The Universe of Unit Planning

The deeper we get into the semester, the closer #psuaged22 gets to our Student Teaching Experiences. That being said, unit planning is (or should be at least) well under way for the seniors in Agricultural and Extension Education. A few weeks ago we turned in our first unit plan to be peer reviewed. With little direction in this process, we were all a bit confused as to how to tackle a task like this, but turned in our drafts and got to work checking out each other's plans. 

After reviewing Ms. Riley Carter's and Mr. Dylan Clark's unit plans, I decided that a table format was the move for me to stay organized. While my first draft did not included these, both of the plans that I reviewed utilized these really well. Another aspect I liked from the unit plans I reviewed was the hands-on nature of their content. While you can't tell everything from a unit plan, the objectives I read hinted at some great ideas for students to take charge of their learning experiences.

One opportunity for improvement that I saw in both my own and my peer's unit plans was the unit rationale. Thinking about why a unit is important is difficult, especially from the point of view of a high school student who may not be thinking intentionally about their future yet. However, I had the idea to bulk this section up by thinking about the part of the agriculture industry that the unit relates to and diving into the need for workers in this area. This will help to stress the importance of not only the unit, but the industry as a whole. 

As the semester continues, so does unit and lesson planning. Stay tuned for more updates on my journey in my upcoming blogs!

"Taylor"ed with love,