Unit Plan Overview

Unit:
Stage 1- Desired Results
Connections to Context:
Will follow a similar setup to what theyre
used to, give multiple means to allow
diverse students to learn, following the
UDL. Students who need extra help with
writing can get help at the side table.
Lower readers get a shorter reading that is
still challenging for their level.

Transfer
Students will be able to independently use their learning to
Think about how trucks are able to help people do their jobs
Use the letter u in their reading and writing
Imagine themselves in a future job
Answer comprehension questions about a text

(What kinds of long-term independent accomplishments are desired?)

(How does this fit with students experiences,
the school goals, and the larger societal issues?)

Established Goals
Reading Standards: Foundational Skills
3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word
analysis skills in decoding words. a. Demonstrate
basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound
correspondences by producing the primary sound or
many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
b. Associate the long and short sounds with common
spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels. c.
Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g.,
the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does)

Reading Standards: Foundational Skills

4: Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and
understanding.

Informational Text 1/Literature 1: With

prompting and support, ask and answer questions
about key details in a text.

Speaking/Listening 2 and 3: Confirm

understanding of a text read aloud or information
presented orally or through other media by asking
and answering questions about key details and
requesting clarification if something is not
understood. Ask and answer questions in order to
seek help, get information, or clarify something that is
not understood.

Writing 1, 2, and 8: Use a combination of

drawing, dictating, and writing to compose
opinion pieces in which they tell a reader
the topic or the name of the book they are
writing about and state an opinion or

UNDERSTANDINGS
Students will understand that
Trucks can help people do their jobs by delivering
goods from place to place
There are many different kinds of trucks that carry
different things

(What specically do you want students to understand?

What inferences should they make?)

Meaning
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Students will keep considering
What would it be like to be a truck driver?
How do things get from place to place?
How do some jobs lead to making other peoples jobs
easier?

(What thought-provoking questions will foster inquiry, meaningmaking and transfer?)

Acquisition of Knowledge, Skill and Values/Commitments/Dispositions

Cognitive Objectives
Physical Development Objectives
Socio-emotional Objectives
Recognize the letter u in
The students will be able to
Students will be able to identify
writing
collect data about trucks
what truck drivers lives are like
through observations
and how they can help
Pronounce the short u
others/make them happy
sound when reading words
Perform a readers theater
with u in them
Ask questions to relate to people
The students will be able to
different than they are
correctly form the letter u
Connect the letter and its
sound when seeing pictures of
Put themselves in the story by
Create movements and
words with the letter u in
saying what they would do
actions to go along with a
them
readers theater
Use the letter u in their
writing
(What values and commitments and
Define the amazing words of
attitudes should students acquire or
the week
wrestle with?)
(What discrete skills and processes
Answer comprehension
should
students
be
able
to
use?)
questions about Trucks Roll

Based on Wiggins and McTighe (2011) The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units and Van Brummelen (2002) Steppingstones to Curriculum

preference about the topic or book. Use a

combination of drawing, dictating, and
writing to compose
informative/explanatory texts in which
they name what they are writing about and
supply some information about the topic.
With guidance and support from adults,
recall information from experiences or
gather information from provided sources
to answer a question.
Speaking/Listening 1, 4, 5: Participate in
collaborative conversations with diverse
partners about kindergarten topics and
texts with peers and adults in small and
larger groups. a. Follow agreed-upon rules
for discussions (e.g., listening to others and
taking turns speaking about the topics and
texts under discussion). b. Continue a
conversation through multiple exchanges.
Describe familiar people, places, things,
and events and, with prompting and
support, provide additional detail. Add
drawings or other visual displays to
descriptions as desired to provide
additional detail.

(What content standards and program- or

mission-related goal(s) will the unit address?
What habits of mind and cross-disciplinary
goal(s)- for example 21st century skills, core
competencies- will this unit address?
Include source and identifying number)

Evaluative Criteria
-Writing will be evaluated based on
neatness, punctuation, capital letters,
spacing, content, and use of Amazing
Words

(What criteria will be used in each assessment

to evaluate attainment of the desired results?)

Give an example of how trucks

can be used to do jobs
Create a storyboard as a class
Write about a prompt,
Imagining life as a truck driver
Connect new vocab and
concepts to own writings
Contribute to a discussion of a
prompt
Use the Amazing Words in
speech and writing
Answer questions about
Trucks Roll
Explain what an observation
is
Make an observation and
describe what they see out loud
Wonder about what they cant
directly observe
Take what they observed and
write about it, telling what they
saw or writing a creative story
Create movements and
actions to go along with a
readers theater

(What facts and basic concepts should

students know and be
able to recall?)

Stage 2- Evidence
Students will show their learning by
PERFORMANCE TASK(S):
Final writing
Students will complete a writing based on an outdoor observation they did, with the teacher as the audience.
They will practice connecting real-word experiences in their writing, first by discussing it as a class, then
writing on their own. The completed writing will serve as the summative assessment and measure what the
students learned in the unit
Gather data about what kind of semi-trucks there are by observing the major road near the school
Students with come together and discuss the different trucks they saw during the observation

Based on Wiggins and McTighe (2011) The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units and Van Brummelen (2002) Steppingstones to Curriculum

Students are given instructions and go to individual writing time, freely write about one of the trucks they
observed, either by describing the truck or imagining who was driving it, what it carried, and where it was
going

(How will students demonstrate their understanding- meaning-making and transfer- through complex performance?)
(Regardless of the format of the assessment,
what qualities are most important?)
The most important part is students gaining the
ability to talk about trucks in conversation and
be able to write about them.

OTHER EVIDENCE:
Discussion with students while they are writing
(What other evidence will you collect to determine whether Stage 1 goals were achieved?

Based on Wiggins and McTighe (2011) The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units and Van Brummelen (2002) Steppingstones to Curriculum

Stage 3- Learning Plan

For the pre-assessment, I created an activity using the iPad app Kidspiration. There were several images of words with simple vowel sounds, with three boxes labeled
A, O, and U. Students dragged the images to the correct box to match the vowel sound. For example, they would drag the image of the bug to the box marked
U. This preassessment is to test their knowledge of the letter u before the week begins.

(What pre-assessments will you use to check students prior knowledge, skill levels, and potential misconceptions?)
(Toward which goal does each
Learning Events
learning event build?)
Acquisition
Meaning
Transfer

Student success at transfer, meaning, and acquisition depends upon their participation in
these learning events
Lesson 1: Phonics
-Singing along with and watching the video of the letter u song (Acquisition)
-Sounding out the words on the Alphabet cards (Acquisition)
-Participating/practicing the readers theater with their group (Acquisition and transfer)
-Performing the readers theater (transfer)
Lessons 2 and 4: Readings
-Learning/reviewing Amazing Words using the poster, vocab cards, and small group
discussion (Acquisition)
-Listen to reading of book of the week, Trucks Roll, and answering questions based on the
story (Transfer, meaning, and acquisition)
-Participating in class storyboard (transfer and meaning)
Lesson 3: Writing
-Participating in discussion of prompt about lives of truck drivers (acquisition, meaning,
and transfer)
-Write about their lives as truck drivers (Acquisition, meaning, and transfer)
-Practice proper writing (capitals, punctuation, neatness, and spacing) (acquisition)
Lesson 5: Observation writing
-Participate in observation of trucks on road (acquisition)
-Discuss what they observed (acquisition, meaning)
-Write about the trucks they saw during the observation (transfer, meaning, acquisition)
-Practice proper writing (capitals, punctuation, neatness, and spacing) (acquisition)
-Use Amazing words in their writing (acquisition)

(Have you included multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and
expression, and multiple means of engagement?)

Progress Monitoring
(How will you monitor students progress
toward acquisition, meaning, and
transfer during lesson events?)

I will take note of how well they are

able to read the words in the theater
containing the letter u, as well as
check over their daily journals, see
how well theyre able to use the
Amazing Words in the storyboard,
and listening to their answers to the
reading comprehension questions

(How will students monitor their

own progress toward acquisition,
meaning, and transfer?)

Students will use a rubric to check their own

progress on the final writing of the week, they
will hear other students writing and note
what they can do in their own

(What are potential rough spots and

student misunderstandings?)

The readers theater may be difficult to

understand, may have trouble
integrating Amazing Words into
writing
(How will students get the feedback they
need?)

Based on Wiggins and McTighe (2011) The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units and Van Brummelen (2002) Steppingstones to Curriculum

(Are all three types of goals (acquisition, meaning, and transfer) addressed in the learning
plan?)
(Does the learning plan reflect principles of learning and best practices?)
(Is there tight alignment with Stages 1 and 2?)

During writing, I will walk around

helping students, and will read their
writings as soon as they finish to let them
know how they did.

Based on Wiggins and McTighe (2011) The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units and Van Brummelen (2002) Steppingstones to Curriculum