UNIT PLAN TEMPLATE

Title of Unit Grade Level

Community and Me Grade One
Curriculum Area(s) Time Frame
Social Studies Elementary One week – 5 Days
Developed by
Khadija Akbar & Daisy Mangat

IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS

Programs of Study Foundations
What program foundations form the emphasis of the unit? What big ideas from the program of studies will you include?

Grade one program of studies foundations are rooted in community, culture and identity. Students should
explore their own communities and identities in contrast to others around them. Students will be
encouraged to think about the past and what that can mean for our present and future.
Important terms include: Decision making, community, cooperation, responsibilities, traditions and role.

General Outcome 1.1

My World: Home, School, and Community
● Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of how identity and self-esteem are enhanced by
their sense of belonging in their world and how active members in a community contribute to the well-being,
growth and vitality of their groups and communities.
General Outcome 1.2
Moving Forward with the Past:
My Family, My History and My Community
● Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of how changes over time have affected their
families and influenced how their families and communities are today.

Essential Question
What is the big, overarching question guiding your unit plan?

How could we contribute to our community?

Adapted from Wiggins, Grant & J. McTighe (1998)
 Unit Plan Outcomes
What are the program of studies general outcomes and specific competencies to be covered in your unit?
What will students understand, be able to do, be able to apply?

1.1.1 - value self and others as unique individuals in relation to their world:
● appreciate how belonging to groups and communities enriches an individual's identity
○ Identity
● appreciate multiple points of view, languages, cultures and experiences within their groups and communities
○ Citizenship | Culture and Community
● demonstrate respect for their individual rights and the rights of others
○ Citizenship | Identity
● recognize and respect how the needs of others may be different from their own
○ Citizenship
1.1.2 - value the groups and communities to which they belong:
● demonstrate a willingness to share and cooperate with others
○ Citizenship | Power, Authority and Decision Making
● appreciate how their actions might affect other people and how the actions of others might affect them
○ Citizenship
● demonstrate a willingness to resolve issues and/or problems peacefully
○ Citizenship | Power, Authority and Decision Making
● assume responsibility for their individual choices and actions
○ Culture and Community | Identity
1.1.3 - examine how they belong and are connected to their world by exploring and reflecting upon the following questions for
inquiry:
● What different types of communities or groups do you belong to?
○ Culture and Community
● What helps us to recognize different groups or communities (e.g., landmarks, symbols, colours, logos, clothing)?
○ Culture and Community
● In what ways do we belong to more than one group or community at the same time?
○ Culture and Community | Identity
● In what ways do we benefit from belonging to groups and communities?
○ Citizenship | Culture and Community | Identity
● What are our responsibilities and rights at home, at school, in groups and in communities?
○ Citizenship | Culture and Community | Identity
Adapted from Wiggins, Grant & J. McTighe (1998)
1.1.4 - determine what makes their communities thrive by exploring and reflecting upon the following questions for inquiry:
● In what ways do people cooperate in order to live together peacefully?
○ Citizenship | Identity
● How do groups make decisions?
○ Power, Authority and Decision Making
● In what ways do people help one another at home, at school and in groups to ensure the vitality of their community?
○ Citizenship
● How do our actions and decisions contribute to the well-being of groups and communities?
○ Citizenship | Identity | Power, Authority and Decision Making
● How does caring for the natural environment contribute to the well being of our community?
○ Citizenship | The Land: Places and People
1.2.1 - appreciate how stories and events of the past connect their families and communities to the present:
● recognize how their families and communities might have been different in the past than they are today
○ Culture and Community | Time, Continuity and Change
● appreciate how the languages, traditions, celebrations and stories of their families, groups and communities contribute to their sense of
identity and belonging
○ Culture and Community | Identity | Time, Continuity and Change
● recognize how their ancestors contribute to their sense of identity within their family and communities
○ Time, Continuity and Change | Identity
● appreciate people who have contributed to their communities over time
○ Culture and Community | Identity | Time, Continuity and Change
● recognize how diverse Aboriginal and Francophone communities are integral to Canada's character
○ Culture and Community | Identity
● acknowledge and respect symbols of heritage and traditions in their family and communities
○ Culture and Community | Identity | Time, Continuity and Change
1.2.2 - analyze how their families and communities in the present are influenced by events or people of the past by exploring and
reflecting upon the following questions for inquiry:
● How have changes affected my family over time (e.g., births, deaths, moves)?
○ Culture and Community | Time, Continuity and Change
● What is my family's past in our community?
○ Culture and Community | Identity | Time, Continuity and Change
● In what ways has my community changed over time (e.g., original inhabitants, ancestors, generations, ways of life)?
○ Culture and Community | Time, Continuity and Change
● How have changes over time affected their families and communities in the present?
○ Identity | Time, Continuity and Change
Adapted from Wiggins, Grant & J. McTighe (1998)
 ● In what ways have Aboriginal, Francophone and diverse cultural groups contributed to the origins and evolution of their communities
over time?
○ Culture and Community | Identity | Time, Continuity and Change
● What connections do we have to the Aboriginal, Francophone and diverse cultures found in our communities?
○ Culture and Community | Identity | Time, Continuity and Change
● What are some examples of traditions, celebrations and stories that started in the past and continue today in their families and
communities?
○ Culture and Community | Identity | Time, Continuity and Change

UNIT PLAN RESOURCES

What resources will you require? Will there be guest speakers/field trips to plan for?
Will you need particular resources/materials/technologies?

Books -
1. Hello, My name is Octicorn by Kevin Diller and Justin Lowe
2. Stolen Words - Written by Melanie Florence Illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard
3. The Song within my heart by David Bouchard Illustrated by Allen Sapp
Coloured pencils and paper
Journals
Chart Paper for table
Laptops or IPads for research

UNIT PLAN SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT

What will you accept as evidence that learning has occurred at the conclusion of this unit?

We begin this unit plan by asking students to reflect in their journals

on our essential question: How could we contribute to our
What is the summative performance assessment for the unit?
community? At the end of the plan we will ask students to reflect on
the statement: Name two thing you learned about communities.

What is the goal of your summative performance assessment

Adapted from Wiggins, Grant & J. McTighe (1998)
as framed within the outcomes and competencies? What do The goal of this unit plan is to have students understand what a
you hope to learn? community consists of and how we individually and collectively
contribute to it. We hope to learn that students understand how
identity, citizenship and decision making can shape a community.

At the time of the first reflection students may not have a huge
understanding about communities and their roles with in them.
How will this assessment inform student learning and your Student responses will measure the growth and understanding of
practice? communities and identities.

LESSON PLAN SEQUENCE/OUTCOMES

For each lesson in the unit, consider the primary topic/activities, outcome and assessment. Does each lesson build on the next?
Consider the following questions as you plan your sequence of lessons:
What events will help students engage with, explore, explain, elaborate on and evaluate the big idea in the unit?
How will you help guide students to reflect, rethink and refine their work/ideas/understandings?
How will you help students to exhibit and self-evaluate their developing skills/knowledge/understandings?

How will you assess whether

What is the primary objective of this learning has occurred in each
Lesson # What are the primary activities in this lesson?
lesson in your own words? lesson? How will you employ
formative assessment?

1. READ: Hello, my name is Octicorn
Explore characteristics of a
community, what are important parts
of a community and how do you
identify a community?
2. READ: Stolen Words
Students will begin this lesson by reflecting on
the essential question in their journals: How
could we contribute to our community?
Students will be looking at the Alberta coat of
arms and the Canadian flag. From here we will
create a table which will pose three questions
about the physical, human and cultural
characteristics of a community.
Students will be asked to create a coat of arms
The first journaling assignment
will help gauge current
understanding of communities.
When filling out the chart
together, students will
participate in answering
questions about communities. A
sharing circle will inform us of
where students are in terms of
understanding.
The assignment given to
Adapted from Wiggins, Grant & J. McTighe (1998)

Explore how the past has impacted
our present and future. Ask students
to think about where they come from
and what kind of characteristics
identify their communities and
helped shape it.
3. READ: The song within my heart
Ask students to think about their own
story and what they can consider
when talking about their own stories.
4. Students will demonstrate an
understanding of communities and
the past with the creation of a
hypothetical community.
5. Students will explore how problems
can arise in a community and how
solutions can be reached through
peaceful resolution.
or flag for their family/community,
representing who they are, where they came
from and where they see their community in
the future.
Technological supports will be available for
students to research different coat of arms and feedback, oral one to one
can choose to create a digital assignment.
Students will be asked to write a couple
sentences about their own story to accompany sharing circle where students
the coat of arms they created for their
self/family/community.
The class will be divided into three or four
groups and will be asked to create a
hypothetical community. With this, they must
name their community and list some rules for
their community as well as values that are
important to their community.
A problem will be posed to the class: One of the This lesson is based in discussion
communities has a vacant space and there is
controversy about what to do with it. The
teacher will assign a stance, some
communities would like to develop a green
space, and some would like to build an
amusement park. Students are prompted to
think about the benefits and disadvantages of
both options. From here, students will be
asked to think about how we can come to a
peaceful resolution.
Students will be asked to reflect on two
things/ideas they learned about communities
in their journal
students will demonstrate their
understanding of community
and its characteristics. Teacher
can provide feedback in various
different forms such as written
discussion, or in the form of
stickers or stars.
We will end our lesson with a
will have an opportunity to share
their story and how this is
represented in their coat of arms
and writing. Teachers can
provide meaningful feedback to
each individual based on the
work they produced.
With the creation of the
hypothetical communities,
students will display what they
know about characteristics of
communities and how they are
created and maintained by the
people in them.
and sharing. Students will need
to share what communities can
look like with either option
proposed and share their ideas
about how to come to a
resolution. Assessing student’s
participation and ideas about
what communities should look
like and how they should operate
can give us an idea about where
they are.
By comparing responses from
the first reflection to the second,
Adapted from Wiggins, Grant & J. McTighe (1998)
 we should have a good idea
about concepts learned by
students throughout the unit
plan.

PLANNING FOR DIVERSITY

● How did you accommodate for diverse learners and those requiring accommodations?
● How will you reach ELLs?
● Were there opportunities to address Indigenous, multicultural and interdisciplinary activities and knowledge?

ELL’s – Students who are English language learners can benefit from differentiated delivery of information. In this case, our unit plan has a multi-
model approach to the delivery of information to students and the way students demonstrate their knowledge back to us. The delivery of
information can take many different forms such as group work, pictures, and sharing circles. ELL’s will be assessed using the framework from
Supporting English Language Learners Benchmarks. When utilizing these benchmarks, teachers will be able to have a clearer picture of where
their students stand, where to go with future instruction and communicating to families and support staff about the English proficiency of the
students.

Indigenous Children - When trying to create a safe space for Indigenous students, it is essential to have supports in place that can contribute to
the success of Indigenous students. Family engagement is a critical part of Indigenous student’s success, it would be beneficial to have someone
from their nation to come speak about the issues at hand. Our unit plan utilizes two Indigenous books that reflect Indigenous worldviews. It is
important to stay cognizant about the fact that these issues discussed in class can affect Indigenous students in different ways beyond the scope
of the classroom. In the document published by OCED, Promising Practices in Supporting Success for Indigenous Students (2017), when working
with Indigenous students individually, it is important to work directly with family members. It is also necessary to track continually the progress
of students especially with students who are at risk of disengagement.

In an urban setting, classrooms can be diverse and full of challenges. Technology is a great way to close some of those gaps and bring students
together. Technology can naturally have problem-solving aspects to it where students work together to create assignments and critically think
about them. Learning and Technology Policy Framework (2013) outlines technology to make learning student-centered, personalized and
authentic for all students.

Adapted from Wiggins, Grant & J. McTighe (1998)