Author: Brenda Stephenson The University of Tennessee

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Author Brenda StephensonThe University of
Tennessee

• Date submitted to deafed.net
• March 6, 2006
• To contact the author for permission to use this
  PowerPoint, please e-mail bsimmon1_at_utk.edu
• To use this PowerPoint presentation in its
  entirety, please give credit to the author.

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Unit Planning and Lesson Plans

• Contributed by
• Brenda Stephenson
• The University of Tennessee

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Four Themes for Planning

• Creating authentic experiences
• Integrating vocabulary development
• Creating opportunities for self-expression
• Providing deaf role models

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Authentic experiences

• Language and knowledge will be acquired when the
  context in which they are presented is meaningful
  to deaf children
• Make connections to real-world experiences
• The experience is the same wherever it occurs
• Examples? Scripts and schemasnot day of the week

5
Integrating vocabulary development

• Words are parts of related concepts
• Occur in bunches or collections
• Words are presented in contexts
• Do not appear in isolation
• Contexts define and refine meaning
• Words are everywhere
• Examples?

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Creating opportunities for self-expression

• An opportunity to practice elaborate verbal
  skills
• An opportunity for definition and refinement of
  ideas
• Important in testing
• Reveals the depth of understanding
• Examples?

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Providing Deaf role models

• Provides a positive image of adult behavior
• Shows the means for success
• Examples?

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Constructivist approach to learning

• Learning is the product of social interactions
  between groups of learners
• How do you establish this in a classroom?

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Six Elements of a Unit Plan

• 1. Preparing the unit or lesson
• 2. Designing the lessons
• 3. Introducing the students to the language of
  the topic
• 4. Engaging students in self- expression
• 5. Planning authentic experiences
• 6. Creating a reading center
• 7. Assessment

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Three Elements for Unit Planning

1. What do you want students to know, understand and
   be able to do? (Concept mapping)
2. What evidence will you collect that will document
   that the desired learning has been achieved?
3. What enabling knowledge and skills are needed?

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The Unit Organizer

• Helps contextualize the unit by relating unit
  content to previous and future units and to
  bigger course ideas.
• Helps students understand the units main ideas
  through a map.
• Is a tool that allows teachers to plan by
  determining essential questions that can guide
  student learning.
• Provides a structure for students to track
  assignments.

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How to Construct a Concept Map

1. Identify the idea or ideas you want to map.
2. Arrange concepts in a pattern that best
   represents the information
3. Use a shape such as a rectangle, circle, an oval
   or a triangle to enclose each term or concept
4. Use straight lines to link related terms. Each
   line should link only two concepts.
5. Label each line to identify the relationship
   between two connected ideas.
6. Rework the map until it depicts the clearest and
   most accurate picture of relationships between
   key ideas.

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Unit Questions

• Questions can frame the most important and
  meaningful outcomes of the unit.
• They are a way to organize and focus a unit
• They are a way to stay true and relevant to the
  discipline under study
• They are a natural means of monitoring progress
  and structurin learning

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Using the Unit Organizer

• Introduce the unit
• Review with the organizer

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Assessment Continuum

• Informal interactions
• Observing students and engaging in dialogues
• Tests and quizzes
• Performance tasks and projects