WST Curriculum Unit – Google Docs
Standard 4.c is from my ESC 766 class that I am currently taking at Lehman College. This Unit Curriculum is currently under construction and will be updated accordingly. The purpose of this assignment is for us to create a 10 lesson unit curriculum for a specific grade band.
This curriculum addresses all parts of the Standards in terms of using a variety of performance-based assessment tools and techniques to inform classroom instruction. With that said, the curriculum addresses the students’ Needs Analysis. Once the students needs were analyzed, the curriculum was tailored to meet this specific academic, linguistic, and special needs. In that, the curriculum asked for us to create a Needs Analysis, Essential Questions, and modifications for Special Needs Learners. Additionally, the curriculum ask that we include: Lesson Topic, Content Objectives, Language Objectives, Key Vocabulary, Overview of Procedures, Scaffolds etc., and Assessment related to Objectives. These specific grids aides in helping us to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social and physical development of each learner.
The artifact contributed to my professional understanding by making me aware of the variety of assessment tools and techniques that are needed to inform classroom instruction and achievements. In that, when creating this unit curriculum, my partners (Jared Wood and Kimberly Thomas) and I put a lot of thought into what assessments (informal and formal) were necessary in allowing us to cater to our ELLs at varying stages of English language and literacy development. Seeing that curriculum was grid specific we also had to ensure that the whole lesson was in sync. Additionally, this unit curriculum raised awareness of the importance of having an Essential Question which in my opinion kind is the steering wheel of the overall unit. Lastly, the Content and Language Objectives were two other areas that I think was important to creating this unit, and meeting the different language and academic demands of our ELLs. This overall artifact had a positive impact on me as a teacher. For starters, it made me more detailed oriented, and purposeful in everything that I included in the unit. It created this idea of not just creating another curriculum unit, but creating a curriculum unit that had a variety of performance-based assessment tools and techniques to inform classroom instructions.
Relative to this standard, one specific area in my teacher development that needs improvement is the creation of Essential Questions. As I have mentioned previously, the Essential Question/s is the steering wheel, and it is the driving force behind how we plan our lessons for our students on a day to day basis. In that, this was one part of the artifact that I had the most difficult time creating.
Seeing that this artifact is still a work in progress, it is too soon to say if the artifact has or will impact student learning.
