Unit Analysis Assignment

For this assignment, you will be writing a summary and analysis of the unit: Story Problem Strategies that you received in class at our first Saturday meeting. You have a copy of many of the pages from the Teacher's Manual of this unit. This unit has 14 lessons. You will be analyzing lessons 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 of the unit.

During the first week, you will be analyzing lesson 1 (due Nov. 3). After getting feedback, you will be analyzing lessons 2, 3, 5 and 6 and writing a reflection and analysis section. The complete unit analysis is due Nov 12.

(Aside: This is practice for the unit plan assignment next semester, and incorporates a lot of the things in the lessons to date about how students learn addition and subtraction. This analysis also includes several prompts to prepare you for the portfolio you will be creating during student teaching as part of the certification process. I had originally planned to have you look at all 14 lessons, but when I started adding in the portfolio-type questions I realized I needed to cut the assignment down to a more manageable size.)

Part 1:

Read the relevant standards

...you should read the Common Core standards for Grade 1 Operations and Algebraic Thinking, and the standards for Mathematical Practice (especially standard 3) You may also find it useful to look at this flipbook commentary on the Grade 1 Standards.

Download the Unit Analysis template to type in your answers for this assignment

Read the first lesson and write a summary and analysis:

• Read the lesson, including the teacher notes in the margins
• Learning Goals: Decide what the main learning goals would be for students in this lesson, and write those on the line "learning goals". Learning goals should be phrased in terms of what children will learn or be able to do (children will...) not in terms of what the teacher will do (introduce...)
• CCSSM Standards: Choose the most relevant common core grade 1 standards for the lesson, and copy and paste them into this line. You don't have to have every imaginable standard for each lesson. Many lessons will have only one or two standards that are directly relevant.
• Academic language: What vocabulary and sentence structure considerations are important for students to use and understand the academic language in this lesson?
• The activities: Briefly describe each of the activities in the lesson. Your description should be suffiently detailed and accurate that someone (like me) who had read the lesson before (several weeks before) would be able to figure out what that activity was.
• Opportunities for assessment: Where in the lesson can the teacher observe student thinking and understanding as part of ongoing formative assessment?
• Analyze: For each lesson, you should make a brief analysis of the content of the lesson. You should include the most relevant of the points below:
  • how the relevant concepts are being taught (what part of the lesson)
  • how the relevant skills are being taught (what part of the lesson)
  • what diagrams or manipulatives are used
  • what sorts of word problems are included
  • what calculation strategies are included
  • any other interesting and noteworthy features of the lesson

Your lesson-by-lesson analysis must be detailed enough to support your arguments and explanations in the Reflection and analysis section (part 2). Your analysis should show an understanding of word problems and calculation strategies that is informed by the lessons in this class.

Part 1 is due Nov 3

Part 2:

Read the lessons 2, 3, 5 and 5 and write a summary and analysis for each (add this to your previously submitted document):

• Read the lesson, including the teacher notes in the margins
• Learning Goals: Decide what the main learning goals would be for students in this lesson, and write those on the line "learning goals". Learning goals should be phrased in terms of what children will learn or be able to do (children will...) not in terms of what the teacher will do (introduce...)
• CCSSM Standards: Choose the most relevant common core grade 1 standards for the lesson, and copy and paste them into this line. You don't have to have every imaginable standard for each lesson. Many lessons will have only one or two standards that are directly relevant.
• Academic language: What vocabulary and sentence structure considerations are important for students to use and understand the academic language in this lesson?
• The activities: Briefly describe each of the activities in the lesson. Your description should be suffiently detailed and accurate that someone (like me) who had read the lesson before (several weeks before) would be able to figure out what that activity was.
• Opportunities for assessment: Where in the lesson can the teacher observe student thinking and understanding as part of ongoing formative assessment?
• Analyze: For each lesson, you should make a brief analysis of the content of the lesson. You should include the most relevant of the points below:
  • how the relevant concepts are being taught (what part of the lesson)
  • how the relevant skills are being taught (what part of the lesson)
  • what diagrams or manipulatives are used
  • what sorts of word problems are included
  • what calculation strategies are included
  • any other interesting and noteworthy features of the lesson

Your lesson-by-lesson analysis must be detailed enough to support your arguments and explanations in the Reflection and analysis section. Your analysis should show an understanding of word problems and calculation strategies that is informed by the lessons in this class.

Reflection and analysis section:

Considering these 8 lessons together, explain how this unit addresses the learning goals:

• Does this unit integrate conceptual knowledge with developing computational skills? If so, how, what and where (be specific). If not, what is missing?
• Are students developing and showing mathematical reasoning and/or problem solving skills? If so, how, what and where (be specific). If not, what is missing?
• What are the most important 2-3 standards that are addressed by this unit? How fully are those standards addressed: Does the unit address all parts of those 2-3 standards? If so, explain where each part is addressed. If not, identify which parts of the standards are addressed, and explain how, and also identify which parts of the standards are not addressed in this unit.

Part 2 is due Nov 12