Intended Audience The Winter Unit was created for students within the New Jersey State school system. This is an online unit. On line units have been gaining popularity due to their user friendliness and accessibility. Coupled with diversity and versatility of Interner/Web-based instruction has created an environment for teaching that capitalizes on students’’ strengths (Nelson). The students should be at the fourth grade level and must be on level in the following areas; computers, reading, writing and mathematic skills. The students. The tasks that learners will be assigned will all have to do with the winter theme. The students will make connections learning math, science and language arts through their own research given through this unit site. The teacher will be giving the introduction to the class and going through the site as well as the work that must be completed. The majority of the intended group of students the lessons were created for should be on level; however, this is not to say each classroom that implements this unit will not have both higher and lower level learners. Differentiation in each activity will be demonstrated by individualizing lessons, as students are grouped students according to their learning styles. “Differentiated instruction should be implemented in a way that does not change what is taught but rather changes how it is taught (Aldridge).” While the lessons do require teachers to act as facilitators as well as guides in creating productive groups and learning communities, independent work may be used at the teachers digression. If the unit is completed in an individual basis one must recognize that independent study differs remarkably and must become an objective within the unit itself (Knapp p.78).

Unit  Plan  Justification    A  Unit  on  Winter  

Dana  Litwornia    Boise  State  University  M.E.T.  program  

Graphic Description

Winter Workshop: Created in Adobe Illustrator, this graphic was done by using alignment, repetition and color theory. The idea behind this graphic was to bring fun to the pages of the unit plan. Nate the bear was created to bring redundancy to the unit. This will help the students make connections from lesson to lesson. I chose to create a workshop to show that we will be working in this unit as well as having fun in the winter months. The snowflake design was found in the Adobe Illustrator library.

Winter Welcome: The welcome page is the first thing the students will see. For this project I created a simple introduction of each lesson. Each snowflake will be a link to the correct page in the unit. The contrast of black and white works together with the blue snowflakes to draw you in and focus the reader on the text. The snowflake design was found in the Adobe Illustrator library the program used.

Hi Bear! I’m Nate! : This graphic introduces two parts of the unit. First there is Nate. This character is all over the unit site. I created this cartoon in Adobe Illustrator. I wanted to give the students a figure that acted as sort of a guide. The cartoon also works within the redundancy model by using the same graphic the students will build a bit of a relationship with him. The second part of the unit this graphic represents is the play on words associated with hibernation. Teachers can use this as a springboard into the KWL chart.

Lesson on Hibernation (Science): Here we have little Nate the bear in the corner. For this graphic I created a winter and outdoor feel that would be both calming as well as spatially effective. The graphics were created in Adobe Illustrator and the snowflakes were pictures that came with the program. I created the links on the left and then put Nate in the right to create balance. There is also the use of blue to give the feeling of winter. To create depth I added a shadow and texture to each blue text box. I wanted this lesson to be simple to access and for students to understand. I created this page with the questions in the students line focus

Temperatures in the U.S.A (Math): For these graphics I used shape as a tool to make connections as well as show the process that is being taught. The colors were picked to represent the summer and winter seasons. Hierarchy was shown here as the top of the chart contains a large rectangle with the directions followed by guiding arrows.

Winter Story (Language Arts): This page was created to introduce the students to the language arts story. I wanted to create a whimsical looking page to have the students start to think creatively about winter storms. The tree and snowflakes were graphics taken from Illustrator, where I created the rest of the graphic. Students will be asked to use the rubric to double-check their work; I added the red check mark to simulate a red flag of warning, a color to grab the students’ attention.

Check List: This is a list for the students to look into. As a teacher I wanted the students to see everything that was due and use the information to self evaluate their own progress. The students will be able to download this list, check off boxes and sign the bottom. This will go to the teacher and act as a pass to start the extra credit. The list used the chunking as well as alignment.

Extra Credit Typography: I created four representative graphics to help viewers associate words with the winter season. Representative visuals are used to make information more concrete (Lohr p. 17). In creating these graphics I used the words; cold, skiing, snowflakes and hibernation. In doing this the student will need to think of words of their own that they can make into graphics. This will be used for an extra credit project once each assignment has been complete. If there are students that complete the lessons at a faster pace than the others they may create a poster of graphics to display in the classroom or in the hallway. Hibernate- I used a sands serif font to create easy reading. I thought having the h serve, as a cave for the rest of the letters would be a great way to make the students think about a definition of the word. I also created a pattern on the h to give it more of a cave like feeling. Cold- I tried this both in color as well as in grey scale. I found that by adding a small amount of blue the word “cold” indeed became more frigid. I distorted the letters by using brush effects and then added a grey gradient behind the lettering. I then covered the entire area with a glass distortion effect creating the illusion of ice. Snowflakes- Again I tried both color as well as grayscale. I found that a small amount of color took the snowflakes far, visually speaking. I created the letters in a sands serif font and added distortion, pucker and bloat. This created a rounding effect for the letters. I cut and pasted the words several times to give the illusion of tons of snowflakes as well as changing the sizes and colors to show how snowflakes are different. Skiing- I drew the ‘s’ with the pen tool, leaving spaces to show the transition and action of a skier making a turn in the snow. The ‘kiing’ is attached and I used the 3D effect to rotate the letters to make it look as if there is motion.

Teachers List: For the teachers page I wanted to show a clear list using whitespace to draw attention to the important aspects of the page. The font at the top of the page was manipulated to look like wood. This gives the page a warm and welcoming feeling. Teachers have many things that cause stress so I wanted this page to be fresh and calming. I also chose blue for the secondary fonts. This also aids in creating an over all calming effect. Process Design 1. Introduction of winter. This will be done informally as the teacher introduces the season of winter to the class. The teacher will ask the students what types of things go with winter and write them on the board. The three areas will be written as well: a. hibernation b. temperature change c. winter storms The teacher will then circle these three to pick and focus on them. 2. The teacher will explain the web site units on the Smart board as the students actively watch. The lessons will be completed in a blended fashion, as the teacher will start each lesson and move the students into groups to complete. 3. The first lesson will be hibernation. The teacher will start a KWL list, and have the students’ brain storm about what they know on the subject and what they want to learn. This will be done with the help of the graphics on the hibernation page. The teacher will then introduce the graphics of Nate the bear and start dividing the class into groups according to their learning level. 4. If the teacher chooses to have the students work in groups, the lower level students will need to be paired with higher-level learners. This will create balance and create immediate scaffolding within the group.

5. The students will then work on the hibernation page and submit their work by handwriting the answers or typing them. 6. The end of the class will be the finishing of the L portion of the chart. The students will finish by telling the teacher what they have learned. Day 2 1. The second lesson will be the temperature differences in the United stated. The teacher will start by having an informal conversation with the class about the current temperature differences where they live at the moment. 2. The teacher will show the class the example on the website and then move on to the Language arts portion. The teacher will read the page with the students and show them how to pull up the rubric. 3. Then the students will break into their groups. The class will then complete their temperature assignments and moving right into the Language Arts lesson, complete the checklist, hand it in and get the teachers OK to start the extra credit. 4. The groups will choose to present one of the stories and one of the temperature change papers to the class. 5. The teacher will observe successful student performance, signal the class for closure, review the lesson and offer suggestions for enhancement (Webster). In this lesson the enhancement will be to help create a parents night and showcase 5. Teachers and students may invite parents in to showcase all of the work done in this unit. This will be done as and enrichment activity. Make a party out of it; create a winter workshop! Have fun.

References

Aldridge, J. (2010). Making it Work: Differentiating tier two self-regulated

strategies development in writing in tandem with school wide positive behavioral support. Childhood Education, 86(3), 193-193. http://search.proquest.com/docview/721730531?accountid=9649

Knapp Roy C. Roy C. Independent Study as an Objective of Instruction The High School Journal , Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 77-87 Published by: University of North Carolina Press http://www.jstor.org/stable/40366122

Lohr, Linda. Creating graphics for learning and performance: lessons in visual

literacy. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.

Nelson, G. (1998). Internet/Web-Based Instruction and Multiple Intelligences. Educational Media International, 35(2), 90.

Smith, D. C. (January 01, 1998). Web-Based Instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development, 46, 1, 87-89.

Webster, C. A., Connolly, G., & Schempp, P. G. (2009). The finishing touch: anatomy of expert lesson closures. Physical Education & Sport Pedagogy, 14(1), 73-87.