Rationale

Context:

I did this project in CI 4000, Elementary School Curriculum and Instruction, under the direction of instructor Dr. Wanda Calvert.  I designed and completed this unit under the advisement of Amy Meadows, who is six-year teacher with Thorton Elementary School in Newton-Conover City Schools System. 

            Students will learn about subtraction using different aspects of “real life” events, items, and situations.  While developing their subtraction skills students will also learn about loosing teeth, flowers and reasons flowers are given as gifts, to use their senses in describing candy and flowers, and puppies.

Impact:

            This assignment helped me prepare my integrated unit, covering math facts while incorporating Social Studies’, English Language Arts’, and Science curriculum.  I have a new found respect for being prepared with lesson plans and activities.  The lesson plans were presented to a culturally and academically diverse class. I learned to differentiate the instruction so that every child could learn. I learned to pace my lessons and activities based on the understanding of the class.

Alignment:

Standard 7, Indicator 1 – I have met this standard by planning five lessons to create a thematic unit about subtraction in everyday life. These lessons integrated the NC SCOS goals and objectives for parts of the kindergarten Math curriculum with portions of reading and writing within the English Language Arts’ curriculum.  Other content areas represented in this unit were Science and Social Studies.  Various activities were used to complement these goals and objectives.

Standard 7, Indicator 2 – I have met this standard by integrating NC SCOS goals and objectives from both Social Studies and English Language Arts. 

Standard 7, Indicator 3 – I have met this standard by creating a pre-assessment for the unit.  The pre-assessment addressed three areas; counting, subtracting two items, and understanding the subtraction concept. This was done using tubs with blocks/shapes. I was able to modify my lesson plans to accommodate this information while still meeting the goals and objectives of the NC SCOS for the kindergarten curriculum in Social Studies and English Language Arts.

Standard 7, Indicator 4 – I have met this standard by including a variety of teaching and communication strategies to perform the lessons within this unit.  Each lesson also includes differentiation methods to accommodate diverse learners.  These lessons appealed to different types of learners because they included independent work, hands-on activities, group and one on one work.

Standard 7, Indicator 6 – I have met this standard by offering more one-on-one teacher aide if a student was an ESL student or below grade level.  Each lesson within the unit can be modified based on a student’s ability.  These lessons are adaptable and can be changed to meet student needs based on the demography of the class.

Standard 7, Indicator 7 – I have met this standard by implementing different forms of assessment and evaluation in each lesson plan.  The types of assessments performed during this unit included observations, questioning, worksheets, and activities that included writing, as well as a pre-assessment and post-assessment of the content of the unit.