UNIT TEMPLATES

New Jersey Unit Templates
What Are They?
In 2009, the Department of Education came up with templates that districts were encouraged to use in order to create lessons and units based on the Core Curriculum Content Standards. The Department of Education attempted to come up with something that curriculum coordinators could use, and that teachers would be able to follow and implement. Seven core content areas were used to create the templates. Within each content area, goals were created to guide what would be required in each unit template.
The goals were to engage students, foster achievement, and learn 21st century global skills. The Department of Education came up several examples for how these would work. Those examples incorporate the use of technology and 21st century themes into most of their lessons and units as a whole.
What is included in the unit templates?
Each until template begins with the name of the content, followed by the unit title and grade level. Following that, there is an area for the unit summary, 21st century themes, and a rationale for those themes. The next section focuses on what is actually going to be learned in the unit. There is a section for the specific standards that are being addressed, followed by a statement about the content, and a progress indicator area. Essential questions and target goals are also incorporated into this section of the unit template.
The next section of the template focuses on showing evidence of student learning. There is a section to show summative and formative assessment. The template also allows teachers space to write specific lesson plans along with time frames that would go along with each unit. Lesson reflections are also a part of the template.
Pros and Cons
Normally I am weary of anything that sounds like further standardization in this era of high stakes testing. I feel that each school should be able to figure out what is best for their own students, and that teachers should have the freedom to do that in their individual classrooms. However, this template does not inhibit creativeness or individuality. It simply does an excellent job of reminding a district what is important to the learning process for their students. The unit template also allows for teacher accountability in regards to student achievement. Evidence of assessment, timely lesson plans, and progress indicators are all there to make sure that the students are actually learning. The lesson reflections at the end allow teachers to take a step back, look at the results, and improve their lessons for future classes. In this case, a little conformity definitely is worth the rewards.

Source: http://www.state.nj.us/education/cccs/2009/updtemplate.pdf