“A student's culture, experiences, and previous knowledge (i.e., cognitive schema) shape all new learning.” This is something that is always at the back of my head because it’s something a teacher never has control of and it affects them. A teacher can’t control what students do outside of school, or whether or not they had a great teacher the year before or whether or not they come from dysfunctional families. In other words, in some sense I think that part of the success of a teacher each year depends on the teachers that the students had the previous year.
So understanding that and your career depends on the successes of those students, how do you ensure you still perfrom to the highest standard possible for their success?
Understanding by Design is definitely an important tool all teachers should be trying to gear towards in their classrooms. So many teachers are just doing whatever it takes for students to do well on their end of the year assessments and Regents exams, that they aren’t taking the time to make sure students are really understanding the material. In the school I am observing in, the teachers almost all teacher the same way: have students define key terms then have the students use these key terms to answer fill in the blank questions. It is clear these teachers just want the students to memorize the definitions just long enough to pass their exams. But\, it the end, this is really just harming out youth to teach this way. Most students are leaving high school with almost no retained knowledge from some of their classes. To be honest, I can say the same for myself in regards to not only high school classes, but college classes. By getting students to perform experiments or research they are finding their own way through the material. It is much easier for students to remember facts when they are seeing the results of a test right before their eyes, instead of just reading it in passing in a textbook. A great UbD technique mentioned is working backwards: with this, students know outcomes but are trying to figure out why these things are true. These kinds of activities really foster understanding, rather than just memorizing. But I also think it is important to realize some of the challenges presented by UbD teaching. Many teachers in the article listed time restraints as a problem connected with UbD. This teaching style is very time consuming and also a lot more work for teachers that just assigning textbook work. I think it is our job to teach in the best interest of our students and do the extra work if it means that more students are getting a better understanding of the material.
If you think about our class I have not concerned you overwhelmingly with grades and assignments...the focus has been on the discussions about how to teach...what options will you follow as a teacher. It is easy for us to think we are all doing the right thing, but how do we know if we are... and by the time we do, is it too late?
The key points I found from this article include why it should be used, how you do it, and how it can be sustained and grow.
First, why? An interesting quote I found from the article is: “an ongoing connection between emotion and cognition, including a tendency to slip into lower brain functions and structures when threatened”. Not once in observation have I seen a student who gets yelled at become the model student or begin to participate. A teacher said to me “[because the class is quiet] it’s a sign of a good teacher.” That class was bored and feared being chastised. UbD helps the students to be involved and enjoy the learning process. Additionally, UbD is necessary because we have heard repeatedly, the ability to do something does not mean you understand it.
How do we do it? A large section of the article is given to backward design. My personal belief is that the goal has always been the same. Knowledge is to gain understanding. Somewhere over time the procedures to obtain this goal have become more important than the goal itself. I also liked how the article outlined assessment. Assessment is not just tests and quizzes. If a teacher’s only job was to give procedures then they would only use textbook and video instructions.
How can it be sustained and grow? The second section of Q&A asked what is the largest challenge. The third section of Q&A highlights one of those main concerns (what is needed to make it work?). Teachers must be provided with the resources for this style of teaching to work. Every employee from every level must be on board for it to be successful. The teachers must work together and the administration must support the teachers. It’s like a sports team. The team must work together to become better and the coaches must support them and lead them to a united goal.
-UbD – promoting student understanding rather than formulaic knowledge or recall learning -Promote the understanding of all students is the main idea -Students learn best when they actively construct meaning through experience based learning -Know students culture, experiences, and previous knowledge -students need the ability to demonstrate, derive, describe, design, justify, or prove something using evidence. -not a program to be implemented but a practice - challenging to use because of the high stakes accountability of testing -I would love to use understanding by design in my classrooms but it seems like it is very difficult to develop a lesson where the students derive the formulas themselves. It would take a lot more time to teach and in regents classes the curriculum schedule is very strict.
Key Points: •Promoting student understanding •Framework/toolkit •Students learn actively not passively •Need to know students culture, experience, and knowledge •Backwards design -Start from what you want the final product (the goal) to be [GOAL -> EVIDENCE -> ACTIVITIES] •Test/Quiz – Constructive response
I feel that Understanding by Design would be a great way to teach a classroom however a lot of time and effort goes into planning a UbD lesson plan. You need to think of the goal first then the steps you would take to reach this goal. That’s where time management comes into play. You need to keep track of what is going on in your classroom and that you are still reaching for the goal rather than getting off track. Everything goes hand in hand when teaching UbD, along with time management you need to know your students because not all students are at the same level as the rest so alternative lessons might have to be added to satisfy the other children needs.
Some of the key points of this article revolving Understanding by Design are: -Student-centered and active learning -Implementing differentiated teaching to address the needs of different learners -Incorporating technology in lessons -Having an end goal in mind that the facilitator will guide learners to reach -Learning that has substance and connects to a student cognitively and emotionally -Tapping into a learner's culture and experiences in order to make learning meaningful
Understanding by Design may be a revitalized of teaching in the classroom by using tools that hook a learner's interest. Additionally, it accounts for the needs of different learners by using different tools from the toolkit. Technology is very mundane in this age and is very helpful in the classroom; however if technology is used to create dynamic introductions used to hook some learners, such introductions to lessons can also create the "impatient" problem solver that Dan Myers mentioned in the TED talk, because those learners might not as be interested in lessons that do not have the same exciting start. The premise of Ubd is very revolutionary, some of my concerns of this practice is how to organize my lessons, how to "hook" learners without always relying on technology, how sustainable it is and lastly how to plan lessons with regards to time. I suppose I will slowly attain Ubd through trial and error learning with my students.
"Understanding by Design (UbD) provides a common language for educators who are interested in promoting student understanding rather than formulaic knowledge or recall learning." I thought this was a great sentence clarifying UbD. After reading the article, the idea of working backward to create lesson was an idea I really liked, but could see how it was be difficult/time consuming for a teacher to do all the time. i liked this idea because the teacher can tailor the lesson so that the kids will be interested and have a better understanding. During another one of my education class, we were asked to create a lesson based off a controversial issue( I picked cloning) which was similar to this idea of working backward. From this issue we were asked to design a unit that was not your typical "science unit. " Therefore, it could not just be genetics or mitosis, or animal cells, but rather an infused unit with lessons only from "typical science units" that are pertinent to your controversial issue(I did mitosis and some cell parts, DNA, and geno/pheno types). I thought this was a great way to show student that science is important and can be interesting. It was time consuming to really thing of fun interactive/ entertaining ways to plan the lesson so that the students would be engaged and still learning. However,after planing all the lesson I could really understand how learning via a topic that is controversial would make more sense to a student then just learning the "facts" of each unit. I understand why teacher do not teach this way but after reading about it in the article and actually doing something similar think that i would really benefit student in a greater way. One they would learn the material they need to know for the "test" in a relevant way and TWO they might actually learn and understanding things that would not typical be taught on the "Test" that the student might find interesting.
Making the Most of Understanding by Design
ReplyDelete“A student's culture, experiences, and previous knowledge (i.e., cognitive schema) shape all new learning.”
This is something that is always at the back of my head because it’s something a teacher never has control of and it affects them. A teacher can’t control what students do outside of school, or whether or not they had a great teacher the year before or whether or not they come from dysfunctional families. In other words, in some sense I think that part of the success of a teacher each year depends on the teachers that the students had the previous year.
So understanding that and your career depends on the successes of those students, how do you ensure you still perfrom to the highest standard possible for their success?
DeleteUnderstanding by Design is definitely an important tool all teachers should be trying to gear towards in their classrooms. So many teachers are just doing whatever it takes for students to do well on their end of the year assessments and Regents exams, that they aren’t taking the time to make sure students are really understanding the material. In the school I am observing in, the teachers almost all teacher the same way: have students define key terms then have the students use these key terms to answer fill in the blank questions. It is clear these teachers just want the students to memorize the definitions just long enough to pass their exams. But\, it the end, this is really just harming out youth to teach this way. Most students are leaving high school with almost no retained knowledge from some of their classes. To be honest, I can say the same for myself in regards to not only high school classes, but college classes.
ReplyDeleteBy getting students to perform experiments or research they are finding their own way through the material. It is much easier for students to remember facts when they are seeing the results of a test right before their eyes, instead of just reading it in passing in a textbook. A great UbD technique mentioned is working backwards: with this, students know outcomes but are trying to figure out why these things are true. These kinds of activities really foster understanding, rather than just memorizing.
But I also think it is important to realize some of the challenges presented by UbD teaching. Many teachers in the article listed time restraints as a problem connected with UbD. This teaching style is very time consuming and also a lot more work for teachers that just assigning textbook work. I think it is our job to teach in the best interest of our students and do the extra work if it means that more students are getting a better understanding of the material.
If you think about our class I have not concerned you overwhelmingly with grades and assignments...the focus has been on the discussions about how to teach...what options will you follow as a teacher. It is easy for us to think we are all doing the right thing, but how do we know if we are... and by the time we do, is it too late?
DeleteThe key points I found from this article include why it should be used, how you do it, and how it can be sustained and grow.
ReplyDeleteFirst, why? An interesting quote I found from the article is: “an ongoing connection between emotion and cognition, including a tendency to slip into lower brain functions and structures when threatened”. Not once in observation have I seen a student who gets yelled at become the model student or begin to participate. A teacher said to me “[because the class is quiet] it’s a sign of a good teacher.” That class was bored and feared being chastised. UbD helps the students to be involved and enjoy the learning process. Additionally, UbD is necessary because we have heard repeatedly, the ability to do something does not mean you understand it.
How do we do it? A large section of the article is given to backward design. My personal belief is that the goal has always been the same. Knowledge is to gain understanding. Somewhere over time the procedures to obtain this goal have become more important than the goal itself. I also liked how the article outlined assessment. Assessment is not just tests and quizzes. If a teacher’s only job was to give procedures then they would only use textbook and video instructions.
How can it be sustained and grow? The second section of Q&A asked what is the largest challenge. The third section of Q&A highlights one of those main concerns (what is needed to make it work?). Teachers must be provided with the resources for this style of teaching to work. Every employee from every level must be on board for it to be successful. The teachers must work together and the administration must support the teachers. It’s like a sports team. The team must work together to become better and the coaches must support them and lead them to a united goal.
I agree the goal has and will always be the same...to gain knowledge, but how do we know if we succeeded?
Delete-UbD – promoting student understanding rather than formulaic knowledge or recall learning
ReplyDelete-Promote the understanding of all students is the main idea
-Students learn best when they actively construct meaning through experience based learning
-Know students culture, experiences, and previous knowledge
-students need the ability to demonstrate, derive, describe, design, justify, or prove something using evidence.
-not a program to be implemented but a practice
- challenging to use because of the high stakes accountability of testing
-I would love to use understanding by design in my classrooms but it seems like it is very difficult to develop a lesson where the students derive the formulas themselves. It would take a lot more time to teach and in regents classes the curriculum schedule is very strict.
Key Points:
ReplyDelete•Promoting student understanding
•Framework/toolkit
•Students learn actively not passively
•Need to know students culture, experience, and knowledge
•Backwards design
-Start from what you want the final product (the goal) to be
[GOAL -> EVIDENCE -> ACTIVITIES]
•Test/Quiz – Constructive response
I feel that Understanding by Design would be a great way to teach a classroom however a lot of time and effort goes into planning a UbD lesson plan. You need to think of the goal first then the steps you would take to reach this goal. That’s where time management comes into play. You need to keep track of what is going on in your classroom and that you are still reaching for the goal rather than getting off track. Everything goes hand in hand when teaching UbD, along with time management you need to know your students because not all students are at the same level as the rest so alternative lessons might have to be added to satisfy the other children needs.
Some of the key points of this article revolving Understanding by Design are:
ReplyDelete-Student-centered and active learning
-Implementing differentiated teaching to address the needs of different learners
-Incorporating technology in lessons
-Having an end goal in mind that the facilitator will guide learners to reach
-Learning that has substance and connects to a student cognitively and emotionally
-Tapping into a learner's culture and experiences in order to make learning meaningful
Understanding by Design may be a revitalized of teaching in the classroom by using tools that hook a learner's interest. Additionally, it accounts for the needs of different learners by using different tools from the toolkit. Technology is very mundane in this age and is very helpful in the classroom; however if technology is used to create dynamic introductions used to hook some learners, such introductions to lessons can also create the "impatient" problem solver that Dan Myers mentioned in the TED talk, because those learners might not as be interested in lessons that do not have the same exciting start. The premise of Ubd is very revolutionary, some of my concerns of this practice is how to organize my lessons, how to "hook" learners without always relying on technology, how sustainable it is and lastly how to plan lessons with regards to time. I suppose I will slowly attain Ubd through trial and error learning with my students.
"Understanding by Design (UbD) provides a common language for educators who are
ReplyDeleteinterested in promoting student understanding rather than formulaic knowledge or recall
learning." I thought this was a great sentence clarifying UbD. After reading the article, the idea of working backward to create lesson was an idea I really liked, but could see how it was be difficult/time consuming for a teacher to do all the time. i liked this idea because the teacher can tailor the lesson so that the kids will be interested and have a better understanding.
During another one of my education class, we were asked to create a lesson based off a controversial issue( I picked cloning) which was similar to this idea of working backward. From this issue we were asked to design a unit that was not your typical "science unit. " Therefore, it could not just be genetics or mitosis, or animal cells, but rather an infused unit with lessons only from "typical science units" that are pertinent to your controversial issue(I did mitosis and some cell parts, DNA, and geno/pheno types). I thought this was a great way to show student that science is important and can be interesting. It was time consuming to really thing of fun interactive/ entertaining ways to plan the lesson so that the students would be engaged and still learning. However,after planing all the lesson I could really understand how learning via a topic that is controversial would make more sense to a student then just learning the "facts" of each unit.
I understand why teacher do not teach this way but after reading about it in the article and actually doing something similar think that i would really benefit student in a greater way. One they would learn the material they need to know for the "test" in a relevant way and TWO they might actually learn and understanding things that would not typical be taught on the "Test" that the student might find interesting.