacher will go over the answers on the study guide
and then collect it for a completion grade.

16

Title: Chapter Sixteen

Objective: Students will complete a summary of the chapter by
writing a one sentence summary at the end of each chapter.
Instructional Activity: Students will be given a piece of paper to write
a one sentence synopsis of each page of the chapter. When put
together, it would make a good review of everything that was covered
in the chapter and could be reviewed.
Assessment: This synopsis will be collected by the teacher and
entered into the student's participation grade.

17

Title: Chapter Seventeen

Objective: Students will read the chapter using a team-reading
technique.
Instructional Activity: Students will be divided up into groups of 2-3
students each. They will be asked to practice their reading skills with
one another and trade off reading aloud, page by page.
Assessment: Once the students are done reading to one another, they
will be asked to write down a paragraph describing what happened in
the chapter and turn it in at the end of class.

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Fall 2015
18

Title: Chapter Eighteen

Objective: Students will use prediction techniques to read this
chapter.
Instructional Activity: Students will read the first page of the chapter
together to themselves. After reading it, they will get out a piece of
paper and write what they believe may happen in the chapter and
why. At the end, they will circle things that were correct and add
onto the prediction in a different color.
Assessment: The prediction papers will be collected by the teacher.

19

Title: Chapter Nineteen

Objective: Students will highlight words that they struggle with in the
chapter and use them to put on a word wall.
Instructional Activity: Students will look up the words that they do
not understand and then share them with the class. They will
decorate a sheet of paper with the word and its definition and paste
it onto the wall
Assessment: The teacher will walk around and make sure that each
person completed their highlighting. The teacher also may ask the
students which sentences that the students highlighted on each page.

20

Title: Chapter Twenty

Objective: Students will correctly use SparkNotes or another summary
site to understand what they read.
Instructional Activity: Students will be given a SparkNote summary of
the chapter to read after theyve already read the chapter. Then the
students will be given a pre and post test to see if reading the
summary helped them to recall more specific details about the
chapter.
Assessment: The assessment will be the pre and post tests.

21

Title: Chapter Twenty One

Objective: Students will create a mnemonic that helps them
remember something in the chapter.
Instructional Activity: After reading the chapter, students will be
allowed to pick partners and come up with some sort of mnemonic to
remember anything that happened in the book. This could be from
the chapter or chapters prior.
Assessment: The students will write down their mnemonics and
present them to the class at the end of the hour.

22

Title: Chapter Twenty Two

Objective: Students will create a concept map to illustrate the
chapter.
Instructional Activity: Students will be given a blank concept map to
fill out. They will then fill it out with information that was given in
the chapter.
Assessment: The concept map will be collected at the end of the
hour.

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Fall 2015
Resources
http://central.laramie1.org/modules/cms/pages.phtml?pageid=23783
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/alternatives-to-round-robin-reading-todd-finley
http://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/reading-strategies-to-help-highschool-students-and-middle-school-students-understand-their-textbooks/

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The Things They Carried: Final Assessment

Please complete each question on a separate piece of paper. Each response is to be 1-2 paragraphs in
length unless otherwise specified.

1) In your own words, summarize the book as you see fit. This can include your
opinion of the book and your reasoning behind your thinking.

2) Why do you think the author named the title of the book The Things They Carried?
Use specific examples from the book to support your claim.

3) Describe one major theme from the book that we discussed in class or that you
observed on your own. Use examples from the book to illustrate why this was an
important theme in your book.

4) Thinking about the book as a whole, which chapter or story sticks out in your mind
the most? Was this your favorite? Least favorite? Neither?

5) Thinking about this unit as a whole, which reading strategy(ies) helped you the
most to understand what you were reading? Why?

6) Thinking about this unit as a whole, which reading strategy(ies) did not help you
understand or made you confused about what you were reading? Why?

7) Do you think this was a helpful unit for you? In the future when you are reading,
do you think you will ever use any of the strategies that we used for reading The
Things They Carried?