Unit Planning

Planning for instruction can occur through a variety of approaches. Regardless of the approach taken, teachers need to plan to ensure that there is congruence between learning objectives, assessment, activities, and resources. Unit planning is an important component of adapting the curriculum to support student achievement of objectives.

The framework for unit planning is based on the following questions:

What is it the students need to know or be able to demonstrate?
How do they demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and attitudes?
What activities, approaches, and resources help students to learn what they need to know?

A Unit Planning Model for Science 10

Some guidelines for unit planning follow:

Familiarize yourself with the structure and content of the curriculum guide, including the Foundations for Scientific Literacy, Core Curriculum Components and Initiatives, and considerations for Implementing Science 10.
Read each unit to become familiar with the major concepts to be addressed and the foundational and related learning objectives that address those major concepts. Each Science 10 unit is structured around Key Questions. Students who are able to successfully answer those questions are likely to have attained the foundational objectives of that unit. Teachers may choose to reorder foundational objectives and regroup learning objectives within foundational objectives to meet their students' needs.
Consider the prior learning that students will likely bring to this unit based on their previous science courses and courses from other areas of study. The Pre-Instructional Questions indicate what prior knowledge students need to achieve the learning objectives within each foundational objective.
Consider how you will assess and evaluate students throughout the unit. All students are expected to achieve the foundational objectives of each unit, but it is not necessary that each student complete the same assessments to demonstrate understanding. Students should be provided with a variety of ways to demonstrate knowledge. There should also be congruence between the instructional methods and the assessment methods and tools.
Consider how to incorporate student interests and current events in science into the unit. Students may be involved in developing or selecting activities to meet needs for understanding the concepts. Students may also undertake different activities in order to achieve the same objectives.
Consider whether the unit will have primarily a science inquiry, problem-solving, or decision-making focus, or whether there are opportunities to incorporate more than one of these areas of emphasis into the unit.
Use Science 10: A Bibliography as a starting point to identify resources which correlate to the unit. Annual Updates will also identify recommended resources. Include human resources and resources from other sources where appropriate.
Consider how to authentically integrate each Core Curriculum Component or Initiative into the unit.
Develop, or select from the resources or curriculum guide, activities which are appropriate for the objectives. Adapt or extend the activities to ensure that the needs of all learners are met. Ensure that there is a balance of activities; some should introduce concepts and ideas, some should require exploration of the concepts, and some should encourage students to reflect upon their learning.
Determine which instructional methods are appropriate for each activity, ensuring that there is a mix of instructional methods throughout the unit in order to address different student learning styles and expand students' ways of learning.
Develop a timeline for the unit that shows the lesson structure within the unit. The timeline should allow for opportunities for enrichment, extension and applied study that arise as learning progresses in the classroom.