UBD works to help the students learn and be successful because it makes the teacher create the lesson based off of what they need to know and not off of an activity that only sounds interesting. UBD makes sure that the teacher crafts the unit around the objectives and this guarantees that the students will actually be learning what they are supposed to be learning. If the entire lesson is properly designed around those learning objectives, it is easier to let the student know what they are and what is expected of them. Once the student understands what the teacher’s goals and expectations are (this would be a lot easier if the teacher were to provide a detailed syllabus for the students at the beginning of the year), it is easier for the student to meet these goals and become more successful in the classroom and in general.
As I become more and more familiar with Understanding by Design, any questions I might have continue to lessen. However, the more I attempt to use UBD, the more evident it becomes that I get distracted by the activity over the learning goals and objectives. For instance, in my first meeting with Dr. Locascio about my unit for the kids at Nottoway, he had to keep telling me that I was getting ahead of myself. I kept talking about the activity that I wanted to do and yet I had no idea about the themes that I wanted students to learn. In fact, beyond the SOL’s, I really didn’t have that much about what I wanted the students to learn in general.
I tend to get so excited about the activity portion (and how involved and interested I think that activity will make my students) that I forget that I am supposed to be planning this based off of the objectives. My brain just works in an odd way I suppose. I think of the activity first and then think of objectives to fit it. I know this is a really bad thing and I am trying to fix it but it is proving more difficult than I had imagined. I am afraid that I will not be as consistent in using UBD once I am away from Longwood and the teachers that constantly remind me to use it.
According to our class discussion and the book Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe, there are six facets of understanding. They dedicate an entire chapter to the six facets of explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge. These six facets, according to Wiggins and McTighe, “should permeate our thinking about all three stages of backward design” (p 103) and, as a part of this, they will affect our goals as well.
We should not make our goals something simple or unimportant such as “Students will be able to identify a cause of the civil war”. I would rather be sure that my students are able to understand the reasons behind the civil war. I know that was not the best example, but what I was trying to say is that understanding and goals should go hand in hand. Any teacher that creates goals without first looking at what they want the student to understand is not fully grasping the point of teaching.
Backward design is a different approach to designing a unit or lesson that works in the opposite direction than normal approaches. Basically, the teacher designs the unit with the end result in mind and then what assessments would be needed to discover if the end result has been met. This approach to designing curriculum is different from what most teachers are used to. Many teachers begin to design their lessons with what they have available such as certain “textbooks, favored lessons, and time-honored activities” (338). As Wiggins states, we need to make these teachers understand that “they need to use the textbook as a resource, not the syllabus” (309). While I think backward design is an interesting and good idea, I have recently realized that I am much like the other teachers in the way that I design lessons. I don’t usually begin designing a lesson with the end result in mind. I hope that I am able to grasp the approach of backward design because I truly believe it will be beneficial to my students in the long run.
While I think that backward design is a good idea, many teachers are still not sold on the idea of backward design for a variety of reasons. One objection that teachers my have with Backward Design, according to Wiggins, is that it is “incompatible with established content standards and state testing” (9). Another common objection from teachers is that they have too much content to cover and not enough time. Backward design is a bit time-consuming, as I can attest from my brief attempt at it thus far, and many teachers claim that they have too much to teach to use backward design on everything. In truth though, Wiggins quickly shows that neither of these objections are valid. Backward design appears to be an overall great approach to designing curriculum and I only hope that I am able to use it in my classroom someday; I would hate to become one of these teachers that uses time as an excuse to short-change my students in the long run.
Planning. One of the most important things a teacher needs to be able to do. You can not design instruction or teach a lesson unless you have planned well for it. Not planning well for a lesson would be like showing up to a test and realizing that you forgot to study an entire unit or chapter. When you don’t study, the teacher knows and your grade will reflect it. When you don’t plan well enough, your students will know and their grades will reflect it. The Milner book definitely placed a high emphasis on all of the different stages and types of planning; this is a clear testament to the importance of planning in regards to designing instruction.
Another important thing that I know about designing instruction is that the students have to learn something from the lesson. The Milner book mentions the Backward Design Process which I have heard about but never used. I will have to use Backward Design for my Teacher Work Sample (TWS) this semester and I am excited to see how it works. I find it to be a very idea to go from what you expect your results to be and then work backwards.
In high school, I had a lot of teachers that fully believed that classroom instruction was their way or the highway. It didn’t matter to them what type of learning style their students were; they were going to teach a certain way no matter what. I think it is going to be very challenging for me to create a lesson that works well with auditory learners because I am more of a visual or tactile learner. I think I am more likely to create a lesson that would work with the type of learner I am rather than for the type of learner my students might be; I fear that I will become the type of teacher I dreaded. I have similar fears in regards to multiple intelligences and the right versus left brain instruction; I never knew that teachers considered so much when they starting designing instruction (I wonder if my teachers did).
Yet another thing that I think will be challenging to me is English language learners; I have no clue how to really instruct ELL students. During my first practicum, I had no ELL students in my classroom and during my current practicum the ELL students are sent to the library every day to work on the Rosetta stone. I have had no actual experience teaching ELL students and all I have been left with is a line or two on a lesson plan asking me how I will adapt my lesson for ELL students. Actually, I did have one teacher that did a little workshop of sorts to help remind us to keep other students’ cultures in mind when teaching but I don’t know how much this really helped. I am one of those people that has to experience it in order to understand it (tactile learner in this sense) and I have yet to have that experience.
When my teacher first handed us the packet on Samuel Taylor Coleridge and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, my first thoughts were along the lines of “please no”; I barely remember anything about Coleridge or the Rime. However, after having a day to think about it, I think this is the perfect piece to create a lesson for. It will give me a lot of practice on making a lesson plan and it will help me to better use integrated instruction in my classroom. Also, I will have the help of my teacher and my group mates to make this integrated instruction lesson for my class.
So far, my group mates and I have only discussed the SOL’s and NCTE goals that we want to focus our lesson around. Today we will probably go more in depth about what we are doing and how we can give our students a classroom with more integrated instruction. Also, we are supposed to give our students a real reason to be writing and I am really looking forward to finding a way to make it authentic. This entire lesson will help me to become a better teacher because I will be making a lesson plan on something that I’m really not that interested in but that I need to interest my students in.
The only time I have ever experienced integrated instruction, that I remember, was in my tenth grade English class. I was doing a project on King Henry VIII and I had to research historical information about him while also keeping in mind the literature that came from his time period. I remember using an Adjunct display (as described in Fisher’s book 50 Content Area Strategies for Adolescent Literacy) to help me organize all the information I collected and how it all tied together. I also used the directed notetaking activity (chapter 5) to help me on my paper.
When I begin to teach, I will make sure to use some of the strategies in Fisher’s book but there are others that I just do not think apply to the High School aged children. For instance, I believe that Echo or Choral reading is not age appropriate for the High School students; however, I will try to use Exit Slips because I think that they are a valuable asset and they help the students and me know what has been learned during that lesson and what I needed to focus more on.
My classroom needs to be a good learning environment for all of my students in order for them to feel comfortable and learn. I can help make my classroom a better learning environment by creating a few ground rules. For instance, I will ask that all of my students respect their peers because everyone learns at a different pace and there is no such thing as a stupid question. Our reading for today focused on English Language Learners (ELL students) and their issues with learning to read, write, and just survive in an American English class in general. I loved that our book mentioned the fact that it was okay to let ELL students use their first language as a scaffolding tool.
This past weekend I went on a retreat with a couple of our international students and I was able to witness a great example of a good learning environment. We spent the entire weekend working on leadership and team building activities; each group had a couple international students in it and it was very interesting to see how well everyone managed to work together, despite the language barrier. There was one activity that was very difficult and I could see our international group mates really struggling to explain what needed to be done in English. Finally, they started talking to each other in their first language. They spoke for about 2-3 minutes and then they turned to the rest of the group and explained what they had been discussing in English. Clearly this is a great example of letting ELL students use their native language to help them understand and get their point across. While our group mates were discussing what to do in their native language, the rest of the group was supportive and patient; this is exactly how I need to respond in my classroom with my ELL students.
It is important to remember that ELL students are just one example of the different types of students a teacher needs to take into account when creating a good learning environment. It can be incredibly difficult to create a good learning environment for all of the students but it is definitely worth the time and effort to do so. We are not here to teach the majority or to teach only the ones that are easy to teach. We are here to teach everyone to the best of our ability. We are Teachers.
“What do I want my students to know and do?” This is such a simple question and you would assume that the answer would be the same for both parts of the question but it is not. I want my students to know the great literature of our time and times past, I want them to know how to write an essay that is well structured with minimal grammar and spelling mistakes, but most of all, I want them to know the joy that reading and writing can bring. However, what do I want my students to do? I want them to pass their standardized tests at the end of the year. How can anyone honestly expect a multiple choice test to assess whether a student knows all the things I think they ought to know?
Principals and other teachers are too concerned about passing the standardized tests, that they are allowing students to learn only what is on the test. This is a grave mistake and I truly believe it harms the students. As Milner’s book Bridging English points out, they lose some of their creativity. Bridging English references the fact that students had better grades, participation, and attendance during the last months of school when teachers did not have to teach for the standardized tests (414). During this time, teachers were able to teach in a more creative way and I think this is why the students improved.
To get back to the question at hand though; when I am a teacher I plan to use more than just multiple choice tests to help me assess my students. I will most likely use a portfolio style of assessment because, as Milner points out, this will help the students because it will help them assess and reflect on their own writing (425). This portfolio will, hopefully, help me assess what I hope my students will know; it may not help them past the standardized test but in the long run I feel like this type of assessment (and this type of instruction) will be the most beneficial for them.
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