Month by Month – Units are blocks of information and subjects through which learning experiences can be planned. The reason for organizing into units or themes is to introduce a sense of continuity into the learning process.  Most teachers like to plan monthly units for the whole year and some programs use the same monthly units for all learning communities.  Some teachers feel comfortable organizing learning into units that are traditionally scheduled on a monthly basis, but they can certainly be devised otherwise and the plan must be able to be modified. 

Units for the Year – Some teachers like to have a written blueprint for the whole school year so they can gather materials and resources and assure that the experiences they are offering have relevancy to the children and to the Strength Expectations.

There has to be a logical progression – from Expectation (objective) to Unit to Experience to Assessment. Teachers need to look over the program’s specific educational objectives and use them as a guide to planning units and then experiences based on those units that will offer opportunities for the children to take part in active purposeful play that will build those particular strengths. This system answers the questions about curriculum in this order: What are the Strengths the children will gain? What relevant blocks of information can be used to create appropriate experiences? What experiences can be designed to build the strengths? How can the learning be measured?

Some teachers feel it’s easier and more efficient to plan units and experiences based DIRECTLY on the Expectations themselves, others prefer to design units based on the calendar year, including holidays and celebrations, and still others like to create units based on interesting and unique topics such as children’s book authors, famous artists, or offbeat events. And Whaat? – there are even some teachers who throw caution to the wind and choose units based solely on WHIMSY or even on CHILD INTEREST and SPUR OF THE MOMENT EVENTS AS THEY HAPPEN!

As long as the subject matter of these units can be used to create experiences that can be DIRECTLY related to PURPOSEFUL (strength-based) LEARNING, I say, GO FOR IT!

Flexibility, Even Elasticity is the Watchword!  If you start a unit on Community Helpers and your threes show a preference for learning about the vehicles the helpers drive or the hats they wear rather than the work they do, you change your theme to transportation or vehicles or clothing. If your unit is The Farm and the children want to keep talking about it after the time you’ve allotted for it, you keep on farming.  If you are studying My Body and How I Grow, and a hurricane pops up, you switch your theme to weather so you can use the real life event to create more interest, realism, and relevancy. 

Administrators and licensing monitors should support these changes in plans if a teacher can prove the modification still connects to the specific Expectations to be covered, and parents will support the change in plans if you explain that your modification and the need for flexibility are important to the learning process.  There is no difference in counting pigs on the farm, wheels on a police car, or branches knocked down by the storm.  Math is always math, but life is full of change.

Next Blog: Units U May Like!