DI+UbD+Chapter+3+Block+2

[|Synthesis - UbD/DI C3 B2]

The third chapter in DI/UbD is all about the content we teach and how we decide what is worth teaching. The opening section talking about how we have a developed a content overload because the knowledge in certain subjects just continues to expand and standards have not help this problem because of the unreal amount of standards we have created. The other problem is that standards can all to often either have a scope that is either way to big or way to small. The key is to break it into medium size ideas that kids can grasp and then let facts and skills poor out of that. The next part goes into the backwards method of planning a unit which starts with identifying your desired result. The fist stage is the part in which we ask ourselves what is we want students to take from this unit and what are our goals within this unit. This stage requires us to look at state, local, and federal standards and the curriculum and then make strong and clear priorities. State 2 of the backwards design unit is to determine what is acceptable evidence showing the goals in stage 1 have been met. The key to this is knowing when have students proven they have met the desired results. The book asks us to think as an assessor because then we will know how to focus our teaching. Stage 3 of the model is to then plan experiences and instruction that will get students to the level they need to produce the evidence. Having t he end already in mind gives us a clear view into what resources, skills and information these students will need to meet the desired results we are have set in stage one. The next section we read talks about this backwards design model helps us to avoid the two major sins that we see in education. The sin is that teachers plan fun activity’s that really have no long-term substance or anything that really connects down the road. The second sin is that we cover to wide an area and just go through a textbook. The next part of the reading gives us a template for following the backwards design process. The next part of the text deals with common question asked about the design. An example question we see is how do we find our big ideas for unit to which the books answer look at standards that set by the local or state education board. The next part goes into the way responsive teaching fits into the model. The book suggests that stage one with the results we ask for should not be differentiated but the rest of the model should be. || I really loved this chapter because it gives me a clear road map on how to set up a unit and I really like the template they give with planning your destination fist and then saying ok now how do we get their. I really think that this is a very logical template for planning out how to run a course or a unit because it makes all the learning that takes place meaningful and working towards common goals but at the same time allows for responsive teaching. This is the other part of this chapter I enjoyed was the fact that it was laid out in clear terms how responsive teaching and this model match up with one and other and the way responsive teaching fits into the model will be one of the big things I will take away. || This chapter looks at the overload of content that a teacher is asked to teach in the classroom during one year or semester. The fact is, it is impossible to try to teach everything that the curriculum calls for without leaving out certain things. No Child Left Behind and the Maine Learning Results give some structure about what needs to be taught, however, it does not really address how to deal with having too much content to teach. This chapter introduces the “backward planning design,” made up of three different stages aimed at finding out what you as a teacher want to get accomplished in the class. Stage 1: the teacher shows what the student should learn. Stage 2: how the teacher will know whether or not they have meet the desired goal. Stage 3: The teacher makes the plan for the class. This model helps the teacher figure out how to deal with too much context, and make a clear and realistic plan of what can be accomplished in one course. Reflection, could not put in other box This chapter reminded me of my years of seeing teachers’ plans of covering a certain amount of subject matter ruined within just a few weeks. I like this idea of a backwards model, because it seems more realistic. I’ve had teachers who think that covering a textbook front to back means learning has taken place in the classroom. Rushing through chapters in a textbook, however, is sometimes just as bad as not learning the material at all. I am interested to see how this works in planning a class and actually using it in the classroom. I have always been very worried that I will not be able to accomplish a plan that I write for my class when I am teaching. Now that I have read about the backwards planning design I feel much more relieved, knowing that there is a way to accomplish a realistic, year-long plan. Chapter three discussed the backward design model. The backward design model has three different components to it. The first component is to identify the desired results of the unit. The second component is to determine the acceptable evidence for the unit. The third and final component for the backward design model is to plan learning experiences and instruction for the unit. The backward design model may seem a bit weird when a teacher first starts using it, but it eventually becomes easier and more comfortable to use. It is recommended to use the backward design model to create an entire unit instead of a single lesson. This is because there is not enough time to go through the complex ides and questions put in place in the backward design model. I really like the idea of the backward design model. It seems to be a very easy way to construct a unit for a class. As odd as it looks, the backward design model looks like it would be fairly simple to piece together and use. By using the backward design model, I feel that I could clearly map out what I will be doing during the unit. I also feel that it will give the students a good idea of what to expect for the unit. It also allows for teachers to concentrate more on the student’s outcome during the unit. It gives teachers a secure plan as to what they would expect for an outcome. In chapter three of DI/UbD Tomlinson and McTighe explain the process of planning backwards. Planning backwards is a three stage process, in stage one you identify desired results and “big ideas”, in stage two teachers “think like assessors” to determine acceptable evidence and in stage three you plan learning experiences and instruction. This process helps teachers avoid the “twin sins” of teaching (pg. 28). The first “sin,” being “activity-oriented,” stresses the importance of not having too many activities where students have a lot of fun but learn a little. The second “sing, being “coverage,” stresses the importance of teaching strictly from a book with no variety.
 * **Names** || **Abstract** || **Reflection** ||
 * Barnes Mckell || Chapter 3 was about the backward design. The backward design is broken up into three stages. Each stage has an effective process for focusing instruction. The backward design concept starts off by identifying desired results. Essentially answering the big question of what should students know, understand, and be able to do? The second part of the backward design concept is determining acceptable evidence. This should answer the question how will we know whether students have achieved desired results. An important aspect in this second part is matching our assessment measures with our goals. The third stage of this backward design concept is plan learning experiences and instructions. This part of the design gives you a way for students to use their knowledge and skills to perform effectively and give you desired results. “The goal is to make our teaching engaging and effective for learners, while always keeping the end in mind” (28). || I really like the concept of the backwards design. I think it works hand in hand with “teaching responsively” and “working smart”. I think in the past many teachers have used assessment measures that have not coincided with the desired material causing the measurements to not be effective. I also really like the idea of having an idea of what you want your students to know which will help teachers narrow down curriculum. America has the notion of a mile wide but an inch deep and I feel as though it does not work too well. I think it is important to reach the bigger conceptions and delve deeper into those ideas. ||
 * Brennick Christopher ||
 * Columbia Laura || Chapter three of //Integrating// entitled, "What Really Matters in Learning?" the content of curriculum is discussed. Many times, there is too much content to be covered in the allotted time. In addition, many of the standards set by the state or school are too broad, yet at the same time, it can be too narrow. This chapter also covered Planning Backward that has three major stages. They are, identifying the desired results; determine acceptable evidence, and planning learning experiences and instruction. Backwards Planning helps teachers to stay away from having meaningless activities as well as the routine of just going through the textbook without much thought put into it. One of the quotes at the end of this chapter stated that a river needs banks to support it so it can run smoothly. That is exactly what Backward Planning does; it gives structure but allows flexibility. || By reading the design of Backward Planning, it gave me a better view of how to teach. The stages are very helpful in understanding what exactly is necessary. Such as for the first step, it is important to understand what results from students we are hoping to get. As a new teacher, I want to have clear expectations from my students. From the beginning I want to know what I want them to learn, understand, and be able to apply it. The next stage is having acceptable evidence. Just as this chapter suggested, I want to learn to think as an assessor. The third stage is learning about what type of activities and resources you will use to reach the goals you set. I feel like all of this gave me a clearer understanding of teaching students. ||
 * Coombs Kayla || This chapter touched on how some of the content standards for subject areas are too vague or overloaded with information, or are too specific. This becomes a problem for educators, for teachers that are emphasizing specific aspects of the standard that other teachers might not be emphasizing. The chapter also outlines the three-stage backward design process used for curriculum planning. Use of this design has been shown to result in more clearly outlined goals, more appropriate assessments, and overall more purposeful teaching. There are three stages of planning backward. In the first stage, one should identify the results that he or she wants to achieve. Identify the goals and examine the standards and go over the curriculum expectations. In stage two, one is advised to determine acceptable evidence. Stage three suggests that one should plan learning experiences and instruction. Backward design gives the structure to support flexibility in teaching and assessing in such a way as to still respect the content while respecting the individuality of each learner. || This reading had an abundance of information on how to deal with content standards. Important information was provided about using the backward design model and how it results in success of outlining clear goals, refined assessments, and resolute teaching. It points out that although the backward design may be uncomfortable to use at first, but it is worth it as the end result is more purposeful teaching and an improvement in learning. ||
 * Cummons Michael ||  ||
 * Damboise Kelley || Chapter three’s main focuses are on content overloading, which deals with the ever growing expansion of information, and backward design, which helps teachers plan a successful lesson plan. The reason for content overloading deals with the fact that each and every day human knowledge continues to expand. In places where standards are not already in place teacher have to decide what content should continue to be taught, and what content just isn’t that useful in the curriculum any longer. To compensate for the content overload it has been recommended that teachers understand the big ideas and then structure “companion questions” to go along with the big ideas. Once the “companion questions” and the big ideas have been settled upon it is time to work on the backward planning design. There are three important stages that help in structuring the backward planning design which include: identify the desired results, demonstrate acceptable evidence, and plan learning experiences and instructions. In identifying the desired results teachers are looking at what students should know about the content area, and how that knowledge is going to play a role in the goals that have been set. When demonstrating acceptable evidence it is important to find a way to measure whether learning has occurred or not. Lastly, when planning the learning experiments teachers should take into consideration all the sources that could be used to help meet these goals. || Backward teaching, at this point, seems like a freighting way to go about planning for a lesson, but I believe this method has stood the test of time and will help me when I am trying to figure out what is the most effective way to teach my big ideas to the class. The planning template is completely overwhelming to me at this point as well, and I hope that I will begin to understand how each category will help me when I am planning my lessons. I really like at the end of the chapter how it explains that if a standard uses the verb “know” or “identify” in the underlining statement then the standard could be assessed by a “matching or multiple-choice test formate”. (Armstrong, 34) Therefore, when a standard uses the words “apply” or “analyze” that means that the formal testing for this would be for an explanation ||
 * Kelley Kathleen || Chapter three in //Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design// touched upon the kinds of standards we need to focus on when students are required to meet hundreds of them in a short period of time. It is important to determine which standards are too broad to cover in a small amount of time, and which standards are insignificant to their knowledge. With this being such a problem, how can we teach the students all they need to learn in the time allotted? This is where planning backwards is important. To ensure that standards are met, the first stage is to determine the results that you would like to achieve by focusing on what is most important to learn. Stage two requires that you settle on evidence that would show the students are learning, and in stage three, plans are made to ensure that the results are achieved. The book then went on to discuss certain words used in standards that would suggest different ways of collecting evidence. For example, “identify” would suggest a vocabulary test. || Chapter three was really great to read because it offered a lot of valuable information on backwards planning. After class I did not understand the model, how to decide what the big ideas were, and how to use the essential questions. Fortunately those questions were addressed right towards the end of the chapter. It also gave a helpful link to use when trying to develop big ideas. I also really enjoyed how they made understanding the learning results more simple. I always wondered how to decided how to test whether or not the student would know the material, but now I know that there are key words such as analyze and identify that suggest the way that evidence should be collected. It really gave me some insight, and help me prepare for the model we have due for class. ||
 * Knowles Christina || Chapter three is about the Backward Design plan and how we can use it in class. It explains in-depth on how to use the plan and why it is helpful. The Backward Design allows teachers to question what content they need to put into their lessons. It also allows for teachers to think about what products their students will produce to show they have learned the content. This chapter also gives a variety of templates a teacher can use to create a lesson, which is very helpful. || I think that the Design method makes a great deal of sense. Teachers should be thinking about what exactly they want for results before they can begin to think about the products students should be creating. This process helps make each lesson meaningful to both the students and the teacher. I really liked the templates the chapter gave us because I was confused on how to fill out the templates we had been given so I feel this chapter helped me out a lot. ||
 * Mourkas Margaret || This chapter was all about how yes, standards are useful, but most of the time standards can be harmful if not used correctly. There is no real guideline as to how broad or narrow a standard should be and this causes problems in the classroom. Some teachers also have not received the proper training to understand and use the standards and so the children are suffering too. This chapter suggests using t he planning backward method of teaching. In this method to teacher will have three stages for each standard. They are, stage one: identify desired result, stage two: determine acceptable evidence, and stage three: pan learning experiences and instruction. While the chapter says that standards are needed to make sure everyone is meeting the same goals, it is still a necessity to still have a creative classroom. || I laughed a little when I was reading this chapter. The reason being was that in my middle school and early high school years the government was really pushing the No Child Left Behind movement. With this schools were almost “freaking out” over how to teach each standard correctly. I have experienced first hand how teachers can teach the standards just to get them out of the way and teachers that incorporate the standards into the classroom but do not let them get in the way of their creativity. I much prefer the second teacher. I was really impressed with the backwards design model. It really made sense as to how to teach certain content. It made me think, why should I hide what the desired outcome of the lesson is going to be. Maybe if students know what they will learn in the end, they will be more engaged to figure out how to get there. ||
 * O'Neil Christopher ||  ||
 * Richardson Cassandra || Chapter three describes the Backward Design approach to planning lessons and units, and the advantages using this template have over freestyle planning. The national and regional standards have a way of limiting some of the information reaching students, but it is up to the teacher to filter the rest by priority. The Backward Design helps with this; it requires three steps (the desired end results, acceptable assessment methods, and then the detailed lessons) in order to structure a tentative plan. This way, the goal is not lost among the detailed lessons designed to reach all learning styles, but is always within sight and reach. Along with the model, the chapter outlines several different templates specifically for lesson planning. || The Backwards Design model makes sense to me in that it will allow future teachers to stay focused on the results of a unit, rather then getting caught up in the details of the activities. I saw that with some of my teachers in high school; the activities were always incredibly engaging and interesting, but it wasn’t always obvious what the goal for the unit was. Their primary focus was teaching the book, and the more chapters we read the more we ‘learned.’ I am looking forward to using the Backwards Design model during the field experience of practicum, because I want to be as organized and as focused as possible, and feel that this model will guide me in doing so in a realistic, do-able way. ||
 * Trundy Monique ||  ||

I most certainly liked how this chapter explained the process of creating a curriculum. One of the biggest things we have to learn as perspective teachers is how to develop an intriguing curriculum, and I feel like this chapter has set up the very basics of how to do just that. I also liked the examples of the “twin sins.” I remember teachers from high school that would have either too many activities and not enough structure, or too much structure and not enough activities. Incidentally, I didn’t lean much in either class. However, I can see how it would be easy for a teacher to fall into one of the “sins.” Honestly, I feel like the “twin sins” are mistakes that new teachers are more likely to make (though veteran faculty members are not excluded).
 * Webb Christopher || Chapter 3 focuses on how to include all of the necessary material into a curriculum while avoiding overloading the students with content. It starts by discussing the problem of confusing benchmarks and standards which we must meet as designated by national state or even local standards. The solution for avoiding these problems is the Backward Design approach to teaching. In order to use Backward Design it states that the first step is to identify the desired results. The next step is to figure out how we are going to determine the students have achieved those results. The final stage is planning our instruction so that the desired results are achieved. It warns against the “twin sins”, that is too either too much activity oriented instruction or too much lecturing. The book emphasizes a balance is needed because doing the same method over and over can become monotonous. Finally it emphasizes the “big ideas” of the unit as being the pillars which it is grounded upon and not to change who we teach them to because everyone needs to learn them, simply change how we teach them. || This Chapter made a lot of sense to me, using the Backward Design Model. It made me think about some of my teachers in high school, the effective ones and the not so effective ones. I started critiquing how they taught me in my head and realized that the good ones were the ones who were able to teach to everyone in the class and mixed up how they taught throughout the week or month and the boring ones didn’t adapt to how their students learned. I thought that the concept of the “big ideas” being the pillars of instruction was good because it gave us a goal to accomplish and if I ever got off track I could always think to myself, “Ok what is the big idea I am trying to convey, and how can I explain it best”. Back in my high school some teachers did give up on students if they didn’t understand the material instead of doing as the book suggests and simply changing //how// they taught to that person, I don’t want to be that teacher.  ||
 * West Simon || In this Chapter, we enter reading about how teachers often face the dilemma of having way too much material to cover in too short a period of time. This means that as a professional it is possible to be made to make the choice of, do I teach depth and allow my students to truly learn, even though I may not cover all the material, or should I just give them a surface taste of what is out there and fit my criteria? One of the examples they covered were showing a goal that was much too big, and another that was much too small. These regarded the question about art, and the Chinese/Pakistan River Valley Civilizations. Along with these examples the Chapter shows ways that as a professional in the classroom we would be able to fit several smaller ideas into the art question to make it realistic, as well as adding several more complex questions to the River Valley Civilizations to make understanding those Civilizations a goal worth having. Later the chapter dives into the idea of Backward Design and shows how beginning with a goal makes creating lesson plans and activities much easier and effective because there is a final focus already in mind. || I feel that this chapter was very helpful by showing us soon-to-be teachers how to deal with situations such as having much more content to cover versus our allotted amount of time. Also I liked how the chapter helped to explain what to do if you run into a situation where there is a curriculum that is so broad that there is no actual focus so that you can narrow down the focus to realistic outcome, likewise being able to broaden or expand on an question that is just not developed well enough. The segment on Backward Design seems pretty strait forward, most of my life I have been involved in sports and other activities that demand you to set a goal before being able to develop a way to achieve it. The way the chapter breaks down the theory of Backward Design to incorporate it into a classroom seems like a very helpful way to put a familiar idea into a new situation. ||
 * West Simon || In this Chapter, we enter reading about how teachers often face the dilemma of having way too much material to cover in too short a period of time. This means that as a professional it is possible to be made to make the choice of, do I teach depth and allow my students to truly learn, even though I may not cover all the material, or should I just give them a surface taste of what is out there and fit my criteria? One of the examples they covered were showing a goal that was much too big, and another that was much too small. These regarded the question about art, and the Chinese/Pakistan River Valley Civilizations. Along with these examples the Chapter shows ways that as a professional in the classroom we would be able to fit several smaller ideas into the art question to make it realistic, as well as adding several more complex questions to the River Valley Civilizations to make understanding those Civilizations a goal worth having. Later the chapter dives into the idea of Backward Design and shows how beginning with a goal makes creating lesson plans and activities much easier and effective because there is a final focus already in mind. || I feel that this chapter was very helpful by showing us soon-to-be teachers how to deal with situations such as having much more content to cover versus our allotted amount of time. Also I liked how the chapter helped to explain what to do if you run into a situation where there is a curriculum that is so broad that there is no actual focus so that you can narrow down the focus to realistic outcome, likewise being able to broaden or expand on an question that is just not developed well enough. The segment on Backward Design seems pretty strait forward, most of my life I have been involved in sports and other activities that demand you to set a goal before being able to develop a way to achieve it. The way the chapter breaks down the theory of Backward Design to incorporate it into a classroom seems like a very helpful way to put a familiar idea into a new situation. ||