Understanding By Design Unit Template

Title of Unit What is Love-Cross-Cultural Grade Level 3

Expressions
Curriculum Area Social Studies, Fine Arts, ELA Time Frame 10 Lessons
Developed By Kajsa Hansen, Alisa Nixon, Amy Swanson, Heidi Exner
Identify Desired Results (Stage 1)
Content Standards

SOCIAL STUDIES
3.1.1 - appreciate similarities and differences among people and communities:
demonstrate an awareness of and interest in the beliefs, traditions and customs of groups and communities other than their
own
ART
Component 10 (i) - PURPOSE 4: Students will express a feeling or a message.
Concepts
A. Feelings and moods can be interpreted visually.
B. Specific messages, beliefs and interests can be interpreted visually, or symbolized.
ELA
5.1 Respect Others and Strengthen Community
Appreciate diversity
describe similarities between experiences and traditions encountered in daily life and those portrayed in oral, print and other
media texts
retell, paraphrase or explain ideas in oral, print and other media texts

Understandings Essential Questions

Overarching Understanding Overarching Topical

Love is generally first felt within our family structures, and is Who do you live with? What do you love to do with
expressed differently depending on our family of origins cultural Who is in your family? your family?
background. Who do you love? What is your favorite object
How do you know love? from home?
Favorite places they like to go?
Favorite people?
 Related Misconceptions

All families show love the same way.

There is a right and wrong way to show love.
If your family loves you they will.

Knowledge
Students will know
Love is expressed culturally, how their culture expresses love, how
to collaborate with others, to recognize that different groups have
different ways of expressing the same love.
Respect for cultures and an awareness and interest in the beliefs,
traditions and customs of groups and communities other than their
own.
Students will know that emotions can be shown in art through
imagery and colour.
Skills
Students will be able to
Express their understanding of love verbally, and through visual
arts. Those who are vision impaired will be able to choose to
express themselves visually or through text, or other arts such
as music, poetry, etc.
To explain how we can show love to ourselves, others, places,
and things.
Use visual arts to express feelings, mood and a specific message
about love.

Assessment Evidence (Stage 2)

Performance Task Description: Collective Love Art Piece
Exploring and communicating concepts of love across cultures. Valuing the different experiences, and
Goal recognizing the similarities between different culture groups. Using art to express evolving understandings of
love.
Role Artists, investigators, creators, social scientists, writers
Audience Themselves, Teachers, other students and staff in the school and general public
Situation Artwork will be displayed in the schools and a public space
Product/Performan A large collective art installation created by the students of both classes together, journaling activities
ce
Anecdotal notes of contributions to class discussions, development of understanding through their
Standards
journaling, creation of their personal piece and contribution to the class collective piece.
Other Evidence
Participation in Design Process, group discussions, anecdotal notes, journal entries, self assessment, reflection,

Learning Plan (Stage 3)

Where are your students headed? Where Students are headed to an understanding of the similarities and differences
have they been? How will you make sure
the students know where they are going?
How will you hook students at the
beginning of the unit?
What events will help students experience
and explore the big idea and questions in
the unit? How will you equip them with
needed skills and knowledge?
How will you cause students to reflect and
rethink? How will you guide them in
rehearsing, revising, and refining their
work?
How will you help students to exhibit and
self-evaluate their growing skills,
knowledge, and understanding throughout
the unit?
How will you tailor and otherwise
personalize the learning plan to optimize
the engagement and effectiveness of ALL
students, without compromising the goals
of the unit?
How will you organize and sequence the
learning activities to optimize the
engagement and achievement of ALL
students?
From: Wiggins, Grant and J. Mc Tighe. (1998). Understanding by Design, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
ISBN # 0-87120-313-8 (ppk)
Unit Plan:
between two cultures, and developing a respect and understanding for other groups.
As well as an understanding of the emotional impact and ability to communicate
through visual arts.
They will know where they are going Through use of the design process in
developing their plan for creating a collective art piece.
We will use relationship building games to break the ice and, use storytelling to
introduce the idea of love and culture.
Students will participate in experiential and exploratory learning through field
trips, relationship building, art creation, and participation in the design process.
They will be learning relational skills through all of their lessons, as well as providing
opportunities for both experiential and direct instruction.
We will have the students collaging at the beginning, journaling at the middle,
and doing a reflection at the end as well as the collective art project. We will
provide formative feedback through out the process.
This unit has self reflection built in throughout the unit, through journaling,
visual arts, and sharing circles.
This unit has a great deal of movement built in, which will help accommodate
those with ADHD or anxiety. Through the use of visual arts students with writing
difficulties will be able to contribute equally. Those with visual impairements will be
able to choose to express themselves through texture (see The Black Book of
Colour) poetry, text, or music. Students with social anxiety will be supported
through peer selection, and their ability to contribute to group discussions will be
supported, and accommodated when it comes time for assessment. ELL learners
will benefit from the multiple modes of expression, and the class discussions and
small group discussions will help build their vocabulary, while the unit topic
intrinsically values their different experience and backgrounds. FNMI students will
benefit from the express valuing of their cultural ways of knowing, and be
encouraged to take a position as leaders and experts.
At the beginning they are encouraged to get to know each other in their
sharing circles, and they will have time to be introduced to indigenous ways of
knowing and love through engaging storytelling, indigenous experts meeting with
us, small sharing circles, and individual reflection, gradually building towards their
end product. Careful consideration will be given to individual needs at each stage as
detailed above to ensure their engagement.
Week 1
Lesson 1 - Empathy, Building relationships
Meet for the first time in a Traditional Meeting/Learning Space as determined by Indigenous Learning Leader.
Introductions: Indigenous Learning Leader will open the unit and lead group through welcome activities of their choice.
Play Relationship Building Games: Cooperative Games.
Getting to know each other! Show and Tell
Students bring items, photos or memories to share as a way to learn about one another and make friends! Students
share:
Things: bringing in an item that represents you and what you love,
Experiences: a moment you experienced, or a favorite thing to do,
People: Talking about something you love about your family,
Places: Your favorite places, and why.

Lesson 2 - Continue Empathy

Introduction of unit: What is Love? Students come together as a large group to begin exploring the concept.
Activity: What is love? - Making a class collage!
Remembering last class: What do we remember from last class about things, places, people we love? Capture
words/phrases/points on board.
Brainstorm: What are other words for Love? To describe Love? Capture words/phrases on board.
Lets make a picture of what we know about Love! Create a class collage using key words and images that capture individual
student concepts/contributions as one mural or poster.
Reflection: What did we share/have in common? What were new things about Love that we noticed and learned from one
another?
Create a Venn Diagram to show the similarities and differences between your own conceptions of love and other students
conceptions of love (Individual).

Lesson 3 - Continue Empathy

How do we show love?

Explore actions that are loving...what are they? Think Pair Share
What does it mean to show love to yourself? To someone else? To a place? A thing?

Week 2
Lesson 4 - Define Love & Reflection/self assessment.

Define: What is Love?

Students revisit activities from previous days to identify common and distinct qualities, actions and representations of Love, and
how they contribute to a common concept of Love.
 This common concept will then be used as a base on which to create their collective Art Piece.

Sharing Circle: How have our understanding of love changed or evolved?

Students share their learning and insights with the group.
Journal reflection activity: How has your understanding of love changed or evolved?
Students reflect on their evolving understanding of Love. Students can choose to write, draw/illustrate or both to express their
learning.

Week 3
Lesson 5 - Ideate

Ideate: How will we represent our shared understandings of love through art?
Show exemplars of art that seeks to express concepts of Love.
Discuss the concept of collective art pieces, show exemplars.
Using their common concept of Love, students begin brainstorming ideas for their own collective art piece.

Lesson 6 - Continue to Ideate

Art Instruction: How can we represent Love through visual art?

Students learn how to use colour, imagery and materials to display emotion.
Show exemplars: display art pieces that utilise colour, imagery and materials to express Love. (eg. Black Book of Colour, Keith
Haring, Indigenous artworks, etc.)
How can YOU represent Love through visual art? Students sketch and plan design for their personal contribution to collective
art piece.

Lesson 7 - Prototype

Art Making: Making our Individual art pieces

Students complete/finalize individual art design, review design elements, and begin creating their art piece.
Compile materials needed,
Create their individual art pieces.

Lesson 8 - Ideate & Prototype

Art Making: Making our Collective art piece

Have students ideate how they will put their pieces together to construct the collective art piece.
Have students create their collective art piece based on their ideations.
Lesson 9 Test

Students will place their finished art piece in a public space

Students will share their feelings around this experience in a sharing circle
What is it like to have your work displayed publically?
How do you feel when you look at your work?

Lesson 10 - Reflection

What is the impact of Love?

What happens when someone shows you love?
What happens when you show love to someone/something else?
What happens when a community of people show love to each other?

Resources

http://canadianart.ca/features/art-and-reconciliation/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/at-least-3-000-died-in-residential-schools-research-shows-1.1310894

http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=905