MYP unit planner

Unit Title
/
Decisions and Consequences
Teacher(s) / Sarah King
Subject and Grade Level / 9th Grade English
Time frame and Duration / 5 weeks
Stage 1: Integrate significant concept, area of interaction and unit question, and ensure it can be assessed
Area of Interaction Focus
Which AoI will be your focus? Why have you chosen this? / /
Significant Concept(s)
What are the big ideas? What do I want my students to retain for years into the future?
· Approaches to Learning – thinking and communication skills
· Human Ingenuity – the consequences of our decisions
· Health and Social Education – life in society, interpersonal relationships / · Making choices is a part of growing up
· Decisions and consequences are often related to one another
· Our decisions are a reflection of us – we must consider how we want to represent ourselves
MYP Unit Question
Are we empowered by our decisions or a product of our consequences?
· What is the relationship between decisions and consequences?
· How can a person’s decisions and actions change his or her life?
· How do the decisions and actions of characters reveal their personalities?
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?
· Final Unit Assessment (Criterion A)
· Persuasive Essay (Criterion A and B)
· Reflective Essay (Criterion A and C)
Which specific MYP objectives will be addressed during this unit?
· Understand and comment on the language, content, structure, meaning, and significance of both familiar and previously unseen pieces of writing
· Use language to analyze, argue, persuade, and express feelings
· Express an informed personal response to literary and non-literary texts and demonstrate the ability to approach works independently
· Express ideas with clarity and coherence in both oral and written communication
· Structure ideas with arguments, both orally and in writing, in a sustained and logical way, and support with relevant examples
· Distinguish the main ideas in a text from the secondary ideas
· Use correct grammar with appropriate and varied sentence structure
· Show awareness of the need for an effective choice of register suited to the audience in both oral and written communication
Which MYP assessment criteria will be used?
· A: Content
· B: Organization
Stage 2: Backward planning: from the assessment to the learning activities through inquiry
ContentWhat knowledge and/or skills (from my course overview) are going to be used to enable the student to respond to the guiding question?
What (if any) state, provincial, district, or local standards/skills are to be addressed?
· 7 Habits of Proficient Readers (question, connect, visualize, infer, summarize)
· Elements of screenplay
· Author’s Purpose
· Point of View
· Tone
· Characterization and Character Traits
· Flashback
· Theme
· Internal conflict
· Develop an argument with specific and relevant evidence
· Sequence
· Fact and opinion
Approaches to Learning
How will this unit contribute to the overall development of subject-specific and general AtL skills?
Learning ExperiencesHow will students know what is expected of them? Will they see examples, rubrics, templates, etc.?
How will students acquire the knowledge and practise the skills required? How will they practise applying these?
Do the students have enough prior knowledge? / 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? Have we considered those learning in a language other than their mother tongue? Have we considered those with special educational needs?
·  Anticipation Guide and Moving Debate
·  “Rank-a-Monster” and Discussion
·  Gun Debate Editorial
·  Original Screenplay
·  Trial Record
·  Crime Scene Report
·  Paragraph of Analysis
·  Characterization T-shirt
·  Flashback Record
·  “Star Witness” Scene
·  Honesty Report Card
·  Tone Color Wheel
·  Honesty vs. Survival Scenarios
·  “Teen Lifers” article from the New York Times / · Inquiry-based learning
· Group discussion
· Direct Instruction
· Small-group work
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?
·  Monster by Walter Dean Myers
·  Information about Walter Dean Myers online at http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-myers-walterdean.asp
·  Information about reading and writing screenplays online at http://www.screenwriting.info/
Ongoing reflections and evaluation
In keeping an ongoing record, consider the following questions. There are further stimulus questions in the unit planning section of MYP: from principles into practice.
Students and TeachersWhat did we find compelling? Was 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?
Were there any attributes of the learner profile that were encouraged through this unit? Were there any opportunities for 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?
Did the assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate the learning objectives identified for this unit? 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 I decide on the data to collect? Was it useful?