CBI and BD connections

Concept based instruction and backward design connections:

1. Big Idea

            Both CBI and BD revolve around the idea that teachers prepare a big idea for students to discover. This could be introduced by an essential question or leading question to get kids motivated and thinking.  Examples: Does every story need a beginning, middle and end?  Why are fractions important in everyday life? Posing essential questions leads to further exploration of skills related to these questions and other questions that arise from this discussion. I would love to ask my students the question about fractions. I t   hink the discussion itself could be an assessment to see if the students even     know how and when to use fractions.

2. Students uncover ideas by asking questions

            After an essential question is made, students then dive deeper into the topic. Their thinking is deeper and students should be able to ask questions that  relate to the big idea. The big idea shouldn’t be able to be answered with one sentence. It should lead to students asking more questions and the teacher then guiding them by teaching them specific skills or give them examples that will help them answer some of those smaller questions. 

3. Both CBI and BD avoid only learning the facts

            Students have to culminate ideas and opinions for themselves based on ideas and examples given in class. Some facts might be memorized but then the students take the information further by applying it to problems and questions in real life.

4. A good curriculum with worthy knowledge

            Teachers and curriculum designers need to create a curriculum that will fit with the CBI and BD ideas.  Teachers need to start with a big idea and decide what information will be worthy within the topic.  Especially with the technology that we have today, students have all the facts in the world at their fingertips. As teachers we need to be able to help students think for themselves and give them problem solving tools instead of just facts.

5. Connections across classes

            Connections play an important role in backward design. Both designs build of prior knowledge and dive deep into new learning. Students need to make  connections between all classes instead of just reading skills and math skills. This is one area I would love to dive deeper. I feel so disconnected between my classes and it is hard to make connections between classes. I would like to see an example of a good curriculum that uses big ideas so I can better understand how these designs work.

6. Motivation and engagement

            These designs are more engaging for the student because it is more of a social learning style. Students engage in debates and sharing while uncovering new ideas. Students are expected to respond more as opposed to teacher led lecture.

I love the idea of both of these structures. I am really intrigued by how to create a unit using this idea. Both of these articles are very general and give a good background on how to create units that use big ideas. I would need to see an example of a unit that uses this structure and even look at how to take a big idea and create everyday lessons out of it. I am struggling to make the connect between how to start with a big idea and then lead into everyday lessons.