Planning Guide For Science Instruction: Step 1: Unit Unpacking Time Estimate: 60 To 90 Minutes

Planning Guide for Science Instruction
Step 1: Unit Unpacking Time Estimate: 60 to 90 minutes

Question: As students engage with phenomena, how will they use the science and engineering practices, apply the crosscutting concepts, and
develop understanding of the disciplinary core ideas?
Purpose: Team members analyze the unit performance expectation(s) to deepen understanding of what students should know and be able to
do according to the Louisiana Student Standards for Science (LSSS).
Examine the K–12 Louisiana Student Standards for Science, Appendix A—Learning Progressions (available via
https://www.louisianabelieves.com/resources/library/k-12-science-resources) to understand content from previous grades or courses. Respond
to the questions below after you unpack and annotate a unit of study.
What does it mean to annotate my curriculum? What does annotation look like?
• Interacting with the instructional materials • Highlighting, underlining, or adding stars to emphasize important ideas
• Showing your thinking while you read and study • Writing questions or comments in the margins
• Noting questions you need to answer • Bracketing or circling content you want to revisit
• Marking ideas you want to revisit • Using ??? or !!! to indicate questions or critical ideas
• Creating exemplar student responses • Noting instructional strategies to implement
• Identifying places where students may struggle • Indicating supports to address student struggles
• Indicating accommodations to meet the needs of diverse learners
Annotation and Professional Learning Community (PLC) Focus

• What will students learn about the phenomenon by the end of the unit?
• What science concepts will students learn by the end of the unit?
• How will you assess and support students' understanding of the three dimensions (science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary
core ideas)?
• What incremental checkpoints will you use throughout the unit to assess students’ knowledge of the phenomenon and science knowledge?
• How will students deepen their understanding of the three dimensions (science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas)
by building on previously learned content?
Posted on November 24, 2020 Page 1

Step 2: Unit Launch Deep Dive Time Estimate: 60 minutes
Question: How will students engage in phenomenon-based instruction?
Purpose: Team members build an understanding of the unit launch experience by exploring the unit overview and the elements of the Anchoring
Phenomenon Routine from the student perspective.
Anchoring Phenomenon Routine Elements Annotation Discussion Questions
Explore Phenomena What activities will students complete during initial and consensus discussions about the phenomenon?
How will the investigations help students develop an understanding of the phenomenon?
Make Sense of Phenomena Highlight or note relevant data, models, images, and texts—that represent the language and style used and
produced by scientists—that students will engage with to generate initial explanations about the
anchoring phenomenon.
Create sample anchor charts (e.g., notice and wonder charts, initial models, etc.) for the unit launch.
Identify places in the unit launch where students may struggle, and determine appropriate supports.
Identify Related Phenomena Identify local or culturally relevant phenomena that students may identify during the unit’s launch.
How might students connect to the identified examples?
How will you support access to the content for students who have gaps in background knowledge?
How will you attend to equity during the unit’s launch?
Develop Questions About the Phenomena Develop evidence-based questions that students may pose that can be used to navigate future lessons and
investigations that advance the storyline.
How will you use the driving question board (DQB) from the anchor phenomenon launch throughout the
unit of study?
— Adapted from OpenSciEd Lesson Level Assessment Planning Tool; request access to original via https://www.openscied.org | This OpenSciEd content
used under its Creative Commons license, Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Step 3: Lesson Set Annotation Time Estimate: 60 minutes
Question: How will students incrementally develop an understanding of the anchoring phenomenon and science concepts?
Purpose: Team members annotate sequences of lessons to determine where incremental sense-making occurs in the unit of study, in order to be
able to make instructional decisions that best meet the intent of the standards and the needs of all students.
Choose a lesson set from the current unit of study Annotation Discussion Questions
Critically read the lesson-set performance expectation(s). What Science and Engineering Practice(s) will students use?
Where are the conceptual checkpoints for the Disciplinary Core Idea(s)?
How will students apply the Crosscutting Concept(s)?
Identify competing ideas that students may have about How will you leverage these ideas during student sense-making and argumentation?
phenomena.
Identify instructional routines you’ll use throughout the What strategies, routines, and discussion protocols will you use for each lesson set?
lesson set (e.g., Science Instructional Model).
What tools and resources will you use to plan facilitation?
Determine how student understanding will be assessed Identify 2 to 3 of the critical tasks in the lesson set. Create or review exemplar student
after the lesson set. responses.
Note key understandings you will look for or listen for in each task.
Identify places where students may have misconceptions. What strategies will you use to
support students?

Step 4: Student Work Analysis Time Estimate: 40 minutes
Question: How do you use three-dimensional assessments to evaluate students’ understanding?
Purpose: Team members establish norms for evaluating student work, analyze student work to formatively assess students’ understanding, and
from that analysis determine the implications for instructional practice and effectiveness.
Student Work Analysis Protocol
• Step 1: Identify criteria for analyzing student work using the performance expectation(s) and task.
• Step 2: Identify exemplar student responses.
• Step 3: Analyze student work.
• Step 4: Identify and discuss trends.
• Step 5: Plan for future instruction.
Choose a formative assessment Annotation Discussion questions
Analyze Student Work Where do you see evidence of students using the Science and Engineering Practices?
Where are students applying content knowledge?
How are students connecting ideas using Crosscutting Concepts?
What are patterns and trends in what students know and can do?
Plan for Future Instruction Based on this student work analysis, what are the implications for future instruction?
What is the plan for responding to students’ needs for intervention and enrichment?

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Planning Guide for Science Instruction

Step 1: Unit Unpacking Time Estimate: 60 to 90 minutes

Annotation and Professional Learning Community (PLC) Focus

Posted on November 24, 2020 Page 1

Posted on November 24, 2020 Page 2

How will students apply the Crosscutting Concept(s)?

Posted on November 24, 2020 Page 3

Where are students applying content knowledge?

How are students connecting ideas using Crosscutting Concepts?

Posted on November 24, 2020 Page 4

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