Unit 1 Unpacking: The Foundation of Your Course
Your objective as a teacher is to teach your grade level and subject standards to mastery. The Mississippi Department of Education provides standards for all grades and subjects. In order to teach these standards to mastery, you must first understand the standards.
In this course, you will be creating an assessment unit for 1 single standard. You will first unpack your standard to fully understand the prerequisites (what students have to know BEFORE you can teach the standard), the academic vocabulary, and the skills in which the students must perform in order prove mastery of the taught standard. Each week, you will use your unpacking to create a new assessment that aligns to and assess the standard you have chosen to work with. Each assessment will be submitted for grading and professor feedback. In week 7, you will resubmit all revised assessments as a single unit. This unit will be graded as your final. You must prove your mastery of this course by revising each assessment based on your professor’s feedback.
For Unit 1, you will be choosing 1 standard to create a unit for. This is the standard on which ALL of your assignments will be based. Choose wisely. You must choose grade 3 or higher to receive full credit. Be sure to review the rubric in your syllabus. The subject areas to which you will have the most resources are Math and ELA. You may use Social Studies or Science if you have an expertise in these subjects. Because MDE does not proved Scaffolding Documents for Social Studies and Science, you will have a bit more to research and create in unit 1.
Math and ELA have Scaffolding documents provided by MDE. These documents provide you with almost everything that you need to use for this first assignment with the exception of your Essential Questions. Some of these scaffolding documents provide the Key Terms and Verbs but you should still analyze the terms and verbs in your standard and develop your Evidence of Knowledge (I can) statements.
Be sure to choose a standard with some “Meat” to it. Each week you will be creating an assessment for this chosen standard. If you question whether it has enough to work with, look at the prerequisite column and the evidence of knowledge column on the scaffolding document. This is where you will find the skills to create your questions. Every assessment will be based on this one standard you choose.
The purpose of this course is for you to prove your ability to unpack a standard and write questions to assess the chosen standard at the appropriate level of rigor and depth of knowledge. If you choose ELA, it is beneficial to choose RI or RL standards. Do NOT select any ELA Parts of Speech standards! Writing and language standards will prove harder to write the amount of questions you will need for this course and exhibit various depths of knowledge.
Please note, you are taking much of this WORD FOR WORD from the scaffolding document provided by MDE or the standards documents for Social Studies/Science. Your plagiarism score will be high for this assignment. Your professor will be reviewing your definitions and student-friendly language, and Essential Questions sections for evidence of plagiarism.
How to find your standards:
⦁ Access the MDE Website: https://www.mdek12.org/
⦁ Scroll Down; Click Academic Standards (https://www.mdek12.org/OAE/college-and-career-readiness-standards)
⦁ Choose either English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science or Social Studies
⦁ All subjects have a Standards Document; ELA and Math have the additional Scaffolding
See template with directions and a completed example below. You can access a blank template in Canvas. It is located in Unit 1, under assignments. The paperclip icon indicates an attachment. Do not forget that all assignments should have an APA cover page and reference page. You will need to add these pages to the template.
UNPACKING THE STANDARDS
CCSS Standard: ___ _________ OR STATE Standard: _____________
Standard (include identifying numbers): This is where you will write the word for word standard. Be sure to include the identifying number such as RL 7.2. This tells me Reading for Literature (fiction), grade 7, standard 2.
Prerequisite Skills
⦁ This is where you will bullet point the prerequisites for your standard.
⦁ These are taken WORD FOR WORD from the prerequisites column of the scaffolding document for the standard you chose.
⦁ If using Science or Social Studies you must create these.
Key Terms (vocabulary) Definition Student-friendly language
At the bottom of the scaffolding document you should see a list of terms. This section should contain the NOUNS, ADJ, etc from this list.
If terms are not shown, analyze your standard and evidence of knowledge statements for academic vocabulary. Here should have the formal definition of the terms.
Be sure to line up each terms and its parts across all parts. Think about how you would explain the formal definition to the student. Put it in student-friendly terms.
Key Verbs (skills) Definition Student-friendly language
At the bottom of the scaffolding document you should see a list of terms. This section should contain the VERBS (actions) from this list.
If verbs are not shown, analyze your standard and evidence of knowledge statements for academic vocabulary. Here should have the formal definition of the terms.
Be sure to line up each terms and its parts across all parts. Think about how you would explain the formal definition to the student. Put it in student-friendly
terms.
“I Can” statements
In the last column of the scaffolding document, you will see Evidence of knowledge. This tells what actions the students must be able to perform to prove mastery of the standard. Bullet point these skills WORD FOR WORD in this section.
If you are using Science or Social Studies, be sure you are use the Standards documents provided by MDE to determine what student must be able to do to prove mastery.
Essential Questions
You will create these on your own.
Below is some information from J.D. Wilhelm as reported by Scholastic.
What Is an Essential Question?
An essential question frames a unit of study as a problem to be solved. It should connect students’ lived experiences and interests (their only resources for learning something new) to disciplinary problems in the world. And it should connect what they learn back to the real world, where they can put their new understandings to work.
Essential questions can be geared toward uncovering a topic. When my daughter Jasmine was in first grade, she engaged in a habitat unit framed by the essential question What makes a good home?
And when elementary students are learning about characterization, for example, as required by the Common Core State Standards, you can create a context for an inquiry with an essential question as straightforward as What makes a good friend? (or student, teacher, leader, hero, etc.). Or you could focus on traits with a question like What is courage? (or loyalty, maturity, or any other trait).
As students go deep into inquiries such as these, they’ll learn the content and processes they need along the way. (My colleague Michael Smith and I give a more comprehensive treatment on using inquiry to teach reading and writing strategies in our book Fresh Takes on Teaching Literary Elements.)
Likewise, you can proceed from the kind of composing you want students to do. For example, if you want your class to write descriptions, use an essential question like What is a good school? To foster thinking about processes, the question could be rephrased as How can we make the best possible school? For comparing and contrasting: What is the difference between a good and a not-so-good school? The phrasing of the essential question organically informs the kinds of learning activities and culminating projects students will undertake to answer it.
UNPACKING THE STANDARDS: Example
CCSS Standard: ___ _________ OR STATE Standard: ______RL 5.3_______
Standard (include identifying numbers): RL.5.3 Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
Prerequisite Skills
⦁ How to identify similarities and differences to enhance the understanding of literary elements.
⦁ That stories are written to include characters and characters’ roles (hero/villain, major/minor), setting, plot (e.g., events, climax/turning point, resolution), and conflict (man vs. man, man vs. self, man vs. nature).
⦁ That authors include characters’ traits, actions, feelings, and words when writing literary texts.
⦁ The authors use drama elements such as scenes, dialogue, and stage directions.
Key Terms (vocabulary) Definition Student-friendly language
⦁ Character
⦁ Villain
⦁ Hero
⦁ Major Character
⦁ Minor Character
⦁ Setting
⦁ Plot
⦁ Climax
⦁ Resolution
⦁ Conflict
⦁ Drama Character- is a person, another being, or thing that moves the story along the plotline.
Villain- is sometimes called the antagonist of the story. This person or devising diabolical plots to cause harm or ruin.
Hero- The person who is admired for courage, outstanding achievements, and noble acts.
Major Character- is the main person or figure at the center of the story’s action or theme.
Minor Character- is the other person or figure in the story that is not as important to the story’s action or theme as the major character.
Setting- is the time and place (or when and where) of the story.
Plot- is a sequence of events that makes up or introduces a story.
Climax- is the intensive turning point or twist of the story.
Resolution- also known as the denouement, is the conclusion of the story’s plot action.
Conflict- is a literary device characterized by a struggle between two opposing forces.
Drama- a type of writing style that uses action and speech to tell a story: usually a serious play, movie, television, or radio production. – Character- the person or beings, etc. of the story
-Villain- is the bad guy in the story who causes harm or ruin.
– Hero- is the good guy.
– Major Character- This is the person who receives the most attention and is the most important person or figure in the story.
– Minor Character- This is the person of lesser importance in the story, but they still add to the plot.
– Setting- is the time and place or even the environment where the story takes place.
– Plot- is how the story evolves. It is what makes up the story.
– Climax- is a high point or most exciting part of the story.
– Resolution- the end of the story’s plot.
-Conflict- is used in writing to cause confusion and unrest.
-Drama- is a story that is usually told through plays, but more so now, through television and radio shows.
Key Verbs (skills) Definition Student-friendly language
⦁ Compare
⦁ Contrast
⦁ Describe
⦁ Summarize
⦁ Explain Compare- To find the similarities or differences between two or more concepts or ideas.
Contrast- To look for traits that are strikingly different among the two concepts or ideas.
Describe- to give an account in the word of (someone or something including all the relevant characteristics, qualities, or events of a story.
Summarize- To give a condensed version of the events of a story.
Explain- To describe or make clear the details of an action or event. Compare- to show the similarities between two or more ideas, people, or beings.
Contrast- To show noticeable differences between two or more ideas, persons, or beings.
Describe- To give a detailed account of an event.
Summarize- To give a condensed version of the events of a story.
Explain- To make the reason for an action or event.
“I Can” statements in student-friendly language
⦁ Identify important, specific details that support key ideas in a story or drama.
⦁ Identify and describe the plot events in a story or drama.
⦁ Describe the setting and characters of a story or drama, referring to specific details.
⦁ Compare and contrast characters, settings, and events using appropriate graphic or written representations, and using specific details from the text.
Essential Questions
⦁ What is the setting of the story?
⦁ Describe specific details of the plot that separates the main character from the rest of the characters?
⦁ Explain how the author prepares his readers for the climax of the story?
⦁ How can you identify the hero in the story?
⦁ How does the writer contrast the hero and the villain?
⦁ List specific details in the story that help the reader to identify the main character.
⦁ How does the writer use the setting of the story to help in the development of the plot?
⦁ What is the contrast between a story and a drama?
⦁ Summarize the story.
⦁ How does the writer use the minor characters to support the plot?
⦁ What is the purpose of the plot in any story or drama?
⦁ Does anything in the resolution of the story give you cause to believe that the story will be continued? Explain.
References
Mississippi Department of Education. (2021, May 4). Mississippi College-and Career-Readiness Standards. MDE. https://www.mdek12.org/OAE/college-and-career-readiness-standards
Wilhelm, J.D. (2021, May 4). Essential Questions. Scholastic.
