During the learning the process it is very common to face up all kind of questions referring, for example to our knowledge and the lack of it. Those questions give meaning to our learning which could be focused on stimulate thought, to suggest inquiry and to give space to think about more different questions. Besides, those questions suggest emphasize the big ideas which allow learners to find out their own way of learning throughout theories, concepts, topics, issues, problem solutions, etc.
Firstly, the idea of questioning tries to make the learner focus on the reasoning than in answering with short answers to yes or no questions. For example, the teacher suggests a History test about the economical crisis the world is facing today. Here the teacher could review the contents with students during a certain time (two classes). After that the students have to face a test with content questions such as; does the economical crisis affect every country in the world? However, even that question is according to what they reviewed during the lessons; it does not suggest critical thinking from students. What is more, an essential question pointing out to the focus on the critical thinking of students should be one like: how does the economical crisis affect your normal family life? With that kind of questions students will be able to think beyond what they have learned in classes and try to think how they relate that topic with their own lives.
On the other hand, we have some ideas to describe essential questions. For instance, we can think of the questions which give us knowledge for the rest of our lives and such as questions which can be discussable by generations. Besides, we have those questions which point out to the main ideas or contents that are common knowledge and which can be debated by too many different fields. Then we find those kinds of questions which refer to idea if being helpful for students to realize about some topics and make a “click” in their knowledge. In the last place of essential questions association there are the kinds of questions that call the learners’ attention and invite them to learn more about it.
Finally, learners are able to develop their own learning skills throughout questions which try to evidence the learner comprehension. For instance, there is a kind of question that focus on the key concepts showing if the student is able to say that comprehended certain content. Then, there are questions related to the purpose and values of contents, to the strategy the learner can take from the content and how the learner can place the context according to the reality it is facing at.
In conclusion, the essential questions enable the learner to build his/her own knowledge by putting in practice the critical thinking each one of us has.
sábado, 16 de mayo de 2009
domingo, 3 de mayo de 2009
Chapter I: Backward Design
This is the first chapter of the book “Understanding by Design”. We have been reviewing different chapter of this book by giving some explanations and our perceptions about each chapter. The chapters reviewed before allow us to place the design in validity and criteria concepts into the teaching and learning process.
Now, this chapter tries to place us in the idea of teachers as designers of understanding. This text proposes ideas such as the teacher is a designer of education who must be mindful to their audiences and the most important idea is that a pertinent design has to do with the fact that learning should be more thoughtful and specific according to the objectives and purposes. Besides, this chapter provides three stages of backward design which focus on the main points in order to have a good design of a class.
The backward concept has to do with the challenge of focusing the lesson on the desired learning that a teacher should follow. On other words, it is the same to say that a good designer obtain backward from the learning expected. When we have the specific desires results we are able to focus on the contents, methodology to use and activities to practice in order to achieve the results.
Here we can find a real fact according to what happens with some teachers. For instance, the text explains that some teachers prepare their lessons in an inappropriate way focusing on what they will do, the material they will use and what students will do, before thinking on what the learner really needs in order to achieve the goals thought before by the teacher. When teachers do not have clear their purposes students realize about it, but they just hope the meaning will emerge on time.
The three stages of backward design are the followings: the first one is identify desired results, the second one is determine acceptable evidence, and the third one is plan leaning experiences and instruction. Those stages drive the teachers to make their goals specific and concrete in terms of assessment evidence and the lessons planning.
The text explains that the first stage of identifying desired results focus on the idea of think on the goals, examine the students’ background and review curriculum expectations in order to have clear our purposes. The second stage, determine acceptable evidence, refers to way how teachers get the evidence that students are learning and understanding. Here it is important that the teacher should collect the assessments made throughout the course which could show that the desired learning has been approached. The last stage, plan learning experiences and instruction, give us the conception of knowing the exact kind of activities or procedures students should take in order to perform effectively and achieve expected results.
On the other hand, the chapter provides a backward design template which helps teacher to have an overall view of the design, to know if the assessments and learning activities have to do with the identified goals, and finally it helps to place the teacher into the learners’ interests.
In conclusion, this chapter provides us interesting ideas of the backward design which allow the teacher to have better ideas at the time they have to design and plan a lesson. The three stages of backward design are based on: first of all think of the desired results of a lesson, and then determine what are the suitable ways of assessment of that learning and finally the planning of meaningful and activities in order that students could achieve the teacher desired result.
Now, this chapter tries to place us in the idea of teachers as designers of understanding. This text proposes ideas such as the teacher is a designer of education who must be mindful to their audiences and the most important idea is that a pertinent design has to do with the fact that learning should be more thoughtful and specific according to the objectives and purposes. Besides, this chapter provides three stages of backward design which focus on the main points in order to have a good design of a class.
The backward concept has to do with the challenge of focusing the lesson on the desired learning that a teacher should follow. On other words, it is the same to say that a good designer obtain backward from the learning expected. When we have the specific desires results we are able to focus on the contents, methodology to use and activities to practice in order to achieve the results.
Here we can find a real fact according to what happens with some teachers. For instance, the text explains that some teachers prepare their lessons in an inappropriate way focusing on what they will do, the material they will use and what students will do, before thinking on what the learner really needs in order to achieve the goals thought before by the teacher. When teachers do not have clear their purposes students realize about it, but they just hope the meaning will emerge on time.
The three stages of backward design are the followings: the first one is identify desired results, the second one is determine acceptable evidence, and the third one is plan leaning experiences and instruction. Those stages drive the teachers to make their goals specific and concrete in terms of assessment evidence and the lessons planning.
The text explains that the first stage of identifying desired results focus on the idea of think on the goals, examine the students’ background and review curriculum expectations in order to have clear our purposes. The second stage, determine acceptable evidence, refers to way how teachers get the evidence that students are learning and understanding. Here it is important that the teacher should collect the assessments made throughout the course which could show that the desired learning has been approached. The last stage, plan learning experiences and instruction, give us the conception of knowing the exact kind of activities or procedures students should take in order to perform effectively and achieve expected results.
On the other hand, the chapter provides a backward design template which helps teacher to have an overall view of the design, to know if the assessments and learning activities have to do with the identified goals, and finally it helps to place the teacher into the learners’ interests.
In conclusion, this chapter provides us interesting ideas of the backward design which allow the teacher to have better ideas at the time they have to design and plan a lesson. The three stages of backward design are based on: first of all think of the desired results of a lesson, and then determine what are the suitable ways of assessment of that learning and finally the planning of meaningful and activities in order that students could achieve the teacher desired result.
sábado, 18 de abril de 2009
Criteria and Validity (Chapter 8)
The learning process is full of important concepts which some of them help the learner to be aware of his/her performances, challenges, results and how they are progressing throughout this process. In Chapter 8 we can find two important concepts such as criteria, understanding and validity to explain how the learner is performing and how effective the assessments are.
After a test every teacher should assess and evaluate the students’ performance, which should always need to be based on a judgment supported by criteria. A good criteria focus on the deep issues of a piece of work more than on the first thing you see like grammar and length. Although, criteria importantly need to specify what the purpose of the test is and what are the main points to assess, it is to say that it is important to base the criteria on the main objectives of a work. Moreover, that is why with every piece of work teachers give to students it is important to have rubrics which will always support the teachers’ power of assessment and surely make this work of assessing easily.
Referring to rubrics we can describe them as Wiggins says in Chapter 8 “Rubrics describe degrees of quality, proficiency, or understanding along a continuum”. There exists two types of rubrics, holistic and analytic, where the holistic rubric is used to give a judgment of the students’ performance and it gives a general impression of it. On the other hand, analytic rubric have two ways to judge the students’ performance separately by dividing it by traits. It is important to highlight the representation of a descriptive rubric of criterion which is really analytic and allows us to give a score with evidences.
The chapter 8 also allows us to be conscious about the understanding. It says that understanding is a process which does not depend on right and wrong answers. If we focus on the assessment of understanding, it is necessary to create a rubric based on concrete ideas to assess which should go beyond the first look at the work like. A rubric is not complete until to have a deep analysis of the work identifying the main ideas of the author and may be go deeply in what are the really intentions of him/her and why express each idea in the way he/she does. It also necessary to clarify that each learner has a different point of view t see and understand things.
Validity is present in this chapter reviewed as the way to gain the results of a work based on concrete evidence. Some teachers base their corrections of tests or exams only in the precision of the answers than in the process students use to solve the problem. When students’ results of a test are good according to the teacher expectations and those expectations are based on just the precise answers as a book says, it does not really mean that the students understand. The idea here is to know how students go to gain that information and how they express it in their own words providing critical thinking.
In conclusion, students’ performances will depend on the process of assessment based on valid rubrics and a continuous understanding. Besides, the process of understanding goes accompanied with mental development.
After a test every teacher should assess and evaluate the students’ performance, which should always need to be based on a judgment supported by criteria. A good criteria focus on the deep issues of a piece of work more than on the first thing you see like grammar and length. Although, criteria importantly need to specify what the purpose of the test is and what are the main points to assess, it is to say that it is important to base the criteria on the main objectives of a work. Moreover, that is why with every piece of work teachers give to students it is important to have rubrics which will always support the teachers’ power of assessment and surely make this work of assessing easily.
Referring to rubrics we can describe them as Wiggins says in Chapter 8 “Rubrics describe degrees of quality, proficiency, or understanding along a continuum”. There exists two types of rubrics, holistic and analytic, where the holistic rubric is used to give a judgment of the students’ performance and it gives a general impression of it. On the other hand, analytic rubric have two ways to judge the students’ performance separately by dividing it by traits. It is important to highlight the representation of a descriptive rubric of criterion which is really analytic and allows us to give a score with evidences.
The chapter 8 also allows us to be conscious about the understanding. It says that understanding is a process which does not depend on right and wrong answers. If we focus on the assessment of understanding, it is necessary to create a rubric based on concrete ideas to assess which should go beyond the first look at the work like. A rubric is not complete until to have a deep analysis of the work identifying the main ideas of the author and may be go deeply in what are the really intentions of him/her and why express each idea in the way he/she does. It also necessary to clarify that each learner has a different point of view t see and understand things.
Validity is present in this chapter reviewed as the way to gain the results of a work based on concrete evidence. Some teachers base their corrections of tests or exams only in the precision of the answers than in the process students use to solve the problem. When students’ results of a test are good according to the teacher expectations and those expectations are based on just the precise answers as a book says, it does not really mean that the students understand. The idea here is to know how students go to gain that information and how they express it in their own words providing critical thinking.
In conclusion, students’ performances will depend on the process of assessment based on valid rubrics and a continuous understanding. Besides, the process of understanding goes accompanied with mental development.
viernes, 3 de abril de 2009
Chapter III, "Gaining Clarity on Our Goals"
It is common knowledge for us that being a teacher is not a simple task. That is because it implies to spend a lot of time planning and assessing, among other tasks. When we talk about assessing and teaching we have to focus on the real purposes of doing that in terms of recognizing what are the learners’ needs and how the abilities will be assessed.
Sometimes, teachers have problems in the planning task because they have not clear what the goals are and what they really want students to do. I think here first of all it is important to know exactly what the needs of the learners are and how they would react in front of any situation or activity given for the teacher.
For example, the Chilean program to teach English gives to teachers all the necessary contents students should know at certain age or level. Besides, this program gives ideas to develop a class. So, the only task for the teacher is to plan the class by creating activities, games, etc to cover the contents. However, it is in this step of teaching where a significant number of teachers have problems with. It is difficult when teachers can not deal with big contents and the performance of the tasks, and here comes the difficulty to assess the contents in students.
On the other hand teachers have some problems in the teaching of certain contents. For example, it is common to have a large content which demands a lot of time developing it. But, sometimes it is not completely explained by the teacher because of the lack of time that she/he has. Therefore Grant Wiggins, author of the book “Understanding by Design”, states that “there is too much content and not enough time, especially if the identified knowledge and skills contained in the standards are viewed as discrete and disconnected”.
Discipline, is another important issue that teachers have to deal with. Sometimes, when the contents are not enough clear to students, it could be a huge discipline problem because learners could lose the attention on what the teacher is saying and they start doing different things which could affect the discipline in the classroom.
As a conclusion, planning for teachers is a tough task because of the different factors that it implies. So, it is really important that teachers should have clear ideas to plan their classes in order to have enough time to develop a lesson and also to not loose the control of a class.
Bibliography:
. Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay. “Understanding by Design”, chapter 3 “Gaining Clarify on Our Goals”. 2005
Sometimes, teachers have problems in the planning task because they have not clear what the goals are and what they really want students to do. I think here first of all it is important to know exactly what the needs of the learners are and how they would react in front of any situation or activity given for the teacher.
For example, the Chilean program to teach English gives to teachers all the necessary contents students should know at certain age or level. Besides, this program gives ideas to develop a class. So, the only task for the teacher is to plan the class by creating activities, games, etc to cover the contents. However, it is in this step of teaching where a significant number of teachers have problems with. It is difficult when teachers can not deal with big contents and the performance of the tasks, and here comes the difficulty to assess the contents in students.
On the other hand teachers have some problems in the teaching of certain contents. For example, it is common to have a large content which demands a lot of time developing it. But, sometimes it is not completely explained by the teacher because of the lack of time that she/he has. Therefore Grant Wiggins, author of the book “Understanding by Design”, states that “there is too much content and not enough time, especially if the identified knowledge and skills contained in the standards are viewed as discrete and disconnected”.
Discipline, is another important issue that teachers have to deal with. Sometimes, when the contents are not enough clear to students, it could be a huge discipline problem because learners could lose the attention on what the teacher is saying and they start doing different things which could affect the discipline in the classroom.
As a conclusion, planning for teachers is a tough task because of the different factors that it implies. So, it is really important that teachers should have clear ideas to plan their classes in order to have enough time to develop a lesson and also to not loose the control of a class.
Bibliography:
. Wiggins, Grant and McTighe, Jay. “Understanding by Design”, chapter 3 “Gaining Clarify on Our Goals”. 2005
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