Here is the entire March Madness Unit I will be using in my Resource Room.  I included the links from my previous post as well.

• March Madness Prezi (I found this and it is perfect as is, no need to edit.)
• March Madness Scavenger Hunt (I made this to go with the Prezi.)
• NCAA Final Four Unit (This is the grade sheet my co-worker will use. I will be modifying this.)

Map Skills – Students will be asked to include a map on their display board that shows the location of each college and the state abbreviations.  Below are three  different maps for different levels for the abbreviations requirement.

• Blank U.S
• Abbreviations Map
• State Abbreviations WS

There is a great blog, Bill’s Sports Maps (billsportsmaps.com), that will have an updated map of all 68 teams.  Typically we don’t show this to the higher students and many of them will discover it on their own.  However, it is a good “cheat sheet” for some IEP students.

Research the College/University – Students must research the college or university and locate information. I have created a Recording Sheet for March Madness for the college and team info.  In the past, I found it was very difficult for some middle school students to understand college and associated terms like founder, enrollment, campus, degrees, major, and tuition.  It might help to use a local college not in the tournament to model this.

• College Information

Research the Team – Similar to the college/university research, students must find information on the team itself.

• Athletic Team Information

Writing a Letter – This has been optional in past social studies classes.  I am going to do this for sure in my Resource Room.  Sometimes a college or athletic department will send something back in the mail.  Below is a sample letter you could use. Students can include the stickers, pamphlets, T-shirts and autographed posters  (Yes, some kids receive things like that) on their display boards.

• Letter for March Madness

University Advertisement –This is a new requirement this year.  It must be at least one minute in length, be informative, and promote the college. (Prezi, video, etc. – No PowerPoints or posters) 

Writing a Poem Using Figurative Language

• March Madness Poem Template – This is the template we have used in the past in Inclusion Language Arts.

Another great resource for your March Madness Unit:

• “March Madness” Unit (www.quia.com/pages/mmchristiancy.html) – This is where I found the sample letter mentioned above. The links at the bottom of the page are great ways to help students locate information and include some of the links I posted above.  Also included: links about school mascots, fight songs, and everything NCAA-related.