Whitney Pascoe

Unit Reflection
Last semester when I taught my first unit plan, I can remember the countless a-ha
moments I had. I learned a lot about planning lessons, cross-curricular instruction, and strategies.
That is why when this unit plan was assigned I was thrilled with the opportunity to put
everything I learned last semester into action. This time, I was determined to learn from my
mistakes and my successes to develop a unit that showed my growth as a teacher. Now, as I sit
here thinking back on this experience, I can say that without a doubt this unit not only showed
growth, but also established my vision for myself as a teacher.
The biggest thing I learned during this unit is that literacy runs through every part of great
instruction. It is not an isolated subject or a means for assessing content, but should be seen as an
integral part of cross-curricular instruction. This became clear as I carefully developed each
lesson with a goal of making them as impactful as possible. To achieve this goal, I knew that
literacy instruction had to be intentional to be meaningful. Having a student read independently
may provide them with great practice, but by itself it is not enough. Therefore, each time I had
the students read during the research phase of the unit, I taught them a reading strategy using
scaffolded instruction. I scaffolded their reading instruction using both a modeling, guided
practice, and independent practice approach and by building on strategies they already knew.
What worked best was combining their sincere love of highlighting with a graphic organizer I
created specifically for this unit.
Reading strategies werent the only way that I integrated literacy instruction into their
research. I also included a large range of vocabulary into the lessons that were individualized for
each students topic. In order to teach these somewhat advanced vocabulary successfully, I
helped students uncover the meaning of the word both prior to their reading and during their

Whitney Pascoe
reading using different strategies for learning and remembering new words. One technique I used
for new words was having the students make visual dictionaries.
Literacy instruction was a major part of the writing and revision phases as well. I taught
students about essay structure using a sandwich style graphic organizer. We filled out the
organizer by working backwards from a mentor text. We read the article in our mentor text and
then I used a think-aloud strategy to show them how I would identify the introduction, body, and
conclusion. Next, we read another page from the mentor text and filled out one together. Finally,
they used their notes to complete their own sandwich graphic organizers before writing.
As we have learned over the past two semesters, literacy is more than just reading and
writing. Therefore, I made it a point to include visual thinking strategies (VTS) in two of my
lessons. I found that the VTS made a significant impact on my unit. The first time the students
used VTS was during the project launch when I used paintings of African American culture to
help get the students thinking about the many different aspects of culture. These images along
with a mentor text on Mexican culture helped the students to develop their own concepts maps
and ultimately choose their individual focus for the book. The second time I used VTS was
before the students began illustrating their book. Since the students (and myself to be honest)
were more experienced this time, I used questions to encourage them to further support their
thoughts with details from the illustrations (line, color, shape, size, perspective, etc.). The
students applied what they learned from the VTS to their own illustrations. I did a quick informal
assessment at the end of the lesson where they discussed their own art using the same
terminology we learned during the VTS.
Both of my VTS lessons went extremely well. I was pleasantly surprised at just how
insightful fifth graders could be. They found details that even I hadnt noticed and brought their

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unique insight to each image. I also found that they were more engaged during those activities
and could see them grow as the lesson went on. In the end, if nothing else, this unit solidified my
belief that VTS and visual literacy are a vital part of effective instruction.
While I have heard time and time again that students need to be taught reading and
writing strategies. I had not given much thought to how to instruct speaking and listening
performance. This is something that I quickly learned was a necessity and had to adapt my lesson
on the spot. During the first VTS discussion, I had to pause the discussion to talk about how to
have a respectful discussion. I used the metaphor of passing a basketball instead of stealing it
from a teammate. During the discussion the students began putting their hands up to say they
were open just like in basketball. It worked really well with my group and the whole
environment changed from then on.
An important part of integrating literacy is knowing where your students are before you
begin the unit and what you want them to achieve by the end of the unit. That is why completing
both a spelling and reading assessment before beginning the unit made a huge impact on what I
was able to accomplish with my students. The assessments helped me to choose appropriate texts
and to scaffold my lessons so that students were cognitively challenged but not overwhelmed.
Yet, it was difficult for me to get a completely accurate understanding of my students starting
point because of the environment they were tested in. The students were concerned with how the
other students in the room were doing and with competing with the other students at the table. If
I were to do it again, I would have taken them in the hallway one at a time.
Designing and administering assessments during this unit also taught me a lot about the
testing culture in schools. It was clear that my students had been tested multiple times before. As
such prosody, pace, and even comprehension were thrown to the sidelines during my assessment.

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It seemed as though they thought that speed was all that mattered. All four students raced
through their reading assessments even though I was careful to tell them that this was just for me
and that they would get to finish the whole story; I marked where they were at a minute, but let
them finish just the same. In contrast, the students performed much better when reading during
our lessons. In fact, I would have scored each of them better in nearly every category if their
independent reading had been the assessment.
The assessments I designed for my lessons were a lot more accurate at assessing their
progress. I intentionally designed each assessment to give students space to do their best
regardless of where they began. I also gave them a choice as often as I could to use any form of
literacy they felt comfortable with. For example, writing in sentence form, concept maps and
illustrations. What worked best was working the assessment into the activities so that the
students were able to perform without the pressure of knowing they were being assessed. This
also worked well because the students learned through assessment as opposed to taking time
away from meaningful learning to assess.
While I recognize that my assessments, literacy integration, and general lesson planning
have all improved since my first unit plan, what I have seen the biggest change in is my
confidence when I am teaching. This confidence has impacted the way I interact with students,
my adaptability, and my resilience to overcome and learn from my mistakes. Last semester
when things werent going well, I was scared to sway too far from my lesson plan. I think it was
a combination of fear of what will I do without this safety net and a belief that I wasnt going to
be successful if I didnt accomplish exactly what I set out to do. I see now that those beliefs were
both terribly wrong. A successful teacher is able to adapt to meet the needs of the students. For
example, when my students were all talking over each other during our VTS discussion, I took it

Whitney Pascoe
as an opportunity to teach them a new skill. I left my lesson for five minutes and returned when
they were better prepared and my lesson was more effective because of it.
In my lesson plans, I always write how to differentiate instruction for students, but never
fully acted on it during the lesson. Again, I think this is because I felt the need to prove
something to myself. However, this semester, I learned to look at individual students a different
way and really focus on what they needed to succeed. A great example of this is when one of my
students got hung up on the text I provided them with. Instead of trying to convince him to
persevere and ultimately become more frustrated, we looked at the illustrations together and
focused on the story they told. Then, when he went back to reading the text he was able to work
around the parts that he previously didnt understand.
Part of my new understanding of differentiation is that I set more realistic expectations. I
now realize that I am not going to teach an entire standard and accomplish five different
activities in one lesson. I should focus on what is achievable and work towards big goals over
time. If a student is progressing, even if it is at a slower rate than I originally expected, they are
still progressing and we are both still succeeding in our roles.
In the end, I finally see that my growth as a teacher has come in waves. Ive gone from
learning basic skills to developing my own teaching style. I learned that one way does not fit all
students much like one teaching style does not fit all teachers. As I continue to grow, I hope that
my students unique abilities continue to mold me as a teacher, and that I in return can create
units that not only engage and excite them but also benefit each student as an individual in all
aspects of their education.