When beginning a unit plan and using backwards design, one typically starts with the unit goals, enduring understandings, essential questions, and standards that they would like to target.
Unit Goals: Throughout teaching The Odyssey to 9th graders, some of my unit goals were that I wanted students to read a piece of epic world literature, use the skills of analysis, interpretation, summary, and research to understand themes of the text and connect them to their everyday lives.
Enduring Understandings: Students will understand that literature can be related to their everyday lives, that sometimes life takes you in places you wouldn’t expect, perseverance and resiliency are ideal for a long journey, and that people are determined and driven to succeed when driven by emotion.
Essential Questions: Some essential questions that will be raised multiple times throughout the unit would be
- What does it mean to “come home”?
- What does a journey entail?
- Is a goal the same thing as a journey?
Standards Chosen:
Sommer Forkenbrock 