DI+UbD+Chapter+3+Block+1

[|Synthesis UbD/DI C3 B1]

A major problem educators face is content overload. This is not a new problem, and steps have been taken, such as standards, to reduce the problem. Unfortunately, the standards have done the opposite, and mathematically, it would be impossible to obtain them. Another problem in the standards is that they are either too vague or too precise. The "mile wide and inch deep" way of teaching is almost enforced by the textbooks and benchmark testing. A possible solution to these issues is to teach deeper understanding of larger ideas. A student should be able to explain larger spanned areas with more understanding in essential questions. One way to do this is to teach backwards, which makes it easier to set teaching goals and assess students more fairly and accurately. I think that a lot of teachers agree with this chapter. I have never heard a teacher say that NCLB or any other standards have helped the learning in their classrooms. The idea of knowing what you are going to test for before you teach the lesson is critical to assess what a student is learning. This could also be a good way to use MI to attack each student's interests more aggressively. I don't think you need to have an exam written before you teach the lesson, but you should have an idea of the pertinent information and then make your test accordingly.
 * **Names** || **Abstract** || **Reflection** ||
 * Archambault Michael ||  ||

. This chapter helps solves the problem that teachers have with having too much content and too little time to teacher it. Most states came up with standards to specify what students should learn to try to eliminate this problem. However, it seems that most standards made the problems worse. In order for the curriculum to meet these standards, there is a process that can be used called the planning backward approach. There are three different stages to this approach. In the first stage, the teacher identifies the desired results and the teacher examines goals that he or she wants the students to accomplish. In step two, the teacher determines acceptable evidence. This causes the teacher to asses the curriculum before coming up with units and lessons. Stage three is when a teacher plans learning experiences and instruction. This chapter interests me as much as it frightens me. Curriculum is one of my fears of teaching and now with the standards it’s even more intimidating. This planning backward approach is hard for me to wrap my head around. I understand how it is supposed to help, but personally, the thought of starting a curriculum is too much right now. I think that once I calm down about making a curriculum this will be able to help me. This approach makes it easier though. Planning goals first and then assessing before you actually start is good because you make sure what you’re trying to teach will work. || In the third chapter of DI/UbD the matters of content came into play. Most teachers are given too much to teach with the little time that they are given. This creates a situation in which teachers have to decide which information is not important enough to make it into their schedule. The principle that teachers should avoid is “mile wide, inch deep” in that teachers should strive to make their lessons deeper in fewer areas than shallower in more. To avoid this problem, teachers should look at big ideas that are concise, but not too concise. The idea should be broad enough to work with, though. When a teacher becomes goal oriented, they can begin to use the backward design process in which the desired results are considered before addressing how to assess students, and what knowledge needs to be attained. I once again have found this book to be confusing. I suppose it may be out of redundancy or lack of enthusiasm in the writing. This chapter was helpful with the information it gave regarding the backward design process. I feel that although the steps were repetitive within themselves, in that in each step the directions were restated, yet did get the point across. I guess I am still confused as to how I go about doing a backward design process, and am a little lost. Although the chapter was helpful, it was nowhere near a guide to the lost. It did give basics, I just wish it would have given better examples. I believe that the backward design model is an extremely good way to plan out lessons. I feel that it is an extremely good way to keep your big goal in mind while doing different activities which potentially lead up to your goal. The backwards design model helps to eliminate activities which are irrelevant in the classroom and also just going over the text book. I believe that this model has a lot to offer to incoming teachers and that using it one can really succeed as a teacher. || The third chapter of Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design dealt with the problem of figuring out which content is the most important to teach in a class. The author described a method known as “backward design.” One way to figure this out, according to the author, is to identify what specific information you want your students to know. Also, you should decide which information is most important to the lesson. Also, you should plan activities that are the best for what the lesson is teaching. I thought this chapter was pretty helpful. As a history teacher, there is going to be a lot of information that I think students should know, and there is a lot of history in the world. So it was nice to learn ways I can help myself to not make lessons so long and involved. Instead, I can make lessons that are shorter and more engaging to the student.
 * Audy Melissa || Chapter 3 of //Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design// addresses the essential question, “What really matters in learning?” The simple answer: content—however the chapter goes much deeper than this. Course content is mostly determined by state and national standards that require teachers to ensure that their students will leave with certain skills. It is often difficult, however to meet all of these standards within the school year given. The chapter addresses the many problems that arise in standardized learning, from course overload, to overly specific standards, to standards that are far too vague to fulfill. A solution is provided to this issue of dealing with standards; it is called the strategy of “planning backwards.” In this strategy, you start with the end product—that is, you decide what your goal is for the students. After one has decided upon a result he or she would like to see in the students, he or she must consider how they will assess whether or not the goal has been met, and if partially, to what extent. It is only after all of this has been considered that it becomes safe for a teacher to go ahead and plan the curriculum accordingly. || I agree that standards in education just make teaching harder. In fact, I disagree with standardized testing completely, and it escapes me how taking away funding from failing schools will help their students out in any way. But with my stubborn opinion aside, I must say that I like the idea of “planning backwards.” It is a great way to assure yourself as a teacher that you will be able to reach your desired results in the time allotted. However, even this method has its flaws in my eyes. I believe that a curriculum must have room for change—students will always have common mistakes that need to be corrected, and teaching these things takes time. For example, if my entire English class were to continuously cite things wrong in their papers, I would need to take some class time to conjure up and direct a mini-lesson teaching proper citation. It is important to keep your students’ current needs in mind, as well as your plan for desired results. If your “backwards planning” leaves room to accommodate these little instances, it sure sounds like a successful method. ||
 * Boulter Elizabeth || Chapter 3 discusses what content teachers should teach. It talks about how to determine what ideas and large questions students should be introduced to. It goes on to discuss what they call “content overload” where there is not enough time during class for the teacher to teach all expected material. Also, the chapter reveals the two downfalls of content standards. The standards seem to be either too narrow or too broad. More often than not, the standards create roadblocks to learning instead of helping with the content overload. It also introduced “Planning Backwards” and its three stages. The chapter said by using this design, teachers are able to better identify what standards need to be met and is the “bank” of the educational river. || This chapter was really helpful in understanding how to “choose” what students are taught. I had that very same question when I started reading this chapter but by the end I had a much better understanding of why standards are in place and how you can actually work with them, instead of letting them be obstacles. I also got a better understanding of how to use the backwards planning model and why that will help in my curriculum and lesson planning. It also showed how my students will benefit from that method! ||
 * Brown Ryanne || The beginning portion of this chapter gives a clear idea of how the curriculum can be clarified into big ideas and essential questions so that the students and parents get the sense that teachers are teaching for student understanding and important content rather than solely for tests or just to get through a textbook. This way of learning and teaching promotes a more focused curriculum of which more students can benefit from in bigger ways. Using our personal teaching goals, content standards and curriculum expectations as teachers we begin our backwards planning. From there we must determine appropriate assessments that will keep our plans on task and in constant work for determining our progress. Next we can write lesson plans in relation to how to teach what will create positive results for the assessment and in turn positive results for the entire unit. Next the planning template helps with the flow of this particular strategy. The remainder of the chapter focuses on helping the teacher incorporate the differentiation of students into the backwards planning process. || I think the backwards planning process is a great idea. It seems like a very structured way of making sure the classroom goals are met and all of the standards are taught accurately. This form of planning could be challenging, but worth it to have the correct results. The difficulty in this type of planning seems to be that there is not a ton of room for flexibility in teaching for different learning styles so the lesson plans would have to be incredibly well done and cover a wide array of learning styles and content. A challenge is always good in teaching though, it keeps things interesting! ||
 * DePue Margaux || Chapter Three of Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design emphasizes the importance of knowing what content and how much to teach to students and how to effectively plan a curriculum. It states that lesson plans should not focus on standards or textbooks, but on large ideas that motivate students to think about the content and its details. The chapter teaches educators about the Backward Planning design to use when creating a curriculum. This is done in three steps: determining desired results, identifying how to assess the student on how well they achieved these results and finally, planning the instruction. || This chapter teaches educators how to avoid severe and crippling mistakes when planning a curriculum by introducing the backwards design. Rather than relying on standards that ask for too much or too little from students and teachers alike, or relying on a textbook that should be used as a guiding tool with engaging lessons, teachers can pinpoint exactly what they want their students to gain from their class. This gives students a chance to have a meaningful learning experience rather than an experience meant to force-feed them mindless information. Also, teachers will not slip into the pitfalls of having a curriculum that is either too fruity without enough content or trying to cover too much without any connection to the real importance of the lesson. Backwards planning helps educators focus on teaching useful skills rather than mindless information with no point or purpose. ||
 * Dunne Kaisha || Chapter 3 is called “What Really Matters in Learning? (Content)”, but really it could be called template. This chapter is just one big template for teachers to go through and understand the backwards design and the the stages that go with it that we began to discuss in class. The backwards design is built so that there is less chance for a teacher to face the “overload” problem as much. With that out of the way for the most part teachers can dive in to get to the “big ideas” and desired goals that they want to cover in the unit they are planning. Stage one is a way to get out ones desired results; what they really want to accomplish in this unit. Stage two is how one will assess student achievement. Finally stage three is the activities one desires to do with this unit/ the outlines for lesson plans. || Chapter 3 gave a big outline for me to understand that a unit and the backwards design model are both based off of 'big ideas' that one hopes to achieve with their students. Getting out the desired results and how to assess students before they have even begun sounds tricky, but in the end it makes one really prepared for the road ahead. This was a nice breakdown and made what we rushed through at the end of class a little more understandable. I think that I would love to be able to do this, but I might be a little slow at first to get the hang of it. ||
 * Hudson Kimberly ||  ||
 * Korn Shauna || This chapter talked about how we as teachers need to understand what knowledge is, the right knowledge to pass on, and which will be beneficial to our students. There is so much criteria that educators are expected to cover and finding key points is sometimes hard when there is a bundle of information. This chapter also covered the standards that we have in education to help break down all this information. By having these standards there are categories in which a teacher can enter in information that will help make the teacher’s decision easier on what information to chose and present. This chapter also went over each stage on a planning template and explained how it is used as an outline for the key ideas of a lesson or unit. The template also showed which parts should change in order to reach students and each of their learning styles and which sections should remain the stable. || After reading this chapter I felt much better about how our “Backward Design” works. I was a little overwhelmed by all the information, but it is now clearer to me why we are using this template and how helpful it is actually going to be in our classrooms. This chapter also helped me with some of my fears of having to cover so much information and learning how to cover it, have the kids learn, and do well on standardized tests. I like how there was a lot of structure to the chapter when it talked about how to plan your units or lessons. The point of always keeping your goals in mind as an ending point I believe will help me the most when teaching in a classroom, just knowing that end result and having my focus be towards that.
 * LaRose Rebecca ||  ||
 * Murphy Amber || Chapter three was about the backward design model. This planning model has three different stages identifying the desired results, determine acceptable evidence and plan learning experiences and instruction. This design starts by identifying the final goal or choosing the important information for the students to know. The second part of the model determining acceptable evidence is associated with the teacher’s assessments. Knowing this it is extremely important that our final goals are paired with the assessment properly. The last step in the backward design model is planning learning experiences. The backward planning model avoids two poorly designed aspects of teaching which are activity-orientated instruction and coverage. Activity-orientated is hands on activities, however they have little to do with the final goal and coverage is simply teachers going over the text book each and everyday. ||
 * Nieuwkerk Hannah || It is important to be knowledgeable in many different contexts, but teachers have to be careful not to teach a little about everything: “a mile wide and an inch deep”, because this just leads to more confusion. States have made content standards (ex. MLR) to regulate what is to be taught so as to not overload the students, but it just might have made matters worse because of the way that the standards are worded; some are simply too broad and some are way too narrow. This makes it difficult for the teacher to teach and also difficult for the student to learn. To plan a good curriculum, using the 3-step backwards planning process might be beneficial: identify desired results, determine acceptable evidence, and plan learning experiences and instruction. It seems that when teachers use this idea, they aren’t just doing a unit to cover it, they are more interested and teach more in-depth. || This is a great idea for teaching and it connects wonderfully to exactly what we are doing in class. I like it so much because you decide right off what the goals should be and work down from there. I feel like this is a very effective way to teach because the teacher can see both ends of the spectrum, both the goals and what the results of teaching will be. I know when I make lesson plans, I will definitely use the 3-step backwards plan. I also feel that the MLR aren’t that great, because it really ties down teachers as to what they have to teach. It can make for a very scattered class, because one year, my English teacher followed the MLR and it seemed that we were doing something different all the time to try to fit something in and I found it really hectic and confusing. It will be very hard for teachers to incorporate all the MLR and smoothly teach a class. ||
 * Scheffler Erich ||  ||
 * Scheffler Erich ||  ||
 * Simoneau Andrea || This chapter identifies some of the problems that the adoption of learning standards attempt to solve. The greatest issue the book cites is the fact that knowledge, particularly in the fields of science and history, is ever expanding, and teachers must decide what to teach and what not to teach. Standards attempt to guide teachers in this task, but are often too broad or too specific to facilitate much learning. The solution that the book advocates is the use of companion questions, that is, a broader idea is given, and companion questions narrow down the content to be taught. An example the book gives, for an art class, is: “Artists cultures and personal experiences inspire the ideas and emotions they express. //Where do artists get their ideas? In what ways do culture and experience inspire artistic expression?//” [26] A broad idea is expressed in the first part, that the teacher wants the student to keep in mind as lessons are taught, and the italics contain questions that are more specific. This chapter also discusses the benefits of planning backward, and stress the importance of being mindful of responsive teaching practices when planning backward. || I was glad to see the book discussed the importance of teaching deep content and focusing on big concepts while still adhering to the guidance of standards. I have often been frustrated by the Maine Learning Results, knowing I had to keep these seemingly ridiculous things in mind because the Department of Education said I had to. But now I see their relevance, and I know that deep teaching and adhering to standards do not have to be mutually exclusive. Using guiding companion questions, I can still teach the big concepts and ideas and be in accordance with the standards. I am also glad the book addresses the importance of responsive teaching, and cautions against falling into the trap of one-size-fits-all when planning a unit. It would be easy, I would think, to fall into that, since you’re planning a unit with big ideas and concepts and all these ideas for content teaching, to forget that students vary. As the book says, “You are teaching human beings.” [39] ||
 * Stevens Newcomb || This chapter is about the “curriculum crisis.” There are subjects that have content that is constantly expanding like history. This creates problems because the curriculum covers a broad subject too shallow. One way to combat this problem is to ask and address key questions. Another way of preventing this is by teaching concepts instead of facts. There is the third way of planning backwards: this works because most people think backwards when it comes to teaching. || I have felt that some curriculums can be too shallow. I have talked to some history teachers about the expanding curriculums and they are very concerned. History is taught to teach concept. As long as the key concepts are addressed, history can continue to be a successful subject area. As language changes, scientists discover new things, and as math changes, other subjects are subject to curriculum growth. ||