MYP unit planner

Unit title
/
Epic Poetry
Teacher(s) / Elizabeth McBroom
Subject and grade level / EI Pre-DP
Time frame and duration / 4 weeks
Stage 1: Integrate significant concept, area of interaction and unit question
Area of interaction focus
Which area of interaction will be our focus?
Why have we chosen this? / /
Significant concept(s)
What are the big ideas? What do we want our students to retain for years into the future?
Human Ingenuity: Man creates in order to entertain, teach, and inspire others. / · Man’s potential
· Hero’s journey (monomyth)
MYP unit question
How does the hero’s journey (monomyth) inspire mankind?
Assessment
What task(s) will allow students the opportunity to respond to the unit question?
What will constitute acceptable evidence of understanding? How will students show what they have understood?
1.  Reading Journal
Students are given a list of assignments that focus the student on identifying important characteristics of the epic as we study Beowulf and The Odyssey. Each assignment must be ready to discuss in class on the appropriate day.
2.  Epic hero citation exercise
Students will find a quote supporting each characteristic of an epic hero and learn to write a proper citation.
3.  Background videos
The students will view Background to Beowulf, History of English Literature, Discovery: The Odyssey and The Epic Hero to become familiar with the characteristics of epic poetry.
Which specific MYP objectives will be addressed during this unit?
A 1,3,6,7,8,10,12
O 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12
Which MYP assessment criteria will be used?
Creative piece: Write a modern epic
Stage 2: Backward planning: from the assessment to the learning activities through inquiry
ContentWhat knowledge and/or skills (from the course overview) are going to be used to enable the student to respond to the unit question?
What (if any) state, provincial, district, or local standards/skills are to be addressed? How can they be unpacked to develop the significant concept(s) for stage 1?
TEKS: 1)Reading/Vocab Development; (2)Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Theme and Genre; (3)Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Poetry; (5)Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Fiction; (7)Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Sensory Language; (8)Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Culture and History; (9)Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Expository Text; (12)Reading/Media Literacy; (13)Writing/Writing Process. (14)Writing/Literary Texts; (15)Writing/Expository and Procedural Texts; (16)Writing/Persuasive Texts; (17)Oral and Written Conventions/Conventions; (18)Oral and Written Conventions/Handwriting, Capitalization, and Punctuation; (19)Oral and Written Conventions/Spelling; (24)Listening and Speaking/Listening; (25)Listening and Speaking/Speaking; (26)Listening and Speaking/Teamwork. Source: The provisions of this §110.31 adopted to be effective September 4, 2008, 33 TexReg 7162.
Approaches to learning
How will this unit contribute to the overall development of subject-specific and general approaches to learning skills?
Journaling skills will be used in the Reading Journal; note-taking skills will be practiced when taking notes from background videos and teacher lecture; close reading exercises will be employed; students will be expected to follow directions when executing assignments; students will use the writing process when executing writing assignments; the students will learn how to properly select/embed quotes to support analysis.
Learning experiencesHow will students know what is expected of them? Will they see examples, rubrics, templates?
How will students acquire the knowledge and practise the skills required? How will they practise applying these?
Do the students have enough prior knowledge? How will we know? / Teaching strategiesHow will we use formative assessment to give students feedback during the unit?
What different teaching methodologies will we employ?
How are we differentiating teaching and learning for all? How have we made provision for those learning in a language other than their mother tongue? How have we considered those with special educational needs?
Each assignment will have clear instructions, and the teacher will provide examples of superlative work either through modelling or samples from previous students. The students will be given all grading rubrics when the work is assigned.
The students will be given a chance to practice the appropriate skills in class before working independently outside of class. / Choice: Students are given the opportunity to choose from a list of activities for their reading journals. Each activity emphasizes a different learning style.
Enrichment: Students are given the opportunity to pursue enrichment research projects of their choosing related to the topic of study in class.
Resources
What resources are available to us?
How will our classroom environment, local environment and/or the community be used to facilitate students’ experiences during the unit?
The Odyssey by Homer and Beowulf
Classical poetry using allusions to mythology and epic heroes:
“Penelope” by Dorothy Parker
“To Helen” by Edgar Allen Poe
“Helen” by Hilda Dolittle
“Odysseus” by W. S. Merwin
Ongoing reflections and evaluation
In keeping an ongoing record, consider the following questions. There are further stimulus questions at the end of the “Planning for teaching and learning” section of MYP: From principles into practice.
Students and teachersWhat did we find compelling? Were our disciplinary knowledge/skills challenged in any way?
What inquiries arose during the learning? What, if any, extension activities arose?
How did we reflect—both on the unit and on our own learning?
Which attributes of the learner profile were encouraged through this unit? What opportunities were there for student-initiated action?
Possible connections How successful was the collaboration with other teachers within my subject group and from other subject groups?
What interdisciplinary understandings were or could be forged through collaboration with other subjects?
Assessment
Were students able to demonstrate their learning?
How did the assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate the learning objectives identified for this unit? How did I make sure students were invited to achieve at all levels of the criteria descriptors?
Are we prepared for the next stage?
Data collection
How did we decide on the data to collect? Was it useful?

Figure 12

MYP unit planner