Nixa's Units of Study

We are so excited to be out in buildings and working on Units of Study with 2nd-6th grade LNW groups!

We realize that there is limited collaboration time between now and the date that drafts are due (March 21st) and we appreciate all of the hard work that you are doing!  Please read over the following information about the expectations for the Units of Study.

The Unit of Study that you turn in to Debby or Angie by March 21st will be in DRAFT form.  

Drafts should include:  

• Completed Nixa Unit of Study Template
• Assessments with scoring guides to be used in the unit
• Power points, activities, links, Smart Notebook files, documents and/or any resources that would be helpful to someone completing the unit
• Project descriptions with scoring guides  

The Unit of Study drafts should be written so that a first year teacher could read through and understand exactly what to teach for each mini-lesson. DESE has posted several model curriculum units that can be reviewed HERE.  

Under the "Instruction" section of your Nixa Unit of Study Template, you might write something similar to this:

1.   What is a poem?

Before immersing students to poetry.  Have students brainstorm what they think makes a poem.  List these ideas on an anchor chart in the room.  At the end of the unit, have students brainstorm this again and compare how their answers have changed. 

“A poem is a compact piece of writing that contains one or more poetic elements.”  Shelley Tucker author of Writing Poetry

Introduce the unit by reading one of your favorite poems to the class.  Let students know that they will be reading and writing poems.  Share Instructional Strategy 1 Suggestions for Writing Poetry with students.  Have them list favorite poets or poems in their Writing Notebooks.

During our final LNW session, we will share all of the grade level Unit of Study drafts and record additional resources that may be useful before returning it to the Unit of Study authors.  Each group will have the opportunity to tweak and refine the Unit of Study and turn in a final draft by APRIL 11th.  Once all of the drafts have been collected, they will be reviewed and added to the online curriculum page.

Don't forget to include your librarian in the mentor text quest!  Please share mentor text lists with your school librarian so she can share with other buildings.