Stage 3_Bryant_Laurie

Laurie Bryant

FRIT 7430: Instructional Design

Understanding by Design Lesson Plan

Summer, 2010
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Title of Unit My Life in Dog Years Grade Level Fifth Grade

Standards:
Georgia Performance Standards
ELA5R1.2 For informational texts, the student reads and comprehends in order to develop understanding
and expertise and produces evidence of reading that:
d. Identifies and uses knowledge of common organizational structures (e.g.
chronological order, logical order, cause and effect, classification schemes).
e. Distinguishes cause from effect in context.
g. Makes perceptive and well-developed connections.
h. Relates new information to prior knowledge and experience and makes
connections to related topics or information.

ELA5LSV2 When delivering or responding to presentations, the student:

a. Shapes information to achieve a particular purpose and to appeal to the
interests and background knowledge of audience members.
b. Uses notes, multimedia, or other memory aids to structure the presentation.
c. Engages the audience with appropriate verbal cues and eye contact.
d. Projects a sense of individuality and personality in selecting and organizing
content and in delivery.
e. Shapes content and organization according to criteria for importance and
impact rather than according to availability of information in resource materials.
f. Uses technology or other memory aids to structure the presentation.

National Educational Technology Standards

#2 Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a
distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Students:
a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital
environments and media.
b. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media
and formats.
c. Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems.

Understandings:

Students will understand that…

• Authors engage readers by making connections through shared experiences. (U1)
• Informational/nonfiction texts contain facts. (U2)
• Stories can have different organizational structures to help a reader understand its meaning. (U3)
• Technology can be used as avenues to share information with others. (U4)
• Collaboration with peers can produce successful results. (U5)
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Essential Questions:

Overarching Questions: Topical Questions:

1. What does it mean to make connections to
texts?
2. What is the meaning of organization?
3. How can you effectively collaborate and
contribute on a project team?
1. How is the text My Life in Dog Years
organized? How do you know?
2. What type of connection can you make
with this text…text to world, text to self,
or text to text? Explain.
3. How do you determine cause from effect?
Can you find an example in the text?
4. How can you use technology to share
information?
5. How can I engage my audience and
deliver my message effectively?

Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences

Week One

1. The teacher will begin with a hook strategy by asking students…”What does the phrase, ‘A dog
is man’s best friend’ mean to you?” “Do you believe this to be true?” “Why or why not?”
“What animal could be your best friend and why?” (H)
2. The Georgia Performance Standards and EQ’s will be introduced and discussed so students will
have a clear understanding of what is expected from them. (W)
3. Students will be introduced to the novel “My Life in Dog Years” by Gary Paulson. This novel
will be used to guide students in developing skills to find cause/effect relationships in textual
context and also help students develop connections to the author’s real life events. The novel
contains nine chapters that focus on how the author’s life has been shaped by the dogs he has
owned in his lifetime. (W), (U1, U2)
4. To engage background knowledge, students will be led into a discussion of previously learned
material by asking…”What is an informational/nonfiction text?” and “What is the difference
between an autobiography and a biography?” A brief discussion about the author and the genre
of the novel will follow the review of background knowledge. (E), (U1, U2)
5. Key vocabulary from each chapter will be introduced before reading each day. One or two
chapters will be read each day (depending on the time frame) by way of narration on a CD
player. Vocabulary words will be kept on index cards so the teacher can review each day before
listening to the next chapter. The students may play “Trashketball” at the end of the unit using
the vocabulary words. The game will serve as a review before the AR assessment is given at the
end of the unit. (E)
6. Students are given a pretest concerning technology skills, cooperative group skills, organizational
structures in text, and connections skills. The teacher will save the pretests to be used as a review
before the end of the unit. (W, E)
7. The culminating unit performance tasks are introduced to the students. The scenario for the task
(media specialists creating professional learning sessions for administrators and teachers) is
discussed and reviewed so that all students get an opportunity to ask questions and discuss any
misunderstandings. Rubrics are introduced and discussed so all students are clear as to what is
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expected at the end of the unit. Scenarios are discussed as to what can happen if the performance
task rubric IS NOT followed…such as cooperation, time frame for work to be completed, and
quality and content of the task. (W, E)
8. To engage a discussion about technology and collaborative group projects while exploring
background knowledge, the teacher will begin with…”How can we share information with
others?”, “What is technology?”, “Can we use technology to share information?”,“Tell me some
things you already know about using the Internet.” , and “How should one behave in a group
while working on a team project?” A brief discussion about examples of Web 2.0 tools will
introduce the Glogster and Kid Blog websites. Exemplars will be introduced by way of the Smart
Board and the Internet websites Glogster.com and KidBlog.com. Students will be shown
examples of high quality and low quality web posters. The teacher will model how a web poster
is created and how to correctly enter a blog comment. Students will be randomly called to the
Smart Board after modeling to demonstrate the features of the sites. A discussion of appropriate
behaviors while working in groups will follow. The teacher will have a T-chart graphic organizer
on the Smart Board. One column will be labeled inappropriate and the other column labeled
appropriate. Students will contribute to the T-chart during the discussion. A review of the
answers for inappropriate and appropriate group behaviors will follow when completed. (W, H,
E), (U4, U5), (EQ4)
9. Working in cooperative groups of five students, students will be given practice opportunities of
logging in to the blog and logging in and beginning to set up their web poster. (E-2, R), (U4, U5)

Week Two

10. Students will continue to listen to a chapter or two each day by way of CD narration. Those
students, who need special accommodations in reading, will benefit from the text being read to
them on CD. Students will preview key vocabulary words from each chapter with the teacher and
also review previous key terms. (E), (U1, U2)
11. To engage discussion about connections, the teacher will ask…”What type of connections can we
make while reading texts?” After hearing responses of “text to world, text to self, and text to
text”, the teacher will ask the students if they have been having any connections so far in any of
the chapters. Students have been previously introduced in another unit to the different types of
connections, so this should engage background knowledge. (E), (U1), (EQ2)
12. Students will be given sticky notes to mark places in the novel where a connection is made. After
the reading, students will go back and jot down in their writing journal what chapter the
connection is from, what page it is on, and what type of connection was made with an
explanation. The journal entries will be used as the blog entries. (E), (U1), (EQ2)
13. To engage discussion of organizational structures of text, the teacher will ask…”What does it
mean to be organized?”, “Can a text be organized?”, and “How?” Students will be shown a
graphic organizer titled, “Chronological Order”. Students will be asked what this means and after
several responses the teacher will begin to write events from the chapter that was read that day
and place them into the graphic organizer. The organizer will be shown on the Smart Board for
all students’ participation. As the teacher models, the students will discover from the place of the
events and times of the events, the teacher is placing them in chronological order, or time order.
(E), (U3), (EQ1)
14. Students will be given a “Chronological Order” graphic organizer and placed in cooperative
pairs. Each pair will be given an envelope containing slips of paper. On the slips of paper are
written events from previously read chapters. Student pairs will place the events into the graphic
organizers according to when they happened in the novel. When the formative/informal
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assessment is completed, students will use the strategy, “Think-Pair-Share” to share their
organizers with others. After students get peer feedback, they will be allowed to make revisions.
Teacher will circulate and observe/coach while students are working. Have students share with
the class and discuss their results. (E, R, E-2), (U3), (EQ1)
15. To continue the discussion about organizational structures of texts, the teacher will review
chronological order and introduce cause/effect relationships by asking…”How can we determine
a cause from the effect?” The teacher will use an example on the board of…”She put on her
raincoat because it was raining.” and “It was raining, so she put on her raincoat.” A cause/effect
graphic organizer will be used by the teacher via Smart Board to model cause/effect events from
the novel. The teacher will already have some examples in the organizer while the last example is
left blank. After showing examples and discussion, the teacher will give a sentence and ask for
student responses to these questions…”What is the cause?”, “What is the effect?”, and “How did
you determine that?” Students will be selected randomly to go to the Smart Board and place them
correctly into the organizer. Students will be given 2+2 (2 minutes + 2 seconds) to discuss it
among themselves to see if they agree with the answers their peers presented.(E, R, E-2), (U3),
(EQ3)
16. The “Cause/Effect” graphic organizer will be given to cooperative pairs along with sentences that
illustrate cause/effect relationships. Each pair will receive two sentences to place correctly into
the organizer, and then each pair will be asked to look for one cause/effect sentence from any
previously read chapter in the novel. Students are expected to place them correctly into the
organizer. When completed, students will exchange organizers with another pair of students for
an informal peer assessment. The teacher will circulate to hear discussions and assist as needed.
Students will be allowed to make revisions after peer feedback. Students will share with the class
their results. (E, R, E-2), (U3), (EQ3)
17. NOTE: The graphic organizers that will be used as informal assessments are the same graphic
organizers that the teacher will use for models of each task, so the students will be familiar in
how to use them.

Week 3

18. Students will complete the novel. Students will be given time each day to work in their
cooperative teams on their performance task (creating the web poster) and work individually on
their blog connections. Students may use their graphic organizers and writing journals as needed
in help with their technology assignments. Teacher coaches during activities and provides
feedback. (E, R, T), (U1-U5), (EQ1-EQ4)
19. Students will be given their pretests back that they took the first week. Students will be given the
opportunity to go back and change any answers they want, but change them with a crayon so they
can see their initial answers. Students will use this as an informal self-assessment to determine
how much they knew at the beginning of the unit and how much they have learned. Answers to
the questions will be discussed. Did they notice any answers that were changed for the better?
Worse? Students will be given two open-ended questions as a self-assessment as well…”What
have I learned in this unit?” and “What could I have done differently during this unit…either
behaviorally or academically?” (R, E-2), (U5)
20. At the conclusion of the unit, students self-assess and peer-assess their projects using the rubric.
Following the assessment, a brief discussion will follow about how to present the performance
tasks. The teacher will engage the discussion by asking…”How can your audience (teachers and
administrators) be engaged with your presentation?” and “What can your group (media
specialists) do to make your presentation more effective?” (E-2), (U4, U5), (EQ4, EQ5)
21. To conclude the unit, students will take the AR computer-based assessment for the novel to test
comprehension. Each team will present their performance task. Teams will present a written step-
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by-step set of instructions on how to create a web poster and how to comment on the blog.
Students will print their web posters to include a copy in their portfolios for student/parent
conferences. Administrators and teachers will be invited to see the presentations. (T) (U1-U5),
(EQ1-EQ5)

Notes to the Instructor:

*The learning activities presented in UbD Stage 3 contain the key element “O” in the acronym
WHERETO because the activities have been organized and sequenced to promote engagement and to
increase effectiveness.

*Gardner’s Entry Points included in the three-week unit are as follows…

Narrational EP: #3, 5, 10, 12, 18, 21
Logical-Quantitative EP: #14, 16, 18
Foundational EP: #4, 5, 8, 11, 13, 15
Aesthetic EP: #9, 18
Experiential EP: #9, 14, 16, 18

*Students with special needs and who have an Individualized Education Plan, will have accommodations
provided by means of…the text being read to them, the tasks being completed with a peer partner or
within a group, and a co-teacher in the classroom.

*The teacher will use time set aside for individualized instruction or for small-group instruction as a
direct and explicit time for remediation of the material for student mastery. Those times available for
such remediation will be during the course of the three-week unit. The co-teacher and teacher may utilize
various instructional strategies for differentiation during remediation. A flexible grouping model will be
used.

*Complex instruction is the main strategy implemented in this unit of study. Complex instruction tasks
require students to work together in small groups, the intellectual strengths of each group member
contribute to the performance task, the integration of reading and writing are important to accomplishing
their goals, the multiple intelligences are used in an authentic way, the groups use multimedia, and it
requires many different talents in order to be completed adequately.

“My Life In Dog Years” Pre-Test

Circle the one best answer for each question.

1. Chronological order means that events are placed…

a. in the order in which they happen
b. as the central point of a story
c. opposite of how something happened
d. in alphabetical order
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2. Cause and effect in a sentence means…

a. events are placed in logical order
b. events are place in chronological order
c. one event leads to another
d. the sentence uses modifiers

3. When making connections to events or people in a story, you can have

them as…
a. persuasive language
b. logical order
c. a guess about when things will happen
d. text to self, text to world, or text to text

4. When working in cooperative groups, you should…

a. be rude to your peers
b. work together in a productive way and be thoughtful of other opinions
c. make hasty decisions
d. have a bad attitude

5. Information can be shared with technology. Technology is…

a. textbooks
b. portfolios
c. tests
d. electronic forms of media

References

Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.