Parts of a Whole

Upon reading Swagorinsky's entire unit plan and the thought process required, it is clear how important it is to envision the "big picture."  Rief also discusses planning long term, going so far as to map out the entire school year, ready to make adjustments. I prefer Swagorinsky's approach to planning a unit and allowing each lesson plan to build on one another in order to accomplish the unit goals. Rief suggests having three different hand outs for parents so they know what to expect of their students, but I feel this is excessive, especially if you are teaching to Swagorinsky's hypothetical class. I found his detailed lesson plans to be very insightful. The fact that he plans down to the minute allows him to predict the way each class will go. He does leave a lot of Fridays open, in anticipation of previous days of the week running over. He saves a few minutes here and a few minutes there for things that had not crossed my mind. For example, at the beginning of every class he allots 3 minutes for "attendance, housekeeping." He understands from experience that class will not just begin when the bell rings. I also like that after each unit, he allows the students to give feedback on the literary materials he chose, as well as the group activities. As Swagorinsky points out, this is especially helpful when you're first starting out. In the same sense, I liked that Rief each year builds a list of student feedback on their Readers and Writers Surveys. This allows her to know her students and what to expect of them that year. It also allows her to conform to their needs.