Running Head: UNIT PLAN

Lesson Planning/ Instructional Planning Part Two Class Scenario

Amanda Brightman-Uhl EDU 723 Kelly Mullen-Martin June 24, 2012 UNIT PLAN 2

Writing a mini-unit for a hypothetical class full of very different student needs and abilities seems almost impossible! Something that is so key and has been stressed throughout this graduate program is getting to know your students should be where you start. Cohen and Spenciner (2009) state that it is not only important to get to know your students but also learning about federal legislation and how these mandates guide working with students with disabilities. If I was to start teaching this classroom of twenty three very different students I would first do a lot of research. I would read IEPs and 504 plans, find out what type of in class support or pull out services they get. I would make it a point to talk to past teachers and communicate with parents to have a true feeling of collaboration. If I was teaching my money mini-unit to these students, would I have them all during math time or would some get pulled out for resource room services? I would also like to know if the students with English language challenges have support in the classroom from an ESL teacher or aid? I would want this hypothetical group of students to be second graders so I could use my money mini-unit with them as well. The mini-unit I created for my small group of students would really work for this diverse group of students as well. My lessons are made for students with disabilities already and are differentiated in a way so all students, no matter what their abilities, can join in with different amounts of support. The students in this group seem to also be of varying abilities, but within a smaller range. This group is comprised of twenty three students. Included in this class are five students with IEPs: two students are identified as Other Health Impaired ADHD; two with a specific learning disability, one with mathematics UNIT PLAN and short term memory processing problems and one with executive functioning 3

processing issues and reading decoding and comprehension problems; and one with speech/language problems, especially with processing and producing oral language. In addition, your class also has two Hispanic Americans, one of whom recently arrived in the country and speaks some English and the other who has been in the area his whole life and speaks fluent English, but whose family speaks limited English; one Cambodian who speaks some English; one Somali who has some English language challenges; and one Native American and two African Americans. (From Class Scenario for Lesson Planning EDU 723 Assignment 4) I would say the biggest challenges I would have are making sure I have enough support in the classroom to meet all my students needs. In my current school if any general education teacher had this combination of students they would have a full time aid in the room and maybe even a part time ESL aid as well. This class would be a wonderful class for team teaching, it would give many different options and even more opportunities for differentiation. Cohen (2009) states that planning and organizing instruction for students with disabilities begins with knowing the characteristics of learners, what they know, and what they can do. As a teacher of students with mild and moderate disabilities, I have to make sure I use assessment data to plan instruction and organize learning experiences. I am sure as a general education teacher a similar method is used. For the first lesson in the mini-unit about money, I would use a team teaching approach with a special education teacher, this way we can work together to include all students UNIT PLAN 4

with no pullout needed. Something I did not have to think about while teaching this to my current class is background knowledge. I know my students but this group has students

from other countries, do they have any experience with American money? You also have to think about this when testing students, what is general knowledge to American students in not the same for students from different cultures. In this lesson the students are in groups of two within each station grouping, they work in their groups on the individual teacher developed content, the students move about the stations in groups in timed intervals. Each teacher gets to work with each group of students and teach their individually developed content. Cook and Friend (1995) state that station teaching has many positive outcomes including professional engagement, increased instructional intensity, individualization and more control over small groupings. There can also be some challenges as a teacher you need to be aware of while using station teaching and those are pacing, providing independent work and controlling the noise level. With twenty three students of varying ability I think that for the first lesson it is best to group the students by ability, that way each teacher can modify the content to fit the different groups. Cohen (2009) states that sometimes special educators teach social skills along with ongoing academic instruction by using cooperative learning and direct instruction. Even in a general education classrooms working on social skills is always a very important component, depending on your classrooms social skill level, is how much you should integrate it into each lesson. With both money lessons the students are having to work with other students and take turns, each student has a social work goal that UNIT PLAN addresses this. I am constantly integrating social skills into my academic instruction. Reading about how actual teachers use the station teaching strategy really helped me 5

brain storm other ways I can use stations in co-teaching when teaching my students with mild to moderate disabilities. For the first lesson I would set up three stations instead of two in my other mini-unit scenario. With this being a general education class I feel they could handle an independent work station, unlike my actual class I tried this lesson with. At two of the stations there will be a teacher and then periodic check-ins at the independent station. This lesson can also be extended from the 20 minutes to 30 minutes because this group of particular students should be able to stay engaged in the lesson longer then my actual class. Money Unit Plan Lesson Plan 1: A Lesson on Money Time: 30 minutes Topic: Mathematics Objectives: Students will be able to correctly identify each coin and its assigned value. Students will be able to use the coins to arrive at the designated total marked on the envelopes. A. Anticipatory Set 1. Allow the children to examine pennies, nickels, and dimes. UNIT PLAN 2. Ask the students how much each coin is worth. 3. Ask the students what coin has the greatest value. 4. Ask the students what coin has the least value.

5. Ask the students how much the nickel is worth. 6. Ask the students how much money they would have if they had one penny, one nickel, and one dime. B. Concept Development/Activity 1. The two students will choose an envelop with a designated value amount written on it. 2. Using pennies, nickels, and/or dimes, the students will place the specific amount of money in the envelop. 3. After placing the coins in the envelop, the students trade envelops with their partner. Each person checks what the other one did to make sure it is correct. 4. After each person has checked the amount in the envelop, it is their turn to come up with the correct amount on their new envelop using a different combination of coins than their partner did. 5. The students then trade envelops again to check the work of their partner. C. Practice 1. With objects provided with price tags on them, the students will be UNIT PLAN asked to use only a specific amount of coins to arrive at the designated value. D. Closure (This will also prepare them for lesson two of the money unit plan) 7

1. Problem of the Day. 2. The students will be given a handout in which to complete the problem of the Day with assistance from their ed tech. 3. They have $1.25 to spend on lunch. They must choose at least one item from each category (fruit/vegetable, drink, sandwich, and snack) without going over $1.25. 4. The students discuss with the other student in their group what selections they made and why. 5. The teacher can ask various extension questions such as: * How many different combinations are there? * If you buy the most expensive thing in each category, do you have enough money? * If you buy the least expensive thing in each category, how much money do you have left over? Materials:

* Plastic coins (pennies, nickels, dimes) UNIT PLAN * Envelops marked with designated coin values * Activity sheet for the Practice section * Activity sheet for the Problem of the Day The second lesson would need to be modified into another station type teaching situation where students are rotating through different stations. With twenty three 8

students they could not all be involved and engaged in a store type lesson all at one time. Station teaching is great because all students can visit the same stations but the activities can be changed to fit each groups ability. In this lesson the goal is for them to make change. There is a school store station, a practice making change stations with play money and a money adding/identification station to reinforce the previous days identification lesson. This once again, will be a great follow up lesson to the previous days lesson on money identification. Lesson Plan 2: Making Change Time: 30 Minutes Topic: Mathematics Objectives: Students will be able to identify coins and their monetary amounts. Students will be able to make change using coins. Students will be able to give near the correct amount of coins to buy desired objects. A. Anticipatory Set 1. Show students the cash register with shelves filled with objects with price tags on UNIT PLAN them. 2. Let them come up to the school store and look at objects and see how much they each cost. 3. Let me try out the cash register so they know how it works. 4. Let them take money out of cash register and put it back in. 5. Ask students the amounts of each coin 9

B. Concept Development/Activity 1. Each students will be given a baggie containing assorted coins. 2. Each student will get a chance to run the cash register, taking money and making change based on what classmates buy. 3. After each students has had a chance to buy something, the next student is in charge of running the cash register and making change.

C. Practice 1. Students will return to their seats after everyone has had a chance to run the cash register. They will then do five making change word problems off of a homework sheet to check for understanding and the last five problems will be taken home for homework. D. Closure 1. Problem of the day. 2. The students will be given a handout to complete the problem of the day with assistance from their ed. tech. 3. A word problem: If Sally wants to buy a pencil for .25 cents and a ruler for .95 cents UNIT PLAN 10 and gives the cashier $2.00 how much will she get back in change? After you find out the amount she will get back in change, please write the coins you would use to give Sally her change. Materials: * Baggies of assorted coins * Random objects from around the room (rulers, pencils, toys, staplers, etc.)

* Toy cash register * Homework worksheet on making change * Activity sheet for problem of the day These two lessons have been used before with other groups of students but never in succession as a mini-unit. They have always been successful and I have no doubt they could be successful in a general education classroom with this group of twenty three students with enough support. By having students switch between the three stations in the first lesson, the stations meld together and give the students a deeper understanding of money and how to apply it to everyday life. At the station in the first lesson, different amounts can be written on different envelopes making it easy to differentiate for each students ability. For example, one of my students is working with coins so amounts only using coins were put on their individual envelop. The second lesson was really just to put their skills to use so they can make connections to their everyday life. Adding in stations to this lesson will only strengthen their abilities and give them a more hands on experience with money. UNIT PLAN 11 Informal assessment is what I use mostly with my students, I connect the lesson I teach with everyday situations. With this group of students however an end of unit assessment to check for understanding would be needed when entering grades and keeping track of individual achievement. Cohen (2009) talks about assessment and the different approaches you use in the classroom. After reading this, it seems to me that having a healthy balance between formative and summative is key, as well as formal and

informal. Having students no matter what their abilities are connect learned information to real life experiences is really any teachers main goal. Cohen (2009) explains how connecting assessment to real-life situations is vital for students with disabilities, this is called authentic assessment. I know the students with specific learning disabilities will be given standardized tests specifically made for students with learning difficulties once or twice a year to track academic achievement. Some examples of these tests are; KeyMath, The Woodcock Johnson, The Kaufman, PAAP, etc. After each students is given the appropriate assessment they are provided individual instruction in these areas, IEP goals and objectives are also created out of these results. Cohen (2009) also stresses that emphasis should be placed on students demonstrating their understandings by solving real-world problems that are interdisciplinary in nature, developing conclusions, understanding relationships, and generating new questions. When any student applies learned information in a cross-curricular way that is a huge success for everyone. For myself and my staff it is easy to check for engagement because there is such a high teacher to student ratio. For general education teachers it is a little more UNIT PLAN 12 difficult. As I said in the previous assignment I would like to try these lessons particularly the second one with a general education classroom. I know some teachers might not agree but if you are used to differentiating for every single student you have a group does not sound so bad. Reading this scenario really makes me thankful to work in the school I am in and gives me an inside to what others teachers might have to deal with on a daily

basis. We had a our second grade get to two classes of 19 and they have created another classroom to keep the numbers low for optimal learning. I will use this mini-unit again and hopefully I can one day introduce it to the general education classrooms and use less pull out for my students. Cook (1995) also states that it works best when a general education teacher and special education teacher can work together to station teach in the general education classroom. Cohen (2009) states that students with and without disabilities are expected to acquire knowledge and skills across all areas of school curriculum. I believe being in the general education classroom with same aged peers is truly the least restrictive environment for my students.

UNIT PLAN 13 References Cohen, L. G., & Spenciner, L. J. (2009). Teaching students with mild and moderate disabilities. (2 ed., p. 387). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Cook, L., & Friend, M. (1995). Co-teaching: Guidelines for creating effective practices. Focus on Exceptional Children. 28(3), 1-16. Friend, M. (2008). Co-teach! A handbook for creating and sustaining successful

classroom partnerships in inclusive schools. Greensboro, NC: MFI.