Long Term Planning

Of the eight types of instructional units introduced in chapter 7, the project- and problem-
based units (PBL) standout for me. Units that are designed around PBL allow students to interact
with real-world situations (Hansen et al., 2015). They are in a position to respond to questions
and challenges encountered in the real world. PBL stands out for me because it provides a
meaningful way to learn and ensures that the students are engaged. They provide real-world
contexts, and the authenticity with which content is introduced to students makes the units more
interesting. There is applied learning and students are involved in engaging projects thus
enhancing competencies, communication, and teamwork.
PBL Unit

Name of project: Writing a short Story
Grade Level: 12 th Grade
Timeline: 3 weeks
Team members: 10 students
Goals and Objectives Necessary to Accomplish the Goals: Learn about how to write a short
story and analyze stories written by other students.
Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as
well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters
uncertain.

Project Summary: In a period of three weeks, students will engage in writing imaginative and
original short stories around different themes as per their discretion. During this period, each
student will take a story by a different student, read it thoroughly and provide a textual analysis,
of about one page, while citing evidence from the text to support the interpretation.
Driving Question: How are themes developed in a literary piece?
Entry Event: What are the themes developed in the short story?
Products that demonstrate outcome learning: Students will interact with authors who have
written novels, poems, short stories and other types of literary works.
Individual: Students will write original pieces, and their short stories will contain at least one
well-developed theme. Each student will provide a well-compiled report of another student’s
literary piece, clearly showing developed themes and how they are developed. textual evidence
will be cited to support the student’s thoughts and ideas.
Team: originality and uniqueness of each member’s work will be assessed.
Public Audience: authors who have written different literary pieces will be contacted by the
students. They will have a list of questions which they will ask during the interaction to help
them complete their projects.
Resources Needed:
On-Site Collaborators: Experts within the faculty, library, and websites containing different
short stories and analyses of different short stories.
Equipment: Tablets
Supplies: Computers, books containing short stories.

Community resources: Short stories written by different authors, magazine articles, and different
collections of literary pieces.
Reflection Methods: Learning log and Fishbowl discussion
Final Product: Each student will make a presentation of the report compiled. Students may
prepare poster boards to help them make a well-planned and thought-out presentation that others
will be able to follow with much ease.
Assessment Strategies: Each student will submit at least a one-page report of his or her analysis
of another student’s short story. Each student will also submit his or her short story as an original
creation. Submitted work will be graded based on the originality of ideas, creativity, clarity and
flow of ideas, as well as how each work will be presented.

References

Hansen, C.B., Buczynski, S., & Puckett, K.S.  (2015). Curriculum and instruction for the 21st
century [Electronic Version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/