Understanding By Design
Chapter 1 - Backwards Design
The point of this chapter was that you must begin with the end in mind. We started our presentation by discussing the Winchester House in San Fransisco. It was built with no overall design - there are doors that lead into walls, staircases that take you no where, multiple kitchens, unmatched styles, etc.
For the group activity, we gave each group a fairy tale to work with. Using backwards design, each group looked for the three backward design elements in their fairy tale. The first element is the goal, which we gave to each group so they had a starting point. The second element is evidence of achievement; how you can tell learning happened. The third element was to identify teaching and learning experiences. Each group shared what they found specific to their fairy tale.
Closing thoughts brought us back to the Winchester House. What should Mrs. Winchester have started with when she built her house? Blueprint, some sense of over-arching design, or consulting with a designer. Can we apply this to lesson planning and teaching our students? Certainly.
Chapter 2 - Understanding Understanding
Understanding should provide specific evidence that students can do a specific thing. However, the verbs know, know-how, and understand are used interchangeably in speech today. Bloom says transfer is no "plugging in" what was learned, but being able to modify, adjust, and adapt to a particular situation. This is being able to adapt previously learned playing skills to a new piece of music or taking basic acting skills and applying them to a new medium like Shakespeare. What many teachers take for understanding is not truly understanding or we miss that our students are not understanding. We have to uncover potential misunderstandings, clear grey areas, and get to the core ideas of a subject.
Chapter 1 - Backwards Design
The point of this chapter was that you must begin with the end in mind. We started our presentation by discussing the Winchester House in San Fransisco. It was built with no overall design - there are doors that lead into walls, staircases that take you no where, multiple kitchens, unmatched styles, etc.
For the group activity, we gave each group a fairy tale to work with. Using backwards design, each group looked for the three backward design elements in their fairy tale. The first element is the goal, which we gave to each group so they had a starting point. The second element is evidence of achievement; how you can tell learning happened. The third element was to identify teaching and learning experiences. Each group shared what they found specific to their fairy tale.
Closing thoughts brought us back to the Winchester House. What should Mrs. Winchester have started with when she built her house? Blueprint, some sense of over-arching design, or consulting with a designer. Can we apply this to lesson planning and teaching our students? Certainly.
Chapter 2 - Understanding Understanding
Understanding should provide specific evidence that students can do a specific thing. However, the verbs know, know-how, and understand are used interchangeably in speech today. Bloom says transfer is no "plugging in" what was learned, but being able to modify, adjust, and adapt to a particular situation. This is being able to adapt previously learned playing skills to a new piece of music or taking basic acting skills and applying them to a new medium like Shakespeare. What many teachers take for understanding is not truly understanding or we miss that our students are not understanding. We have to uncover potential misunderstandings, clear grey areas, and get to the core ideas of a subject.