Blank Unit Map Templates

These Unit Maps are meant to be examples of how units around core texts might be organized and how the reading strategies in this book can be used; they are not meant to be definitive examples of how to teach the identified texts. Included in this section is a template for your own planning, following a backwards design model and using the Critical Reading Process. Consider these steps as you engage in your planning:

1. Determine your texts, theme/essential question, standards and objectives.

2. Determine the outcomes you expect from students as they demonstrate their learning and mastery of the standards and objectives. What final products will they create to synthesize their experiences and demonstrate their learning? These will be part of the

Extend Beyond portion of the Unit Map.

3. Based on these outcomes, determine the skills that students need to successfully accomplish them. Identify reading, writing, oral language and thinking skills that students must develop in order to meet the expectations of the culminating activity(ies).

4. Identify the appropriate teaching strategies and learning activities you will use to help students develop and practice the needed skills as they work toward the larger objectives and standards. Also consider what specific scaffolding will be required to meet the range of student needs—this is the place to plan for differentiation.

5. Identify a method for determining what students already know and can do as they enter the unit. Determine what formative assessments will be developed to assess student understanding as they move through the unit.

6. Finally, using all of the information above, articulate the Plan for Reading and develop the reading prompt(s) you’ll use with students.

These steps establish a roadmap for developing the individual lessons within a unit; each individual lesson should always work to move students along toward the larger objectives, standards and essential question of the unit.

Source: The Write Path English Language Arts: Exploring Texts with Strategic Reading by AVID