Woody Fridae’sUnit – template for curriculum units

Woody Fridae’s Unit — template for curriculum units

1800’s The Fabulous Century

An Integrated Unit Vignette

Tom Frieburg titled his five-week unit 1800s: The Fabulous Century! In this unit, students learn about the beginnings of photography, read about the history of the period, and look at pictures from the Civil War, the first major war for which photographs exist.

Discussions of photography raise students’ interest and they begin to ask questions about light, sound, and the eye and ear. Tom turns the classroom into a darkroom or camera obscura where light is shone through a series of experiments, recording and reporting their observations and explanations. As part of these experiments, they measure angles of reflection and refraction, and discuss topics of transformation and symmetry. A discussion of angles and triangles takes place. Students explore the sides and angles of different types of triangles, and learn the appropriate mathematical vocabulary.

Within the unit students read Helen Keller. While discussing the book, Tom invites a local blind student to visit the class to talk about what daily life is like for him.

As the properties of light and sound are further investigated, students estimate the speed of light and the speed of sound while Tom models estimation strategies for them. They are asked how long it would take for us to notice if the light from the sun disappeared. Students use their calculators to compute this using the distance of the sun from the earth and the speed of light.

The camera, phonograph, and other inventions of the 1800s are showcased. Tom uses this excitement to springboard into a challenge project where each student researches an invention, event, or interesting person within the 19^th century.

Sample: Creating a Two-Week Environmental-Based, Integrated Unit

Integrated Unit Theme: Technology and inventions of the 1800s

Process Guide on how to:

Creating your Integrated Unit

Using the grade level expectations for your school district, choose one focus in each of the following areas:

For example from School District X (Winters JUSD), grade Y (5), these are the grade level expectations that were chosen for this unit.

Language Arts

Reading

Literary response and analysis

(Select from sections 3.1-3.8)

Writing

Writing applications

(Select from sections 2.1-2.5)

Speaking

Speaking applications

(Select from sections 2.1-2.5)

Math

Data collection/measurement/probability/statistics (Select from any of the 5 bullets)

Science

Earth Science (Select from any of the 4 bullets; use a Putah Creek focus)

Social Studies

World History and Geography (Select from section 6.1 only)

Sample: Two-Week Rough Timeline for Integrated Unit (Week One)

Days	Ideas/Activities
Monday 1 — 3 p.m.	* Introductory unit highlights of the 1800s * What do students already know? * Unit goals and project expectations * Introduction to Helen Keller
Tuesday 1 — 3 p.m.	* Civil War photographs * Science and history of photography * Introduction to light and optics
Wednesday	No integrated unit activities
Thursday 1 — 3 p.m.	* Inquiry activities/experiments with light * Angles and triangles * Properties of light * Lenses * Refraction and reflection
Friday 1 — 3 p.m.	Inventions * Sound * Phonograph * Estimation (speed of sound) * Light * Camera * Estimation (speed of light) * Miscellaneous inventions *Brainstorm book making project

Two-Week Rough Timeline for Integrated Unit (Week Two)

Days	Ideas/Activities
Monday 1 — 3 p.m.	* Community library walking field trip * Investigate and research a nineteenth century invention of child’s choice * Classroom discussion of Helen Keller: the book and the person
Tuesday 1 — 3 p.m.	* Blind middle school students arrive as guest speakers * Students work in teams on the book project
Wednesday	No integrated unit activities
Thursday 1 — 3 p.m.	* Historical inventors from the Civil War period (sharing session) * Finish and edit book projects
Friday 1 — 3 p.m.	Author presentations and book signings * Students showcase their integrated knowledge and understanding of the period through their work

School Day Time Schedule (Waggoner Elementary, 1998)

Time	Teacher A	Teacher B	Teacher C
8:00 — 9:00	Math (Group I)	Social Studies (Group II)	English (Group III)
9:00 — 10:00	Science (Group II)	Social Studies (Group III)	English (Group I)
10:00 — 11:00	Lunch	PE/Technology	English (Group II)
11:00 — 12:00	Math (Group II)	Lunch	Planning
12:00 — 1:00	Math (Group III)	Social Studies (Group I	Lunch
1:00 — 2:00	Science (Group I)	Science (Group III)	PE/Tech
2:00 — 3:00	Planning	Planning	PE/Tech

A Group II Student’s Schedule

8:00 — 9:00 Social Studies

9:00 — 10:00 Science

10:00 — 11:00 English

11:00 — 12:00 Math

12:00 — 1:00 Lunch

1:00 — 2:00 PE/Tech

2:00 — 3:00 Music/Art

School Day Time Schedule for Fifth Grade (Waggoner Elementary, Winters)

8:30 a.m.	Students arrive in homeroom
8:30 a.m. — 12:20 p.m	Morning classes Language arts or math (usually) Time for pull-out special education students Art, music, and PE (rotating one per week)
12:20 — 1:05 p.m	Lunch
1:05 — 2:45 p.m.	Afternoon classes Special projects or revisiting problems from morning classes Silent reading Library time Science and social studies (if taught)
2:45 — 3 p.m.	Homeroom
3 p.m.	Dismissal

Note: In this school, students are tracked for reading and mathematics which means that they will move between classrooms twice daily.

Field Trip Issues (for this school district)

Costs

Bus holding 45 students and adults $150 per trip
Bus driver $6 per hour
One substitute teacher $100 per day

Time

Bus cannot leave school before 9 a.m. and must return to school before 2:30 p.m.
Most field sites are 20-30 minutes travel time from school

Students

Need permission forms
May or may not need to pay for bus and drink for lunch
Need chaperones (1:10 adult:student ratio if viewing/watching, 1:4 if interacting/doing activities)
Special needs children need to be accommodated (i.e. physical, mental, emotional special needs)

Objectives

Field trips should:

Align with curriculum
Be timely
Engage students in extension activities not feasible in the classroom environment
Increase students’ awareness of their community resources
Create exciting learning opportunities outside classroom walls

Field Site
Inquiry-Based Activity

Selected Topics from the Grade-Level Expectations:

Pedagogical Objective(s):

What do we want students to experience?

In what problem-solving activities do we want the students to engage?

What new knowledge and or skill(s) do we want the students to leave with?

In what ways will this activity be student-centered?

How will this activity be integrated across curriculum and sites?

How will this activity connect to the real world and students’ lives?

How will the students’ learning be assessed?

Team Name:

Inquiry-Based Activity Details:

Goals

Activity description

Materials list

Chaperones’ roles and jobs

Things to be done in the classroom before and after the field trip