Analysis of Content Area Teaching and Assessment Strategies

Practicality of each day:

The unit plan seems to have a practical approach for each day of the week. It allows time for students to work independently as well as in groups. There is direct instruction expected on must days, but the teacher will be supplementing their lecture by showing the students videos that are related to the material of each day.

Coherence of content throughout the unit plan:

In regards to coherence, I found this unit plan to be a bit flawed. The content to be taught each day are in the following order: Mining Booms and Boom Towns, Ranchers and Farmers, Railroads Lead the Way, Native American Struggles, and Farmers in Protests. Personally, I do not think I would follow that order. I would have preferred to teach about the railroads on the second day, then introduce ranching and farming on day three in order to smoothly move into farmers’ protests in day 4.

Meeting Standards:

This unit plan also seemed to not be properly meet the standards it stated with some of its planned lessons. Day 1 and Day 3 are the two lessons that do not seem to align properly with their stated standards. In Day 1, the planned activities and the stated learner outcomes focus on the influence mining had on westward expansion. However, the provided standard requires the content to cover the influence the government had on encouraging people to move westward. I took the time to listen through the video that goes along with that day’s lesson and it also failed to meet the provided standard. Day 3’s given standards were even more confusing because I am not sure what the railroads’ role in westward expansion have to do with the enumerated and implied power of the federal government or the Articles of Confederation, at least not within the context of this unit plan. The learner outcomes do not seem to bridge the correlation between the standards and each day’s learning activities.

Meeting English Language Learners’ needs:

Some of the incorporated teaching strategies and activities are helpful in meeting ELL needs. The provided vocabulary lists are very helpful when provided prior to the reading assignment so the students can learn those vocabulary words ahead of the reading and then they can make better sense of them within the context of the reading. Videos, cooperative learning, and the use or organizers like the Venn diagram are also helpful in meeting ELL needs. The Day 4 review of content is also beneficial to ELLs, although it is really beneficial for all students.

Differentiation:

The unit plan allows for some differentiation in instruction. Most days seem to have a lecture presentation involved, but they are usually supplemented with a video or the remainder of the day most likely involves some cooperative learning that helps students of all levels. In terms of differentiating assessment, there was some differentiation, but most involved writing and maybe some class discussions. I would also add that providing the reading list for the week can help students of all levels. For advanced learners, they may decide to read ahead since they know what they are expected to read through the week.

High and Low Points:

There were two particular teaching strategies in this unit plan that I really liked. The first was the pre-assessments that involved the journal writing. I was a particular fan of this pre-assessment because it asked students to write about what they think or would do in a similar life situation as that of the people that were moving westward in the historical time period being covered in this unit. The other aspects of this unit plan that I really liked was the one of the post-assessments asked students to write a reflection or summary, and it required them to use a new vocabulary word they learned. Applying new vocabulary to their writing helps them further their knowledge retention and understand the material better.

To me, the low points on this unit plan were the misalignment of standards to each day’s lesson and the order in which each MCA was scheduled to be taught. As explained in the coherence section of this assignment, I would have preferred to teach the MCA involved the farmers in two consecutive days. This unit plan did not do that. It instead had two lessons on separate MCAs in between the two. Lastly, there were some days that had a misalignment between the learner outcomes and the provided standards. It is important that the learner outcomes align with the expected standards in order to ensure all students are learning what they are expected to learn.