Unit Plan: Social Studies

My partner and I have chose to do World War II as our Unit plan because we are both interested in it, and have always found it to be exciting. It was not a problem coming up with what we would want our students to know/ the goals of the unit when doing the planning and thinking matrix. Actually, filling out the matrix seemed to be the easiest part so far. The matrix kept us very organized, and we came up with great ideas. When teaching the students, we plan on keep them interested in the topic but not just using a textbook to teach them but a variety of sources. We intend on showing them actual videos of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the battle of Iwo Jima, a newsreel of DDay, and speeches made by major figures(Eisenhower, FDR, MacArthur). We would also incorporate soldiers first hand accounts through books and magazine/newspaper articles. When I began thinking about all the stuff I could use to teach the kids, to keep them interested, and even my family history of World War II, I became really excited.

However, my excitement was short lived because I moved onto the October calendar and trying to sketch out how to fit everything I wanted to do like: note taking, movies, debates, exams, planned and unplanned quizzes, class readings, etc...I became overwhelmed to say the least. The biggest problem I ran into was in my education courses I have never really been taught how to do a daily lesson plan or a unit lesson plan...when I have done them I was lucky and would only do minor parts of something in history, like Pearl Harbor. When trying to decide what major battles students needed to know, I became aggravated because there are so many and it seems like there is such little time to fit everything in. Moreover, I think because of the way my high schools schedule was set up using block scheduling, I'm only used to how my teachers taught in an hour and half class.

Although I do think I am making progress because I do know most of the stuff I want to include, I still feel like my partner and I have a lot of work ahead of us. Hopefully on Wednesday I will be able to at least better organize the calendar.