Instructional Approach: Unit

Unit-based approaches are commonly organized around a theme or a content topic. Themes might include friendship, citizenship, or happiness. Content topics commonly relate to content areas such as Oceans, the Civil War, or Dr. Seuss. Sometimes units are predetermined by teachers. Other times students identify a topic for inquiry.

Students read about specified (or self-selected) units. They discuss their readings. Then, they commonly culminate their units with a presentation about their findings. These presentations might include a written report, a multimedia presentation, and an oral presentation.

Baker (2000) provides a description of how a fourth-grade teacher used technology in her classroom to support unit-based approaches.