MYP unit planner

Unit title
/
The Birthplace of Civilization
Teacher(s)
Subject and grade level / World History, 6th
Time frame and duration / 20 days
Stage 1: Integrate significant concept, area of interaction and unit question
Area of interaction focus
Which area of interaction will be our focus?
Why have we chosen this? / /
Significant concept(s)
What are the big ideas? What do we want our students to retain for years into the future?
· Approaches to Learning (how do I learn, how do I communicate my understanding, do I work cooperatively or independently)
· Environments (where do we live, what resources we have/ need, our responsibilities) / · Geographical factors in the Fertile Crescent provided both benefits and challenges for early settlers.
· Mesopotamian achievements represent the foundation of civilization and highly developed culture.
· Uniqueness of monotheistic beliefs affected the earliest civilizations.
IB Learner Profiles will be discussed, explained, and each student will understand his/ her individual profile.
MYP unit question
What are the characterizations of our civilization/ society?
Assessment
What task(s) will allow students the opportunity to respond to the unit question?
What will constitute acceptable evidence of understanding? How will students show what they have understood?
The student will create their own Middle School Code of Conduct, Hammurabi style, here the punishment relates to the crime. They will use a reliable source to discover something additional about Hammurabi and/ or his laws not discussed in the class study and create a well written, but concise paragraph describing the info learned (50-60 words), along with the MLA formatted citation of the source. The student will score a minimum of 70%.
Which specific MYP objectives will be addressed during this unit?
A-  Knowledge- know and use humanities terminology in context
B-  Concepts- systems: social structures and controls, rights and responsibilities within systems
C-  Skills- technical: use of variety of media and technologies to research, select, interpret and communicate data
Which MYP assessment criteria will be used?
A-Terminology is used accurately and appropriately. Relevant facts and examples are used to show understanding. The student provides accurate descriptions; explanations are adequate but not ell developed.
B- Application of concepts is appropriate but superficial. The student demonstrates conceptual awareness and understanding by describing connections to the subject matter. The student attempts to apply concepts to other situations but is not always successful.
C- The student selects and uses relevant info. Work shows satisfactory evidence of analysis. Arguments, decisions and judgements are supported and balanced but superficial. The student demonstrates adequate investigative skills.
Stage 2: Backward planning: from the assessment to the learning activities through inquiry
ContentWhat knowledge and/or skills (from the course overview) are going to be used to enable the student to respond to the unit question?
What (if any) state, provincial, district, or local standards/skills are to be addressed? How can they be unpacked to develop the significant concept(s) for stage 1?
Knowledge and Skills: Organize, summarize, evaluate, analyze, compare/contrast, map, present, role-play.
Vocabulary/ concepts: alphabet, artisans, Assyria, Babylon, battering ram, bazaar, capital, caravan, city-state, civilization, cuneiform, economy, empire, Euphrates, exile, famine, fertile crescent, Hammurabi Code, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, irrigation, levies, merchants, Mesopotamia, monotheism, paleoanthropologist, pictographs, polytheism, scribe, siege warfare, silt, social structure, Tigris, tribute, ziggurat.
Standards: The student will be able to
· SS.6.E.1.3. describe the following economic concepts as they relate to early civilizations: scarcity, opportunity cost, supply and demand, barter, trade, productive resources (land, labour, capital, entrepreneurship)
· SS.6.G.1.3. ID natural wonders of the ancient world
· SS.6.G.2.3. analyze the relationship of physical geography to the development of ancient river valley civilizations
Approaches to learning
How will this unit contribute to the overall development of subject-specific and general approaches to learning skills?
· Reflection—gives students ‘what if...’ situations
· Communication—negotiating
· Thinking skills—understanding points of view
Learning experiencesHow will students know what is expected of them? Will they see examples, rubrics, templates?
How will students acquire the knowledge and practise the skills required? How will they practise applying these?
Do the students have enough prior knowledge? How will we know? / Teaching strategiesHow will we use formative assessment to give students feedback during the unit?
What different teaching methodologies will we employ?
How are we differentiating teaching and learning for all? How have we made provision for those learning in a language other than their mother tongue? How have we considered those with special educational needs?
Through the use of additional recommended performance tasks found in Duval County Curriculum Guide students will be able to gain knowledge and practice skills required.
Posted unit questions, Standards based bulletin boards, Rubrics, examples of past student work will allow students to know what is expected.
Moderated class discussion and reflective journaling will allow students the opportunity to answer the unit questions using what they learn.
The Unit is completed within the 2nd four weeks of the 1st quarter. Students will receive adequate in-class and computer lab time to complete the task / Objectives for student work period will be shared during opening review.
Feedback of student work will be ongoing and timely, using verbal cues, sticky notes, teacher written comments, teacher conferencing, rubrics, checklists, self-editing and peer editing.
Readers'-Writers workshop models to include introduction continued work with time-lines and chronological order, with support for reading.
Practice outlining the reading selections, create flash cards for use with unfamiliar vocabulary terms, allow students to listen to recorded versions of the student edition on Audio CD (in native language for
ESOL students), monitor for comprehension by teacher questioning.
Resources
What resources are available to us?
How will our classroom environment, local environment and/or the community be used to facilitate students’ experiences during the unit?
Media specialist or librarian
“History of Our World” Textbook pg. 28-61, notebooks, LCD projector with internet materials, videos/ DVDs.
Ongoing reflections and evaluation
In keeping an ongoing record, consider the following questions. There are further stimulus questions at the end of the “Planning for teaching and learning” section of MYP: From principles into practice.
Students and teachersWhat did we find compelling? Were our disciplinary knowledge/skills challenged in any way?
What inquiries arose during the learning? What, if any, extension activities arose?
How did we reflect—both on the unit and on our own learning?
Which attributes of the learner profile were encouraged through this unit? What opportunities were there for student-initiated action?
Possible connections How successful was the collaboration with other teachers within my subject group and from other subject groups?
What interdisciplinary understandings were or could be forged through collaboration with other subjects?
Assessment
Were students able to demonstrate their learning?
How did the assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate the learning objectives identified for this unit? How did I make sure students were invited to achieve at all levels of the criteria descriptors?
Are we prepared for the next stage?
Data collection
How did we decide on the data to collect? Was it useful?
P2P pgs. 77-78

Figure 12

MYP unit planner