Beginnings of my Unit Plan

In Curriculum for Middle and High Schools, we began putting our initial ideas for the unit we will be creating down on paper within the last week and a half. Then, we were tasked with creating a visual map of our unit chart through an app on our iPad's; I chose to use the app Inspiration. Although I do not know exactly what History topic I am planning to design my unit around, I do have many general ideas of what I will be expecting my students to know and be able to do at the conclusion of the unit.

For this unit, I will design a performance assessment that will demonstrate the students mastery of the standards I am assessing. I have been contemplating designing a research project that would culminate in possibly journal entries where they would portray a character from a specific historical event or potentially a research project display. I would also be willing to entertain ideas that students may have for a final Performance Assessment that would also meet my designated criteria which would be based on the standards I have chosen to assess which can be found at the link above in my unit chart. 

Designing a unit around my content area is directly related to Performance Criterion 7.1: Knowledge of Content Area. I chose this Performance Criterion because in creating the unit I will have to use the knowledge I have obtained through my study of history to write a grade appropriate unit plan which will then get broken down into specific lessons and assessments. I will also constantly evaluate students to ensure that they are actively engaged and decide whether I need to increase the difficulty of future lessons or make them easier to understand depending on how students are progressing.

I believe I am beginning to grasp Performance Criterion 7.1, but am not quite demonstrating proficiency. I feel this way because I have not yet narrowed down my unit to a specific topic, but once I am able to make that decision I believe I will be capable of showing a much higher proficiency than I am at this point in time. In order to decide on my topic, I need to reflect on what I learned in middle school, since that is the age I am designing my unit for, as well as complete more research on the topics that I am considering.