Understanding
by Design is a concept that I had heard before, but didn’t really understand.
Now, I appreciate it more because it makes much more sense to teach with this
method. Here’s an example: Sometimes my professors will give an exam that is
not temporally representative of what we learned. We might spend two weeks on
plant cell types, and only have two out of 100 questions on it. If that
professor had used this method of teaching, the exam would have been made
before completing the lecturing on the topic. He would have been able to better
stay on track with what he wanted us to know, and we would have gotten much
higher grades. The process of going backwards in planning how I teach will help
my students learn and it will help me plan. Using the filters will allow me to
notice if a topic might be more dense than I imagined, or if students will want
to be an active part of it.
When I
teach, I want my students to be learning in a very low stress environment.
Telling students why we are doing something, what the goals are, and what they
should get out of it are all conducive to a low stress environment. Asking
essential questions will be difficult for me in the beginning because I’m used
to have a straightforward answer. I don’t feel like I learned what I was
supposed to learn if there isn’t a straightforward answer.
I want to learn more about what a UbD units
looks like and how to phrase questions that don’t have an answer. I would also
like to see how teachers grade student works that are abstract and difficult to
hold to traditional grading systems. I think that practice will help my best
but I’ll need feedback as well.
Hey Nick! Like you, I'm curious to see what a UbD unit would look like on paper, and how it works in accordance with the need for grades. Perhaps the key is to evaluate students on how they answer the question, rather than what they answer the question with--quality over quantity and all the like.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that you want to make your classroom environment as low-stress as possible. De-emphasizing grades is a great way to do that, and asking essential questions (instead of short-term "need to know in the moment" questions) will definitely help reduce student stress--they no longer have to focus on just "getting it".
Nick, I too would like to see what it would look like. I think that it would take a little while to get used to teaching this way, but once you get used to creating the essential questions, it will be easy. Nothing worth doing is easy, and if you get used to this method it will help to make the last minute stuff easier. You'll get it :)
ReplyDeleteNick, I just want to point out that I agree with Emily's comment above.One of my main goals as a future educator is to de-emphasize grades- it would definitely create a less stressful environment. Then again, how much should we de-emphasize grades? We don't want the students to put off assignments for the class because they know they aren't going to receive a grade. I would just weigh assignments more heavily that tests/quizzes, as there is a lot of test anxiety that comes along with it.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, I can relate to your story about the whole idea of spending a lot of time and energy on certain pieces of content and then hardly being tested on it. It is definitely not the right way to approach it.
My second question is do you want to phrase questions that don't have an answer? Or do you want to develop good, broad questions that don't have a CORRECT answer? I feel as though if I received a question only to find out at some point it didn't have an answer, I would be one frustrated student! I knew what you were getting at here, I'm just pushing this idea of no correct answer as opposed to no answer at all.
Other than that, as future science teachers, it would be a good idea to give this a try. There is a lot of content that can be used in a hands-on way to create meaning and long-term memories.
Hi Nick, I like how you tied students' stress to UbD. If reasons for learning something aren't properly communicated, and the teacher hasn't properly organized a unit, the students will feel unsure of themselves and eventually stressed. Like you, I'm curious about applying UbD to certain topics. The essential questions are not always obvious to me. I'd say for questions without straitforward answers, the process of asking and talking about those topics is learning in itself. Facilitating open ended questions, and asking questions that force students to defend their positions Are skills that takes practice, and I'm sure you'd get it down. I think the key is having a clear idea how far you'll let the topic deviate off course, and how to redirect students.
ReplyDelete