The Big Picture: UbD as Curriculum Framework

This last chapter we have to read talks about the curriculum, in a more global scale.

What is is suggested here is that curriculum could be available and accesible for all the members involved in the teaching / learning process, let’s say students, colleagues, parents, directors, etc.

It is also mentioned that the syllabus should have some characteristics to be followed in it, such as essential questions, rubrics, performances, goals, just to mention some.

I must admit I got quite lost through the reading of this chapter and I am not really sure if this book may help my reality in classes. It would be very interesting to have an idea and discussion, perhaps in classes, about all the theories the book presents.

Planning for Learning

According to the text, it is said that teachers argue that any type of instruction, like any other facet of the learning experience, needs to have a purpose leading to desired understandings.

Wiggins and McTighe argue that the best designs are “engaging and effective” (195). In evaluating the historical fiction project through the characteristics of the best designs (196-197), I find that:

• I definitely believe that the project focuses on interesting and important ideas but hard for our reality. I am trying to make students think and become critical about what they read, speak and listen to.
• I think it is a meaningful project even though it is hard to put it into our practice.
• This project definitely puts me in the facilitator or coach role.

Regarding the authors’ acronym WHERETO, I believe this device would work better if the elements could were simplified and began with the letter they represent. For instance, “W — Ensure that students understand WHERE the unit is headed, and WHY” (197). Why not simply phrase it “W — WHERE are you going and WHY, WHEN?.

Once again, theory is perfect but quite far from Chilean reality. Maybe all of this pieces of advice would work in another culture, but we need to put more emphasis on our own culture. We saw on TV about the new changes in the Chilean curriculum, more hours for Math and “Lenguaje”. We have to wait and see if this could work or not. Let’s hope it really works!

Crafting Understandings

Understanding process is a different one for each of us. The text suggests ways for our students to understand easily, such as question (previous chapter), criticize, explain, etc.

But, how is is possible for our students, who have different learning skills, different motivations, an unique pace, to understand a subject, an idea, or whatever at the same time? We cannot take things for granted and expect one thing for all students.

Besides that, understanding is a process based on investigation and substantiation, but not based on faith, which some of us tend to confuse those concepts sometimes, expecting “students will learn soon or later”. Let’s leave faith for other topics, but not understanding.

As I said before and I repeat it here, ideas in written papers, in conversation, theory in general is far away from reality in classrooms. It is really hard to try to change that and so something about it.

Essential Questions: Doorways to Understanding

According to Chapter 5, designing and planning start by the use of essentials questions.

Having that idea clear, organization of classes, units and lessons come later.

If we implement essential questions in our classrooms, it will be easier for our 

students to get a clearer understanding our our own lessons, contents and aims.

Essential questions will be beyond the all the matters we have been used to 

dealing with. When we, as learners, tend to question things around us, 

the knowledge we get through it becomes deeper and long-term. 

It is a real truth that questions are a doorway for understanding, 

comprehension and they activate our senses of seeing life in all different 

aspects, such as learning, teaching and so on.

There is nothing wrong when we question things. In fact, we should do 

it all the time, since we will become more critical and confident about 

our own opinions, feelings, ideas and knowledge we are getting.

Questions were made to be answered! Go and look for them!

Gaining Clarity on Our Goals

Aims in our classes are extremely important when taking a lot of aspects to be reached into account about teaching. Authors give us an understanding of  how to deal with these aims in our teaching practice. Desired goals need to be clear at the moment of starting a lesson plan and help, in one way or another, to do the curriculum for a specific course.

Time has been always an issue to struggle against. As teachers, we may have our plans ready to get them through, and they may work in some lessons, but it is obviously in others will not. Why? Just because the variety of students we have in classes, or because pace is not the same in all our classes or just because we are not in the same mood. We try to cover as much as we can, but we know reality in the classroom is completely different and we have to skip some sections and be careful when choosing what to teach and what not to. We need to set our priorities.

It is really hard how to make that decision. Who decides? Who knows best what is the best for our students? The institution? The teacher? Too many questions to be answered just after reading this chapter.

As the text is concerned, we need to have in mind the three aspects when we set our priorities: worth being familiar with, important to do and to know and big ideas and core tasks.

To finish, I insist we have to be realistic and also flexible. After some experience  teaching, we can decide better.

Backward Design

When it comes to our classes design, we, as teachers, tend to focus on how to get the class through without sometimes thinking about all the different needs, learning styles and complications our students may have in the same class we are teaching. To plan a lesson may be more complicated than we think the process is. Therefore, all the aspects mentioned before must be considered. Backward design tells us how to make a change in the starting point when we plan our curriculum paying specific attention to the aspects mentioned before.

Following the reading and thinking about my experience as a teacher, I could not help but wonder, Are we really doing this? I mean, Do we take the necessary time to do this? And Do we follow and care about students’ needs and learning styles?

If I analyse the Backward Design and compare it to my experience as a University Teacher, I realize there is a big distance from what it is and what I do in my classes. It is really my interest to focus on the need of the change in our own minds from contents to results.