Solar System Unit Rationale

Context: This unit of instruction on the Solar System was developed under the instruction of Dr. Ellen Pesko in the Spring semester of 2008. This unit was developed based upon the North Carolina Standard Course of Study's requirements for Science curriculum for Tonya Denny's 6th Grade classroom at Blue Ridge Elementary School in Warrensville, NC. I used many different online resources as well as different children's nonfiction text to help me teach my 6th graders as seen on my Reference List.

Impact: I hope that my students that I am teaching in my internship will gain a great knowledge as well as a love for outer space. I plan to teach this unit in my future classroom where I hope my own students will learn all about the individual planets as well as things in our solar system, and the history of space travel. There are many things in this unit that I just learned myself, such as all of the things we have gained in our lives thanks to space travel, and I am very excited to pass this knowledge on to my students.

Alignment:

Standard I Indicator 5:  I have met this standard by having a broad knowledge of Language Arts and knowing that literacy is a process that involves a students' prior knowledge interacting with the text to gain new information.

Standard 1 Indicator 6:  I have met this standard by understading that literacy is important for a student to grow both socially and personally.

Standard 3 Indicator 1:  I have met this standard by having a broad knowledge of scientific concepts and knowing how the solar system works, how all the planets function, and how our world is effected by other things in space.

Standard 7 Indicator 1:  I have met this standard by using various strategies to teach the topic of the solar system aligning with the standards in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for English Language Arts, Science, and Mathematics.

Standard 7 Indicator 2: I have met this standard by integrating all of my subjects such as English Language Arts, Science, and Mathematics to help enhance my teaching and keep reinforcing the same concepts over again in many different ways.

Standard 7 Indicator 3: I have met this standard by having my students develop a circle map where they tell me the information they already know about the solar system so I can refer back to that, while also letting them tell me things they have heard about outer space that may or may not be true, and helping them to prove or disprove these thoughts.

Standard 7 Indicator 4: I have met this standard by using many different methods so that all of my diverse learners have a chance to take in information in their own special ways such as some reading out of the text, research, and hands-on activities.

Standard 7 Indicator 7: I have met this standard by using many different assessments throughout my unit. I have given vocabulary assessments, both pre and post assessments, as well as other vocabulary activities, done research, as well as many different hands-on experiements and demonstrations.

Standard 8 Indicator 3: I have met this standard by asking students what they already know and building off of that by allowing them to prove or disprove things that they have heard about the solar system.

Standard 8 Indicator 4: I have met this standard by encouraging my students to read up on and research about a topic of their choice from outer space.

Standard 8 Indicator 5: I have met this standard by providing my students optimum opportunities to explore things about the solar system by letting them use text books, books from the library, or searching on the internet for information that they will present to their peers as well as to me.

Standard 8 Indicator 6: I have met this standard by only using and modeling Standard English.

Standard 9 Indicator 3: I have met this standard by helping my students to problem solve about the interplanetary distance and connect new information with information that they already know by communicating back and forth with their peers and me.

Standard 10: I have met this standard by having my students do my 5 E lesson plan where they measured how far a shadow moved and created a sundial where they had to predict what they thought was going to happen, measuring their results, and analyzing their results.

Standard 15 Indicator 1: I have met this standard by encouraging my underrepresented groups to engage in our activities and take on responsibilities instead of just allowing those students who always talk to participate all the time.

Standard 17 Indicator 1: I have met this standard by understanding the need for saftey in my classroom while my students are conducting their hands-on experiments and have provided special supervision during these times.

Standard 17 Indicator 2: I have met this standard by conducting their experiments by myself before allowing the students to do them to make sure they are safe and seeing where special precautions should be taken.

Standard 17 Indicator 4: I have met this standard by modeling and communicating the proper safety behaviors.