DANIEL R. WOODS

Lesson Plans

Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.
-Chinese proverb

Shakespeare Unit

This unit was designed in an Undergraduate Grammar and Language for Teachers class. I have used it every year in my teaching and enjoy it more each time I use it. Additionally, through student feedback and personal reflection I continue to adapt and expand this Unit Plan from semester to semester. Downloadable PDF

Praxis Project

Charged with reinventing a traditional grammar chapter, I chose to reinvent a chapter on nouns to help students understand the descriptive power of naming. As Kutz and Roskelly note, it is "through the words used to reconstruct them, people demonstrate what they believe events mean and why they're significant." People often think only of adjectives and the like as being descriptive, but I wanted my students to see that a noun carries far more descriptive depth than any adjective. Within this context the students will gain an understanding of the power of naming, not just naming a person, but also, places, things, and ideas. Naming creates meaning and conventions, and conventions can lead to exclusions of those who do not conform to the conventions, therefore students will benefit from understanding the depth and breadth of those conventions. I believe that mastery of a convention can create freedom from that convention. Downloadable PDF

Cross-Curricular Thematic Unit

This Thematic Unit was created in a collaborative effort during my Content Reading class. Working with three other students whose specialties include: Science, Math, and English as a Second Language, we created a unit that allows for collaboration between teachers, between students, and between teachers and students.

The purpose of this Thematic, in particular, is to prompt relationships between biology, mathematics, culture, and language arts (through research), in an effort to reveal how drugs influence the systems of both the human body and society as a whole. Students will then develop a multi-layered and purposeful understanding of the cultural history, biological effects, mathematical implications, and research options related to drugs, in order to make informed decisions. Downloadable PDF