UbDDI+B1+Chapter+3

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Brittany
There was not much that I could get out of this chapter. Most of what it talked about was planning backward and the best way to get your thoughts together to do that. It is stuff that I have heard in class or have learned from having to teach a series of lessons. However, I did find it helpful that the end of the chapter gave a template for which sections of the planning should apply to every student and what parts can be changed to fit the student’s individual needs. An example from the text would be having all the students learn the main ideas of a lesson but have multiple means for them to show you what they have learned. More than anything, this information is helpful when scheduling time to plan out a unit in that one can estimate how long it will take to do each part of the planning rather than the whole plan at one time.

**Brody**
At a time when there is too much content to teach given the available time, there needs to be a guideline for curriculum planning that values content knowledge as well as differentiation. The backward design process does just this. This process first identifies what the students should know at the end of the lesson, how their learning will be assessed, and how to best plan the instruction. One aspect of content that resonates with me concerns differentiation. In my experience, different options for projects are often assessed using separate criteria. Thus, students choose the “easy” option and then don’t learn the content they need to know as outlined by the standards. This chapter has influenced my view that although there needs to be options to keep students interested and to differentiate instruction based off of learning styles, the criteria in judging the work should be the same.

Max
This chapter is very interesting because it is dealing with the materials that I will be teaching. I talks about how it is hard to narrow down what to teach and what not to teach. This book suggests that we teach for the students to get the “big picture.” With my material, I am going to teach them how to do a variety of different examples so they can do the hard things so that hopefully they understand the general idea of what topic I am teaching. There was a good metaphor they used that was, “a mile wide, and an inch think.” A mile wide would be covering a wide variety of examples and an inch thick would be the idea we are trying to teach. This way we can hope that they will understand the concept.

Jasmyn
This chapter explains planning backward. This model should be used when there is a lot of content to be covered and not a lot of time to cover it. The stages of the model express the importance of identifying results, finding evidence of learning and making sure that the teacher has made a plan. I recognized the model from a former class and I feel comfortable in executing the stages as I create lesson plans. I have seen this work and I believe that I will adopt the same practices willingly.

Leighlan
This chapter discussed converting learning standards into a meaningful curriculum. Some standards are too broad, so one would have to break it down in to specifics. Some standards are so narrow that one would have to combine them with others or just find the big main idea it falls under and teach that standard within the concept of the big picture. This chapter talked about backward design. Before one knows about backward design planning a meaningful unit that incorporates standards seems daunting and one’s plans for doing it are foggy. Backward design states that one should start by thinking about what one wants the student’s to know, than how one would assess that, and only then can one begin to plan the teaching part of the unit. It is very proof like, because in a proof one starts with what they want to prove, then what they need to do to get there. In both backward design and proofs one works backwards and forwards until one reaches the middle. When I am teaching proofs, I will show the students how I apply that procedure to teach them.

Seth
Something that I have been saying forever is stated in the first sentence of this chapter. There is “too much content to teach given the available time” (24). Do schools really want me to cover content from the settlement of the colonies to the war in Iraq? That would be //impossible//. Sure, it could happen if I taught an AP class where we covered a chapter a week, but by doing that I feel like the students wouldn’t fully grasp the importance of all the information presented. Also, the textbooks used in the classroom can worsen the situation. Over the winter break I saw and read an article about a textbook from a Virginia elementary school that said thousands of African Americans fought for the freedom of Virginia during the Civil War. I was so disgusted by this statement when the author claimed she found her information online; and from a pro-Confederacy website nonetheless! The section on “planning backwards” made total sense. Rather than starting with //what// you want your students to learn, start with “what should students know, understand and be able to do?” (27) at the end of the lesson. Stage two of planning backwards asks us the question, “How will we know whether students have achieved the desired results” (28)? The answer? “The assessment evidence we need reflects the desired results identified in Stage 1” (28).

**Mike**
The chapter talks about planning backward which was a confusing idea to me at first. The more I read into planning backwards the more it made sense. Planning backwards is a good method for teachers to think about because sometimes you do not have enough time to cover everything you would like to accomplish in class. This method helps you identify what you would like your students to know, determine acceptable evidence, and plan learning experiences and instruction. Although I feel some aspects of health and fitness you can not really cover in just class this method will help me create my lessons in the future. The planning backwards method will also help me break out of my shell and take risks on how I will teach in the future.

Jen
This chapter really seemed to strike me as most interesting because it was based on the important questions and ideas of what is important for the students to learn and it seemed ton include the ideas of why many teachers become teachers. I thought the Backward Design process was made in the students best interest and I feel like that is why it is so remarkable about it is that it was made to help the students and that right there makes me feel it is so important. This chapter really had an impact on me because it really made me understand how caring teachers are and how they really do care about the success of their students. For instance, stage two of the backward design I thought was such a great idea because teachers really thought about how this would be impacting students and trying to plan ahead to help students obtain the best results. One thing this chapter helped me feel is important enough to help my students understand is that education should be about gathering knowledge and that school shouldn't be about the grades because when the grade becomes more important then the information suddenly learning doesn't seem to be enjoyable anymore. I want my students to remember that being challenged in their academics is a good thing and that teachers are their mentors and are always looking out for the students best interest.

Kim
In this chapter, I learned about the importance and the logic behind the backward design approach to creating units. It makes a lot of sense to me and I feel like it would be an obvious way to plan units for instruction, but I’m sure that there are teachers who prefer to create activities first and then figure out what the goal of them is. Personally, I think that planning backwards allows you to get to the core of what students should be learning and I think it will help students to see how what they are learning is relevant. I also like how it helps cut away the content that is not necessary or relevant to students, though it might be just as important. I will use the backward design method a lot in my unit development, and this chapter helped me to realize why it is such a logical method for teachers to use. Backward design will also help me to differentiate my instruction, which is another important method for ensuring that all students are able to learn, regardless of their abilities. As the book suggests, backward design and differentiated instruction go hand in hand, which provides structure for designing units that allow all students to learn.

Kaitlyn Bartlett
In chapter three of DI and UbD I really liked the backwards design because I feel like it directly relates with differentiated instruction. After reading about how to plan lessons this way, I don’t feel like many of my teachers used this strategy. I feel like it will be a challenge as a teacher to incorporate all of the standards into each unit. Although, the way it’s set up allows for lots of flexibility when you start to plan activities. I like that we are starting out our units this way. I feel like it is a very solid way to help prep any lesson plan that we could use for the rest of our career.

Casey Mull
In the beginning of Chapter 3 I found myself in agreement when the author stated: "This problem of content "overload" requires teachers to make choices constantly regarding what content to emphasize as well as what not to teach." Teachers often have so much content to work with that they cannot possibly incorporate all of it into their curriculum. This is especially pertinent to my concentration because there is a copious amount of information that could be discussed. However, a teacher has to make conscious decisions of what to exclude. Certain information may be easy to discard, such as events and historical events that deal with minority issues. For example, studying President Andrew Jackson may evoke different interests and emotions among students of various ethnic and racial backgrounds.

Lillian Barry
This chapter starts off with a some questions a few being "what knowledge is truly essential and enduring?" "What's worth understanding?" and "How can we address required content standards while remaining responsive to individual students?" These questions are great seg ways to what this chapter is covering, the problem of more content to cover then the allotted time. This "overload" forces teachers to choose what they feel is the most important material to cover, and what not to teach. The answer to this problem has been making standards or goals that teachers must meet with the material, "these standards are intended to focus teaching and learning, guide curriculum development and provide a basis for accountability systems"(p.24) My understanding of this is that the standards are either to broad or way to big so that teachers can not meet them. Standardized test are the worst thing that is ever invented and teaching for the test has ruined education for many students. The chapter then covers "Planning backwards" and the three stages of a plan to help students learn while meeting the standards. These steps are 1) Identify desired results 2) Determine acceptable evidence and 3) Plan learning experiences and instruction. These steps help avoid the "twin sins" of weak hands on experience and teaching all text vs. for content. This chapter also answers "frequently asked questions about backward design"(p.32) and give us a guide to using backward design. In my classroom I fear that I will have a huge problem with "overload" because of my concentration is history. I will really have to pay attention to my mentor and student teacher!!!!!!