ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

This unit is very important because it lays the foundation for reading in the future. The students will be introduced and become familiar with the building blocks of a language arts program: The Alphabet. In kindergarten most of my students have attended pre-school. For those who have not or those who need extra help in the area of letters, this unit will fill in the gaps they may have. For the students who have attended pre-school, this unit will emphasize what they have already been introduced to. This will allow me to assess their prior knowledge and I will be able to set the pace for our language arts program for the rest of the year.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding:1.  It is important for students to be familiar with the principles of writing. 2. They also need to understand we use letters to communicate with each other. With these two ideas put together, students will be able to be proficient writers in school and beyond. My alphabet unit starts the basic foundation to reach this goal.
Goal(s): 1. The students will recognize the letters in the alphabet. 2. The students will recognize objects that start with the particular letter they are looking for. 3. The students will be able to use letters to spell their name. 4. The students will use letters in everyday writing activities.

Questions Answered

Essential questions:1.  What are the letters of the alphabet? 2. How do we use the letters of the alphabet to write? 3. What letters can we identify in the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom?
Objectives: 1. Using the letters and sounds in their names, the students will place the letters on a cocoa nut tree with 100% accuracy. 2. The class will make an alphabet picture book and take a picture of an object which represents each letter of the alphabet. 3. The students will identify letters in their name and put them in correct order with 100% accuracy. 4. Using bread dough the students will shape their favorite letter with 100% accuracy. 5. Using their various projects, the students will present to the class and identify letters and sounds they focused on with 100% accuracy. 6. Using their alphabet picture books, the students will present the letters in their book with 100% accuracy. 7. Using their alphabet picture books, the students will arrange the pictures in alphabetical order with 100% accuracy.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?1.  I will evaluate each student on identifying the alphabet by asking them to identify the letters of the alphabet in any order. 2. I will ask them to give me the sounds of the letters. 3. I will also use a rubric to evaluate each activity. It will be labled 1, 2, 3, 4. The number 1 means no evidence of skill, a number 2 means little evidence of skill, a number 3 means acceptable evidence of skill and a number 4 means exceeding evidence of the skill.
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.  I will use a series of questions based on the projects we do. 2. This will require a response from the student to demonstrate the understanding of letters. For example, we will be reading the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. 3. We will then make our own cocoa nut tree. 4. Each student will identify and tell me the sound of their favorite letter. 5. Then the students will each use a computer to generate a large replica of their favorite letter and print it out. We will then place it on the cocoa nut tree. 6. This product along with a personal interview about letters with each student will provide evidence of understanding of the alphabet.
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. One lesson which will mirror the real world is when we make an alphabet book with things outside in the community. 2. This will bring students out of the school building and allow them to meet members of the community as we search for objects starting with each letter of the alphabet. 3. The class book we will make from this is the product I will use to give me evidence of understanding.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?  1. We will be creating their favorite letter out of bread dough. 2. This allows me to see their understanding of making the letters. 3. We will be reading books based on the alphabet and I will be creating Accelerated Reading tests to go with the books. 4. The students will use the computer to take these tests.

Instructional Strategies

The majority of my activities will be project based. This will help my learning objectives become more concrete. We will be using a computer on a number of occasions to create letters, or find pictures which go with a particular letter. We will be shaping letters out of bread dough, this will be a great way for me see if they can identify the first letter in their name. We will be making a book of names. The project will allow students to relate their name with another object which starts with the first letter in their name. The project which will be inquiry-based will be the Alphabet Book. The students will have to investigate the community to find objects which start with each letter of the alphabet and take a digital picture of it.