UbDDI+B2+Chapter+3

Abstract: Eric Cole
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This chapter is all about Planning Backwards. It begins by talking about the content “overload” in schools. Teachers are asked to teach way to much to their students. They get standards and curriculum from school districts, and textbooks. “One startling statistic is that in a study conducted by Robert Marzano and John Kendall they pooled together the standards of 160 national and state level documents. These documents combined had 255 standards and 3,968 benchmarks that students are supposed to learn. If a student was to spend 30 minutes learning every benchmark though, they would be in school an additional nine years”(24-25). That is to much to learn! So, what is the answer to this problem? The answer is a backwards planning model of teaching. This model comes in three steps. Step one is to Identify the desired results. This means that you need to figure out the “big ideas” and “essential questions” that you want to answer in your class before you ever start to develop any lessons. Step two is to determine the acceptable evidence that the student needs to show in order to prove that they have learned what you want them to learn. The last step is to develop the lessons in your class around the “big ideas” and the assessment that you have already designed. Backwards planning helps avoid two “sins” of teaching. One is to focus to much on doing activity based work, and the other is to teach strictly by “marching” through the textbook. Even with Backwards Planning though, you need to be sure to plan for all differentiation in your classroom. Some students may not be ready to learn even the most basic things that you want to teach them in stage one of the plan, or some students may not be able to show adequate learning with the assessments that you have designed.[| It is important that you develop a wide variety of assessments], and to make sure you are ready for the challenges in your classroom.

Synthesis: Eric Cole
After reading all of our responses to this chapter it is clear that two things stuck with us. First is that most of us are nervous/scared/intimidated of the overwhelming [|amount of content] that we are going to be required to teach in school. How do we fit it all into our day, and make sure that our students are getting more than just surface information? How do we make sure that we are covering everything that the state requires? At least two responses had the same phrase in it. We should not be teaching a mile wide and an inch deep, but an inch wide and a mile deep. The second thing that we all agreed on is that we will all be using the backwards planning method of creating lesson plans. This method eliminates the fear of “content overload” because it deals with getting deep into a few topics rather than get the surface information of many, many topics.

Amanda Fitzpatrick
After what we learned in class (which to me was a crash course that left me with a few questions) this reading definitely helped with the understanding of the "backwards" lesson plan. I liked how it not only again presented the ideas necessary for us to make our lesson plans, but also explained more in depth the reasoning behind each of the steps and by doing so to me allowed me to understand it better. One quote from the text that I found exceptional was, "oriented planning and teaching are like cotton candy--pleasant enough in the moment but lacking long term substance" (pg 28). As a student that was in way too many activity-oriented classrooms that left me feeling quite empty- of knowledge- I completely understand where this quote comes from. While the activity itself may seem fun and interesting, more often than not one is left feeling like they did not learn anything from the course, and that the entire experience was not worth their time. As a teacher, I need to make sure that the activities that I make up for my students that are bodily learners are just as jam packed with information as the lessons geared towards my verbal learners.

Sarah McGinley
Understanding by Design Chapter 3: What Really Matters in Learning? (Content) 1/26/10

This chapter starts out by talking about how there is a lot of pressure on teachers to teach all content in their field. This issue has also been one of my fears about teaching because I want to be able to teach all of my students all the content needed to move on to higher education but if I run out of time to do so then that hurts the students more than it hurts me. Not only do teachers have to worry about teaching their content but they also have to make sure they meet the learning standards. The chapter goes on to talk about how there are certain benchmarks for students that need to be met and in order for this to happen students would have to stay in school about nine more years. There is just not enough time for educators to teach everything students need to know. The only thing I can think of that I would do as an educator to help the situation about having too much content and not enough time to teach all of it is to pick the most important pieces of content and focus on those pieces for the entire year. I should be able to plan out exactly what content I will be teaching within that school year and plan lessons accordingly.

Alicia Kenison
What do you do when there is too much content? Tomlinson and McTighe suggest that we, as teachers, must make choices and set standardized goals. In these goals we must bring forth essential questions, and show the “big idea.” I really appreciate their description of planning backwards. This helps to accommodate everybody’s learning needs. But, in doing a backwards plan, one must not always be activity-oriented or stretch to cover too much information in one setting. We must keep in mind that, “a river needs banks to flow” just as children need boundaries to grow. We must set forth our goals and expectations and then let them move forward from there. Having faith in your students encourages their individual thinking. Be accommodating, be assertive, be fun, but remember to always have a plan.

Mike Lawson
The topics brought up in chapter three really helped me with choosing and completing my desired unit. Even since it was first brought up in my EDU 101 class I have been a little confused and intimidated by these standards. There are so many that it almost seems like the teacher has no choice on what to teach his/her students, especially in a subject like history or government. As stated in the book “an additional 15,465 hours would be required for students to learn them all!”(25) So due to all these standards (spread out over the country) it would take another nine years of schooling. Another confusing element to standards is how they are worded. The examples in the book are perfect. Even the short “simple” ones seem to be weird and very specific. I almost feel like teachers are imprisoned by these standards. The standards force teachers to teach a “mile wide” and an “inch deep”. To me that is the wrong way to teach. We should have more specialized classes that allow teachers to teach a mile deep and an inch wide. Reading about backwards design helped me a lot. It clarified how to look at what I want to do for activities and assessment. Using backwards design when I start to make legitimate lesson plans will make it so much easier for me. Even when I was reading I just thought about my lesson plans and how I could make it flow and fit to how I want to teach.

Scott Bowden
What I took from this was how to effectively plan out what I intend to teach. I was mostly under the impression that teachers could start with the material and make a lesson dealing with it on the fly, but this chapter showed me how unwise it might be. Since the standards/requirements are ambiguous in nature, it would be difficult to discern an accurate lesson without proper planning and thinking. The backward design method looks really promising as it would allow me to think about what I want my students to know and understand, before figuring out how I would be evaluating them. Once I had a clear conception of that, then I could figure out how to teach it. This seemed backward to the conception I had before of start with how and work to the outcomes. The backward design makes a lot of sense and I would like to implement it in my classroom.

Jared Merrifield
Chapter 3: What Really Matters in Learning? (Content) I am usually prone to suffer from “brain overload” when I am in school, and I constantly worry about what I am supposed to do next, and how to go about doing it. However, after reading the first few paragraphs of this chapter, I should consider myself lucky that I am only going through sixteen years of schooling, as opposed to twenty-five! Still, it is indeed difficult to narrow down the standards (but not too narrow!) to a degree where it is comprehensible. I hope that problem will not be too severe once my teaching career begins. Teachers I have had in the past have effectively “split” the broader standards, such as the one in the book about art, into several individual, related standards, which allowed students to look at the big picture piece by piece. The backward planning method sounds quite useful, and I have actually used it before when I was a summer camp counselor. First, we identified what we wanted the campers to learn, then we formulated a fun and educational activity based on those expectations. Stage 2 proved to be successful too, as we often “quizzed” campers on what they learned. (What kind of tree is that? What kind of animal leaves those tracks? How do you find north with a compass?)

S arah Robinson
When reading Chapter 3, it was very overwhelming at first to read about all the standards that are required as you as a teacher to teach. It was also overwhelming to read about how some standards are so big and even seem unreachable as a teacher, and the standards that are too small to cover all that needs to be taught to the students. Although it was comforting to read about the new teaching style and planning of the “Planning Backward”, to help teach all these standards in a reasonable and understanding way. I am positive that I will be using this planning backward when making lesson plans for completing the necessary standards. The three stages of the planning are very beneficial of learning how to make a complete and successful lesson plan. The three stages are: identify desire results, determine acceptable evidence, and plan learning experience and instruction. This chapter has impacted me in the way that I realize that a planning template will be very helpful to successfully learning how to plan backwards. In my classroom I will make sure to break down the big ideas into smaller ideas; therefore, making it easily to explain the content to my students and myself clearly. This chapter has also impacted me in the way that I know I will have to master the balance between completely individualized assessments and making it more board to fit more of students different learning styles.

Jason Malbon
The problem of what to teach or what not to teach is a common problem among teachers. Content in areas such as history is always expanding and changing. It is important to avoid a situation where content is a mile wide and an inch deep. The traditional method of teaching chronologically from a textbook does just that. Instead, teachers need to focus on the big ideas. Backward planning is an organized way of “engineering-in” what is important and how it will be taught. First is to find the big idea. What will students understand and be able to do. Second is to determine what students will have to do to gain understanding. Finally, specific lessons and activities are implemented. The backward design method ensures that activities are meaningful and targeted. Also, what is being taught is targeted since a specific “big idea” was adopted from the beginning. This avoids an activity orientated classroom where the end learning result may be vague and ill-defined.

Diana Quinlan
Chapter three in UbD/DI covers how to create an effective curriculum. One of the first steps in creating a curriculum is deciding what content to cover. This will be particularly difficult for me as a history teacher because there is so much to choose from. I am going to have to rely on the standards to make sure I know what needs to be taught and to establish the “big ideas” I want my students to know. I can also find the main or big ideas that I want to teach by asking myself “what do I want my students to remember down the road?” Once I have decided on the content I want to teach I will use the backwards design model to design a killer lesson plan. This model is known as the backwards design model because you start with the end in mind. The first thing I would do then is clearly state what my objectives and goals are. Once my goals for that unit are complete I will decide how I am going to asses my students understanding of the content in relation to the goals I have set. The last part of the backwards design model requires finding resources and planning activities that will help student reach the desired goals of the curriculum. Honestly, I can’t picture designing a lesson or unit any other way. When it comes time to pick the activities, it will be important that I only use ones that are related to the goals; otherwise they will just be a waste of time. I also do not want to use the textbook as my only resource. I believe that would not be very engaging, and my students would become bored very quickly. Lastly, when it comes to making up the assessments I want to make sure that every student has a chance to be successful yet still have the same requirements as everyone else in the class.

Eric Cole
This chapter briefly discusses an issue that I am pretty passionate about, and that is the failure of standardized tests. To often, as teachers, we stick to the curriculum, and stick to the textbook. We treat the textbook like it is a bible, and everything in it has to be covered, or the students will fail. We create curriculum that is based on specific facts rather than the “big ideas” that this chapter hopes we will start thinking about. Why do we do this? It is because we have too. If we do not follow this way of thinking than we truly will fail our students because they will fail their standardized tests. I view standardized tests as a disease on our education system. Now the symptoms would be teaching the students facts instead of “big ideas” and being more concerned with how well a student remembers something rather than how well a student understands something. Until we heal the disease though, these symptoms will remain. Standardized tests need to be eliminated. I personally do not see any good that comes from them. Perhaps there is good, and if one day somebody shows me it then maybe I will change my opinion. As of right now though, I strongly believe that they have to go in order for us to move on to a better way of teaching.

Susanna Cooper
In chapter three I found a key concept that is important and that applies to me is that there is not enough time to cover everything, there are just too many big ideas out there. Instead we must cover the key concepts and make sure those are well understood. I liked the stage 1, 2, and 3 in this chapter. I feel that by showing the backwards planning design in steps I am able to understand it better. Plus it is easier to follow. I also found it interesting that too many activities that are not applied to the major content become just “fun” even if they are on the content materiel. Yet too much “book work” is bad also if not applied the right way, or used constantly. I liked how that template the book gave us is similar to the one given to us in class. It asks us to use questions, what the kids already know, and their skill to break down how we prepare and teach a unit. These templates will become very useful if I need assistance beginning my own lessons in the near and distant future. Little steps like stages 1, 2, and 3, and tips like making sure my activities are funneled into productive learning are what help me the most. They are little things that I can do to make a better classroom environment and a better flowing class period. I plan to use these tips as resources to help me in my own classroom when the time comes.

Jared Boghosian
This is not something I learned so much as something I have been contemplating ever since this course began, having too much content to teach in one period. The state standards are making this "overload" issue more difficult. The standards __do__ narrow the focus of the curriculum and put forth some clearly stated objectives for learning. I found it hilariously shocking to find it would take nearly nine additional years of schooling to cover every benchmark in every standard! This leads to coverage of material, not uncovering the material. Backward planning avoids the possibility of making two of the biggest problems in teaching, activity-centric teaching, and coverage of materials. The textbook should **__not__** be, and will not be in my classroom, a substitute for a syllabus.