Thematic Unit Description

Your first team project in the course is to collaborate with your peers to plan an interdisciplinary* thematic unit of instruction under a common theme. The unit will incorporate different subject areas that are artfully intertwined by the teacher(s), you! It is important for teachers to have a clear plan of what the students should know or be able to do as a result of this unit design in order to create a meaningful and fun learning experience for them (instructional design, backward design).

The Purpose

Using knowledge and skills developed in the course, you will have a chance to experience how technology can be used to support the instructional outcomes (goals and skills) defined in your unit.

The Purpose of the thematic unit is to:

• Collaborate with peers in a professional learning team
• Collaboratively organize a cross-curricular thematic unit designed for the grade level in a 1-to-1 environment
• Write instructional goals that align with the Iowa Academic Standards or other Curriculum Goals.
• Connect the curriculum to the larger issues related to The Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
• Visualize meaningful connections between academic disciplines (subject areas) included in the interdisciplinary unit

• ISTE Standards for Educators:  2.1c, 2.4a, 2.5c
• InTASC Standards for Pre-Service Teachers: 3q, 4f,o, 5a,b, 7a,g h, o, 10 f,r

These activities engage skills found in these units of the Google Educator Level 1 Training Connection:

• Unit 3: Have a (Mostly) Paperless Classroom
  • Managing Folders in Google Drive
  • Google Docs

Assignment

Using the Thematic Unit Description template, your task is to complete it as a group and answer each question as best and thoroughly as possible. You are encouraged to view several examples before you begin.

Assume that you are teaching in a 1-to-1 environment (one personalized computer per person). The duration of your unit should be approximately two weeks long*. Of course, the theme should be age-appropriate and appeal to your learners' interests and experiences.

*You are not expected to write specific lesson plans, just an overview of the unit context, learners, competencies, and instructional outcomes. Use the template provided which includes the required headings and document structure.

Follow the assignment template and resources below to successfully complete the assignment

Steps:

I. Communicate as a team.

1. Analyze the Global Goals and look for the connections to your unit theme
2. Decide on a grade level and subject areas
3. Search standards for your chosen grade level and subject areas
4. Choose a Theme
5. Discuss the connections between the multiple subject areas (including global goals) and create a concept map showing those connections.
6. Imagine and describe your school, classroom and students

II. Complete all parts of the Thematic Unit Description template

III. As a group meet with your instructor to receive feedback (Formative Assessment)

IV. Revise your answers based on your instructor's feedback

IV. Submit the revised version.

Templates

You are required to use the templates provided to generate these documents. Each includes the required structure and headings. Do not delete the headings or the numbered prompts within each section from the unit description template. Follow each prompt using complete sentences throughout.

1. The Global Goals

Your unit should be a great opportunity to help your students understand that they are part of a larger community and that their actions matter. You will do it by exploring issues related to The Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Browse these links for inspirations, ideas, and classroom resources:

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Introduces the Sustainable Development Goals to children and young people everywhere and unites them in action. Make sure to look at the specific targets for each goal and follow the links tab for the goal-related resources.

The World's Largest Lesson
Provides free and creative resources for educators to teach lessons, run projects, and stimulate action in support of the Goals.

Here is a video example of how global goals can be part of the classroom activities.

This UN Goals quiz may upgrade your (and your students) knowledge about the global issues and help you think of a theme.

Check the "Lazy person guide" for the ideas on how your students (and you) can help achieve one of the Sustainable Development Goals by just doing simple things.

See the Pactful.org Curriculum ideas and Resources designed to support teenagers learning how to become social good innovators.

Check out the InnerView.org. "Platform to help students, groups, and schools highlight community service impact, passion for causes, and connect local effort to the UN Global Goals” https://innerview.org/pages/about Could you use it today as a part of ypr organization?

2. Grade level and subject areas

For the sake of this course we strongly suggest that your team will design your unit for grade 2 and up.  Preparing unit resources for  "non -readers"  comes with the extra challenges.

Your unit should integrate multiple subject areas such as Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, PE or some other subject areas under the umbrella of your theme. It's up to you. You will visually explain the interdisciplinary**  connections in a format of a concept map.

**Interdisciplinary, or cross-curricular unit involves a conscious effort to apply knowledge, principles, and/or values to more than one academic discipline simultaneously. The disciplines may be related through a central theme, issue, problem, process, topic, or experience (Jacobs, 1989).

Elementary grade teachers: Although in an elementary classroom there is only one teacher, divide your team so each of you will be in charge of different subject area. Think about it as collaboration between a group of grade level teachers where you divide a workload according to your strongest skills.

Secondary and middle grades teachers: If you are going to teach the same subject area try to divide the subjects into smaller categories. For example, Social Studies can be divided to Geography, History, and Government.

3. Standards, Benchmarks or Essential concepts

Search The Iowa Academic Standards (formerly known as Iowa Core) or other standards & benchmarks linked below to identify the skills and outcomes related to your chosen grade in different subject areas (Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts). In your unit description document you will be asked to identify at least two standards for each subject area and provide a link to their source.

• Iowa Academic Standards by subject and grade
• Fine Arts Standards
• PE and Health majors may look at SHAPE America and consult the NASPE national standards' Grade-Level Outcomes for K-12 Physical Education
• Computer Science standard (CSTA K-12 standards)
• Foreign language majors may explore Standards for Foreign Language Learning
• ELL and TESOL resources
  • English Learner resources at Iowa DOE - look at the ELP Standards
  • Iowa World Language Competencies
  • World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages
• Special Ed, check Iowa Academic Standards and Essential Elements for Students with Significant Cognitive Disability

4. Theme

You will use the same thematic unit throughout the course as an anchor for class projects. Therefore, it's important to select a theme that you are genuinely interested in teaching and subject areas about which you possess basic content knowledge.

Choose a broad theme to involve several different instructional outcomes, yet not so broad as to encompass an entire subject area (e.g., geometry). Click here to  see the examples of the themes. 

Choose a theme that is significant, applicable, relevant, and engaging to your students.

5. Concept mapping

The concept map can be a great tool to support visual thinking and helps visually represent complex ideas.  It can also serve as brainstorming tool and graphic organizer especially helpful when working in teams.

As mentioned above your unit needs to be interdisciplinary. In part III. of your unit description (refer to the template) you will be challenged to visualize the connections that your students will make between your different subject areas based on your unit theme.

While concept mapping could be done on a piece of paper or dry erase board we would like to challenge you to learn something new. There are many concept-mapping tools to make your concept map. Google Drawings, Lucid Chart Popplet, Coggle, Mindomo,or Bubbl.us are one of the most popular concept-mapping tools used in education but you do not have to limit yourself to the tools listed.

Learning Objectives (Skills)

Planning a unit of instruction involves identifying student learning outcomes (skills). The teacher should be able to describe exactly what students will be able to do as a result of their learning experience.

You will describe the standards, skills/objectives and Global Goals connections in part II of your Thematic Unit (refer to the template).

All of Iowa schools base their learning outcomes on the Iowa Academic Standards Curriculum. This is a set of standards that identify what learning outcomes teachers should have in mind when they are teaching.

Iowa Academic Standards in your units:

The overall structure of the Iowa Academic Standards provides common learning standards organized by grade levels and subject areas.

Example: Iowa Academic Standards Writing Standard - Grade 9 W.9-10.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Notice, that the standard is written for the 9th-10th grades, but your unit will be only about 2 - 3 weeks long. You will need to decide on the specific Skills/objectives that will be the focus of your unit. It may be a continuation of the skills taught in a previous unit or a stepping stone towards a new set of skills.   

Here is an example of a 9th grade unit themed :Entering a Brave New World - Dystopias versus Utopias:

Notice that both the Standards and the Skills/objectives describe the outcome of learning, not the learning activities or lessons! Use observable and measurable verbs to describe the performance. Use observable and measurable verbs to describe the performance. See a list of common action verbs aligned with Bloom's Taxonomy.

Helpful resources related to your school, students, and classroom setting:

Diversity

In section III.2 of the paper, you are asked to describe the cultural diversity of learners. When describing the diversity of your students, you should try to be realistic and acknowledge the types of diversity present in your chosen community.
The following resources will help you better understand the demographics of Iowa:

• Iowa School Performance Profiles will provide you with the overall demographics for the state of Iowa and for the individual schools. You can look up your own school or pick the city that you would like to teach.
• Poverty USA will help you grasp the socio-economic situation in your chosen county or state.
• Data USA will give you many comparative statistics about our state and people living in it

No credit will be given to the response "there is none". Even in Pumpkin Center, Iowa, there exists differences between learners. Consider this broad definition provided by the UNI Diversity Council:

Diversity describes the rich differences that people bring to the community. It can refer broadly to culture, identity and ideology, or more specifically to age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, ability, gender identity, socioeconomic status, political affiliation, marital status, national origin or veteran status. Diversity is a dynamic concept, shaped by history, and changing as our understanding of the world and its people evolves.

Classroom setting

You will describe the setting of your class in section V.1 of your thematic unit (refer to the template).

You will teach in 1-to-1 environment (one personalized computer per person), but your team can decide what computers will be available to your students. Will you use iPads, Chromebooks, Macbooks? All of these platforms come with advantages and disadvantages. Discuss the choices with your team. What else is in your classroom? Do you have Smart Board? Do you have visuals and manipulatives to support your theme? Perhaps you have a "dream classroom" board on Pinerest! Add a picture or two to help us understand your vision. You can even go as far as visualizing your classroom floor plan with Designing Your Classroom web app (not required).

Formative Assessment Meeting

Your professor will hold a formative assessment meeting with you as you develop your unit. At this meeting, your professor will review your completed unit template and, if needed, provide suggestions for the improvement.

Your unit template must be completed prior to the meeting, and it must be evident that your team spent a significant amount of effort to complete each section to the best of your ability. (Remember to refer to the examples and/or ask for assistance if you don't understand what is expected.) At this phase, your thematic unit won't be graded for content but rather completeness.

Submitting:

1. Team liaison only:  Submit the hyperlink to your Thematic Unit in Google Docs.
2. Make sure that your document is public so anyone with the link can be a viewer AND
3. give your instructor editing privileges. 

Point Structure (100 points)

Special Notes:

• You must use the template provided for this assignment. Retain the section headings and numbers within. Follow each prompt with your own information using complete sentences throughout.
• Give your instructor an editing access to your Google Document (Sharing permissions)
• Submission: Follow the instructions provided in the assignment submission box precisely to avoid losing points on your assignment (eLearning > Course Content > Class Projects (Labs) > Thematic Unit Description folder).