Showing posts with label citizenship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label citizenship. Show all posts

One of my favorite teacher things to do is curriculum unit planning.


Now, before you roll your eyes, close the tab and go back to Instagram Reels, don't panic.  And listen for just a minute.


I'm a planner.  I'm a control freak.  I like to know what's coming.  And I think that's exactly why as soon as I got a teaching job, I was planning out what curriculum units I might teach during my first year teaching first grade.


But it's not just about me.  Kids need structure and organization to their learning.  When we just teach a string of random lessons, it's less effective for kids because they are having to do all of the extra work on how to process and remember that random information.


When we organize the lessons into big ideas or units, it serves as a brain filing system for kids.  Now they know exactly how to organize their new learning and where to find it in their brain when they need it.  Think of it like a learning anchor... similar to anchor charts.


I know you may still have a racing heart and be ready to bolt, but writing units doesn't have to be that hard.  I have written over 100 units for Science, math, integrated literacy and content units, and Bible units.  


And I'm not gonna pretend like it's always a walk in the park, but there are 4 simple steps that I follow every time that makes curriculum unit planning simple, effective and FUN!  I promise you CAN do it.


(Psst.  Feeling stuck with the boring units your district has written for you or are included in your textbooks?  You can totally use this process to elevate the existing units and make it work even better for you and your students while still "following" the district outline.)


Write Your Big Idea

The first step is writing your big idea.  What's the big idea? 


See what I did there?  A big idea is the main understanding or take away that kids must understand by the end of the unit.  It's the umbrella.  It's the overarching idea.  


It's not just a student objective.  Instead of, "The students will be able to count to 120," it's, "Counting to 120 is useful."


Instead of, "The students will be able to read and comprehend CVC words," it's, "Authors write to tell stories."


Instead of, "The students will be able to name characteristics of birds," it's, "The survival needs of animals determine their characteristics."


The big idea zooms out a bit so that it can be connected to multiple topics, standards, objectives, and even subjects!


Still struggling with writing a big idea?  Here are a few tips...

  • Don't use TSW (The students will) like you learned in college for writing objectives.2
  • Write it like you are writing the topic sentence for an expository or opinion writing essay so that it has multiple supporting points available.
  • Brainstorm and list key words or phrases (like community, rights, responsibilities).  Then write a sentence using as many of those as possible (Individuals within a community share rights and responsibilities).


Our big idea was posted on a huge bulletin board in my first grade classroom.  This was one of my first bulletin boards I had made when I started teaching.  Because organizing the lessons for my kids was top priority.  


This is the first big idea board I had (so excuse the ancient picture).  I taught in an IB school so we were required to include some IB lingo with it.  But we made it work for us too! :)


Here is the next big idea board I used in a new school, new classroom.  With wayyyyy less bulletin board space.  I used the chalkboard to post our big idea quote on.


And when I homeschooled my second grader, I included our big idea in our learning space as well so we could constantly refer back to it and make connections.


Plan Your Essential Questions

Once you have your big idea, you are ready for your essential questions.  An essential question is just what it sounds like... a goal that is essential for kids to understand2 the big idea... in question form!


If we go back to the umbrella strategy, the essential questions (EQ) are the supports for the umbrella.


They still are NOT learning goals.  They are a little bigger.  And they must connect to the big idea.


A unit can have anywhere from 2-4 essential questions.  They can have more, but I find that keeping it to 2, 3 or 4 is much easier for the younger kids to manage.


If I go back to the big idea example I used from my first integrated unit, the big idea was, "Individuals in a community have rights and responsibilities."


The essential questions for this unit are...

  • What is a community?
  • What are my rights and responsibilities?
  • Who is part of our school community?
  • What makes our learning community successful?


Your essential questions need to be smaller in scope than your big idea, but bigger than an individual lesson.  Typically, we work on an essential question for a week or two.


And you may notice from the umbrella example above that the essential questions are listed in the order they will be taught and there is a natural progression of learning happening.


Sort Your Standards Into the Essential Questions

Now you will want to use your district's pacing guide or your own pacing to decide which standards fall under which essential question.


For this integrated social studies and literacy unit, I added the Social Studies standards for each essential question.  Then, I looked through our literacy standards for the first quarter and chose standards that would support the essential question and help develop those social studies ideas.


So, for the essential question, "Who is part of our school community?" I will add reading and writing standards for informational writing and reading.


Getting the standards set in place first ensures that I have my standards in mind when I am planning lessons.  Instead of just forcing the standards to fit into lessons I want to teach and possibly leaving out standards.

 

Set Your Daily Goals and Lessons

After writing your big idea, listing your essential questions and sorting your standards, you are ready for the "fun" part.  


Writing your goals, lessons, and activities.  When I'm in this initial unit planning phase, I am just listing the activities or goals or lessons that will help kids fulling answer and understand the essential question.


And, of course, tie back to the big idea.  


But I'm not writing detailed lesson scripts.  It's basically like I'm jotting notes down to myself so that when I get to that week and start planning, I'll remember what I was thinking and can elaborate then.


In our umbrella example, this is the raindrop phase of planning! :)  


And, no, there doesn't have to be exactly 3 activities for each essential question.  I just love symmetry, lol!


For our beginning of the year integrated unit, it would look some like this...


Now, I have my unit at a glance planned and I can add this plan to my lesson planning file or folder to have handy when I am planning.   Here's a FREE digital template in color and black and white for you to use to plan your curriculum unit.

This unit I used in my example can be found here and I've already done the detailed daily planning for you and included all the print and digital materials you need! :)

And if you need help pacing out your standards or just want to take a peek at what my entire year looks like, check out this first grade pacing guide that also comes with digital templates to make your own!



One of my favorite things to do at the beginning of my first grade year is read.  It's the perfect break in between hashing out routines and procedures...and MORE routines and procedures!  Here's a look at my must reads for building community in our first grade classroom!
{This post contains Amazon Affiliate Links.}

First Day Jitters is a must read for the first day of school.  It's the first book I read with my kiddos and it's the perfect ice breaker!

Also on the first day of school, we start building our class rules.  We read David Goes To School and the kids write about what rule we should include in our classroom.  I love integrating this one into writing and it always gets tons of laughs!

Once we are through with the first day of school, it's time to start our first integrated unit on citizenship.

We read about what a citizen is with this non-fiction favorite (I LOVE timing this around September 11th so we can tie it in to our We Remember Project.)

Then, we move on to fiction stories that show attitudes of good citizens in our classroom community.  These books are so important in our classroom for building a sense of community, respect, and making our classroom a place we want to be for the next 178 days of school!  The attitudes we read and write about during our unit are...

Enthusiasm - Morris Goes To School
Independence - A Bad Case of Stripes
Tolerance - The Sneetches
Creativity - Skippy Jon Jones
Integrity - Strega Nona
Curiosity - Curious George
Appreciation - The Great Kapok Tree
Confidence - Sheila Rae the Brave
Empathy - Hey Little Ant
Cooperation - It's Mine!

As we read each story, we post them in our room...you can read about that set up here and find anchor charts to go with each story here!

Once we discuss our attitudes and behaviors, we read more about being a good learner in our classroom community--how we can get the MOST out of first grade.  I use the learner profile words from the International Baccalaureate PYP program because I started my teaching career in an IB school.  Here's a look at the books we use for each of the learner profile words.

Thinker - Look Book
Communicator - Diary of a Worm
Open-Minded - The Brand New Kid

What are your favorite books for building classroom community?
Sometimes building your class community can feel more like laying down the law the first few weeks of school!  And while laying down the law definitely has its place in my classroom, it has to be balanced with growing relationships with the little people in our classroom.

The first school I taught at was an International Baccalaureate (IB) school.  And even though I don't teach at an IB school anymore, I've taken a few of my favorite elements from that philosophy with me!  The IB attitudes and learner profile were some of my favorite of that curriculum.  I love spending time at the beginning of each year talking about what kind of attitudes we should show and what kind of learners we are expected to be in our classroom.  Not only does it help me learn my students better, but it also helps me "lay down the law" in a more positive way!

Each day we read a book (find the list of books here) and discuss the attitude the character did or didn't show in the story.  We chart our ideas...(grab these anchor charts templates to help!)

Add the book covers only to the templates or add notes from your attitude word discussion too!



And these templates even work great as Brag Boards!  Hang the anchor charts up in your room blank and add student names to an attitude chart when they show that attitude!  ...work that positive reinforcement to your advantage! :)

If you like these awesome attitudes posters, download the FREEBIE sample!

The other thing I love from the IB curriculum was the learner profile.

I love that these words give kids purpose at school.  With awesome attitudes, I am teaching little people how to be awesome adults.  With the learner profile, I'm training little people to become life-long learners.

We have a similar routine with the learner profile words as we do with Awesome Attitudes....

We read and brainstorm ways to demonstrate our focus learner word...


I love attaching each learner profile word with a part of our body because the learner profile is who we are!

Then, we add our focus word in our "I Am A Learner" booklet and illustrate the meaning of the word.

This packet even includes writing prompt papers and more anchor chart and poster options for these words!

Download a FREEBIE sample of the learner profile packet too! :)  Let's make this a *great* start to our school year!
September 11th can be a scary topic for little learners.  It's easy to say "they are too young for this," or "they don't need to know this yet," but history is doomed to repeat ourselves if we don't educate--even our youngest--about events in our past.  Let's take a look at ways to learn about and remember 9/11 in a developmentally appropriate way for K-2 students.

Has it really been 13 years since 9/11?  Has it really been 13 years since I was sitting in a psychology class as a senior in high school when we heard a kid running down the hall screaming, "Turn on the TV! It's awful!"  ...and has it really been 7 years since I've had a class of first graders that was even alive during that awful event?  Un.Be.Lievable.

We honored September 11th this week and today in our classroom.  First, I should add that I always send an email to my parents before our talk letting them know what we will discuss and when and to let me know if they have any problems with that.  In ten years, I've never had a parent complain.  And year after year, I get thank you notes from parents about how thankful they are that their kids are learning our history so young.

Friday, we talked about what it means to be a good citizen in our classroom, community and country.
This is all part of our first Unit on Responsibilities.  We read this book about being a good citizen.

We charted our "research" on our flag anchor chart.

Then, we wrote an opinion piece on why they are good citizens.  We made American flags to display with them.  They have been a beautiful patriotic reminder of the pride we have in our country!  Especially this week!
 {{Ummm...yeah, we did these on September 5th...and yeah, my August calendar was still up and I didn't realize it until I saw these pics...It's been busy in my world and my brain is FRIED, can you tell??}}




This morning, we read one of my favorite "9/11" books, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. It's based on a true story about a man who actually walked across the Twin Towers on a tight rope back in 1974.  And the end always gets me choked up talking about the towers not being there anymore.

I also showed just a few select pictures of the twin towers after they were hit using this photographic slideshow...
Here's a sample page from the powerpoint "book..."

The kids naturally asked lots of questions...and I tried to answer them all as factually {because I think that's super important}, but as simply as possible.  After much discussion about "Who did this?" and "Why did this happen?" and "Where did the towers go?" I had one little sweetheart who, after looking at the picture, said, "That's really cool, but sad at the same time."

Stop. My. Heart.

Ya'll, I felt like my grandparents at that moment in time. I have vivid memories of my grandfather trying to relay the gravity of his World War II experiences to me and just not getting it. I didn't ever make fun of it, but it was always just "an event in history that I didn't experience."

And that is exactly what 9/11 is to my firsties.  And that kinda breaks my heart.  So, yes, I went on a mini-soap box with my first graders about how "not cool about 9/11" I felt as I was watching, and the tears that flowed in my senior psych class and the shakiness in Matt Lauer and Katie Couric's voices as we all watched together.  And I felt like my grandfather must have when I was little.   Oh, my heavens, did I have a lesson on perspective today!

Check out this slideshow along with an easy booklet for young readers on September 11th!
We ended our discussion with the flag's symbol of pride and how no matter what happens, America will still survive because of the good citizens we have in our country!  I feel proud and blessed to be an American...and as long as I'm teaching, I'll be doing my part to pass along that pride to my little first grade citizens!

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