One of the main ideas is focused on developing goals and objectives when we do our planning. The teaching job is not done randomly; it needs guidance, preparation and elaboration. On one hand, the guidance is given by the national or institutional standards that specify what students should know and be able to do. On the other hand, preparation and elaboration are on the teacher’s criteria and creativity. Teacher’s criteria will be understood as the objectives or results we want to get after doing our lesson. The creativity will be used when we want to give the correct order to our lesson using the content, the appropriate method and the proper activities.
Here appears the concept of “Backward Design”. The backwards design model centers on the idea that the design process should begin with identifying the desired results and then "work backwards" to develop instruction rather than the traditional approach which is to define what topics need to be covered. In other words, we should use a results-focused design instead of a content-focused design.
Their framework identifies three main stages:
• Stage 1: Identify desired results: It means the learning that should endure over the long term. This is referred to as the “enduring understanding”. This requires “clarity about priorities” (Wiggins).
• Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence: We need to establish what constitutes acceptable evidence of competency in the outcomes and results. To define what forms of assessment will demonstrate that the student acquired the knowledge, understanding, and skill to answer the questions. There are three types of assessments: Performance Task, Criteria Referenced Assessment (quizzes, test, prompts) and Unprompted Assessment and Self-Assessment (observations, dialogues, etc.).
• Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction: It means instructional strategies and learning experiences that equip students to develop and demonstrate the desired understanding, bringing students to these competency levels.
I think that it is also important to emphasize the overall benefits that can be obtained from the use of the UbD approach. By using Design standards, we are providing standardized criteria to develop and control critically curriculum and unit plans. Thus, new improvements to curriculum may be sprung from its use.
ReplyDeleteevery teaching design should start by thinking about what we want to accomplish, then our audience and at the end on the "how" to do it, this backward design is very heplful to achieve that.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to highlight what you mentioned about creativity. Usually we try to be creative incorporating new activities or methods in our classrooms, but we forget the purpose for doing so. It's not only about being creative but about achieving certain goals in a creative way.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you when you say that the teaching job is not done randomly,I think that it needs a lot of preparation and guidance and that sometimes students do not see the point of doing an activity or another and as Dayana mentioned sometimes we try to be as much creative as we can, incorporating new methods, ideas and materials that we tend to forget about the purpose of doing it, and of course if WE lose our way, it will be impossible for students to achieve the goals we set in our planning.
ReplyDeleteCreativeness is a point which is permanent in our profession, but if we don't have motivated students with a family who support them, our work is lost.
ReplyDeleteI agree on the point that dealing more with learning rather than content knowledge,it will help students be aware of their experience, development and behaviour in L2.
ReplyDeleteBut, it is relevant to mention that today there are many school programs that make use of a direct method for those sts having diverse assessment