October 29, 2009

The first unit I really liked was We're All in It Together. I enjoyed this social studies unit because it not only brought the students' community into their lives, but helped aid a community in the classroom. The unit included lots of of methods for differentiation. Tiering, levels and groups of readiness, RAFT, Think-Pair-Share, and learning contracts were all incorporated throughout the lesson. I felt that students would be able to come to understand that even though everyone does differnt things in a community, they all have a purpose and are needed.
The knows, understands, and dos of this unit are applicable to any sense of a community. Students will know places and roles within a community. They will also know specific community vocabulary words. The students will understand that people have needs and wants that are met by the different roles within a communith. They will also understandt that different roles provide for a community in different ways, that each role is important, and without certain roles a community may suffer. Students will aldo know that all people in a community are part of a system in which a change in one part can impact other parts and that all people have a responsibility to cooperate in order for a community to run effectively. From this unit, the student will be able to explain different components of a community; compare, contrast, and evaluate roles; draw conclusions; work cooperatively and independently; write a letter and a set of directions; use a telephone book; analyze a problem; identify and describe one's own role in a community; write and/or speak persuasively and role play.

The second unit I liked was We Each Have a Role to Play. I enjoyed this unit because students are able to learn real life skills along with literacy and language arts tools. Students can learn that we all make choices all the time that can have positive and negative consequences. The differentiated activities used in this lesson include group work, tiered assignements, and tiered assessments.
The knows understands, and dos again are appliciable to more than just literacy circles. Through the completion of this unit, students will know elements of characterization, including description, emotion, tone of voice, and actions. They will also know the tasks of specific literature circle rols, and criteria for asking good questions. The students will understand that people share responsibility for success when they work togher, that passages from texts can reveal a character's personality, accepting responsibility shows maturity, making thoughtful choices is part of responsible behavior, and choices can have both good and negative consequences. Finally, the students will be able to plan and carry out personal responsibilities for group discussions, ask thought-provoking questions, listen actively, draw conclusions, make predictions based on textual clues, analyze character actions and statements, respond to literature through writing, participate in student-led discussions, and relate literature to personal and community events.
I feel that we can make many lessons as differentiated as these two that I have chosen. We don't always need to include a portion of community incorporation as these two lessons did, just like the other units demonstrate. However, these lessons are great because they include ideas that create a differentiated class and help students become a part of the classroom community.