I am in the middle of writing my Direct Learning Lesson Plan and it is driving me nuts! I seriously underestimated how much work this whole unit plan was. I chose to do a social studies unit because social studies is the only subject at my school where the curriculum is not written out for you. I was so excited because I could really design my own unit and- even more exciting- they are studying Australia in social studies this spring. It was like this unit was made for me! (If you don't already know this, I am in love with Australia!)
When it came to the Essential Understandings, the only problem I had was narrowing it down to only a few. There are so many ways I could go, but I had to remember that we only have a few short months, if that, to do the entire unit. Essential questions weren't too bad either and I thought of several good assessments I could use. I was on my way!
Now I am looking at my activites and my individual lesson plans and am drawing a complete blank. I know all of the things I want them to get out of the unit, but when it comes to the specifics of how I am going to do that- nothing. How am I going to introduce the aboriginal culture to my third graders? How are they going to learn about the rich plant and animal diversity? How do I teach about human impact on the environment and vice versa?
Am I just thinking too much? Am I trying to be too creative? Not every lesson can involve some fun game or activity. Some things just have to be taught. There needs to be some type of background knowledge before even a discussion can take place.
Is anybody else feeling frustration with this assignment?
I agree that I found this part of the assignment to be more challenging than I had anticipated. I had a lot of activity ideas, but found many of them hard to line up with my overarching goals as stated in my Essential Understandings and Essential Questions sections (I know we could do this direct instruction lesson on anything, but I figured I'd might as well kill two birds with one stone and make it fit in with our unit assignment). Furthermore, it seems that the Direct Instruction model lends itself more easily to math than social studies. As for some ideas . . . you could directly model how to research the impact humans are having on Australia's environment (including how to discern reliable sources) or how Aboriginal Australians are similar and different from Native Americans. Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteUnit plan - still working on that....
ReplyDeleteBut when you mentioned Australia, I thought about this summer’s adventure to the SAM to see the Australian Aboriginal Art. We looked at painted pictures and read about what these images stood for or represented. They told stories about the animals that lived there. They also told about mythical creatures and stories from the past. Some represented the land and where fields and rivers were located. There were masks on display that were used for different celebrations and ceremonies. We also looked at how dots and colors created movement in certain pieces. Using art to introduce some of these ideas might be a way to draw students in and get them thinking.