The challenge is to think backwards: What do I do then with the text book imposed by the institution I work for? How can I justify the money parents spent on this textbook if it is not the core of my lessons? Will everybody trust my own criteria if it is not stated in a textbook written by “experts”? I will need more time to think…..it is easier to follow the textbook…..These, among others, are the ideas that the little devil on every teacher shoulder whispers every time we face a new unit.
Wiggins this time plays the role of the little angel, advising us to do the right thing.
In a way I feel that backward design is even easier than the traditional design way. As the author clearly states it, it is a matter of common sense, what do I want from my students? How can they show they understand? And only then What should I do to provide them with the enabling skills to fulfill our goals. My question is…..
If it is that obvious…why is it that we have been working the other way around for centuries? Maybe the evil has been stronger than the poor angel or maybe the angel did not have the right justifications to convince us, teachers.
Talking about sins….maybe teachers are too egocentric…We always focus on teaching when the goal is learning!
Teaching is at the service of learning and not the other way around, and teachers should be at the service of our student’s understanding and of course, out of question…NOT the other way around….
I think it is time to start doing things the right way (this, by the way has been my conclusion in all the chapters).We already read about the importance of clear goal setting, therefore let’s focus on that, then we have to detect evidence of understanding, to do so we need to pull the right strings, meaning the right assessing instruments and finally, methods to obtain understanding.
By following these steps we are replicating the natural order of life, don’t you think?
Discussion: Let’s listen to the angel on our right shoulder; our students will be thankful for that and our consciences too.
Wiggins this time plays the role of the little angel, advising us to do the right thing.
In a way I feel that backward design is even easier than the traditional design way. As the author clearly states it, it is a matter of common sense, what do I want from my students? How can they show they understand? And only then What should I do to provide them with the enabling skills to fulfill our goals. My question is…..
If it is that obvious…why is it that we have been working the other way around for centuries? Maybe the evil has been stronger than the poor angel or maybe the angel did not have the right justifications to convince us, teachers.
Talking about sins….maybe teachers are too egocentric…We always focus on teaching when the goal is learning!
Teaching is at the service of learning and not the other way around, and teachers should be at the service of our student’s understanding and of course, out of question…NOT the other way around….
I think it is time to start doing things the right way (this, by the way has been my conclusion in all the chapters).We already read about the importance of clear goal setting, therefore let’s focus on that, then we have to detect evidence of understanding, to do so we need to pull the right strings, meaning the right assessing instruments and finally, methods to obtain understanding.
By following these steps we are replicating the natural order of life, don’t you think?
Discussion: Let’s listen to the angel on our right shoulder; our students will be thankful for that and our consciences too.
I agree with you on the idea that teaching is at the service of learning and not the other way around. However, I don't think is because teachers are too egocentric. I believe the problem is even more serious, it is a cultural one. We, chileans, are too shy and not self confident at all (there are exceptions)and probably that's why we focus on how we are going to perform as teachers rather than what are my students' needs.
ReplyDeleteWe can take this situation into another very representative example. When we prepare presentations for our posgraduate classmates, do we really think if they are going to understand or not? Is our goal to give our classmates some useful information on a specific topic and make them understand? Let's be honest, probably most of us think what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it. And we forget that there is an audience trying to learn something.
That is what happens in our classrooms, we focused on ourselves, since we want to be great performers and we forget that our students are trying to understand.
I think that there is nothing wrong to use text books as a guide, the problems lies if we only resort to them in all the lessons as a way of achieving understanding. All we agree that teachers are not only responsable to see the asked contents superficially,but they are the ones who have to take them into reality. However this task is not as easy as it seems, because in most of the cases we have to adapt and use our inventiveness to make them meaningful by the students.That is why I would bare to say that the main problem is not the materials, may be the dissussion should be focused on how we are using them. We already know that we have to design classes looking for the understanding as the ideal goal but the quetion is what happens with the rest, are they aware of the fundamentals that should govern to Chilean education? Obviously the answer is not, then who is in charge of making the changes that education needs?.
ReplyDeleteDear Vicky,
ReplyDeleteMaybe the fact that teachers are the ones who 'know' the contents, we also believe that we 'know' how to do the right things.
My feeling after having read UbD is that we have such a long collection of sins that we deserve exorcism.
I hope that our teaching practices and what goes around them next year start putting everything into practice. The temptation will always be there... It is on us not to run into the same brick wall once and twice and a thousand times.
Indeed Wiggins and Mc Tighe are here to be our saviours, for we have many difficulties to overcome in our teaching. It is true when you say that we need solid arguments to justify the decisions we make, say, why we teach the way we do and why we expect specific things from students.
ReplyDeleteAlthough we sometimes tend to rely on our pedagogical intuitions and or even in our sometimes distorted common sense this is not enough, for learning is a rather complex process. I agree on the questions that you ask, because it is essential to reflect, and I am insistant on the posts I make on this points, that we must put into practice our our theoretical knowledge and try to innovate in teaching depite all the obstacles we are to face.
My friend,
ReplyDelete“Why is it that we have been working the other way around for centuries?” Good question my friend!!! I haven’t even realized that things were like that so now that I notice that I was all the time following the mass. And in a way we know that the decision of changing our minds and therefore our practices is going to be conditioned by our ineffective system.
Thx for al lyour reflections!
Dear Vicky,
ReplyDeleteI want to focus my comment on two questions taken from your post:
1. How can I justify the money parents spent on this textbook if it is not the core of my lessons?
2. Will everybody trust our own criteria as teachers?
Don't you think that the most domestic things are the most umpleasant ones in teacher's profesional life? I'm quite sure most of us have been through one of these two scenarios, namely, parents complaining about the little use of the textbooks or ever worse parents suggesting how to carry out the class and what to do with their babies. I'm sure nobody tells a doctor how to carry out a surgery, nor asks for the things that were not used in the surgery back.
Well, I know I took another way by taking this social issue rather than backward design, yet I thing everything converges at the same point which is teaching.
Dear Vicky:
ReplyDeleteI am convinced that the problem that Chilean education is facing nowadays is closely connected with the vicious circle which many of our classmates have mentioned in their post. Our previous experiences as students have marked the way we teach now as teachers. I do not remember a teacher in school who had asked me to reflect on my subjects. On the contrary, they always asked me to learn contents by heart. The best students were the ones who learn and repeat what teachers said. What for? I really do not know.
But my questions are: Do I have to say that my teachers were devils because they did not encourage me to think and reflect?, Did they know that their practices were not effective? I think that the answers to these questions have to do with the vicious circle too.
Dear Vic,
ReplyDeleteI did like and enjoy your title because it is in our own nature...always trying to do the "bad" or "wrong" things...and afterwards we will be punished somehow for what we have done in hell...well, as you have said, let's try to start doing the "right things", then...the thing is when you have been working for so many time doing the "wrong" staff, it is absolutely complicated to start doing "the other way around", I mean, it is possible, but it will take long time to get used to it....it is like when you have been drogadict and you want to quit and start again....it is a long-time process, but possible anyway...so let's start setting clear objectives and then our assessment considerations will be almost given...