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KNOWLEDGE OF CONTENT

Engaging students in the learning process is a multi-faceted undertaking that employs

knowledge of content, planning, creativity, and flexibility. My unit “Everything Grows”

demonstrates how I developed a cross-curricular unit that incorporates content-driven activities,

differentiated instruction, and student-centered learning experiences to engage my students. The

theme of this unit is growth: growth in nature, growing minds, growing bodies, and growing

self. In this space, I challenged students to explore growth in a tangible and relevant context, and

to explore their personal experience and reflections upon the subject.

In this unit, I integrate science, math, art, health, literacy, and social-emotional learning,

which provides students with the opportunity to use a broad spectrum of skills that span several

curriculum areas. Constructivist learning experiences, where students grow their knowledge by

building it, or constructing it through their experiences and their environment (Ferreiro, 1991),

are exhibited throughout this unit as students engage with a diversified learning environment.

This cross-curricular strategy helps develop problem solving skills by providing learning

opportunities that make content connections across several disciplines (Wolf & Brandt, 1998).

The planning of this unit was centered upon varied and meaningful academic experiences

exhibited through a lens of Understanding by Design (UbD) and Universal Design for Learning

(UDL). The three stages of UbD include identifying desired results, determining assessment

evidence, and planning learning experiences (McTighe & Wiggins, 2012). These stages are

evident throughout the unit, and are outlined in Table 1.

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Table 1: Understanding by Design Unit Planning in Practice.

Understanding by Design Planning Stages
(McTighe and Wiggins, 2012)
Identifying Desired Results
Determining Assessment Evidence
Planning Learning Experiences
Everything Grows Unit Plan
Utilization of Alaska content and subject area
standards, transfer goals, essential questions,
and enduring understandings
Alignment of assessment and learning
objectives, task specific rubrics, pre-and post-
assessment planning
Development of cross-curricular lesson plans
for each learning objective

Through purposeful planning, my instructional objectives are clear to me at the start of each

instructional day, which provides me the framework to make the learning objectives clear to my

students. This helps me support students as they draw connections between our lessons, and

provides motivation towards achievement. Universal Design for Learning supports access to all

students through multiple means of representation, expression, engagement, and assessment

(Brand & Dalton, 2012). UDL planning is evident throughout this lesson, and is intended to

engage all learners through the use of multi-sensory modalities, flexible work teams, and

adjustment of pace. Differentiation in the form of writing supports, variation of tools, extension

opportunities, and small group instruction are proactively planned in the lesson design stage, and

capitalize on the various means of representation that are embedded within the lesson

(Tomlinson et al., 2003).

Providing these variations in concept not only provides deeper engagement, but also

enables access for a broader range of learners (Courey, et.al., 2012). This variation of concept

was particularly clear as we made connections between the growth of plants and our personal

growth. The unit coupled direct instruction of growth mindset concepts through stories (The Dot

by Peter H. Reynolds, My Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak, and The Pout-Pout Fish Goes
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to School by Deborah Diesen) and students writing a personal reflection on growth. Alongside

this lesson, students had a visual model (the cottonwood branches) of how growth takes place

over time. With the branches, they had a tangible representation of how growth it can’t be seen

minute-to-minute, but each passing day results in a small change that eventually results in

visible, measurable growth. Students then transferred this concept to a personal experience, such

as learning to tie their shoes. When they practiced the skill each day they learned little bit with

each attempt. Through practice and perseverance, they found a strategy that worked, and over

time they had a measurable outcome. This made a valuable connection to growth mindset, which

can be a difficult concept for primary students to understand.

The development and delivery of this unit was a valuable learning experience for my

students and for myself as a new teacher. The planning that went into the lesson was a valuable

structure upon which to build my personal skills on real-time differentiation, intervention, and

classroom management. The incremental results of hard work were not always evident in the

daily activities, but were truly measurable towards the end of the unit. My students completed

the unit with valuable knowledge of academic concepts (measurement, data collection,

comparing numbers, writing, and reflection), but also with a positive attitude towards their

abilities as learners.
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REFERENCES

Courey, S., Tappe. P., Siker, J., LePage, P. (2012). Improved Lesson Planning with Universal

Design for Learning (UDL). Teacher Education and Special Education 36(1) 7-27.

Brand, Susan M., Dalton, Elizabeth M., (2012). Universal Design for Learning: Cognitive

Theory into Practice for Facilitating Comprehension in Early Literacy. Forum on

Public Policy Online, v2012 n1. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ979433 on

November 21, 2014.

Ferreiro, Emilia. (1991). Literacy Acquisition and the Representation of Language. In Kamii, C.

Manning, M and Manning, G. (Eds). Early Literacy: A Constructivist foundation for

whole language. National Education Association.

McTighe, J., Wiggins, G. (2012). Understanding by Design Framework. [White Paper].

Retrieved March 24, 2019 from ASCD:

https://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf

Tomlinson, C., Brighton, C., Hertberg, H., Callahan, C., Moon, T., Brimijoin, K., Conover, L.,

Reynolds, T. (2003). Differentiating Instruction in Response to Student Readiness,

Interest, and Learning Profile in Academically Diverse Classrooms: A Review of

Literature. Journal of the Education of the Gifted. 27(2/3). 119-145.

Wolf , P., Brandt, R. (1998). What do we know from brain research? Educational Leadership.

56(3) 8-13.