MYP unit planner
Unit title
East Asia, Making Connections
Teacher(s)
Letterman, Lajewski, D. Davis, K.Davis, Louchart
Subject and grade level
World Geography 7th grade, IB 2 years
Time frame and duration
Four-Five Weeks
Stage 1: Integrate significant concept, area of interaction and unit
question
Area of interaction focus
Significant concept(s)
Which area of interaction will be our focus?
Why have we chosen this?
What are the big ideas? What do we want our
students to retain for years into the future?
Environment: Social, economic, political,
and environmental issues affecting the
people of East Asia.
Global impact international economic and
political relationships
MYP unit question
How are we as a country impacted by issues facing East
Asia?
Assessment
What task(s) will allow students the opportunity to respond to the unit question?
What will constitute acceptable evidence of understanding? How will students show what they have understood?
The students work in pairs to create posters depicting three of the five themes as found in a country in
the region of East and Southeast Asia. The posters are displayed in different parts of the room or
school for students to observe and discuss.
Students will discuss
●ways in which the sub-regions, countries, and cultures of East Asia are alike and different
●some important connections between the past and present in East Asia
Reflection:
●Students will use a 3-2-1 activity to answer essay questions
*Name three issues facing East Asia.
*Two solutions to the problem.
*Write one introduction paragraph on how our country is impacted by current issues facing
East Asia
Which specific MYP objectives will be addressed during this unit?
Knowledge and Understanding: Using the Five Themes of Geography, students will explore different
countries of East Asia and display their knowledge of a given country
Investigation: Formulating question and researching facts about an assigned East Asian country
Thinking Critically: Analyzing issues that are currently defined in East Asia
Which MYP assessment criteria will be used?
Criterion A: Knowledge and Understanding
Criterion B: Investigation
Stage 2: Backward planning: from the assessment to the learning
activities through inquiry
Content
What knowledge and/or skills (from the course overview) are going to be used to enable the student to respond to the unit
question?
What (if any) state, provincial, district, or local standards/skills are to be addressed? How can they be unpacked to develop the
significant concept(s) for stage 1?
Knowledge- geography and overview of the history of East Asia
Describe cultural characteristics of various countries and regions of East Asia
Skills- interpret maps related to political and economic issues
Compare and contrast countries and regions of East Asia in terms of political structures, social,
environmental, and economic issues.
Making connections from East Asia to the World.
Content Expectations
7 – H1.4.2:
Describe and use themes of history to study patterns of change and
continuity. See also 6 – H1.4.2.
7 – G1.1.1:
Explain and use a variety of maps, globes, and web based geography
technology to study the world, including global, interregional, regional,
and local scales.
7 – G1.2.4:
Draw the general population distribution of the Eastern Hemisphere
on a map, analyze the patterns, and propose two generalizations
about the location and density of the population.
7 – G1.2.6:
Apply the skills of geographic inquiry (asking geographic questions,
acquiring geographic information, organizing geographic information,
analyzing geographic information, and answering geographic
questions) to analyze a problem or issue of importance to a region.
See also 6 – G1.2.6.
7 –G1.3.2:
Explain the locations and distributions of physical and human
characteristics of Earth by using knowledge of spatial patterns.
7 – G2.1.1:
Describe the landform features and the climate of the region (within
the Western or Eastern Hemispheres) under study.
7 – G4.1.1:
Identify and explain examples of cultural diffusion within the Eastern
Hemisphere (e.g., the spread of sports, music, architecture, television,
Internet, Bantu languages in Africa, Islam in Western Europe).
7 – G4.3.1
Identify places in the Eastern Hemisphere that have been modified to
be suitable for settlement by describing the modifications that were
necessary (e.g., Nile River irrigation, reclamation of land along the
North Sea, planting trees in areas that have become desertified in
Africa).
7 – G4.3.2:
Describe patterns of settlement by using historical and modern maps
(e.g., the location of the world’s mega cities, other cities located near
coasts and navigable rivers, regions under environmental stress such
as the Sahel).
7 – G4.4.1:
Identify factors that contribute to conflict and cooperation between
and among cultural groups (control/use of natural resources, power,
wealth, and cultural diversity).
7 – G5.1.1:
Describe the environmental effects of human action on the
atmosphere (air), biosphere (people, animals, and plants), lithosphere
(soil), and hydrosphere (water) (e.g., changes in the tropical forest
environments in Brazil, Peru, and Costa Rica). See also 6 – G5.1.1.
7 – G5.1.3:
Identify the ways in which human-induced changes in the physical
environment in one place can cause changes in other places (e.g.,
cutting forests in one region may result in river basin flooding
elsewhere as has happened historically in China; building dams
floods land upstream and permits irrigation downstream as in
Southern Africa, the Aswan Dam flooded the upper Nile Valley and
permitted irrigation downstream).
7 – C1.1.1:
Explain how the purposes served by government affect relationships
between the individual, government, and society as a whole and the
differences that occur in monarchies, theocracies, dictatorships, and
representative governments.
7 – C3.6.1:
Define the characteristics of a nation-state (a specific territory, clearly
defined boundaries, citizens, and jurisdiction over people who reside
there, laws, and government) and how Eastern Hemisphere nations
interact.
7 – C4.3.2:
Explain the challenges to governments and the cooperation needed to
address international issues in the Eastern Hemisphere (e.g.,
migration and human rights).
7 – E2.3.1:
Explain how national governments make decisions that impact both
that country and other countries that use its resources (e.g., sanctions
and tariffs enacted by a national government to prevent imports, most
favored trade agreements, the impact China is having on the global
economy and the U.S. economy in particular).
7 – E3.1.1:
Explain the importance of trade (imports and exports) on national
economies in the Eastern Hemisphere (e.g., natural gas in North
Africa, petroleum Africa, mineral resources in Asia).
7 – E3.1.4:
Explain how communications innovations have affected economic
interactions and where and how people work (e.g., internet home
offices, international work teams, international companies). See also 6
– E3.1.4.
7 – E3.3.1:
Explain and compare how economic systems (traditional, command,
and market) answer four basic questions: What should be produced?
How will it be produced? How will it be distributed? Who will receive the
benefits of production? (e.g., market economies in Africa, Europe;
command economy in North Korea; and the transition to market
economies in Vietnam and China).
Approaches to learning
How will this unit contribute to the overall development of subject-specific and general approaches to learning skills?
Inquiry- asking questions and researching an East Asian country
Knowledgeable-they will examine health, environmental, social and political issues that impact many East
Asian countries
Thinking – creating a poster; comparing and contrasting East Asian countries.
Communication-understand and share ideas with classmates in a creative manner
Open minded- appreciation for cultures and traditions, different from your own
Risk takers- creating a poster with confidence on a subject they are not familiar with and utilizing
technology
Reflective – on how issues of East Asia impact them and their world.
Learning experiences
How will students know what is expected of them? Will
they see examples, rubrics, templates?
How will students acquire the knowledge and practise
the skills required? How will they practise applying
these?
Do the students have enough prior knowledge? How will
we know?
1.
They will be given a rubric with
descriptions of what needs to go on the
poster.
2. Using student resources provided by the
teacher (websites: CIA World Fact Book,
un.org, Culturegrams), students will research
and explore their assigned country. During a
class discussion, they will compare and
contrast:
●ways in which the sub-regions,
countries, and cultures of East Asia are alike
and different
●some important connections between
the past and present in East Asia
Teaching strategies
How will we use formative assessment to give students feedback
during the unit?
What different teaching methodologies will we employ?
How are we differentiating teaching and learning for all? How have
we made provision for those learning in a language other than their
mother tongue? How have we considered those with special
educational needs?
Teacher will model expectations for posters by creating
an example. Teacher will use LCD projector to show
students how to utilize websites for research.
Students will be required to compare and contrast
different countries of East Asia.
Power Points with maps and charts of East Asia will be
used to help students learn about issues facing East
Asia and be required to answer related analytical
questions.
In 3-2-1 question format, students will be required to
write a reflective essay.
Differentiated Instruction:
Supplemental materials for students with reading
difficulties at lower levels. Specific lists of things to
include on the poster.
Use students’ IEPs to modify plans
Resources
What resources are available to us?
How will our classroom environment, local environment and/or the community be used to facilitate students’ experiences during
the unit?
World Geography Books, Internet websites (un.org, CIA World Factbook, Culturegrams, students’ work
from prior years, travel brochures, Word Publisher
Students are encouraged to use people from the community who may have travelled to these countries as
well as family.
Ongoing reflections and evaluation
In keeping an ongoing record, consider the following questions. There are further
stimulus questions at the end of the “Planning for teaching and learning” section of
MYP: From principles into practice.
Students and teachers
What did we find compelling? Were our disciplinary knowledge/skills challenged in any way?
What inquiries arose during the learning? What, if any, extension activities arose?
How did we reflect—both on the unit and on our own learning?
Which attributes of the learner profile were encouraged through this unit? What opportunities were there for student-initiated
action?
Possible connections
How successful was the collaboration with other teachers within my subject group and from other subject groups?
What interdisciplinary understandings were or could be forged through collaboration with other subjects?
Assessment
Were students able to demonstrate their learning?
How did the assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate the learning objectives identified for this unit? How did I make
sure students were invited to achieve at all levels of the criteria descriptors?
Are we prepared for the next stage?
Data collection
How did we decide on the data to collect? Was it useful?
Figure 12
MYP unit planner