Rationale for Unit

When I first sat down to discuss my unit assignment with my cooperating teacher, I was
open to whatever possibilities that she might have for me. We both took a look at the standards
that had not been covered so far and she recommended that I choose natural resources. I thought
that it would be a great standard to not only write about but teach as well because it had the
potential to involve a lot of student participation and engagement. I also knew that I had not
taught very many science lessons at all and that this would give me good experience and practice
near the end of the school day. After settling on a unit topic, I moved into thinking about the
everyday structure of my lesson plans. I wanted to start with the basics and then build upon each
day. I knew that most of my students may not even have a clue as to what natural resources were
so my introduction would need to be engaging and explicit. I also knew that because science was
at the end of the day that there would be many opportunities to practice classroom management
and incorporate some fun activities to do at the end of the day. As I have visited and become part
of a variety of classrooms there are a few things that always strike me consistently throughout
every single one of them. First, students need opportunities to talk and discuss with everyone
around them. No matter age, race, gender, or subject, I think that it is important to give every
child a chance to express their ideas and learn from others. Although I may not be able to call
upon every child, I want each of my students actively participating in instruction. Thats why in
each of my lessons I have included various times throughout each day that students are allowed
to talk to one another. Along the same lines, I hope to instill a collaborative spirit in each of my
students lives as I teach. Although this is not the main focus of my unit, many of my teaching
strategies include having students work together in pairs or small groups. I believe that
collaboration is one of the most important skills that students must learn before they enter the

real world, and by infiltrating these skills in my lesson plans, I am able to add depth and
purpose to all of my instruction. I also have seen how students of all ages and learning styles
need direct instruction. Any student can become confused with directions and the third graders
that I was working with needed constant reminding of instruction and procedure. However
independently third graders might be expected to perform, this class needed a lot of support and
attention from the teacher. This meant a lot of review and simplistic explaining of directions. I
also had to take into consideration the types of stimulants that my students reacted well to. For
instance, my third grade students work much better once they have seen a visual on a concept. I
wanted to include many visual examples, models, and a few videos that my students would be
able to really engage with so that the content would stick in their brains. I also used many real
life examples when teaching them. I knew that my students really didnt have a broad schema
for much of what was talked about in the classroom because they had not been exposed to much
of what I had been exposed to as a child. My unit had to serve as the experience inside the
classroom. I wanted to bring pictures, experiments, discussion, and discovery inside of the
classroom and make natural resources a priority because it most likely wasnt talked about at
home. As far as using the best research-based strategies for teaching, I knew that discussing with
peers, note-taking, and teacher modeling would work best for my class. Almost everything that
we do in the unit, I would model first and then allow the students to practice. There is a strict I
do, we do, you do theme throughout each of my lesson plans in order to best develop
comprehension of natural resources. Assessments that were chosen were quick and easy to draw
data from. Exit slips are a popular formative assessment that I implemented in my first unit
lesson. The second day had students thinking about specific situations by responding to word
problems. The third lesson used an assessment application on the iPad, Socrative. This engaged

students in what they were doing and had them learn how to use another type of technology. On
the fourth day, I used a type of exit slip again, but it was in the form of a personal conservation
certificate. Students were to explain how they would be either protecting or keeping our planet
safe. And lastly, my students completed a culminating project that required students to write a
persuasive letter to the Once-ler from the book, The Lorax, and ask him to stop cutting down
all of the Truffula trees. Each of these assessments were well thought out and student-friendly. I
took into account that I wouldnt spend most of my time instructing students on how to take the
assessment, so I chose formats that were either already familiar to my students or easy to explain
within the lesson plan. And lastly, I used a variety of resources within my unit. I had a different
list of resources for every day. From art boxes to mini oil spills, each day was filled with
activity that involved higher-level thinking and application. As I look back on my unit, I realize
how important it is to know your students before planning and constructing lesson plans. There
are masses of external resources out there that can aid teachers in building a foundation for
content, but there is only one person who knows how to teach it best: the classroom teacher.
Every teacher has a different group of students that cannot be compared. Every teacher knows
his or her students best and should do his or her best to center content not only on the standards
but on how the class learns. Each students learning style is taken into account and every interest
is engaged at all times. It wasnt easy, but it was definitely worth it.