Unit Guidelines

You will be developing either a standard unit (technology included) or a webquest (dependent upon technology for a majority of the lesson.)

Standard Unit:

A unit is a series of related lessons written in the Taskstream unit builder (CSUS Unit Plan format). The unit plan indicates how the lesson are related, sequenced and build upon one another. The unit for this class needs to include powerful ways of using technology. Ideally the four individual lessons written with TS Basic lesson format in Taskstream (Word, Internet, Powerpoint and Excel) will fit into your unit. Your will probably have other lessons in your unit which may be described on the short form of the lesson format in Taskstream. The unit may have been a unit taught in the past but major revisions with the inclusion of technology are included. Unit should include:

• A motivating beginning lesson that introduces the entire unit.
• Include essential and unit questions.
• Include a way to wrap up the entire unit (use your essential and unit questions?).
• After you attach lessons, any changes you make in the lesson builder will automatically appear in the unit builder.
• Problem solving, student involvement, thinking processes throughout the unit
• All fields of the unit builder will eventually filled in. Wait until after you have attached lessons to add any standards. As you attach the lessons, the unit builder automatically imports any standards from the lessons to the unit.
• The rubric for the overall unit is different from the rubrics for each lesson; it is a synthesis or an abstract of the featured criteria for the unit.

Toward the end of the unit development, you may need to go back into the individual lessons and modify the lessons slightly to include transitions between lessons and to provide context for the lessons.

Webquest:

If you are developing a Webquest (a specific type of unit) you will want to use the resources provided in the following resource: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/materials.htm. You will have different pages described in the previous link. The Webquest can be created in Word, Powerpoint or in HTML for the web. Because students use the Internet, they will need to have connection to the Internet when using the Webquest.

Contained within the Webquest will be several of the lessons developed in our class. The lesson plans may be linked on the teacher resource page. The difference between a Webquest and the unit described above is that the webquest usually requires that students spend a majority of their time at the computer. It is a guided inquiry process with students playing different roles and creating their own products.

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