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!