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Chapter 11The Design ProcessEDPC605

+3 Stages…

1. Identify desired results.

2. Determine acceptable evidence.

3. Plan learning experiences and instruction.

+Can you start the design process anywhere?

The authors state, ”you can start anywhere…(sometimes) it makes sense to begin with a key resource (a science kit) or a planned assessment (a technology project). In an important sense it doesn’t matter where you enter the design process and how you proceed; it only matters that you end with a coherent product.” (p.255)

+6 Common Entry Points to the Design Process..

1. Begin with Content Standards

2. Begin by considering desired real-world applications

3. Begin with a key resource or favorite activity

4. Begin with an important skill

5. Begin with a key assessment

6. Begin with an existing unit

+Dilemmas in Design Every design requires compromise; we always have to

weight pros and cons.

How do we design or redesign to focus on big ideas with out losing sight of content?

How feasible are such units, given the time we have available for the topic, given all our other obligations?

How do we determine whether the blueprint is a good one, capable of being turned into effective learning, or whether it is an unrealistic dream?

How easy is it to reconcile the architect’s vision with the reality of available resources , the skill of the students who do the “construction,” and the “building code” of state standards?

+Dilemmas facing all designers of learning for understanding:

Big ideas and transfer versus specific knowledge and skills;

Complex, realistic, and messy performance versus efficient and sound tests (Authentic application is clearly a good thing, but it is difficult and time-consuming to implement easily and to evaluate precisely);

Teacher control versus learner control of the work;

Direct versus constructivist approaches;

Depth versus breath of knowledge;

Comfort and a feeling of competence versus a real challenge;

Uniform versus personalized work and expectations;

Effective versus merely engaging;

Simplified versus simplistic;

A well-crafted plan versus appropriate flexibility and open-endedness;

A great individual unit versus larger goals and other designs.

+Authors advice…

Seek feedback –

From self assessment;

From peers;

From expert reviewers;

From students;

From our own observations about what is and is not working.

And of course, from the formative assessments from our students.

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Chapter 12 - The Big PictureUbD as Curriculum Framework

EDPC605

Explanation

How should the BIG PICTURE for CURRICULUM be conceived and implemented to fully reflect BACKWARD DESIGN with an emphasis on UNDERSTANDING?

To design course syllabi and program frameworks utilizing BACKWARD DESIGN that integrate ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS, ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS, KEY PERFORMANCE TASKS, and RUBRICS.

Rationale

Typical curriculum focuses on specific content knowledge and skills.

However, framing curriculum around ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS fosters connective, thought-provoking, and recurring inquiries that are more central to the learning experience of students.

+Cross-disciplinary Questions

Essential Questions often jump curricular boundaries (p.281)

Student Impact

Rather than facts learned in isolation, narrowing of curriculum and decontextualized “multiple-choice” teaching methods, students are searching for answers to provocative questions that human beings perennially ask about the world and themselves.

Additionally, students’ understanding of the key ideas are embedded in the context of exploring and applying the BIG PICTURE ideas.

+Essential Questions Benefit

“A benefit of framing curricula around essential questions is that the questions naturally suggest the right kinds of higher-order assessment tasks to anchor local curriculum”. (p. 282)

+From tasks to rubrics

Instructional rubrics are easy to use and to explain

Instructional rubrics make teachers' expectations very clear

Instructional rubrics provide students with more informative feedback about their strengths and areas in need of improvement than traditional forms of assessment do.

Instructional rubrics support learning.

Instructional rubrics support the development of skills.

Instructional rubrics support the development of understanding.

+Scope & Sequence

“Known by educators as the label for the logic of the curriculum”. (p.294) – developed by Hollis Caswell (a Dewey student). His definition -

Scope – “the major functions of social life”

Sequence – “centers of interest” in students’ lives at a particular time.

This original idea “the proper sequencing of topics..was meant to derive from the unfolding of work that would seem most natural and interesting to the learner”. (p.295)

+The Spiral Curriculum

First articulated by John Dewey (1938 – “describe how subject matter should be organized to move from problem to problem, causing knowledge to increase in depth and breadth” – p. 297)

Later championed by Jerome Bruner (Constructivist Theorist - learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge)

We’ve yet to embody this approach, although with the study of learning theory, multiple intelligence, and Bloom’s Taxonomy of higher thinking of learning maybe we’re ready

What educators might find difficult?

Approaching curriculum with a conventional, linear, textbook-driven scope and sequence filter is the traditional mindset.

UbD frames curriculum from a reflective, recursive “SPIRAL” filter which focuses on recurring, ever-deepening inquiries into BIGPICTURE ideas and important tasks.

This approach fosters enduring understanding that is effective and developmentally appropriate.

+Why has this persisted?

“A root factor is an overreliance on the textbook” (p. 298)

Among the adoption states, Texas, California, and Florida have unrivaled clout. Yes, size does matter. Together, these three have roughly 13 million students in K-12 public schools. The next 18 adoption states put together have about 12.7 million

Though the Big Three have different total numbers of students, they each spend about the same amount of money on textbooks. For the current school year, they budgeted more than $900 million for instructional materials, more than a quarter of all the money that will be spent on textbooks in the nation.

U.S. History (Howard Zinn & James Loewen “A People’s History of the United States” & Lowewen “Lies my teacher told me”. Columbus, Europeans & Native Americans, slavery, Mexico, heroes of the past.

Science

Mathematics

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/21/how-texas-inflicts-bad-textbooks-on-us/?pagination=false

What teachers like/dislike about this strategy? Educators dislike UbD

approach as it removes them from comfort zone of textbook-driven planned lessons. UbD requires a lot of work!

Benefits outweigh the costs in short and long term for all stakeholders once curriculum has been framed according to UbD principles.

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“Yes, but…”

Chapter 13