UbDDI+B1+Chapter+3

Abstract:
With increasing amounts of standards that teachers need to teach, there needed to be a system that can truly focus on the “big ideas”. Enter stage left; backwards planning. Backwards planning is a three stage process focused on breaking down the “big ideas” inside the content standards. Stage one focuses on our goals for the unit. “Goals” refer to what we want the students knowledge and understanding to be at the end of the unit. Stage two focuses on assessment. How will we know our students understand the material, and how will we judge and assess this? It is important to know our students with this stage because forced assessment can't be the only way we measure knowledge, understanding, and mastery. Stage three is where we will build our lessons. These lessons should keep the classroom engaged and touch on all learning styles.

[|Dan's] Synthesis:
Although the idea of backwards design is one that is relatively new to our class, it is one that is being used [|more frequently] in classrooms everywhere. There is a general understanding that there is not enough time to hit upon all the content standards the state has set forth for us. The [|models'] ability for us to touch upon the “big ideas” of the content standards has given many students in the class excitement to learn how it works, and for others a sense of relief that there is a resource to help us. By using this design correctly it can help us stay away from the twin sins of planning. These sins are sticking to activity-based instruction and coverage. There is a general excitement of the class to use this method in our future classrooms. Backwards design helps us plan for different students needs as well as reaching goals set forth by the standards of states and ourselves.

toc

Amy
Chapter 3 When it comes to knowing what content to cover in a specific discipline, teachers must refer to the Content Standards. Content Standards specify exactly what every student should leave a particular class being able to know and apply. Some standards are too big to cover in a small amount of time, while others are too small and specific which can confine learning. Many times, teachers struggle to include the standards in areas not mentioned in the list of content standards given to her subject area, which can be problematic. Rather than focus of specific details of a standard, it has been found to be more beneficial to students when the big picture is covered. In order for students to understand the big picture, some teachers follow the backward design process for curriculum planning. The first step in the process is determining the results: What should students learn/know when lesson is complete. Step two of the process is determining acceptable evidence, which makes teachers think about how students will be assessed, and what can be used as evidence to demonstrate the students’ knowledge of the subject. The final step in the backward design process asks teachers to plan learning experiences and instruction that engages student learning. In this step, teachers need to make sure that they are not only teaching using activities, or coverage individually, but a combination of the two, in addition to adding personal experiences. Luckily, a planning template has been designed in order to guide teachers through the backward planning process.

Andy
Chapter 3 In this chapter the three stages of backward planning was explained. I now have a much better idea on how it is done and how it will work in a classroom. For stage 1, as discussed in class, the goals are established and here in Maine there are many expectations. Knowing that there is not enough time in the school year picking and choosing the content that is more useful for the students will be a challenge. Stage 2 will be a more difficult task for me as to I have never needed to use assessment in the more formal use of it. Stage 3 will be interesting to work through, because I have had little practice with lesson planning. As a coach I have been confident and competent enough in my knowledge to be able to "wing" most of my practices or showing up and coming up with a practice plan on the spot.

Zack
Chapter 3: What Really Matters in Learning? (Content) This chapter is exactly how I believe education should happen, shoot for a goal, hope to get the goal, measure why you did not get the goal and change the plan to get the goal. This is a very goal oriented strategy in teaching which I agree with. Students are the only way a teacher should set a lesson plan, it is impossible for a teacher to teach without reevaluating the goals and objectives of the class. As a teacher learns more about the students in a given class it will give the teacher more ammunition in the hunt for the best way to set up the best lesson to meet all the students needs. Without setting an initial goal it is neither possible to get a result nor information on how much your students will learn in you class.

Cassandra
Chapter 3 : I like the idea of using backwards planning to weed out the content and focus primarily on the important points. Continually returning to the goals set in the beginning of the lesson would help keep the teacher from cramming three different points in the last week of the Semester. Focusing on the goals helps organize the units. Stage 1, I’ve thought about. I understand the State requirements and my personal goals as a teacher. I know, somewhat, the knowledge I want students to leave my class with. However, I don’t have any experience with assessments and actual units, so that will be really fun to learn about.

George
Chapter 3- In this chapter the problem was brought up about having issues in decided what to teach and how specifically. It also IDed the problem that because different states have different standards teaching materials can become muddled. The concept of planning backwards was introduced. Where a teacher takes a specific goal, most likely the one that is required by the state and tries to come up with a lesson plan that will help them get there.

Damian
UbD & DI; Chapter 3 Standardization has left the academic world with amorphous goals posed under pseudo-guidelines. While attempting to facilitate the learning of certain "key points" (or as the book states, benchmarks) the creators of modern education standard have fallen short. As the book states, to successfully meet every standard, figuring only 30 minutes per standard, students would need an additional nine years of school. This is critical to consider when entering the world of education, because it become so much more than a simple recitation of facts. Teachers have to do more than break down their subject into facts to be remembered, they have to encourage a student to want to learn on their own.

Dan
Chapter 3 UbD+ DI In chapter 3 we basically learn Backwards Design and its stages. This will end up being a very important chapter because my future units will be based upon this design. We are given tips and knowledge of what we want to address in each stage. In stage one we are trying to tackle what we want our students to comprehend by the end of the unit. Understanding and knowledge for the student are desired by every teacher and this is the stage that we try to give it to them. In stage two we as teachers ask ourselves what is a fair way to assess how our students are learning the knowledge and what is in our definition “understanding the information”. Stage three is where much of our teaching happens. How are we going to give our knowledge to the class? We base our “how to” on the ability, skills, and learning styles of the student.

Liz
Chapter three of UbDDI taught me about the Stage 1 style. Prior to this section I had no idea what it was about. Now I have a general understanding. The chapter teaches about the context of what should happen and why backwards design is a well suggested pattern. This will be a nice skill to have in a classroom as my class will be specifically targeted towards certian goals with a way to reach them. Backwards planning also allows for the teacher to adjust the plan for individual students along the way. The other unique section about backwards planning is that it allows teachers to cover a variety of subjects in one unit.

Jennifer
Chapter 3 UbDDI

The Backwards Design is a way that teachers can create lessons that focus on the goals the yield of evidence that students are learning. I realize that the mistakes made by teachers who did not use this design methods, were ones I had made while teaching. This design will also help focus on important content and allow us to focus on big ideas instead of to many detailed ideas. We cannot teach our students everything, therefore we must look at the content standards and decide what is important and how we are going to teach it so that students will benefit in the long term. The backwards design was a little confusing, and will take some practice to get used to, but the templates in the book will allow me to create the lessons following the formula. By picking the goals, knowledge, and skills I want my students to leave my class with, I can create lesson that contain the important content.

Sean
Chapter 3 This was a pretty important lesson for me, as I already know I'll have the problem of too much stuff to teach, and not enough time to teach it. Having a method of picking what to teach and what to save for later is very instrumental for my lesson planning. It also went into detail of the Backwards Design, the method that will help narrow down what I will teach. There are 3 stages to the B.D., which the book goes into detail about. While this Design is a great tool, it will be up to myself to make it work for the class, as well as individualizing it for my students.

Brian
Chapter three explains how we must be sure to not only meet the state wide standards, but we can not just skim over them. We must be sure to convey “the big ideas,” as it said, and be able to convey them in a deep meaning of the content. 3 Then proceeds to introduce us to the Backwards Learning plan. Step one, we must set our priorities. Step two, we must think ahead. We have to be able to determine before we teach how we will assess. Step 3, we need to devise a lesson plan that will be effective. This plan needs to be engaging, successful, and must meet the standards that have been set.

Ethan
I would have to say the most important thing to me in this chapter was the introduction of backward planning. The chapter talks a lot about how to properly set up a lesson plan that will reach students of all learning types while still addressing key points that everyone should know. There are a bunch of templates included with this chapter that can be helpful in making a lesson plan as well. All the things in this chapter I can use in my own classroom. The templates can be used in the classroom to help me with my teaching. All of the information in this chapter I will use to help make my classroom the best it can be.

Darren
I really liked the ideas of the **twin sins** that this third chapter addresses. In the book, the **first sin** is the idea of //activity-oriented instruction//. Now, of course, this is not always bad; it is not always a sin. In fact, many times, the utilization of activity and hands-on instruction helps students grasp something they couldn’t otherwise. However, when these lose focus and goals and become fillers and lacking substance, they are harmful. The **second sin** is the idea of //coverage//--an idea mainly seen in high school classrooms. This sin is about the idea that teachers must cover a wide range and huge amount of information in a short, narrow time. In this, students have to sacrifice understanding and application and only simply memorize. It is important to me that I find a blend of each. I think that activity-oriented tasks only go so far before they become novelties, trivial. I can’t stand the idea of becoming a coverage-teacher. Therefore, I will try my best to create and environment that utilizes both, but only to the right extent.

Josh
Chapter 3 of Ubd discussed what content is necessary to teach to influence to most learning. Legistations have passed at an attempt to solve content overload and to focus teaching and learning. However, it seems that these standards are just adding more to what a teacher needs to cover. The chapter also discusses the backward learning model which also focuses learning. “The deliberate use of the backward design for planning courses, units, and individual lessons results in more clearly defined goals, more appropriate assessments, and more purposeful teaching.” The thought behind this model is that with the results in mind, more appropriate activities can be created.