Unit Development Process
  

  




INTRODUCTION
Teachers in the Escanaba area have worked to develop standards-based, technology-infused interdisciplinary units using an eight step process.  These teachers feel that the units have worked well with students because they were developed with local resources and local issues in mind.  We have posted two of these units on our Lesson Plans page, but here we share the process we used for unit development.

Introduction
Process at a Glance
Step 1 - Ideas
Step 2 - Benchmark Review
Step 3 - Focus Questions
Step 4 - Student Culminating Task
Step 5 - Assessments
Step 6 - Student Activities
Step 7 - Teach
Step 8 - Fine tune the Unit


So why go to all this trouble? As teachers, you will find that developing a high quality unit will remind you about why you wanted to be a teacher. It is intensely creative, and the product will engage students in some very high quality learning. The key question to ask yourselves throughout the process is, “Are we improving on our best practice?”

Here are some reasons pilot teams felt the unit development process was worth the trouble:

Wider range of student participants
Students understand interrelatedness of disciplines
Unifies students
Taps into different intelligences
Ownership
Teachers learn, too
New student leaders emerged
Developing collegiality
Fit with local grade level benchmarks
More meaningful
Involvement of more learners at a deeper level