Yale Unit Plan

    Just from briefly skimming the unit plan, the elaborate interconnection of ideas and activities is clearly established. This is one of the most daunting things about becoming a teacher to me, because there literally has to be a point to everything that lends itself to an even bigger point. In my studies so far, my job has been  to layout single lessons at a time with only a bigger topic in mind. Now it's time to integrate like in this Yale example. I don't care much for how this unit plan is laid out. It is clear, don't get me wrong, but my thought process does not match up with how this is organized. My first thoughts when planning lessons in advance is to consider an idea, think about a rationale, but then go straight to objectives and how my ideas fit in with them. But after reading the whole plan through, I understand that I gathered that the difference between planning a lesson and planning a unit is the idea of a theme. We've studied essential questions all semester, but only in context of how to teach one specific book. So while considering my own unit plan, I decided to start with finding a theme that can be taught with a minimum of two of our syllabus, and reaching for that third book. I still have to consider how I am going to think of activities for these books that point towards the theme I've come up with: Predestination. Another thing I don't agree with about this unit layout is that the essential questions and the unit itself are sort of buried in the middle. Those seem to be the most important things in a classroom, yet they are barely touched upon here. I do like, however, how the scaffolding is very clear in this layout. It starts from the broadest of the elements and builds down to activities and Core Standards.