Stepping Stones to Curriculum Chapter 7

by Van Brummelen

Outline

I. Nine Steps in Planning Classroom Units

Consider the Significance and Relevance of a Topic
Brainstorm Ideas
Formulate Unit Focus
a. Thematic Statement
b. Guiding Questions
c. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
Design, balance, and sequence learning activities
o Review linkages with standards or curriculum guide, adding or revising learning
activities accordingly.
Plan a schedule
Select ressources
Plan students assessment
Review the effectiveness of the Unit
II. Adapting Units for Your Classroom
 Notes

Unit is a portion of the curriculum that focuses on the particular theme.

The theme could center on the topic and its concepts.
The students should experience integrated and subject-focused curriculum if the teacher
plans the unit to be integrated. An integral unit is:
1. Has integral unity, means the teacher you direct all thought and activity toward a
unifying theme.
2. Has external consistency, means the teacher explicitly intends to attain some of
the overall aims of the school with applicable goals of subject discipline(s).
3. Included meaningful aspects of reality that are related to the main discipline focus
Nine Steps in Planning Classroom Units
a. Consider the Significance and Relevance of a Topic. A topic has to be suitable for
a particular grade level.
b. Brainstorm Ideas.
o Make a Web: begin by making a web diagram of the concepts and subtopics of the
theme. To show relationship among relevant ideas and topics.
o Workout your worldview
o Consider which aspects of reality are part of the topic and issues (unit focus, key
values, skills, activities in the appropriate cells.
c. Formulate Unit Focus
Thematic Statement: describe overall goals.
1. Basic values, dispositions, and commitment that you want to foster.
2. Enduring understandings (help students make sense of what they have learned
and enable them to explain, interpret, and apply the key concepts) , major
concepts, and key skills that you want students to acquire.
o Guiding Questions, should engage the learners (questions at the students level,
post it in the classroom, and help the students to personalize it).
o Intended Learning outcomes (ILOs)
1. Insist on precise, prespecified standards by which you measure whether
students have attained each outcome.
2. Identify the desired results of classroom learning
3. Reconsider and alter your ILOs as planning progresses. Nevertheless, if the
thematic statement provides the compass direction
4. Help you see and work toward your destination
5. Include ILO to each category
Content Outcomes: set out the subject matter and concepts that
students need to learn to understand the part of Gods creation
dealt with the unit.
Ability Outcomes: indicate the abilities and skills students learn
and develop in the unit (problem solving, analyzing and evaluating
issues and situations, literacy and numeracy skills, psychomotor
abilities.
Value and disposition outcomes: unit's purpose and worth to affect
your students' attitudes and responses, specify what you hope your
 students will learn to value and how they will act on what they
learn.
Expressive- creative Outcomes: Worthwhile learning can take
place during expressive -creative experiences even when you
cannot stipulate or anticipate.
d. Design and Choose Learning Activities
Ensure that the activities fit the intents of a thematic statement and the detailed
learning outcomes.
Suit the intended audience and form a balanced unity.
Ideas to Guide the Learning Activities;
1. Contribute to thematic statement and ILOs
2. Help meaningful learning
3. Include a range of pedagogical strategies
4. Higher level of thinking but attainable level of achievement
5. Culminating activities that review the main themes
6. Resources are available
The unit ends with one or two concluding activities in which students:
1. Consider a final overview of the unit
2. Give a thoughtful personal response
3. Complete a task that enables the teacher to make a final assessment
e. Incorporate Government Standard
f. Plan a Schedule. Without a planned timeline, units tend to take more time than you
intended.
g. Select Resources.
h. Plan Student Assessment
Gather the information about the students learning
Evaluate the effectiveness of your teaching strategies
Draw conclusion and make decision about future approaches
Key points to improve the use of assessment:
1. Make assessment an integral part of unit design
2. Emphasize formative assessment and feedback
3. Align the learning outcomes, learning activities, student products, and
assessment strategies.
4. Used varied assessment strategies.
i. Review the Effectiveness of Your Unit Plan
Adapting Units by determining the framework and direction.
a. Developing unit is time-consuming and thus you design it 2 or 3 per year and continually
develop it.

Reflection

This chapter of Stepping Stones by Van Brummelen discusses primarily on planning and
creating a unit. I noticed a very strong emphasis on having a unit focus. This is basically the
general idea or concept that the unit is built upon. I found this particularly helpful because uint
planning is quite a large task and keeping in-track may be difficult. Having a strong and clear
unit focus will help keep the whole unit intact.