Unit Plan Template Guide

Understanding By Design Framework

Research Project – Science, LA, One

Subject Grade Level
Art
Time Frame - Developed by Alex Hoover

Stage 1 – Desired Results

Content Standard (s) (Front Matter)

General Learner Expectations

 Critical thinking
 Problem solving
 Reasoning
 Mental mathematics

Specific Learner Expectations

Science
 1–1 Bring focus to investigative activities, based on their own questions and those of others
 ask questions that lead to exploration and investigation
 describe what was observed, using pictures and oral language
 identify questions being investigated and identify what was learned about each question
 Observe, describe and compare living things
 Identify the requirements of animals to maintain life; i.e., air, food, water, shelter, space; and recognize that we
must provide these for animals in our care
Language Arts
 ask and answer questions to satisfy information needs on a specific topic
 connect information from oral, print and other media texts to topics of study
 find information on a topic, using a variety of sources, such as picture books, concept books, people and field trips
 use questions to find specific information in oral, print and other media texts
 make observations about activities, experiences with oral, print and other media texts.
 use knowledge of print, pictures, book covers and title pages to construct and confirm meaning
 identify the main idea or topic of simple narrative and expository texts
 illustrate and enact stories, rhymes and songs

Fine Art
 Shapes can be made using different procedures; e.g., cutting, drawing, tearing, stitching
 A horizontal line can be used to divide a picture plane into interesting and varied proportions of sky and ground.
 Forms can be overlapping to show depth or distance.
 Details enrich forms.
 Finishing touches (accents, contrasts, outlines) can be added to make a work more powerful
 Subject Matter: A. Plants and animals B. Environment and places C. Manufactured or human-made things
 Use a variety of drawing media in an exploratory way to see how each one has its own characteristics.
 Use drawing media in combination with other media such as painting, print making or fabric.

Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas: Essential Questions:

Students will understand...  What is a non-fiction book?
 Non-fiction books are fantastic for learning new  What is a table of contents?
information  What is an animal researcher?
 Research is when you look for information you
don’t know about. Related misconceptions . . .
 Learn in depth information about their specific  Non-fiction is not real
animal topic.  I have to read page by page to find the section I need
 My animal can live anywhere
Skills/Attitudes objectives:
Students will be able to...
  Use a table of contents to help them search for
specific information in a non-fiction book.
 Be able to construct full sentences from partial
ones.

Stage 2 – Learning Plan

Lesson Materials
# Lesson Activity Key Outcomes Evidence
Title Resources
Hook: Showing students the book made by me Students will
as an exemplar of what we are working understand what
towards. a non-fiction book
is
Student’s rough copies will
Hands on: Students will work on transferring
properly reflect the various
the information that they had found through Students will
information that is asked for,
research into full sentences. They will work on learn to search
specifically:
a template that has the basic information they for information Paper
Appearance – weight, height,
need to address with friendly sentence starters template
colour/pattern,
Research attached. This should act as an anchor for Students will for
fur/feathers/hair
Project students who struggle on deciding what to put learn about a students
1 Diet – what it eats,
Rough where. For students that have additional specific animal, to anchor
predators.
Copy information/detail they would like to include, including its their
Life Cycle – How does it start
there will be sheets available for them to put as needs, informatio
life, how does it
much as they need. appearance, how n onto.
grow/change.
it grows, and
Interesting facts – anything
Once complete students will have their work scientific
interesting that students like
edited by a teacher. They will be present for vocabular
about the animal.
the edits so that they can contribute to editing associated to that
their own work with support and have the animal (i.e. a baby
process of editing modeled for them. deer is called a
fawn).
Students good copies will
have a proper table of
contents with page
references.
Students will
learn how to There will be imagery that
Continuation: Students now have their
construct full properly reflects the
information transferred into full sentences with
sentences from information being given on
detail. Now they will work on constructing
bullet point like each page.
their very own non-fiction book.
information.
They will properly write the
We will discuss the process that they go
Students will various information that is Paper
through for writing their books. Starting with
learn about table asked for, specifically: booklets
Research putting down the information on the lines,
of contents Appearance – weight, height, for
Project drawing a detailed picture that relates to the
2 through colour/pattern, students
Good/Book information on that page, writing the page
constructing one fur/feathers/hair to write
copy number. After all this is done, the last step is to
Diet – what it eats, and draw
create their table of contents. This includes the
Students will predators. in.
main heading for that page and the page
understand how Life Cycle – How does it start
number attached to it.
the images in life, how does it
books relate to grow/change.
Once this information is given, the process
the information Interesting facts – anything
order will be written on the board with image
given by interesting that students like
support.
constructing their about the animal.
own pages.
Punctuation, proper
sentence structure, and
letter formation will be
observed
 Hook: Show students the image they will be
working towards. They will be creating an
image of the habitat their research animals will
be living in.

Ask students what they think I did well in my

Understand that
drawing. Show the drawing rubric and ask for
multiple mediums
each section how would they grade this work.
can be used in the
same artwork to
Ask what medium I used to make this work
create an image Students’ images will have Chalk and
(checking previous knowledge/use of the
that is unique. elements that match the oil pastels
mediums). Tell them this is actually a multi-
associated habitat.
Research medium work of art. I used both chalk and oil
Recognize the Large art
Project pastels.
3 need to use Blending will look smooth paper.
Habitat
appropriate and natural.
Drawing Explain the process of using the medium. Not
colours and spend Paper
much is used, but instead it is spread by using a
time to colour in Oil is used over top of the coverings
tissue. We need to spread the background first,
all white spaces. chalk, not vice versa. for desks.
and then we add the oil images on top
afterwards.
Learn blending
Show how to blend different colours together,
techniques used
mixing them using the tissue. This should
with chalk pastel.
create an awesome sunset image.
Hands on: Students work by themselves to
design the background of their images,
following the steps modeled. Lastly the
students add other objects, in oil pastel, that
would be found in their animal’s habitat.
Hook: show students a complete version of the
flip poem. It starts each line with, “I have” and
then a particular physical trait of that animal. Improve
This version I show the students is poorly done. understanding of
Have the students go over the poem and find adjective use and
ways they could improve it. Show students an the reason why
Students will have a
exemplar that has multiple adjectives helping we use adjectives
minimum of two adjectives.
describe the animal parts. in our writing. Paper
Extension: As an added challenge for some templates
Research Students’ drawings will be
students, mention that you can also write the Reflect on their for them
Project zoomed into the feature they
function of the part (ie I have large fuzzy brown animal of choice to write
4 Animal are writing about.
ears to hear predators). and what aspects on.
Closeup
make it unique.
poem. Punctuation, proper
The objective is for the students to have a Pencil
sentence structure, and
minimum of four animal physical features they Understand that crayons.
letter formation will be
write about, with at least two adjectives for each part has a
observed
each. function that is
useful for the
This lesson should help the students recognize animal.
and become more familiar with adjectives as
well as letter formation, sentence structure,
punctuation, and chant poetry.

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Adapted by Jeff Turner (2016) from:

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexander, Virginia: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.

Llewellyn, D. (2013). Teaching high school science through inquiry and argumentation. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.

Additional questions for < > =

1. What did you learn about the greater than symbol that will help you to use it
correctly? (the hungry alligator taught us that his open mouth always opens to the
greater number)
2. What did you learn about comparing two, two-digit numbers? (compare the number
in the tens column first and whichever number is bigger that is the greater number over
all)
3. What did you learn about comparing two, two-digit numbers that have the same
number in the tens column? (compare the numbers in the ones column and the bigger
number is the greater number over all)
4. What if the numbers in both the tens and ones column are the same? (then the
number is equal)
5. What do you think will happen if you have two, three-digit numbers to compare
based on what we now know about math? (compare the numbers in the hundreds
column and the one with the bigger number is the greater number over all)