Brittany Blaska

Unit Plan Reflection

During this internship I was given the opportunity to work at Boulan Park Middle School.
Throughout this internship I was able to teach a variety of classes at Boulan Park Middle School.
I taught two hours of Honors Math 7/8, two hours of Math 7, and one hour of Math 7 Support
Lab. Math 7 Support Lab is a class for students with special needs, students who are considered
at risk, and for students who just need a little extra help with their math My focus class was the
fourth hour Math 7 class. My fourth hour class is filled with a variety of students with a wide
range of ability levels. About one third of my class is considered English Language Learners
with English being their second language. Also ten of the thirty students are in the Math 7
Support Lab. I would describe this class as talkative and they have a good energy level. Many of
my students participate in the class discussion and I find that they tend to struggle persevering
through high cognitive demand tasks that really challenge them. When creating my unit plans, I
found myself thinking a lot about the types of students I am teaching and where they may
struggle. During this internship I created two different unit plans which were both for my Math 7
classes. One was on the unit of inequalities and the other unit plan was about the percents unit
that we covered.
For both of the units I began by creating a concept map that covered the entire unit and
the different concepts that I needed to cover. When making the concept maps I started by looking
at the general overview of the chapter and got more specific as I worked my way down the map.
In the example below I started by looking at the sections of the chapter and then under each
section I got more specific with what I needed to cover in each section. After I covered all the

different topics that I wanted to cover, I started connected the different topics that related to each
other by using the arrow. All of these different topics later on connect to real life applications. I
did this because I want to show that all of these different topics are relating the real life
experiences that one day they may encounter. I feel that it is really important to show students
that the things we will learn are in real life because that is one reason why we learn this material.
We want to make everyone a well-rounded citizen in society. Also by showing your students that
the material relates to real life is a great way to motivate them and engage them in your tasks.
For example, I did a chalk talk about the square footage that the painters would be painting our
classroom purple and white like the rest of our school. This task related to our curriculum about
surface area of prisms required students to find the total surface area of our classroom which is a
trapezoidal prism.
Below is an example of a concept map that I completed. The general topics are in the
lighter colors and as I got more specific the colors get darker. I believe that creating these
concept maps helped me in variety of ways. For one, it helped me have an overall idea of where I
needed to start and where I needed to end in respect to my unit. Another way that creating these
concepts maps helped me is that you can visually see all the connections between the different
concepts that you will be covering in each unit. Lastly, by creating these concept maps it helped
complete the unit plans because I just took it step by step and made sure that I covered all of the
topics in the concept map. I feel that I will make these concept maps later on in my teaching
career because it helps me in so many ways and makes me more prepared for what I will be
teaching next.

I created the two unit plans in different ways. When making the inequalities unit plan, I
made a list of the learning goals and teaching goals that I wanted to cover in the unit. I started
with the standards that I needed to cover for the unit. These standards were:

7. EE.B.4: Use variables to represent quantities in real-world or mathematical problem,

and construct simple equations and inequalities to solve problems by reasoning about the

quantities.
7. EE.B.4.A: Solve word problems leading to equations of the
form px + q = r and p(x + q) = r, where p, q, and r are specific rational numbers. Solve
equations of these forms fluently. Compare an algebraic solution to an arithmetic

solution, identifying the sequence of the operations used in each approach.

7. EE.B.4.B: Solve word problems leading to inequalities of the
form px + q > r or px + q <r, where p, q, and r are specific rational numbers. Graph the
solution set of the inequality and interpret it in the context of the problem.

Next, I thought about the different Common Core Math Practices that I wanted my students to
work on. I feel that I wanted to push my students and get them in the habit of using these
strategies to help them be successful math students. The practices that I focused on this unit

were: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (MP1), construct viable arguments
and critique the reasoning of others (MP3), model with mathematics (MP4), use appropriate
tools strategically (MP5), attend to precision (MP6), and look for and make use of structure
(MP7). The next step I took to complete this unit plan was to think about the overarching
understandings that I wanted my students to master this chapter. This is where my concept map
really came in to help me. I was able to look at the map and see what I thought was most
important in this unit. I wanted my students to understand was and how to graph it on a number
line. I also wanted them to be able to translate word phrases and real life situations into
inequalities with numerical symbols. For example, we used Cedar Point rides and told them to
make inequalities for the different heights that people could be in order to ride that specific ride.
I also wanted my students to be able to correctly use the properties of inequalities and be able to
solve inequalities. After all of the planning with the goals and objectives, I lead into making the
assessment for this unit and also planning the day by day plan with the learning goals of each
day. I found this part pretty difficult for myself. I had a difficult time thinking that far ahead and
being able to think about the assessment activities for that specific day. I also had a difficult time
thinking about the pacing of each section and how to break up the topics into the different days. I
think part of my success with this unit plan was the help of my mentor teacher. I talked to him
about the challenges I was facing and he gave me advice about how he plans out a unit. This is
what led me to my different strategy of unit planning.
For my second unit plan I was covering the unit about percents and I started with the
standards and the assessment. I would be assessing the students on converting between different
forms such as percents, fractions, and decimals, their ability to use the percent equation and
proportion to solve different types of problems, and also their ability to calculate simple interest.

I looked at the different types of questions that the students would be tested on and I wanted to
make sure that they knew everything they needed to in order to be successful for this unit. After
looking at the assessment, I lead into the different learning goals that my students needed to
know. I am not sure why, but this second unit plan I found it easier to pace out and plan the day
by day plan and assessment opportunities. Maybe it was easier for me because I already made
my first unit plan prior to this. But I truly believe by starting with the assessment helped me have
a better idea of what to do for this unit. Once I knew the standards and could see what they
would be tested on, I knew the path I needed to take to teach them everything. I found myself
being able to see the misconceptions more clearly and this helped me because I anticipated the
majority of the errors that they had. This is one big difference I found between the two unit
plans. I feel that I was better prepared and I think my students were more successful due to the
successful unit plan that I created. Looking back at the two different strategies that I took to
complete both unit plans, I would most definitely create my future unit plans by looking at the
standards and assessment before breaking it down into the learning goals and misconceptions.
Looking back at both different unit plans and the planning and effort I put into them I
have come to multiple conclusions that I think will help me in the future of unit planning and
successful teaching. One conclusion is that I was very pleased with how organized the concept
maps and unit plans made me. I had everything planned almost a month in advance. I knew
where the class needed to start and where they needed to end up. This helped me make more
connections between the material and the future lessons I would teach which helped the students
make more connections and have a better understanding. The biggest realization that I came to is
you need to be flexible with the pacing and lessons. Neither of my unit plans were perfect so I
had to make changes to both along the way. Some days my students did not gain the

understanding that they need to so I needed to add a day and another lesson that originally I did
not plan for. Some of the lessons did not turn out so well, but I know that is going to happen
occasionally. This just helped me realize where I may need to slow down the next time I teach
this material. Another thing I realized is that not all of the lessons that I will teach will be
exciting. Some days I had to do notes and bookwork to help my students gain a better
understanding. So you need to have a variety of instructional methods and be ready to adapt
them. Lastly, I found that it is very important to have clear learning goals and focus on them. Our
goal is to teach our students everything and sometimes I found myself getting confused with
what we were focusing on that day. Thanks to the unit plan I was able to readjust and make sure
my focus was on my students learning and not worry so much if a lesson was not as successful
as I planned. I found that concept maps and unit plans were very beneficial and I will most likely
be creating them in my future years of teaching to help me be prepared to successfully teach my
students a new unit.