MYP Unit Planner

Should have, could have, would have…

Unit Title:

Teacher(s): Barbara Mui

Grade Level & Grade 8 English Language B (Phase 3)

Subject

Duration 3 weeks

Stage 1: Integrate significant concept, area of interaction and unit question

Area of interaction focus Significant concept(s)

Which area of interaction will be What are the big ideas? What do we
our focus? want our students to retain for years
Why have we chosen this? into the future?

Human Ingenuity In order to support our own learning and

Students examine how humans develop as a student, we must be able to
have analyzed past events in reflect on past experiences.
order to move forward and
improve.

MYP unit question

“What if I could do it all over again?”

Assessment
What task(s) will allow students the opportunity to respond to the unit question?
What will constitute acceptable evidence of understanding? How will students show
what they have understood?

Criterion A Oral:
 Formative: Students will be interviewed by the teacher and answer
questions about themselves as a 7th grader and now.

Summative: Students will orally describe a past event and answer

teacher questions. Students will be expected to use should have/ should
not have to express regret and if clauses to describe hypothetical
situations.

Criterion C Reading:

Summative: Students will read a news article and answer reading

comprehension questions.

Criterion D Writing:

Formative: Students will choose an important life event or rite of passage

from a different culture and compare it with their own in a 5-paragraph
essay. Students will be expected to use time clauses (before, after, once,
the moment, as soon as, until, the time) as transition phrases to organize
the essay.

Which specific MYP objectives will be addressed during this unit?

Phase 3: In familiar and some unfamiliar situations:

Criterion A: Oral Communication (Listening)
-understand and respond to a limited range of spoken texts
-communicate information containing relevant ideas and some detail
-use language accurately

Criterion C: Reading Comprehension

-understand specific information, ideas, opinions and attitudes
-understand main ideas and supporting details, and draw conclusions
-understand aspects of format and style
-understand and respond to a limited range
 Criterion D: Writing
-communicate information containing relevant ideas and some details
-request and provide information
-use language appropriate to a limited range of interpersonal and cultural contexts, and
for a limited range of purposes and audiences
-understand and use language conventions accurately
-use appropriate register in formal and informal communication

Which MYP assessment criteria will be used?

Phase 3
Criterion A: Oral Communication
Criterion C: Reading
Criterion D: Writing

Stage 2: Backward planning: from the assessment to the learning activities through inquiry
English National Curriculum Key Stage 3
Content
2.1 Speaking and listening
What knowledge and/or skills
Pupils should be able to:
(from the course overview) are
a present information and points of view clearly
going to be used to enable the and appropriately in different contexts,
student to respond to the unit adapting talk for a range of purposes and
audiences,
question?
including the more formal
What (if any) state, provincial, b use a range of ways to structure and organise
district, or local standards/skills are their speech to support their purposes and
guide the listener
to be addressed? How can they be
c vary vocabulary, structures and grammar to
unpacked to develop the significant convey meaning, including speaking standard
concept(s) for stage 1? English fluently
d engage an audience, using a range of
techniques to explore, enrich and explain their
ideas
e listen and respond constructively to others,
taking different views into account and
modifying their own views in the light of what
others say
f understand explicit and implicit meanings
g make different kinds of relevant contributions
in groups, responding appropriately to others,
proposing ideas and asking questions
h take different roles in organising, planning and
sustaining talk in groups
i sift, summarise and use the most important
points
2.3 Writing
Composition
Pupils should be able to:
a write clearly and coherently, including an
appropriate level of detail
b write imaginatively, creatively and
thoughtfully, producing texts that interest and
engage the reader
c generate and harness new ideas and develop
them in their writing
d adapt style and language appropriately for a
range of forms, purposes and readers
e maintain consistent points of view in fiction
and non-fiction writing
f use imaginative vocabulary and varied
linguistic and literary techniques to achieve
particular effects
g structure their writing to support the purpose
of the task and guide the reader
h use clearly demarcated paragraphs to
organise meaning
i use complex sentences to extend, link and
develop ideas
k consider what the reader needs to know and
include relevant details
l use formal and impersonal language and
concise expression
p present material clearly, using appropriate
layout, illustrations and organisation
q use planning, drafting, editing, proofreading
and self-evaluation to shape and craft their
writing for maximum effect
r summarise and take notes
s write legibly, with fluency and, when required,
 speed.
Technical accuracy
Pupils should be able to:
t use the conventions of standard English
effectively
u use grammar accurately in a variety of
sentence types, including subject–verb
agreement and correct and consistent use of
tense
v signal sentence structure by the effective use
of the full range of punctuation marks to clarify
meaning
w spell correctly, increasing their knowledge of
regular patterns of spelling, word families, roots
of words and derivations, including prefixes,
suffixes and inflections.

Through a variety of classroom activities,

Approaches to learning
assignments, projects and assessment for
How will this unit contribute to the
learning tasks, this unit will contribute to the
overall development of subject-
overall development of students’ subject-
specific and general approaches to
specific and general approaches to learning.
learning skills?
Through ongoing practice and feedback from
the teacher and peers, students’ AtL skills will
progress and see improvement.
Organization > Time Management & Self
Management
● Organize time to meet goals and
deadlines
● Record accurately all tasks and
complete them
● Take part in class discussions
● Organize, maintain and use materials
● Explain finished work and the process of
getting there

Collaboration
Working in Groups
● Independently negotiates goals with others
 & teacher
● Implements strategies to make the group
efficient and effective
Accepting Others
● Independently and fairly delegates tasks
within groups
● Actively encourages others
Personal Challenges
● Pursues excellence in group projects
beyond simply satisfying task
requirements
Communication
Literacy
● Independently identifies and utilizes
appropriate literacy skills including reading
strategies, and demonstrates an
understanding of content specific
terminology
● Independently uses subject specific
terminology and conventions
appropriately
● Acknowledges sources of information
appropriately
Being Informed
● The student recognizes the importance
of using a variety of media
appropriately
Informing Others
● Using media as a means of presenting
information to peers
Task Definition & Accessing Information
● Formulate relevant questions
● Use a range of technologies to access
information
● Independently identify a variety of valid
sources and extract information from
these

Information Literacy
Information
 ● Identify a variety of valid sources and
extract information
Selecting, Organizing and Using Information
● Independently identify information needed
and possible sources
● Take notes, summarize, and paraphrase
effectively
● Evaluate information critically, identify
possible biases and angles and make
relevant connections
Referencing, Evaluating the Process & Product,
and Its Application to a Wider Context
● Create a properly formatted MLA
bibliography for all types of media
● Demonstrate responsible use of
information as outlined in the ISF
Academic Honesty Policy
● Identify, show and compare sources
during evaluation of final outcome and
chosen process
● Show good understanding of how their
project may affect other individual and
cultures as well as the intended
environment, illustrating student’s
regard and understanding of social and
moral implications

Reflection
Self-Awareness
● Monitor and evaluate own performance
accurately, recognizing strengths and
weaknesses
Self-Evaluation
● Use criteria and rubrics in the self- and
peer-evaluation processes
● Break areas for improvement down with
specific identifiable actions

Thinking
Generating Ideas
● Look into different subject areas for
 ideas
● Organize ideas and filter for relevance
Planning
● Use graphic organizers to generate
ideas, plan projects, and create outlines
for essays and reports
Inquiring
● Formulate own questions to challenge
the validity of veracity of information
and arguments in order to create an
informed opinion
Applying Knowledge
● Apply knowledge and concepts to arrive
at logical conclusions
Identifying Problems
● Identify and state problems and list
several solutions to identified problems
● Compare and contrast the effectiveness
or feasibility of several solutions
Creating Novel Solutions
● Examine solutions in light of multiple
perspectives and differentiate how
solutions may be affected by variety of
contexts
Transfer
● Make connections between knowledge,
understanding and skills across subjects
● Applying skills and knowledge
● Using knowledge, understanding and
skills to create products or solutions

Learning experiences Teaching strategies

How will students know what is How will we use formative assessment to give
expected of them? Will they see students feedback during the unit?
examples, rubrics, templates? What different teaching methodologies will we
How will students acquire the employ?
knowledge and practise the skills How are we differentiating teaching and
required? How will they practise learning for all? How have we made provision
 for those learning in a language other than their
applying these?
mother tongue? How have we considered those
Do the students have enough prior with special educational needs?
knowledge? How will we know?

AOI Human Ingenuity Self and peer evaluation checklists (created

from task-specific rubrics) will be given to the
students so that they may reflect on their
learning in group discussions.
Peer evaluation will be part of the writing
process as they plan and draft their reports.
Group discussions to enable students to
consolidate understandings, followed up with
writing tasks that offer a permanent record.
Access prior knowledge and build background
on topics prior to assessment.
Interdisciplinary connection with Humanities
and the studying of WWII.
Genre-based approach: deconstruction,
modelling, guided practice using graphic
organizers for planning and writing scaffolds for
drafting. Also, they will be given explicit
instruction on the language features of the
genres being studied (e.g. simple past tense and
past perfect tense, sequencing/time markers
and concrete sensory images for
autobiographical writing,).This will develop
students’ understandings of the relationship
between audience, purpose, context, and the
language choices made.
Differentiation: More capable students will be
encouraged to go through the writing process
more independently without the same level of
scaffolding.
Students will be given vocabulary development
activities Assessment for learning to provide
ongoing feedback to hopefully feed-forward
 improvements.
Self assessment checklists will be given to the
students so that they may reflect on their
learning in their group discussion and on their
response to literature.
Particularly for the oral communication and text
interpretation assessments in this unit:
Formative assessment tasks will be given that
gradually develop the assessed understandings,
skills, and/or strategies. Students can determine
where they are, and where they still need to go
to reach their learning objectives.
Group discussion to give students practice in
using the newly learnt vocabulary and any
subject specific, technical language they need to
know.
Access prior knowledge and build background
on topics prior to assessment.
Genre-based approach: deconstruction,
modelling, guided practice using graphic
organizers for planning and scaffolds to prepare
students for independent writing. This will
develop students’ understandings of the
relationship between audience, purpose,
context, and the language choices made.

Resources
What resources are available to us?
How will our classroom
environment, local environment
and/or the community be used to
facilitate students’ experiences
during the unit?

Ongoing reflections and evaluation

In keeping an ongoing record, consider the following questions. There are further stimulus
questions at the end of the “Planning for teaching and learning” section of MYP: From
principles into practice.

Students and teachers

What did we find compelling? Were our disciplinary knowledge/skills challenged in any
way?
What inquiries arose during the learning? What, if any, extension activities arose?
How did we reflect—both on the unit and on our own learning?
Which attributes of the learner profile were encouraged through this unit? What
opportunities were there for student-initiated action?

Possible connections

How successful was the collaboration with other teachers within my subject group and
from other subject groups?
What interdisciplinary understandings were or could be forged through collaboration
with other subjects?
Assessment
Were students able to demonstrate their learning?
How did the assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate the learning objectives
identified for this unit? How did I make sure students were invited to achieve at all
levels of the criteria descriptors?
Are we prepared for the next stage?
Data collection
How did we decide on the data to collect? Was it useful?