Unit and lesson Plan analysis

 Day 4 

  • Comparing My schools learning plan to the UDL template

Both have a section for learning objectives. UDL template has a section for standards where as my schools lesson plan does not have that, my school includes a section for Qatar values on the other hand, with which the lesson should align with - for e.g., The lesson is on celebration, then the lesson should include some Qatari celebration styles. There seems to be no cultural context consideration in the UDL planning. The UDL template includes the teacher role column, which specifies teacher roles and what the teacher will be saying to the students and similarly, has a student actions section which identifies the teachers expectations of the students and what they should be doing in the lesson. These areas are not in my schools lesson plan, in fact, my school has very vague teacher and student instructions, it just states the teachers introduction, warm activities, activities on the whole and other instructions that do not follow an order. My school does not highlight any potential barriers for learning, where as the UDL template does. My school has a section explaining activities for students who 'less able', 'middle ability' and 'more able', which is not indicated in the UDL template. Alternatively, UDL template and my schools template include a section for reflection and notes. The UDL has a section for how the teacher will show engagement, representation and expression, where as my schools template does not consider that. My school focuses on cross-curricular links and there is a section where teachers have to show that in they have linked it with topics in other subjects, which is one section that the UDL does not include. 


  • Reviewing unit of study
After scanning and reading through my school's unit of study plan, I found that it does not have an Enduring understanding statement. I decided to develop an enduring understanding for the unit of "Story writing with Roald Dahl" in year 3 English. Students will read different Roald Dahl books, look ste settings, characters, speech in text and by the end of the unit, they should be able to write their own story about their favourite Roald Dahl character. 

I used AI to help me generate an enduring understanding and this is the result :

"Through exploring the whimsical and imaginative world of Roald Dahl's stories and characters, students will develop a deep appreciation for the power of creativity and storytelling, fostering a lifelong love for writing and the written word."

I liked how this sounded, it had the collective idea of the unt, however it was too advanced for the year 3 students to understand and I felt like it did not focus what the students will learn. I asked the AI to rewrite this enduring understanding so that it would be easier for year 3 students to understand and it gave me this:
As we journey through Roald Dahl's magical stories and weave our own tales, we discover that storytelling is a thrilling adventure that lets our creativity soar. This helps us cherish writing and stories, and we can carry this love with us throughout our lives."

This enduring understanding statement is much better, however I feel like it can be said in better wording so I revised it and worded it how I liked it. 

"As we read Roald Dahl's wonderful stories, we will learn how to create our own exciting tales inspired by our favourite characters. This will be a fun and imaginative journey into storytelling where we can let our creativity shine"

This revised version captures exactly what I want the students to take away from the unit. For me, this statement summarises the important ideas of the unit, which is being able to write their own story, however it is more of a student friendly statement, rather than learner focused. The statement is easy to understand  as it is in simple English and students will be able to act on it. 

I then further revised the statement to make it more learning focused: 

"Creating original stories can foster a deep appreciation for the art of storytelling and nurture creative writing skills"

This statement is more applicable  to a variety of contexts as it allows students to engage with literature, storytelling and creativity, that can be expressed in art (drawing their characters, setting/scenes, being creative in any aspect of drawing), social studies/history (looking at ancient stories/folklore or looking at historical events and writing a story about what happened) or foreign languages (learning new stories in a foreign language or writing their own stories in a foreign language). 

Both statements can be used in the unit planning, one for the students and one more learner focused. 


Day 5 

We have to create an end of unit assessment based on the enduring understanding and our definition of learning. I used AI to help me create an assessment that is age and level appropriate for year 3 students. I really liked the assessment that the AI initially produced, however I felt like it was there was too advanced words that students would not understand; so I had to ask AI to revise and make write it in simpler English for year 3 students. The outcome was much better after I gave AI more information and more refined instructions: 

End-of-Unit Assessment: "Character Adventure Story"

Instructions:

  1. Choose a Beloved Character: Pick one of the beloved characters from the Roald Dahl stories we've read during this unit.

  2. Create a Short Story: Imagine a fun adventure for your chosen character. Your story should have a beginning, middle, and end. Keep it short and simple.

  3. Use Descriptive Words: Try to use descriptive words to make your story interesting. Describe what your character does and how they feel during their adventure.

  4. Draw a Picture: Create a picture to go with your story. Draw your character doing something exciting from your story.

Assessment Criteria:

  1. Character Choice: Did you choose a character from Roald Dahl's stories? (5 points)

  2. Story Creation: Did you create a short story for your character with a clear beginning, middle, and end? (10 points)

  3. Descriptive Words: Did you use some descriptive words to make your story interesting? (5 points)

  4. Illustration: Did you draw a picture that goes along with your story? (5 points)

Total: 25 points


I believe that this is an appropriate end of unit assessment for year 3 students. It asks students do tasks that they are familiar with and have been practicing in the lessons. 


Application 

I am using the year 3 unit plan as I do not create or use unit/lesson plans as a Learning Support teacher. So, after reading through all the goals in the unit plan that I borrowed, I noticed that all of them are very basic or hollow, they seem to be more performance standard goals, which focus on the expectation of the student, the end product so to say, and does not identify the concepts or knowledge that is important in the unit. For example, one learning goal is to "write sentences describing settings", this is also an example of a constricted goal, which means that students can only "write", which restricts students who struggle with writing and hinders them from achieving that goal. However, after reviewing this goal, I realised that in can also be a content standard, just in the sense that, students are asked to describe settings, which is needed in order to create their own story one day. 

Revised learning goals: 

1. To read and answer questions about setting

Students will discuss the characteristics of magical settings found in Roald Dahl's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' to gain a deeper understanding of diverse settings.

2. Be able to explore setting and character description

Students will demonstrate their understanding of character analysis by selecting a Roald Dahl book of their choice and examining character descriptions, focusing on the physical attributes of the characters.

3. To write sentences describing settings

Students will be able to effectively write setting descriptions using descriptive language, drawing upon their knowledge of diverse settings from Roald Dahl's books.


Day 6

After reviewing my unit plan, I found that there were no recordings of barriers to learning or differentiation strategies. I decided to make notes of the barriers to learning for this unit:

1. Reading level: some students may struggle with reading comprehension, which can hinder their ability to engage with Roald Dahl's books or understand the content fully. 

2. Language skills: Language barriers, including limited vocabulary and all the students have English as a second language, which can make it challenging for students to grasp the details of storytelling and character development. 

3. Attention span: Year 3 students may have shorter attention spans, making it difficult to focus on longer reading assignments or writing tasks. 

4. Resources: limited access to books, writing materials or technology can hinder students ability to complete assignments and engage with the unit. 

I also noted some differentiation strategies for all students. 

1. Tiered assignments: provide assignments or tasks at different levels of complexity. For example, offer advanced writing prompts for high-level students, standard prompts for middle-level students and simplified prompts for lower-level students.

2. Flexible grouping: use flexible grouping arrangements, such as small groups or pairs, to allow students to collaborate and learn from their peers with different abilities. Pairing a higher-level student with a lower-level one can promote peer teaching and support. 

3. Varied resources: Offer a variety of learning resources, including books, articles, videos and interactive websites, so that students can access materials at their individual reading levels and preferences. 

4. Alternative assessments: Offer alternative forms of assessment, such creative projects, oral presentations or multimedia assignments. This allows students to demonstrate their understanding and skills in their preferred ways. 

Looking at my student profile, some of the barriers to learning that I will have to be aware of when planning are language skills, resources and the reading level of my student. My student is ESL and is considered an extreme case as he was always enrolled in a Turkish school and is only being exposed to English now for the first time. I will have to consider the vocabulary I use when planning the goals, activities and work for the lesson, making sure it is not too complicated. I also have to consider the limited resources that I have access to, the school does not have accounts with many online educational sites so online activities are limited, the only resources we can use are reading and visual resources, however, having access to audio books would be beneficial. Finally, the reading level of the student, which is very low, is also a barrier to learning. While planning, I will keep in mind other ways for the student to read or get through the book, linking to the resources, I will have to look for audio books or even videos that explain the story for the ESL student.







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