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last.updated 8.6.07

 

Unit Plan with Rationale

Purpose

Before you begin teaching your courses each school year, you will want to have a map or plan that helps guide you through the course materials and standards to your pedagogical goals. As a novice instructor, you will want to write this plan out, not only to give you a guideline, but to show others (e.g., mentors, future employers) your plan. Likewise, you will want to be able to justify this pedagogy to administrative and parent audiences; therefore, you will also articulate a rationale for this unit.

Instructions–Unit Plan

First choose whether you are going to do a three week (5 day-a-week) schedule or a four week block schedule. Then develop a plan that explains what you will be doing each day of this unit. If you cannot fit an entire unit within the given timeframe, choose the section of your unit that your assignment sheet fits into and summarize the other part of the unit. Or you can consult the instructor.

This plan will show what you will be doing each day of the unit being taught. For each day include a three to four sentence description and rationale of the day's work.

  • make sure that it is clear what students will be focused on during lectures, discussions, activities, workshops, or presentations
  • list materials that will be needed; you do not have to develop the materials for each day (except for the one day that you teach in the Pedagogical Presentation and the Sample Assignment)
  • note that the purpose of this draft is to be descriptive rather than to be thorough
  • single-space each day; double-space between days

Since it is uncertain what resources you will have when you will teach, position your plan within a reasonable ideal.

Instructions–Rationale

The 500-750 word rationale is your overall justification for the unit. In essence, you are making an argument about how your approach to teaching this material is pedagogically sound. The audience for this rationale is a future employer, administrator, or mentor. Your theoretical rationale will be explained in the Final Statement which is written for the instructor.

In this rationale, you will...

  • explain the goals for the unit and how it fits into your overall course goals. Because your writing assignment and the readings are the unit's backbone, place them at the center of your discussion. Then highlight some of the activities and other work that students will do to support the goals of fulfilling this assignment and understanding these readings.
  • support your argument about the pedagogical soundness of your curriculum, you will want to draw upon your Teaching Philosophy, the Virginia SOLs, and infer your knowledge of language arts theory.
  • make references to specific sections of your Unit Plan and Assignment Sheet to illustrate a point
  • make an accompanying works cited list, if you cite sources.
  • need to decide what should be explained in the daily rationale and what should be explained in this overall rationale; therefore, consider the following tips:
    • if it is a practice that is repeated multiple times or that is a cornerstone of the semester pedagogy (e.g., assignments, special activities) articulate it in this overall rationale;
    • if there is a practice that occurs only once or a limited numbers of times, include it into the daily rationale (you can make references back to previous daily rationales for repeated practices that you do not discuss in the overall rationale).


Criteria

Logistic:

  • the unit should be between 4-8 pages
  • the rationale, as an attached document, should be between 500-750 words
  • initial submission is due on November 14, 2007
  • 100 points

For the portfolio, reconsider your original position in light the new things that you have learned this semester, as well as the feedback you received from the instructor. The final revised draft of your Unit with Rationale is due with the portfolio on December 10, 2007.

In addition to the general evaluation criteria, the instructor will be looking for evidence of...

  • a sense of audience–Ask yourself, will any instructor be able to understand this unit based upon what I have provided here? will an administrator clearly understand this unit?
  • a plan that is grounded by your Teaching Philosophy, the Virginia SOLs, and language arts theory (at least implicitly)
  • cohesiveness between your plan and your rationale
  • a logical progression of activities and assignments that build upon each other
  • an understanding of the students you will be teaching
  • a clear sense of what you will be doing on a daily basis
  • assignments and activities that are executable and correspond with your course goals and unit goals
  • a teacherly persona
  • appropriate use of conventions, especially a readable format and appropriate citation style if applicable