UnitPlanGenreStudyBrown

Colleen Brown Unit Plan Genre Study

The units I decided to look at for this Unit Plan Genre Study were: “What is a Myth? : An Introduction to Mythology” by Suzanne Butler, 2007 (ninth grade) “American Realism and Naturalism” by Julie Waters, 2000 (eleventh grade) and “Hamlet” by Jenny Stumpp, 2002 (twelfth grade). I chose these three units because they are subjects which I have been taught in high school and are standards in the high school classroom. There are many different ways to teach each of these subjects and I wanted to see how these particular teachers planned on teaching their subject. I liked the “American Realism and Naturalism” the best of the three I chose. It didn’t choose it for its content but its structure. It was very easy to follow, it was the most organized, and unlike the other two units, it had clear objectives that the lesson was aimed at fulfilling. All three units had the following structural aspects in common:
 * 1) Unit Rationale detailing to whom they are teaching and also the importance of this particular unit in the class.
 * 2) Daily Lessons in great detail with time breakdowns of how long each activity should take. They also list materials needed with individual activities (there was only one plan that actually had a list of materials at the beginning of the unit).
 * 3) Details about major projects that will be due before the end of the unit.
 * 4) Each project had its own Rubric describing exactly what students needed to do in order to receive a specific grade.
 * 5) Each had other assessments like a unit test and periodic quizzes as well as project details.

Each unit had these things in common but they were arranged in very different ways. The unit on Hamlet was very detailed and organized with a table of contents and page numbers to make finding things easier. The Mythology unit was more loosely arranged with paragraphs on what the unit was about instead of bulleted points like the Hamlet lesson. It also included different activities for different grades if the lesson was going to be taught in another classroom. Also, only two units had clear goals listed out. These differences can probably be explained simply because these teachers are all from different schools, in different parts of the country with different state and federal requirements required for a lesson. Some schools require a lesson that has all of the standards listed, reflective exercise at the end, differentiated learning activities and so on while others do not require quite as detailed plans from their teachers. The similarities occurred because those particular elements are essentials to a lesson plan. Without a purpose, or a rationale, there is no reason to teach the material in a lesson. Without goals there is nowhere to take the students in their learning, and with assessments how would a teacher determine what, if anything, had they learned. If I were to change one of these units I would pick “What is a Myth?: An Introduction to Mythology”. While I love the topic of this lesson there were some things that I would change. For one thing, I would shorten the rationale. The rationale stretched for five pages of the actual unit plan that was only thirty-four pages long. The descriptions and reasons for teaching could have been shortened to the most important points. Instead they included a lot of information that was then repeated in the actual lessons so it did not need to be detailed so extensively in the rationale. I also appreciate how detailed she is in her rubrics, however, half of the units is taken up with the rationale and grading information before she even begins detailing her lesson plans themselves. She does include about fifteen days of lessons with a good variety of activities for the students to do. If I were evaluating these lesson plans there would several main categories that I would use. They would be Organization, Content, and Inclusion of State standards and goals. I’m sure that there are more than just these categories but I believe these to be the most important. Under “Organization” I would check to see how the lessons go together, whether or not each lesson is strong enough on its own, and the order in which they are taught. Under “Content” I would check to see whether the material is appropriate and relevant to the children’s education or if the lessons are filled with useless information. Under “Inclusion of State standards and goals” I would check to make sure that goals are clearly stated and understandable and that the state standards which require this information to be taught are appropriate to the content of the lessons. Each lesson plan makes it clear that the curriculum of English classes varies greatly. One lesson is about Mythology of the world while another class centers on one play while still another focuses on one specific genre among many styles of writing. They each make it clear that students of English need a well-rounded education in English and that focusing on one genre is not enough for them to understand what they need to know. Each of them included many different and varied exercises which imply that for English teaching to be successful it cannot stay the say. Children need to be involved in different ways so that they remain interested and care about what they are learning. Lectures have their place in the classroom but many other methods are needed to make English learning exciting and fun. Both of these philosophies follow my own beliefs about teaching in the English classroom. These are attitudes that I hope to convey in my own classroom someday. However, there is one aspect that I did not like about the implied attitudes. The lessons also focused on how much an English student is expected to be able to do. Some of the expectations are very low and then others are very high. I know that much depends on the student themselves but if we don’t set the bar high how will the students ever know how high they can go? The lesson on Mythology has separate grading systems depending on grade and seeming “ability” and the project that they choose. Some projects are easier than others and I think all of the projects should be on the same level if every student has to do one. The lesson also doesn’t differentiate any changes for students with special needs in their learning program. In fact none of the lessons do which is a very important aspect of the inclusive classroom. Overall, I think each lesson has its merits and are pretty well done. There were just a few little details I would change but I would use some variation of these units in any of my classes when I become a teacher myself someday.

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