Topical Understandings
and
Essential Questions
Curriculum Alignment Integration Mapping
September 18, 2014
Inservice
Purpose for Today
All About Grain Size
Overarching
Understanding and
Questions
Topical
Understandings and
Questions
 General
 Specific
 Broad, lead to more
 Help students learn
general, transferable
understandings.
information about a specific
topic or skill.
 Lead to more questions.
 Have acceptable answers.
 Important in framing a
 Fit under the umbrella of an
course or program of study
overarching content
question
Sifting the Sand
What’s The Big Idea?
Stage 3 Learning Plan
 What might students take away from these learning
activities?
 What understandings could the students develop?
List your ideas with an elbow partner or in clusters
of 2 – 3
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
1. Think and Write: Imagine that you and your friends are taken from your families
and are forced to go to school in China. You are told that you are not allowed to
speak anything but Chinese and must wear a uniform. You are not allowed to
share your opinion with your teachers or principal; if you do, you will get hit or
worse. You cannot run away and must live there for five years. How do you think
this experience will affect you and your family for the rest of your life? Give
reasons to defend your opinion. Use the checklist to write your paragraph.
2. Introduce novel with the film History of the Iñupiat: NipaaIlitqusipta / The Voice
of Our Spirit.
3. Discuss point of view.
4. Explain "In the Head" journal. An "In the Head" journal is a point of view journal
for each character at that time and place in the story. "What are they thinking?
What are they feeling? Imagine yourself in their place." Think and Write: Write
from the point of view of a character.
5. Sequencing:
6. Summarizing:
7. Craft and structure:
8. Figurative and Connotative Language:
9. Theme:
10. How Do Languages Die? * Listen to NPR story: "Last Fluent
Speaker of Eyak Language Dies"
11. Watch The Duck-In and/or Project Chariot documentaries.
12. How to Research through Interviewing
13. At the end of the novel and unit, invite elders from your community
to speak to the class about how the loss of facility in speaking Iñupiaq
has affected events and people on the North Slope.
Solidifying the Knowledge
Gather More Evidence!
Stage 2 Assessment Evidence
 What big ideas/understandings will the student’s need to
complete this GRASPS task?
After you read through the following GRASPS jot down
your observations and turn and talk.
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence:
GRASPS
First-Person Narrative
Summative: Written: Narrative

Your goal is to analyze and write about the effects of the Iñupiat language loss
(DOK Level 4); you will analyze, or think deeply, about the structure, “the
bones,” of your writing as well as your peers' (DOK Level 4). You will have two
important jobs: researcher and author.

Researcher: You will research the history of the Iñupiaq language by interviewing two
Iñupiaq elders in your community about their experiences in school and the effect that
Western education had on their use of the Iñupiaq language.
Here are some suggested questions you can use in your interview:
1) Was your first language Iñupiaq?
2) When did you learn English?
3) What was school like for you?

Author: Based on the experiences of the elders you interview, you will craft a character
(DOK Level 4) and write a narrative that describes the experiences of many of the elders
(DOK Level 2), such as loss of language, childhood memories of school, and its effect on
their lives today.
The Big Ideas
Your Prediction Is?
Stage 1 Desired Results
 Based on the evidence so far what Big Ideas and topics
do you predict will be present in Stage 1?
First let’s consider the ILF? What ideas would you
expect to find?
Stage 1
ILF Overarching Understandings/
Essential Questions
ILF Performance Expectations
ILF: Historical Realm, K3-12, North
Slope History
ILF: Performance Expectations:
Historical Realm, Novice, North Slope
History North Slope History: Language
H.nsh.1

OU: Culture is embedded in
language; different languages
uniquely express cultural
understandings and beliefs.
[H.nsh.1]
The student demonstrates an
understanding of the role of the Iñupiaq
language in North Slope history by . . .

EQ: Why do languages die?
[H.nsh.1.a]

[N] H.nsh.1.1 Examining and
explaining the world language tree.

EQ: How has the loss of facility in
speaking Iñupiaq affected events
and people on the North Slope?
[H.nsh.1.c]

[N] H.nsh.1.3 Researching and
discussing how the loss of a
language has affected people on the
North Slope.
Your Prediction Is?
Stage 1 Desired Results
 Based on the evidence so far what Big Ideas and topics
do you predict will be present in Stage 1?
Next let’s consider the Content OUs and EQs? What
ideas would you expect to find?
Content Area Understandings
and Essential Questions
NSBSD: Language Arts, K312, Language Arts
 NSLA.4 OU: Effective
readers are able to identify a
text structure and use
appropriate strategies to
analyze and comprehend the
text.
 NSLA.4.c EQ: How do
readers isolate essential
information in a text?
 NSLA.4.d EQ: What is the
relationship between reading
and writing?
Try It Out!
 Based on the evidence to this point, take a few
minutes to write down a possible topical
understanding and essential question to align
with what you have seen so far.
 Share your thinking with your table group and
prepare to share one or two TUs and EQs.
Self Check
 Are they refer specifically to a topic of the unit?
 Does the question direct the learner to consider content
knowledge?
 Does the question lead to a yes/no answer or extend
the opportunity for student response?
 Does the question tie together the ILF and the content
specific knowledge?
Content Area Understandings
and Essential Questions
NSBSD: Language Arts, K312, Language Arts
 NSLA.4 OU: Effective
readers are able to identify a
text structure and use
appropriate strategies to
analyze and comprehend the
text.
 NSLA.4.c EQ: How do
readers isolate essential
information in a text?
 NSLA.4.d EQ: What is the
relationship between reading
and writing?
Self Check
 Are they refer specifically to a topic of the unit?
 Does the question direct the learner to consider content
knowledge?
 Does the question lead to a yes/no answer or extend
the opportunity for student response?
 Does the question tie together the ILF and the content
specific knowledge?
Content Area Understandings
and Essential Questions
NSBSD: Language Arts, K312, Language Arts
 NSLA.4 OU: Effective
readers are able to identify a
text structure and use
appropriate strategies to
analyze and comprehend the
text.
 NSLA.4.c EQ: How do
readers isolate essential
information in a text?
 NSLA.4.d EQ: What is the
relationship between reading
and writing?
Content Area Understandings
and Essential Questions
NSBSD: Language Arts, K3-12,
Language Arts



NSLA.4 OU: Effective readers are
able to identify a text structure and
use appropriate strategies to
analyze and comprehend the text.
NSLA.4.c EQ: How do readers
isolate essential information in a
text?
NSLA.4.d EQ: What is the
relationship between reading and
writing?
Topical Understandings & EQs

TU: Every part of culture has a specific role.

EQ: What role does language play in cultural
identity?

TU: The Western influence has had a great
impact on the North Slope.

EQ: In what ways has the North Slope been
affected by loss of language?

TU: Every individual's worldview is shaped by
his or her experiences.

EQ: How does individual experience affect
perspective?

TU: A variety of experiences, worldviews, and
emotions are reflected in a dynamic, round
character.

EQ: How does an author create dynamic,
round characters in a narrative?
Sifting Down
Stage 1 – Desired Results
 Starting with the Iñupiaq Learning Framework
 Look to our State and District Adopted Standards
 What are the Big Ideas important to the NSBSD
 NSBSD Content OUs and EQs
 What are the topical understandings and essential questions
that will drive the learning in ‘this unit’?
Overarching
Understanding and
Questions
Topical
Understandings and
Questions
 General
 Specific
 Broad, lead to more
 Help students learn
general, transferable
understandings.
information about a specific
topic or skill.
 Lead to more questions.
 Have acceptable answers.
 Important in framing a
 Fit under the umbrella of an
course or program of study
 From the drop downs
overarching content
question
 Self generated
Content Area OUs & EQs
NSLA.2 OU: As one’s knowledge base increases, the quality of thinking,
meaning-making and communication improves.

NSLA.2.a EQ: How does language empower us?

NSLA.2.b EQ: How does language influence a person's voice and worldview?
NSSS.G.3 OU: There is a connection between people and the utilization of
natural resources.

NSSS.G.3.a EQ: What effect does environment have on individuals and groups?

NSSS.G.3.b EQ: What effects do individuals and groups have on their
environment?

NSSS.G.3.c EQ: How do people’s beliefs and values affect the use of natural
resources?
Where can you find resources to help
with TUs and EQs?
In Science!
How do organisms live, grow, respond to their
environment, and reproduce?
By the end of grade 5.
STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
 How do the structures of
organisms enable life’s
functions?
Plants and animals have
both internal and external
structures that serve
various functions in
growth, survival, behavior,
and reproduction.
In Reading and ELA!
ENDURING
UNDERSTANDINGS:
 Words powerfully affect
meaning.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
 Why do readers need to pay
attention to a writer’s choice
of words?
I use the standards, but I look at the grade level standard
(and look above it to see where the goal is heading). I don't
focus on the Anchor standard to start. Also… When I write my
skills and knowledge, I make sure my topical OU's and EQ's
are aligned to those. ~ Jessica Kalvig CDT Facilitator ELA
Topical
Understandings and EQs
 They must align with the ILF and Content
Area OUs and EQs
 Note the formatting hovering cursor
 There is not a set ratio of TUs to EQs
 Think about the Self Check Checklist
Consider the Grain Size
In what was does art reflect,
as well as shape, culture?
How did Native Alaskans view the
“settlement” of their land?
How do our various body
systems interact?
How does the structure of various
insects help them to survive?
How do authors use story
elements to establish mood?
How are structure and function
related?
What do ceremonial masks
reveal about the Inca culture?
Whose “story” (perspective) is
this?
How does John Updike use
settings to establish mood?
What makes a system?
Oh,TOP-ical,
Not TROP-ical!