My Classroom: Unit 1 Overview

Overview of Unit 1: My Classroom

• The theme revolves around "I love my classroom."
• This unit falls under "Self and Others" and "People and Society".
• It encompasses personal experiences in school, the school, community environment, facilities, and caring for public property.

Teaching Theory

• Emphasizes core competencies and uses the theme to guide content selection.
• Integrates language knowledge, cultural knowledge, language skills, and learning strategies in context.
• "2022 Curriculum Standards" added "Theme" and "Context" and highlights the importance of integrated unit teaching.
• Unit design begins with organizing teaching segments to form a unit framework.
• Student activities support unit learning and achievement of goals and activities should be integrative.

Unit Content Analysis

• The unit is around the theme of "I love my classroom".
• Five lessons are in unit: conversation and vocabulary integration, conversation, vocabulary, phonics and story integration.

Lesson Breakdown:

• First lesson covers elementary daily conversations using Sarah and Zhang Peng visiting a new classroom to talk about objects and facilities.
• Second lesson utilizes students cleaning a new classroom, suggesting actions, etiquette, and helping each other.
• Third lesson uses Zoom and Zip to give a tour of their new classroom, describing items, their position and colors, learning to appreciate, and hygiene.
• Fourth lesson tells story of "Funny thing in our classroom" where animals get into adventures. It reviews unit language, increases input, and practices reading, performing, and phonics.

Student Situation Analysis

• Fourth-grade students should have a basic grasp of English from prior grades
• The students should know simple words and phrases, listening skills, and teacher-guided study habits
• Many activities should feel new
• Completion of learning tasks can be done with the teacher's guidance
• A review of the Unit 4, 3rd grade has some simple vocabulary, such as desk, chair, ball, and "Where is my ruler?".
• Simple location questions can have positive impact.

Core Language Knowledge, Skills, and Strategies

• The unit is designed around the "I love my classroom" theme.

Meet our classroom

• Core vocabulary is classroom, near, blackboard, light, picture, door, and window
• Students will learn how to ask "Where's the...?" and answer using location words.
• Learning strategies involve using pictures and titles to predict context and understanding key information and vocabulary in context.

Clean our classroom

• Core vocabulary introduces teacher's desk, computer, fish bowl, clean, and help
• Students will learn polite phrases to request help
• Students suggest actions and react using simple, polite language.

Introduce our classroom

• Core vocabulary includes teacher's desk, fan, computer, wall, and floor
• Students learn to describe their classroom and the colors of objects inside
• Questions are formed simply by asking "Where is the...?" and location based prepositions

Funny things in our classroom

• Key vocabulary and phonics centers around words with the a-e/eɪ/ sound
• Includes words like cake, face, name, and make
• Students can learn to ask Where is it? and use a prepositions
• Focuses on reading with emotion, drawing inferences, sounds, tones

Unit Themes

• The unit covers personal classroom experiences in different ways:
  • Meeting their classroom
  • Cleaning their classroom
  • Introducing their classroom
  • Discussing fun things in their classroom
• Lessons are related and independent, promoting language skills, exploration, structured knowledge, and collaborative skills.

Unit Teaching Goals

• It helps students to describe items in the classroom, location, and structure.
• Students can make suggestions about cleaning and action.
• Students will gain comfort with making their own classroom, and understanding the items in it by color
• Students will gain control of language and usage to describe a-e and sounds

A Talk & Learn: ( Meet our classroom )

• This being the first lesson. It is focused on Part A: conversation and a compilation of words
• The core goal is for students to know vocabulary and form useful sentences.
• The target of the book is through conversations of Sarah and Zhang Peng, using descriptions of classroom items, placement, and structure to respond.
• English is used, and placement is learned and awareness is to be learned and appreciated
• To make it come together, Sarah and Zhang will discuss and explain new things about the setup of the room, such as "What's in the classroom?"

A Talk & Learn - Vocabulary

• Vocabulary includes blackboard, light, picture, door, window.
• Questions arise as Where is it?.
• Placement is learned via in/ on/ under/ near.

A Talk & Learn - Key Points

• One should have command of: classroom, window, blackboard, light, picture, and door.
• Recitation is needed.
• There should be use of the book with role-playing
• Evaluation and appreciation should be present for new classrooms
• Using this info, questions can be formed such as Where is it?, Its in-on-under-near

B Talk & Main Scene: (Clean our classroom)

• Uses a book with scenes as students look to clean up a classroom
• The story starts: Wu Binbin to do it and then Mike, John, Zhang Peng, Amy and Chen Jie come in as some are wiping tables, sweeping, erasing boards.
• Why? Based on scenarios, the book uses Let's... and Let me to do proper reactions

B Talk & Main Scene - key ideas

• Vocabulary includes teacher's desk, computer, clean, and help with expression!
• There must be an appreciation of: Let's and Let me, speaking and recitation
• With the book one can act and use empathy to come up with an activity

Third Lesson - Vocabulary and Writing

• There will be combination of letters in what you see and how they are used
• What results comes, is a section that is called "our classroom"
• For everyone there is some activity that shows their role.
• They all work together through reading and writing.

Third Lesson - Purpose

• Through context, one can begin to find more items, and structure
• This method increases belonging and appreciation
• The children create their own designs to express themselves

Third Lesson - How

• A song and repetition helps to drill vocabulary
• There are combinations such as: teacher's desk, wall, floor etc

Fourth lesson: A Spell & Story time (Funny things in our classroom)

• Vocabulary is key, spell it out with some reading of the room itself
• Vocabulary lists are cake, face, name
• There should be repetition and play to make associations

Fourth lesson: Story and use

• After reading the story, students can be guided through: "There's a bee" etc
• This is to increase the interest, and then there must be understanding through: "What's this?" and "Who's Jake"
• Exercises and reading will help with more practice