Education assistant

Unit Title

Compose a catchy title!

Grade Level

Subject Area

INTRODUCTION TO DIFFERENTIATED UNIT PLAN

When you have completed Steps 1, 2, & 3:

STEP 1. Goals, Understandings, and Skills

CONTENT STANDARDS

LONG RANGE TALENT GOAL

Identify the national content standards for your unit.

Choose standards that represent key ideas and concepts in the discipline.

Use the standards to “unpack” the key understandings, knowledge, and skills.

Use the above-grade level standards as needed to provide the challenge that advanced students need.

Compose one overarching talent goal that aims at understanding key concepts in the content area. This goal is “timeless” because the concepts can be addressed at multiple grade levels. Students will demonstrate their achievement of this goal in Step 3 Talent-Targeted PBL Task.

Reference:

Talent Cluster Goals in Teach to Develop Talent.

Sample Long Range Talent Goals (class discussions)

KEY UNDERSTANDINGS

These statements capture the concepts that students will come to understand. These statements are inferences that students understand through inquiry and constructing meaning. They are not facts or statements to be memorized.

References:

Key Understandings in the chapters of Teach to Develop Talent

Key Understandings in Sample Differentiated Lesson Plan

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

EQ’s are open-ended questions that introduce the overarching concepts in the unit. They cause students to consider the key understandings. The best EQ’s engage the student directly (“you” and “we”).

A unit needs only a few overarching EQs.

References:

Teach to Develop Talent, Chapter 8.

Sample Lesson Plan

Video: Essential Questions

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

KNOWLEDGE: This section captures factual knowledge that students need to acquire, such as vocabulary or concepts they need to know and be able to apply in talent-targeted tasks. Look at the content standards to see what knowledge they contain. Knowledge is assessed in the Step 2 Formative Assessment section.

SKILLS: This section captures skills and processes that students need to be able to do in order to apply knowledge independently in the PBL tasks. Look back at the content standards to see what skills and processes they contain. Skills are assessed in the Step 2 Formative Assessment section

STEP 2. ASSESSMENTS OF GOALS, UNDERSTANDINGS, AND SKILLS

Students will demonstrate the talent aptitudes and evidence of understanding

TALENT-TARGETED PBL TASK SCENARIO

In this section, you write the scenario or student prompt for the unit’s culminating PBL task. The task assesses transfer, or independent application, of the targeted talents and key understandings from Step 1. The task applies knowledge meaningfully to address a real problem/need in the students’ school/community. Students use their talent aptitudes to apply the content knowledge and skills in the ways that adults do in the real world.

To create the Talent-Targeted PBL Task Scenario, first use the FIVE-P Problem Planner as a pre-writing for the scenario. One you have the elements that you want, use them to write the scenario for the students.

See Teach to Develop Talent, Chapters 2, 8.

FIVE-P PROBLEM PLANNER

1. Problem Prompt

What circumstances surround or have prompted the problem or challenge? What is the immediate need?

2. Personalized Purpose

What challenge is presented? The challenge has a personalized purpose and community connection.

3. Part-to-Play

What part do students play in solving the problem? Aim for the students having an authentic role as themselves.

4. Professional Product

What is being created to solve the problem? The problem-solving process culminates in a product or performance that mirrors what professionals do in that field.

5. Performance Criteria

These define what is considered a proficient demonstration of the content standards and skills applied in the problem solution. The criteria are presented to students “up front” in the initial problem scenario and scored in the Talent-Targeted PBL Task rubric.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

List the formative assessments you will use to assess that students have mastered the knowledge and skills in Step 1. Include self-assessment and reflection.

TALENT-TARGETED PBL TASK RUBRIC

Talent Goals

Emerging

Progressing

Advancing

Fill in the talent aptitude definitions for the each of targeted talents in the Step 1. Long Range Talent Goal.

Use learning progressions from Chapter 7, Teach to Develop Talent.

Key Understandings

Emerging

Progressing

Advancing

Fill in each Key Understanding from Step 1.

Write a descriptor for each level.

Performance Criteria

Emerging

Progressing

Advancing

Fill in the product performance criteria from the Talent-Targeted Task Scenario/Five-P Planner

Write a descriptor for each level.

STEP 3. INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN

Label learning tasks that use a differentiated curriculum strategy

Strategy

Learning Tasks

Fill in the specific differentiation strategy where used:

Choice

Creativity

Technology

Service-Learning

Affective Learning

Culturally Responsive/Relevant

Design Essentials

1 – 7

Teach to Develop Talent, Chapter 8

The Instructional Plan develops the Long-Term Talent Goal as it is assessed in the Step 2 Talent-Targeted PBL Task.

List ALL the activities, in order, that are needed to develop Steps 1 and 2. This includes direct instruction and formative assessments.

It is a “best practice” to introduce the Step 2 Talent-Targeted PBL task early in the Instructional Plan. This engages students and motivates them to see how the upcoming lessons are applicable to solving the problem/creating the product.

Use a variety of differentiated curriculum approaches in your learning plan. See chapters 11-15 in the Curriculum Design text and Chapter 8 in Teach to Develop Talent.

Label these in the Strategy column where they occur. NOTE: Not every learning task will be labeled as a differentiation strategy.