Differentiated Unit Plan: Literacy Unit Plan Assignment
EDSP 524
Differentiated Unit Plan: Overview
Congratulations!
You have just been hired at Sand Hill Middle School as the new special education teacher. Sand Hill Middle School is a suburban school just outside a rapidly growing city in the eastern United States. The school is diverse, with 32% of the student body identifying as Caucasian, 29% African American, 17% Hispanic, 10% Asian, and 12% who identify as “Other.” Thirty-six percent of students qualify for free/reduced lunch.
There are eight 6th-grade homeroom classrooms. The principal recently chose to implement a form of a “Freshman Academy Model” to assist the 6th-grade students in their transition into middle school. In this model, the students will receive their core instruction in their homeroom for the first term in the academic year. The goal is to help establish a sense of community among the class as they integrate into their large middle school.
You will be collaboratively planning and teaching all subjects in the first term with Mrs. Watson, the general education teacher. Given your respective areas of expertise, you will take the lead on the planning for Literacy and Math, while Mrs. Watson will do the planning for the remainder of the content areas. Your class has 23 students, 8 with individualized education programs (IEPs). There is one student who is an English language learner (ELL) who immigrated over the summer to the United States from Syria. Your immediate task is to plan the first five-day learning segment (i.e., small unit plan) of formal instruction in Math and Literacy, developing plans to ensure that the academic and functional/behavioral needs of ALL students are met. All the best!
Overview
Throughout this course, you are learning numerous concepts, strategies, and best practices for teaching students with exceptionalities. The purpose of this assignment is for you to demonstrate your skills and knowledge in instructional planning and the use of evidence-based instructional strategies to advance learning for individuals with exceptionalities, with a focus on differentiation of instruction and providing appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities. This Differentiated Unit Plan assignment consists of three parts submitted across the term:
Differentiated Unit Plan: Literacy Unit Plan
Differentiated Unit Plan: Math Unit Plan
Differentiated Unit Plan: Accommodation Plan
You will create a Differentiated Unit Plan for one week of instruction in math and one week of literacy instruction. The unit plans should be written for a 6th-grade middle school class with tiered instruction meeting the needs of individual learners functioning above grade level (secondary), on grade level (middle school), and below grade level (elementary). In addition to providing tiered instruction with differentiation for all students, you must identify accommodations for each lesson that will meet the exceptional learning needs of specific students included in the Differentiated Unit Plan student descriptions given (see Appendix A). The Differentiated Unit Plan assignment instructions, templates, help sheets (appendices), and grading rubrics are all located in Canvas and LiveText.
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