PORTELLESTCSSgenreSTUDY

David Portelles TCSS Fall 2013 Unit Plan Genre Study

 Unit's are a massively intentional, organized, and sequential system of structured education. I feel that a unit plan needs to meet the needs of both the students and the teacher who employs the curriculum it contains; for these reasons, I selected “//Hidden Identity: Finding Yourself in Romeo and Juliet”// by Stacie Rustin, //“I Will Speak Up!”,// by Allison Estey, and //“Critical Thinking”// by Brian Kraby.  I selected these three units because they were all A) Student Focused. The Units went above teaching academic material and delved into the social, emotional, and intellectual health of their students, using the literature to meet those needs. B) Highly organized. The units were not vague or nondescript, but rather, purposefully navigated all of the material, and structured the unit in a winsome, purposefully, and advantaged way. C) Demonstrated investment and interest on behalf of the students.  My favorite Unit Play was “//Critical Thinking”,// because it was tremendously thorough, incredibly organized, intuitive to navigate, and unique in it's design. I enjoyed that the unit was not based around a specific book, or poem, or play, but rather around a specific critical skill that the teacher wanted to cultivate in his students. The texts and resources were all centered around this very important skill set; the instructor was not merely teaching the students to consume literature, he was teaching them how to teach themselves, to think critically, and develop a method of developing themselves.  I enjoyed the unit plan '//Finding Yourself.//..”, but I would have changed the structure of the lesson plans. They were very minimal, and not as clear cut as the other plans. I understand this choice, because I believe that you need to leave room for alterations to your lesson plans, and you would make unnecessary work for yourself if you wrote out lessons word for word and had to then work out your alterations in real time. I believe that the plan is very heavy on rationale, and that for this teacher, and probably myself, a vague outline would be satisfactory, but it may lack the depth of thoroughness that some departments may require.  All of these units have some things in common. They all provide rationale, include standards, goals, students interests, lesson plans, and activity sheets. The exact content varies, as well as format, and there is the most difference at the level of the lesson plans, but I believe this to be fine and acceptable, because every teacher is an individual, and they have their own particular style that causes them to prefer a certain style of teaching; this is reflected in the difference between lesson plans, and I enjoy that diversity.  All of these plans make clear statements about the expectations the teachers have of their students. I believe that is what makes them so special; the teachers who crafted these plans know their students well, and were intentional in selecting texts and issues that are relevant and applicable to their students' lives. The unit about //Romeo and Juliet,// for example, directly addresses the issues of gang violence that are prevalent in the school, and addresses those themes in the text so that students have a venue to discuss the implications of how being involved in a gang can effect ones life, just like the Montague's and Capulets. It is THAT kind of insight that sets that unit plan apart. All three display a certain amount of personal relevance, which reveals a great deal of critical thought and interest on behalf of the educators who developed them. The plans demonstrate that language arts curriculum is more than just educating students about classic literature, instilling knowledge and terminology and testing them on rote memorization; rather it is a chance to develop and challenge young minds, and literature is merely one of the instruments used to do so.  In all three plans, I see a pervasive attitude of invested caring. These educators took the time to see how much they could double dip, and satisfy multiple levels of instruction at once. It is a personal desire of mine to become the kind of teacher that develops lesson plans with an intense focus on student success, and therefore these Unit plans were all very agreeable to me.