Social Studies Unit Plan Reflection

I have not implemented this unit plan with students yet, but there are some aspects of the
unit plan that I can reflect on.
Overall, I think there are some strong aspects in this unit plan. Each lesson included in
the unit is well aligned to the Scope and Sequence for first grade. Further, each lesson has tiered
lessons that target the same learning goals, but allow students to work at a level that suits their
abilities. Each task in the tiered lessons is challenging but achievable for each tier. The tasks are
also engaging and allow students to be creative. Further, the culminating activity challenges
students to exhibit what they have learned throughout the unit in a fun, engaging, and creative
way.
While there are some strong aspects of the unit plan, there are also some changes I would
make to it. I think the lessons included in the unit are strong, however, in order to create a better
flow, I think more lessons should be added to the unit. The essential question of the unit plan is:
What impact do direction, environment, and people have in a community. There are two
lessons related to citizens/people and two related to the environment. There is only one lesson
concerning directions. For students to get a better idea of how direction impacts a community,
there should be another lesson added related to cardinal directions, geography, etc. Further, the
unit does not identify how the teacher will relate the lessons to one another. For students to
understand the connection between all of these lessons, there should be a defined way that each
lesson leads into the other. This connection should be clearly defined for students so that they are
reminded that the lessons all tie back to that one essential question.
With these few changes, I think this would be a good unit plan to do with first grade
students.