Unit: Las Riquezas de Colombia (updated)

I've taught this unit for a few years, so it's a pretty solid unit at this point.  This year I did some tweaks that felt like the icing on the cake!

Per the UBD (Understanding by Design) framework, I shared the long-term goal of the unit.  I reminded on a daily basis the long-term objective and how the day's goal was connected.

We would be studying about different aspects of "lesser developed country" and the need to help a community and specific focus on children.




Here's my plan.  Reminder that I teach on block schedule.  80 minutes every other day.

Day & overall theme / learning target:

1.  Colombia intro  2.  Arte: Artesania NEWish 3. Unit Intro  NEW 4. Minas 5. Musica: Minas Piedras 6. REFLEXION (transcribe)  NEW 7. movie 8. movie 9. Conversación Intelectual  NEW  (LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) 10. Campanas 11. Living on One 12.  KIVA research 13. work 14. present (different format....no more PPT because way too time consuming and distracting and I was always disappointed...so we let it go!) Homework options were the same as in the past with one change (screen shot on bottom of  this unit) Each unit requires students to complete three activities (1 a week) for the course of study.  Students are to write 10 sentences describing the activity.  I decided to increase their speaking "practice" and one of the three was required to be done on flipgrid with the expectation to speak for 2 minutes.  So of the three homeworks:  1 written, 1 spoken and the 3rd is their choice written or spoken.   The cullture in this unit is really rich and the students do enjoy it although they acknowledge that it's depressing...but we keep advocating to be #globalcitizens!   NEW plans: DAY 2: Arte 1.       Administrivia a.       Meta:  mostrar una representación de artesanía de recursos naturales b.       Frases: ¿Qué es un recurso natural y para qué está usado? c.        Entrada: rewrite evaluation from last class about Colombia: Teacher reviewed papers and highlighted mistakes (note errors because those are not within students' knowledge) and students rewrite making changes (I follow rule: ask 3 before me because classmates should be able to help!) 2.       Artesania a.       Review entrada b.       *pic description:  recursos:  We talk about the resources they see and the adjectives and then eventually I ask about the animal which they can't see because it's camoflouge!  Do you see?  to the right of the tree!   c.        *crafts description: my colleague and I collected our "artesanias" from abroad.  We had amate, sculptures, figures, dolls, hand-made instruments and more!  Our focus was handmade and natural focus / theme.  To discuss, we got up and gathered around the tables where I had them all on display.   I was inspired by this post and knew that I wanted to incorporate a socratic seminar so I adapted "step 1"  I hand out cards and students must use their sentence starter to comment.  If students volunteer with other ideas, I award points fo rour competition.   3.       Evaluacion: make a craft Unit intro (focus on movimiento)  I did this on day 3 because they had finished an assessment the class prior to day 1 and I needed an easy day to ease in and figured they did also. Plus, I've been working on slowing things down this year to encourage more output (they are level 5). For the record....they LOVE this song! It's super catchy.   1.       Administrivia a.       Meta:  describir el movimiento con gramatica apropiada b.       Frases: ¿Qué es un recurso natural y para qué está usado? c.        Entrada: vocab list 2.       Inroduccion a.       Vocabulario: calligram (get White boards when done) b.       Unit goals 3.       Movimiento a.       Listen & write words:  aim for 10 words b.       Repeat song c.        Review:  all report out & Teacher write on board repeat song and Teacher check off as hear d.       Watch video  e.       opportunity for points!  Comment,  Questions, Connections f.         Grammar focus:  notes g.       Guided practice re video (For what does he wear traditional clothes? / For what do they film in a field? / For what do they repeat "moviemiento naranja") 4.       Eval:  none or make mult choice DAY 6: 1.       Administrivia a.       Meta: b.       Frases: c.        Entrada:  Juanes reading 2.       Juanes a.       Speed dating (go to hallway & stand across from partner:  explain 1st paragraph connection; one row move one to right & explain 2nd paragraph connection;one row move one to right & explain  3rd paragraph connection  b.       Interview:  choose a partner and create a video recording to interview partner about poster from previous class c.        Transcribe:  This has been a revolutionary change for us as students reflect on their own performance and provide evidence to support it.   3.       Evaluacion: New partner:  final IPS DAY 9: Warm-up to analyze the song "los caminos de la vida" played various times in the movie (note:  they did not make a connection during the Socractic Seminar to the song so I will need to evaluate it more for next year) The rest of the class was a socractic seminar .  They hadthe previous class (after the movie) to start planning about how to partiipate with quality conversation.  I also asked them to tallly as they participated and then self-evaluatte.  For the most part, I accepted their self-evaluation as the grade I entered.  I offered a re-do conversation the following week for absent and/or low performance.  (The whole school has a common free time similar to homeroom in which students have 1/2 hour and can go to see teachers).