ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

Many of the preschoolers I work with exhibit significant language delays. They have Individualized Education Plans including goals of this nature. These goals carry over into all areas of communication including social skills and appropriate play skills. Their weak language adversely affects their social interaction and performance in the classroom. Therefore, this unit of instruction will help improve students’ classroom performance as well as their relationships with peers.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: 1. This project involves role playing and repetition to reinforce carry-over of pragmatics and social language skills. 2. Therefore, the students will hopefully use the information on emotions, appropriate behaviors, and social play skills and apply them during interactions in preschool as well as other settings.  3. Students should understand how to better read other’s emotions and apply pragmatic skills (i.e., requesting, turn-taking, personal space) to these situations.
Goal(s): Students will improve their understanding of emotions and appropriate social behaviors in order to more effectively interact in the classroom and other environments.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1) What are different ways people can feel? 2) How should you act when others hurt you or make you feel bad? 3) What should you do when you feel mad or sad? 4) How do we become good friends? Objectives: 1. While looking at pictures, students will independently identify emotions and corresponding facial characteristics with 90% accuracy.  2. With less than 2 prompts, students will describe attributes of emotions with 90% accuracy.  3. While watching a video or role playing, students will answer “wh” questions regarding appropriate social behaviors with 90% accuracy.  4. Students will follow multiple step concept directions in order to complete an emotions book.  5. Students will complete meaningful sentences describing appropriate behaviors in six social situations.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? N/A
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?  1. Various “wh” questions requiring one of several correct answers regarding social situations 2. Students will be required to follow 2-3 step directions to complete tasks and final project
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?  1. Emotions book completed by students to demonstrate understanding of emotions and appropriate social behaviors 2. Video of role playing appropriate social behaviors and emotions
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect? 1. Observations using a checklist 2.  One-on-one conversations and dialogues.

Instructional Strategies

These young children would benefit most from a hands-on project-based learning strategy. It will allow them to create a meaningful end-product to be shared with their peers as well as others. Cooperative skills can be used to accomplish this goal, which will allow for appropriate modeling and sharing of social/behavioral skills. Overall, role-playing, videotaping, and completing a project will allow the student’s individual needs to be met in a more “real-life” type situation.