UbD Stage 3

This week, we completed stage 3 of the understanding by design structured unit. I laid out my unit as I would any other unit, listing activities by the day. Then I labeled them according to which letter of WHERETO each applied to (many applied to both). I constructed it this way because it shows the sequence of activities as well as how they apply to each of the ides presented in the WHERETO acronym.

W- Where are we going?

H- How will we hook and hold educator interest?

E- How will we Equip educators for expected performance?

R- How will we help educators Rethink and revise?

E- How will educators self-Evaluate and reflect on their learning?

T- How will we Tailor learning to varied needs, interests, and styles?

O- How will we Organize and sequence the learning?

I think my plan showed how the spiral design is incorporated into my unit, helping the students remember to always return to previous knowledge. I think this idea helps the students truly build on their own knowledge, rather than learning a bunch of disordered facts.

I liked reading others’ plans, especially to see the different ways they put them together. I saw many of my peers post individual ideas under each letter, rather than present a consecutive list of activities. Some presented a consecutive list of activities, but only listed those that pertained to each letter in order. I saw some great potential in others’ work, and saw how their layout made sense for the type of unit they were trying to accomplish. I think this activity helped show how different level teachers and different subject teachers can use a similar form of lesson planning to accomplish their goals. I also saw that different layouts can work for different goals, but all parts are still necessary to create a viable unit plan. I enjoyed this project, and it really helped ground my planning for my first unit as a paid teacher!!

Learner-Centered Approach

This week we talked about multiple intelligences. I thought it was interesting to hear everyone’s ideas about how to use multiple intelligences in the classroom. I liked that everyone thought that this was a given in the classroom, because students have such different ways of learning, and such different personalities. It is nice to see that new teachers embrace this idea, because so many older teachers teach only how they were taught, or how they learn best. Students are not all cut by the same cookie cutter. They all learn very differently and we have to account for that when we are teaching. It is very important to think about differentiation in our classrooms and using different teaching strategies to account for multiple intelligences id a great way to differentiate instruction. Every student learns differently and we cannot make every individual lesson applicable to all of those intelligences. However, we can vary lessons within a unit so that the each of the concepts can be presented in a way that all learning strategies can benefit.

Module 5 Reflection

This week, we went through planning stage 2 of the understanding by design unit. I thought this stage was very helpful when thinking about what we can do to assess what the students have learned in the unit. It was interesting to see all the different takes that everyone took on the broad questions, but we all ended up with very well put-together unit plans. I thought it was a good tactic to think about all the different ways you are assessing your students in what they know. I liked to see all of the different ideas people came up with for assessments to get ideas for what I might add to my unit plan.

I also appreciated the comments on my unit plan. I got some great ideas for how to fix it up, and change a few things so that my unit plan would flow better. I even figured out some things I would have done in the classroom that I did not specify in the unit plan. I think this method is a great way to plan, because you are thinking about the goals you want the students to accomplish by the end of the unit, and planning their path to get there gives them the best opportunity for success.

Cooperative Learning and Constructivism

In this week’s module, we read and discussed a lot of the strategies that many teachers are relying on in the classroom today. We are emphasizing cooperative learning because we know that practice will help the students learn how to work with others. The career field is looking for future employees that can work with others well, so we want our students to be able to do this. Group projects are a huge part of cooperative learning and I personally like to use them in class often. I think they are a great way for students to set their own goals and objectives and figure out a way to meet them. This helps the students become more independent and able to work on projects without the always present oversight of the teacher.

Constructivism is a very modern approach to education. Many older teachers that I know have a big problem with this method because they feel that it takes too long, and would limit the amount of material that we can cover in a year even more than it already is. They also feel that there is too much of a chance that the students could understand the concepts incorrectly, misinterpret how they can be used, or use them incorrectly out of context. Constructivism is a new concept, and very different from direct instruction. I think it is a powerful tool that we can use, because students are building their own knowledge in their own words. Each student will own the knowledge themselves, rather than feel like they are absorbing the knowledge of others.

Global competiveness, Improved outcomes, and the Need for new methods of teaching

In this week’s module, many topics were covered, including global competiveness, improved outcomes, and the need for new methods of teaching. The Stewart article was based on the idea that high school students in the United States are far behind their counterparts in other countries, and the United States is, therefore, putting their students at a disadvantage when they are going up against foreign students for jobs. Although I did not think Stewart’s article made the most convincing argument, I do think her point is valid. There have been studies that have shown that our students are behind those of other countries. I think it would be beneficial to study their methods of education to see if we can learn anything from them.

In order to raise the achievement level of our students, we need to study improved outcomes for our students. The Black article discussed intrinsic motivation for students, helping them to appreciate learning as a way of bettering oneself, or improving their knowledge to become a well-rounded citizen. This is hard to do, as students are so focused on getting good grades so that they can get in to a good college. We have to work on convincing the students that these goals are mutually inclusive. It is hard because students have not been brought up to think this way, but I think it is something we can work on changing.

Finally, I commented on George W. Bush’s statement that we do not need more trendy education theories, as the ways we have been using for the last few decades have worked just fine. But he does not take in to consideration that methods of teaching have been changing, especially over the past decade. There has been new research, including new information about ourselves, our brains and the way we learn. This research has affected educational theories and teaching methods. I think these ways are more appropriate for the younger students, and make a much more interesting way of learning. I think the methods we have come up with are more effective than the old ways. It is always important to take into account new research in any profession. In scientific research, for example, of you find a method that is more efficient and more effective than the old methods, you do not ignore the new information just because the old way worked. It would be inefficient, and waste valuable resources. The same attitude should be applied to education.

Inductive Strategies

In this week’s module, we discussed inductive strategies and their benefit or detriment to today’s students. Many people had similar ideas. I think there is a lot of benefit because the students are formulating their own ideas, rather than being made to learn the ideas of others. Many of my colleagues spelled out this same idea, adding that students can explore different ideas and develop their own from their explorations (Rossi, blackboard). I also think inductive strategies are beneficial because students can learn more than simply the topic on which the lesson is based, or even learn more than one topic at once. Because inductive strategies are so flexible, many ideas or subjects can be combined into one lesson (Sanders, blackboard). I think that inductive strategies are a great way to teach certain subjects to students, because students can use their own ideas, which motivate them to learn it because it is based around an interest of their own.

However, the strategy does have its drawbacks. Sometimes, these kinds of activities take much longer for some students to understand because backgrounds of students can be so different. Sometimes the whole class will take much longer to get to the right idea, or one group of slower students will not understand which makes planning difficult. Then, there is the issue of students potentially coming to incorrect conclusions (Seamans, blackboard) or embedding their misconceptions further, rather than correcting them. All these cons make these kinds of lessons take much longer than simple direct instruction, but I think the benefits outweigh these possible consequences because I think student built learning is much more valuable and stays with the students much longer than memorizing from a lecture or textbook.

Helping Students Succeed through Curriculum

In this module, there are a lot of different ideas. I believe the overall arching ideas were similar to the big ideas in education. How do we make sure that our students are learning the most that they can under the best circumstances so that we can help them become functioning well-rounded citizens? We started out our discussions with ideas on overlying ideas for education, and what our perspectives or approach to education are. I think it was interesting to read how different people’s view are, yet they are all based around these four ideas, though I saw more behaviorist speaker’s incorporated somehow in everyone’s posts. Embedded in those questions were ideas that come from our own classrooms. It was interesting to read how all the different age groups and subject matters incorporate different aspects of implicit curriculum, or how they collaborate with others. Many people had the same ideas of self-discipline, respect, a comfortable, safe environment and self-confidence. I thought it was interesting that many people did not incorporate collaboration or cooperation. Maybe it was implicit in one of their other implicit lessons, but I think one of the most important skills we can teach our students is to work well with others, no matter who those people are or what ideas they have.

My favorite article was Anctil’s, which discussed the three A’s. Last year, it was very difficult to handle all of my 504 and IEP students. In one class I had six students, in addition to a couple ELL students, plus a few with behavior issues. When I was reading about the three A’s, I was like, “hey, this is what I was doing every day for 6^th period last year!” It was a huge learning experience, and at the time quite frustrating at times. I had to keep up with multiple changing 504s, make sure my IEP kids were getting the right assignments and material in their Learning Strategies classes, and make sure the parents were in the loop about what was expected of their child and what I could do to help. I am sure that I will have to handle a similar situation this coming year, but I feel I am much more prepared for the task by myself after my experience last year.

Use of instructional strategies in the classroom

This week we discussed how we use different instructional strategies in our classrooms. It was fun to think back to different activities I had done with my students in the past year. I really liked reading others’ posts about ways they incorporated different strategies into their classrooms. I am excited to learn more this quarter about new ways to incorporate Marzano’s strategies into my classroom.

Phase 5 of EDU 6120 project

Group project: Presentation to give new teachers

What worked well?

I thought that this project would have worked better if we had figured out a way for all members to attend our group discussion sessions. I liked the group discussion times, and they were helpful in keeping me on track to finish my individual portion, and then help with the group collaborative portion.

What were the challenges?

The challenges were our entirely different schedules. We have one member on the East coast, one member who is coaching two sports, I believe, at her school and one member who is just finishing up the year for student teaching and taking a full load of classes. We are on very different time schedules as well. Some people go to bed early, while others get home late. It was difficult to work out times when we could all “meet” online.

Are you satisfied with the quality of the charter, essay or presentation (whichever is appropriate for the phase you are on)?

Yes, somewhat. One group member did not include enough citations, nor did they include notes on their slides. I tried to alert her to the oversight, but she did not respond.

Are you satisfied with the individual and collaborative work of your team?

Yes, somewhat. Pretty much the same reason as the last question, because it is hard when group members do not follow given instructions and then are not around to fix the issue. I gave her about 8 or so hours to fix it, and it was hard to not get any response, even the next day.

Describe how you personally did, in terms of following the charter?

I thought I did well. I kep ton top of everyone for the power point, and made sure that everyone had all the parts they needed. I added my information to the outline before the deadline and I looked over the final essay to make sure it was high quality.

How did the team do?

As a team, I thought we did well. We completed every part of the whole project and I liked all the final products. I learned a lot from my group members and I hope they learned a lot from me.

Were there technical challenges?

none. I figured out how to post everything to google docs, which allowed us to post everything on the blackboard site easily.

Meta-Reflection

I have grown a lot more this quarter than I really expected to. I have so much left to learn and to consider in order to figure out my views on different aspects of education. My largest area of growth this quarter has been in my view of what students should actually learn in school. I came in to teaching wanting to share my knowledge of science with students, and try to excite them about the science in the world around them. I started off the year trying to make sure I covered everything in the curriculum and make sure the students learned it well. I did want my students to learn how to collaborate and communicate with others, and to learn how to be successful in a society, my classroom for example. These were secondary however to mastering the concepts in the curriculum. After taking the post test, I realize how much I have grown in this area. Standards provide a basis for the concepts the students are meant to master in any given class, but teachers can still give students something to learn without them. I think now that it is more important for students to learn how to function in a larger society besides themselves and their friend group. In high school, many students isolate themselves into small groups that do not socialize with anyone else. In my class, I ask them to break free of those cliques and be a part of a larger class where everyone works together towards a common goal. I do want the students to learn some curriculum, and maybe even be a little more interested in the subject I taught them (biology or chemistry). I want students to be more informed, so that they can go into the world and be educated enough to make informed decisions, or be able to do enough research to make an informed decision. If I can excite even one student to go further in my subject, I will have succeeded. If I can get students to understand more about the world and how it works, even if it just catches their interest, I have succeeded. I want my students to be prepared for the world. Whether they learn all of the biology or chemistry I taught them over the year is secondary to them learning how to work with others and becoming aware of how to function in a group society.