Sevier County Special Education: Unit Planning Map

As a special education teacher working in a collaborative or self-contained service delivery model, the challenge of meeting state standards and the unique educational goals for each of the students we teach is daunting. The Unit Planning Map is one way to plan for a unit of instruction (four to eight weeks) for a group of students with diverse needs/goals. Following is an explanation of terms included in the planning map.

1. Current Unit: The current unit (few days to a few weeks) of content your are teaching, beyond pages in the textbook. For example, the current unit for an eighth grade social studies class may be ‘The Causes of the Civil War.”

2. Next Unit: The next unit you will teach after the current unit. Articulate the connection to the students — this is where we are we heading next.

3. Previous Unit: The unit you taught just before the unit you are currently planning. Articulate the connection to the students — this is where we have been.

4. Standards: List the state/district standard(s) that are embedded in this unit of instruction. For example, a unit of instruction for an eighth grade English class might include the state standard, “Analyze text that uses cause/effect organizational pattern.”

5. Key Concepts/Focus Questions: The key concepts are the critical content for all students to learn, the three to five “big ideas” embedded in the unit, It is helpful to phrase these in the form of a question. For example, in a second grade social studies class one of the key concepts for all students to be able to answer might be, “How can a grid be used to locate places on a map?”

6. Academic Goal: The academic goal(s) for the unit for the majority of the students — what you expect a majority of your students to know, understand and be able to do.

Modifications for Specific students/groups of students: A modification to a goal changes the goal to meet the student’s need — perhaps the goal is limited to focus on one concept only, to work on an easier concept, to modify the product, etc. This is a place to articulate different expectations for students based on their IEP goals or individual needs. An accommodation might include giving a particular student access to a word processor with a spell checker to complete his report.

7. Observable Academic Data: This data is the evidence that the student(s) has met the goal — how will you know he/she has achieved the goal(s)? This evidence must be observable, able to be documented, not influenced by your perspective, free of evaluative words, and without conclusions drawn. Modifications/Accommodations for specific students/groups of students: A modification to evidence of goal attainment might be that rather than a competed map of the United States, one student locates only Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina. An accommodation for a student might be that she gives a verbal report rather than a written report.

8. Teaching Strategies: The teaching strategies you will use in this unit. Some examples might include cooperative learning groups, graphic organizers, partner reading, technology, large group discussion, etc. Modifications/Accommodations for specific students/groups of students: A teaching modification might include having two students work as partners rather than in a cooperative learning group. An accommodation might include having the graphic organizer completed for a student, or providing the notes in braille.

9. Affective Goal(s): The affective goal(s) for the unit for a majority of the students in the class. This may be a social skill needed for group work, an age appropriate skill inherent to the unit, etc.

Modifications/Accommodates for specific students/groups of students: A modification to the affective goal might include having one student simply work on limiting verbal outbursts to one per class period. This is a place to articulate different expectations for students hased on their IFP goals, behavior intervention plan, or individual needs. An accommodation to the affective goal might be having a chart for 5-minute intervals of appropriate behavior taped to one student’s desk.

10. Observable Affective Data: This data is the evidence that the students have met the affective goal(s) — how will you know they have achieved the goal(s)? This evidence must be observable, able to be documented, not influenced by your perspective, free of evaluative words, and without conclusions drawn. Modifications/Accommodations for specific students: A modification to evidence of affective data might be that they score a 70% on the social skills reporting form for their group. An accommodation for a student might be allowing that student to give a verbal report to the teacher regarding his group participation or a chart that includes only happy/sad faces to color in regarding his taking turns in his group.