M5u1a4-Understanding and Applying Standards Reflection-McNeese
This week I learned how to Unpack a Standard, the Principle of Backwards Planning, how to create activities to meet Curriculum Standards but also meet the SMART objectives and Understanding by Design.
Unpacking a Standard asks teachers to look for key words within the standard to help us know what students are being asked to do, know, understand or learn. The verbs within the standard are usually the skills a student will need to meet the standard and the nouns can reveal the “big idea” or what should be the lesson objectives. Skills and objectives might be “students will solve multi-step problems with the verb solve as the skill and objective of solving multi-step problems.
Backwards Mapping (planning) teaches us to plan lesson with the end in mind. We should prepare lessons with learning activities that lead students to meet the objectives of a standard. Learning activities should also be learning experiences for students that they can take with them into the real world. And so I will use real world problems and problem based learning activities, which are vital tools, as an integral part of my lessons helping students prepare for higher education or a career.
The SMART plan asks us to design lesson activities which are:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable for the audience
Relevant and results oriented and
Targeted to learner and desired level of learning.
What this means is lesson activities should be designed to help students meet a specific component of the standard and help students ultimately meet the objective. Being specific might mean a quiz, journal or homework. To make a task measureable a teacher might qualify the number of problems a student must get correct to meet the standard. Students must correctly identify 8 out of 10 fish species correctly.
Understanding by Design divides the lesson design into parts or stages. The three parts are Stage 1-Desired Results, Stage 2-Assessment Evidence and Stage 3-Learning Plan (Learning Activities). The plan is separated further into goals, what students will understand, essential questions, what students will know, what students will be able to do, performance tasks, other evidence and the specific learning activities.
I am redesigning an Economics lesson using the SMART goals, Backwards Planning and Understanding by Design. This week’s activities have helped me to refine my lesson plans and activities to make them more specific and goal oriented and to make my students more engaging for my students. My assessment tools are specific and measurable and are geared to help students have a better understanding of the real world Economics and to learn how Economics works in their own lives. I am excited to see how the revamped lessons work with my students.
References
Effective use of performance objectives for learning and assessment. (2005). Retrieved from ccoe.rbhs.rutgers.edu: http://ccoe.rbhs.rutgers.edu/forms/EffectiveUseofLearningObjectives.pdf
McTighe, J. (2012, December 6). Common Core Big Idea r: Map Backward from Intended Results. Teacher Leadership. Edutopia.
Wiggins, G., Wilbur, D., & McTighe, J. (2002). Understanding by Design: Overview of UBD & the Design Template. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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