Diving Into First Unit on STRUCTURE- September 2022

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to a new year of MACC 4/5, Division 5, 2022-23!

I can’t believe this is my eighth year of doing the program! I look forward to getting to know all of you!

Please note, I have not yet finished setting it up, but all families will be automatically subscribed to the classroom blog. Then you will receive an email letting you know when there are new posts. Posts on the classroom blog provide you with information about each unit’s focus, larger project assignments, and the overviews of learning for report cards. If you have left my class or do not want to be subscribed, please just simple unsubscribe via the email you receive. Thank you!

Students have already begun thinking about our first unit! Here are some details about how a unit works.

  • We have five units during the year, one of which is an independent project.
  • Units are trans-disciplinary and conceptual in nature, meaning all subjects are connected to one another through a key concept area.
  • Concept areas are taken from universal themes, identified as key organizers of learning and life by researchers throughout the world.
  • Sometimes subjects are taught outside of the unit, with stand alone information. This mainly occurs with gym time (which is partially taught by another teacher, Mr. Chau), Core French, and music (taught by Dr. Yanko twice a week.)
  • Units have a title and a unit focus statement, which are posted online and on the unit board in the classroom so we can refer to it and think about how our activities are connected.
  • At the beginning of the unit, we go over the areas of focus so students understand how subjects will all be integrated and connected.
  • Questions are encouraged about the unit and are posted on our Wonderings Board.
  • Unit work involves both learning activities and projects designed to show our knowledge.
  • We use our journals (which have been provided in class) and e-portfolios (to be announced soon) to record our thinking from the unit, so all of our thoughts can be found in one place. Journals need to be at school every day.
  • The blue binder holds all subject handouts. It stays in the backpack and needs to be at school each day. We will clean it out at the end of each unit. Blue binders need to be at school every day.

Here are details about our first unit of the year:

Title:  It’s All in the Design

Concept: STRUCTURE

Core Competency Focus:  Personal Awareness, Critical Thinking

Unit Focus Statement:

The structure of something is designed to serve the needs of the user.

Areas of Inquiry:

  • Where we find structure (buildings, organizations, hierarchies, nature, body systems, etc.)
  • How form follows function (anatomy of humans/animals, adaptations, structure of useful inventions)
  • Elements and principles of art
  • Strong structure in architecture (geometry, shapes, measurement, etc.)
  • Structure of effective learning (lifelong learning, growth mindset, being a self-manager, healthy fitness/sleep/schedule/balance)
  • How we approach mathematics learning and communication of complicated number ideas
  • How design is linked with scientific knowledge (states of matter, energy transfer, forces, atoms)
  • Effective writing structure for communicating ideas (parts of speech, paragraphing, sentence structure, interesting words)
  • Structure that supports a community (government, community resources, class community, personal awareness)
  • Where French is spoken in the world and the structure of a bilingual country like Canada  (Core French Studies)

There will be more to come on the specifics of each subject area, as it arises in our work. Subject areas listed above are directly related to curricular content and competencies for this grade level, as well as to the deeper thinking we do in MACC.

I look forward to unpacking this exciting unit!