Unit Planning and Re-Planning

For my first unit plan, I decided to work on my Ag. mechanics I class because I have some knowledge about welding, and it is the first unit I will be teaching at Bellwood-Antis this spring. While working on my first unit plan, I realized that it was going to be a lot harder than I initially thought. Whenever designing a unit from scratch, there is a lot of elements to consider such as how many days the unit is going to take, what to incorporate, academic standards, materials, etc. Mapping out a logical sequence to what I was going to be teaching was one of the hardest parts for me; it takes a lot of planning and re-arranging of lessons to get the unit plan laid out properly. 

Since the students will just be starting welding when I start student teaching in the spring, I started with safety and tools because there is nothing more important than making sure students know the proper personal protective equipment (PPE), safe welding techniques, and how to safely use the tools that will be used throughout the class. 

Retrieved from:
http://www.weldmyworld.com/blog/welding-safety-tips/page/5/

My goals for the unit:

1. Students will be able to safely work in the metal shop with all tools and equipment involved with welding/metalwork with 100% satisfaction.
2. Students will be able to identify all tools and different methods of welding, cutting, fabricating, and grinding with 70% accuracy. 
3. Students will be able to complete performance based assessments with 100% accuracy. 

My unit plan was peer reviewed by 2 cohort members and they gave some good input on what I should do differently to help clarify my unit plan and to make it better. 

Some of the suggestions included:

1. Whenever I list the materials that I will be using, I should give an amount that I will need for each lesson. 
2. Give better detail on how I am going to assess my students, along with having an example quiz with the answers attached to my lesson plan. 
3. Most of my lesson plan titles were phrased as essential questions, but some of my lessons were statements, and not questions. 

Overall, I thought that for being my first unit plan, it was pretty solid and that they will only get better as time goes on! Having two more sets of eyes looking at my unit plan helped me revise my unit plan and make it better as it is sometimes hard to see your own mistakes. I look forward to unit planning becoming easier as I go! 

Thanks, 

Mike