Unit Planning
Brain Targeted Teaching Unit Plan
To create my unit plans I start by referencing my long-term plan to determine what the anchoring phenomena and driving question are for the unit. My next step is to begin backwards planning my unpacking the standard and reviewing my students' performance expectations on the chapter assessment. Once I determine my student outcomes for the unit I look at the number of weeks I estimated for the unit and look at our school calendar and begin to map out my daily objectives to the instructional days I have to teach the unit. My final step in creating my unit is to craft my daily lesson plans. Each lesson is designed to be culturally relevant, rich in content, and accessible for all students to support my students to reach rigorous learning goals.
Creating a Brain Targeted Teaching unit plan was an incredibly beneficial learning experience for me. I initially understood each of the Brain Targeted Teaching emphasizes as separate entities. For example, I understood the importance of making your classroom a positive emotional environment, but I did not see how important its connection is to Brain Targeted Teaching as a whole. Creating this unit plan helped me to see how to develop the student holistically. As I created my unit plan for BTT 1 I realized that I could be doing much more to making my space a safer emotional space for my students. PBS NewsHour (2014) illustrated how beneficial teaching basic strategies such as mindfulness can be in low-income schools. I have witnessed the traumas my students have experienced throughout the school year and a majority of my students will benefit from mindfulness and I intentionally integrated into this unit. If we want students to meet and exceed the rigorous learning outcomes, then we must develop them as the whole individual. Within the unit plan, there are several examples of how I leverage deep scientific content, create culturally relevant activities, and design activities to be accessible by all students. Creating this Brain Targeted Teaching unit has made me a better educator, it has helped to redefine my understanding of learning, and pushed me to try and educate the whole child.
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Below is my Brain Targeted Teaching unit plan for photosynthesis. On the right, you can view the full unit plan. I elected to pull out several of the most salient pieces of my unit plan and my reflection on the implementation of the unit plan.
This is my Brain Targeted Teaching Unit Plan on photosynthesis. Explore this artifact to see how I developed a unit around each of the six brain targeted teaching areas. This unit plan is designed to educate and develop each student holistically.
Brain Targeted Teaching Target 1 is about creating a classroom culture and environment that promotes socio-emotional growth for students. This target closely aligns with my teaching philosophy of supporting to practice mental wellness.
Brain Targeted Teaching Target 2 focuses on creating a welcoming physical learning space for your students. I loved filling my classroom with student work so that all students could see themselves and their work represented in our space. Classroom full of color, motivational posters, and student work make the space more inviting and sets the tone for serious academic learning.
Brain Targeted Teaching Target 6 focuses on evaluating learning. For this unit, I elected to have students complete an oral presentation in lieu of a multiple choice and free response assessment. For some of my students assessments were an immense source of anxiety, posed a barrier to their success, and did not accurately assess what they know. The oral presentation gave my students a new method to express what they learned during the unit without the barriers of multiple choice and free response assessment.
This is a Take What You Need poster that I created for my students. This poster gives student the opportunity to advocate for themselves and take what they are currently needing. Developing students' socio-emotional skills helps them reach rigorous academic goals.
This picture on left is the Tree of life, it is a lifesize drawing of a tree depicting the interacting systems of photosynthesis and cellular respiration that was created by my students. The Tree of Life made my classroom appear more lively and served as an effective and large anchor chart for our unit, which helped students reach rigorous learning goals. The picture on the right is a collection of my student work placed together to form a photosynthesis garden. Using student work helps my students see themselves in my classroom and makes my space more inviting for students.
This is a reflection I wrote in March following my implementation of a Brain Targeted Teaching Unit Plan. The reflection discusses my previous experience unit planning, the process of creating this unit plan, use of Habits of Mind, and the implementation of the unit plan.
Bodies and Systems Unit Plan
I created a unit plan for Bodies and Systems this year for my students in sixth grade integrated science. My unit plan was created using backward planning by unpacking the standard and reviewing the unit assessment. begins with the standard that my students will be meeting during the unit. Next is the driving question that is aligned with the standard that students are expected to by the end of the unit. The driving question is related to the Anchoring Phenomena that students observe. This unit plan contains a calendar with daily objectives and sixteen daily lesson plans that are culturally relevant, rigorous, accessible, and rich in content.
This is my Body and Systems unit plan I created for my 6th grade integrated science students. This unit plan contains the standard we focused on, the driving question, the anchoring phenomena, daily objectives, and our unit assessment.
This is my daily lesson plans for my Bodies and Systems unit plan. This unit plan contains 16 daily lesson plans that demonstrate my ability to create culturally relevant lesson plans that are rich in scientific content and accessible by all of my students.
Please click this link to see a video of my 6th-grade science students engaging in a lab.
https://www.torshtalent.com/video/W5diQMrESbct4yhnM
My sixth-grade science students engaging in a laboratory activity that allows them to use their body systems and make a deep relevant connection between content learned in class and their own personal experience. In the video, students are completing a wallsit to engage their muscular and skeletal systems.
Please click this link to see a video of my students engaging in a heart rate monitoring activity.
https://www.torshtalent.com/video/eZuSuBM8ui7Z8fPmE
This is my sixth-grade students using homemade heart rate monitors. Students were given a dime-sized piece of clay with a toothpick in the top. Students placed the heart rate monitor on their wrist and observed how many times the toothpick made slight up and down movements. Students checked their heart rate before and after exercise. The data students collected helped make personal connections to the driving question: What body systems are required to run a mile. Students can use their personal data tor relate the circulatory system's function to the driving question.
Please click this link to see a video of my 6th-grade science students participating in a call and response.
https://www.torshtalent.com/video/BAnPEXEwn9eCmoESX
This is my sixth-grade students participating in a call response activity. My students are reading a quote from veteran teacher Rita Pierson. I refer to the quote as our class motto and I use it recenter students and remind them why they are here. This activity demonstrates my commitment to Brain Targeted Teaching Target 1 creating a welcoming emotional classroom environment. This activity builds my student's confidence and pushes them to meet my rigorous learning goals.
Please click this video to see a video of my 6th-grade science students engaging in jumping jacks as part of a lab.
https://www.torshtalent.com/video/q2uHvnHXoPTsm5zww
This is my sixth-grade science students engaging in a different physical activity to activate a different body system. Students are doing jumping jacks to raise their respiration rate. Students calculated their respiration rate pre and post activity to observe the difference.
Please click this link to see my students engaging in a student talk protocol Claim Pass.
https://www.torshtalent.com/video/JzdYgNccN7r9xgwfR
This artifact shows my students participating in a student talk protocol Claim Pass. Students are observing the cheerio effect and creating a claim based on their observations. The student then passes the claim pass worksheet to their group members. Each group member adds a piece of evidence from their observations that support the claim and then passes it to another student. This activity is a stepping stone activity to support my students in completing a more rigorous activity, Claim Evidence and Reasoning assessment, later in the unit. The Cheerio effect is a culturally relevant phenomenon that many of my students have experienced before.
Please click this link to see a video of my 6th-grade science students participating in a breathing meditation.
https://www.torshtalent.com/video/W3BC9eW7ZdERrWaew
This is my sixth-grade students participating in a brief mindfulness breathing activity. I often use this activity if students enter my space full of energy. Mindfulness breathing is an effective coping mechanism students can use inside and outside the classroom. Mindfulness has been proven to reduce stress, anxiety, and increase concentration which helps students meet rigorous learning goals. Additionally, this sets the tone for the emotional environment I want to create for my students.