My Way or the Highway – Some programs ask all teachers to follow an identical order of units while others allow and encourage teachers to plan their year individually, as long as the units fit the criterion of the curriculum. Teachers can devise units from an unending number of subjects – as long as the learning Experiences based on the Units can be purposefully matched to the Expectations (objectives) set up for the particular learning community. Looks like this:

Expectations Units  Experiences

Open-Ended Units, Like Open-Ended Questions, Generate the Best Learning – Here are some samples of titles of units that are purposely general so they can be relevant to a greater number of children but can still be used as specific planning tools.

Open Units

                                                                                                                                        

A Month of This? – No. Everything in your classroom doesn’t have to be theme-related for a month. All of the generic, non-theme-based experiences that are normally offered in your classroom should be going on as well. Here are some samples of units based on whimsy and spontaneous events that I have seen work well as two week rather than full month themes:

What Makes You Laugh?         Hurricane’s Coming!               Miss Kathie’s Getting Married

The Ball’s Stuck on the Roof    Goofy Faces, Scary Faces        Opposite Time

Generic, Non-Theme DAILY Experiences – I like to give teachers the gift of a pre-made “lesson plan” for the whole year, called Every Day We Grow in Body, Mind, and Spirit, that shows ALL of the generic strength-based learning experiences that should be available to a learning community on a daily basis. The teachers, then, devise a theme-based plan for each week. Both plans are posted and both show the strengths to be built and the experiences to be offered.

More about this in the Next Blog: Week by Week, Day by Day – Lesson Plans (UCK!)