4. Use the Unit Organizer Routinely

I use this routine almost daily in class. I might have bellwork that requires students to use the UO to answer the questions or I open class by having students fill in the activities we will complete in class that day and preview the day's lesson using the web on the front. During a lesson we add questions we come up with to box 10, New Unit Self-Test Questions. To close a lesson we review what we learned with the expanded web on the back. After the first use of this for a unit my students started asking for them every unit. They now use them and have made the connection that the information on the UO is a summary of the most important information they have gathered during the unit. 

I used this unit organizer every day of the week whether we were co-constructing on the back, reviewing self-test questions, or adding to our assignment schedule.  My students know the routine and many are starting to use it on their own without my reminders.

We use the Unit Organizer routinely in my co-taught World Geography classes. We began each new unit with the UO routine throughout the 1st semester (Physical, Human, and Economic Geography). We added new information as we progressed through the units and the students were successful in using them as they completed review activities and prepared for unit assessments.

During our unit on Mapping, we looked back at the UO to complete the Expanded Map and to update the schedule/ check off items turned in. We used the self- test questions for the students to evaluate if they were prepared for the quiz at the end of the unit. When completing our Expanded Map we discussed how the Frame could be referenced and not copied completely on the map. Students seemed to enjoy that. 

The unit organizer is used as a daily routine to open the class as well as closure for a lesson.  The warm-up on a daily basis is a question requiring the students access their unit organizer to answer; whether it be what are we going to do today or what concept did we cover yesterday and how does will it play a role in today.  The closure is a review of where we have been and where we are going based on the Unit Organizer and schedule.