Unit Plan

Class Organization: The class is going to organized in groups of four students that they will sit together. Sometimes we are going to need a different type of organization, so we need a class that we can change our organization easily.  As they are students of 3rd grade I’m going to make the groups with the help of their (tutora) and their English teacher, because I want them to work in heterogeneous groups.

Cooperative Learning Technique 1: Jigsaw. The task that I explain above is going to be made by a member of each group, who is going to be the expert. This “expert” is going to prove and be able to communicate to the rest of his group that we are in constant motion! Meanwhile the others members of the group they are going to be experts in another topics as: eclipses, moon phases, distance between planets. Task you are going to work: -              Let’s prove that we are in constant motion! -              Activity in groups of four students (one of each group) : the students are going to measure the length of the shadow some of another student (experts group). We are going to do this activity at the playground of our school, we are going to measure the length of their shadows three times a day: at 9:30AM, at 12 AM and at 4PM. In the playground floor the students are going to draw with chalk the shadow of one of their classmates, each time in a different colour. At the same time they are going to draw the shadow of the student in a big wrapping paper. -              When we return to class (or the next day), we are going to take notes of the different shadow lengths and we are going to compare the length of the shadows depending the moment of the day. -              At class we are going to do a similar activity with a flashlight and a stick to compare the length of the shadows depending of the flashlight inclination (the light of the flashlight is going to represent the Sun and the stick the student who they had measured.)

Cooperative Learning Technique 2: Inside and outside circle At first they work with a partner, and when the teacher says they have to move a step and work with a different partner. Working with the cooperative technique of the inside and outside circle is great because our students who are 9/10 years old loves to move! At the same time using this technique every student gets to work with each other. Task you are going to work: The students of the outer circle are going to show flashcards or read simple questions about cultural facts related to the seasons of the year. The students of the inner circle are going to answer what do they think about the question asked. The students of the outer circle are going to give the correct answer if it’s needed. The flaschards are going to have images like this: The question: Why Santa is wearing summer clothes? (because he is in the South Hemisphere) The question: Why the shadow has different length in the two pictures?