Backward Design Unit

Backward Design:

This semester I planned my first backward design unit on rocks and minerals.  This was definitely a learning experience. There were times when I felt great about how my students responded and learned using this structure and there were times when I felt myself go back to explicit instruction (I know a balance is needed but it was interesting how easy it was to go back to old ways).

Planning with the standards:

I have become better at planning with the standards over the last few years. With this unit I knew exactly what I needed to cover but I thought of it more like how can I present these ideas so the kids discover and explore these ideas. When I plan with the standards in mind I feel like I know what path to take and stay more on track to cover certain information.

Utilizing Essential Questions and impact:

The essential questions were new to me and this is an area I would like to do better with next time. I presented the questions to my students at the beginning of the unit and we started off with a discussion. I felt like since I posed these ideas as questions my students were more engaged in discussions and ideas because I was asking for their input instead of just presenting big ideas. I also felt like my students knew it was ok to ask more questions about what we were learning and at times it was ok to go off on a tangent (still within the topic of rocks) and I encouraged it. I found my students asking more questions because I was posing questions to them. One thing I would like to work on next time is continually going back to the questions and adding more ideas and building off of previous thoughts.

Creating assessment prior to teaching:

Since I created the assessments before, I knew and had a better plan for what I was going to teach and what activities I was going to do.  I knew I had to teach certain ideas before they could do some of the assessments. For a few of my assessments my students had to take what we learned and build off of it. They knew before the assessment that they would have to use their own ideas to create a book about the rock cycle. We had a brainstorming session and then I let them create their own. I was surprised how creative and thorough they were while still showing what they knew about the rock cycle.

Comparing BD to planning without the end in mind:

While creating a unit using the backward design structure I felt each of my lessons were connected and more focused around one or two ideas. We continually came back to similar ideas and made connections to what we had learned a few days ago. When I’ve taught lessons without using BD I felt my lessons were very isolated and didn’t build connections to other lessons.  My BD unit also gave more time for student input rather than me presenting information. Since I posed our lessons in question form or started out with essential questions, the students were able to tell me what they know or have learned.

AGAPE- Adaptation

Adaptation in teaching is an important part of building whole, well rounded students. As a teacher adaptation means making connections for my students to relate to. Teachers act as a guide that lead students into making connections and building relevant connections to their lives.

Adaptation in education means that teachers provide the skills that students need to problem solve and think broadly about certain topics. Teachers should provide activities and experiences where students are discovering ideas and learning things by doing. A teacher who teaches with adaptation in mind provides real world examples and provide problems for students to solve while providing opportunities and asking questions that use higher level thinking.

Reading Best Practice

5 Key ideas to remember for next year:

1.At home reading program: “the quantity of children’s reading experience is related directly to their achievement.” I usually have a good chunk or our reading time for independent reading. What many of my students lack is reading at home. I want to create some sort of incentive/parent program and really implement it with fidelity. We have PAKRAT but I don’t promote it and check so I want to make something that is easy to check and hold the students accountable.

2.Use word work differentiation. Include phonic skills for lower students and vocabulary development for higher students daily/weekly. Include 10-15 minutes of daily word work activities for students at all levels. 

3. Provide opportunities for a variety of different text. I usually let the students choose their own books but I want to keep better track of what they are reading and encourage them to read a variety of different text.  Set up a program like star club where the students have to finish 4-5 assignments each month which include book responses and writing projects. The students do it on their own and the teacher conferences with them throughout the month.

4. Daily/every other day response. I want to set up more time for students to share with others what they are reading about.  If I set up the sharing topic of the day then they have a directive and can prepare during independent time. It will also be easier to see who is finishing books.

5. Model/teacher read aloud. Create mini-lessons where the teacher reads and models how to think out loud and model behavior of what a good reader looks like. Also provide opportunities for students to practice what the teacher has modeled and reflect on it.

Constructivist Learning

This week my goal was for students to be more involved in discussion and questions. During one of our lessons we started discussing uses for rocks and I asked for students to give examples. Some students were able to tell stories about their houses etc and when they have used rocks. It also started some students to ask some questions. I thought them asking questions was great because they were thinking about what we were discussing and it left them with more questions. I embraced the questions but I felt like I couldn’t answer some of them and it left us at a dead end. I have one computer in my room but I wasn’t about to stop and start researching some questions because I know a lot of students would have just been sitting their. Maybe next time as we are discussing I could write down the questions and then the next day we could go to the computer lab and they could do some research. With constructivist structure in mind sometimes I find it hard for the students to drive instruction because I can’t prepare a whole lot a head of time. I love that the students are more involved and finding things out on their own and it is leading them to more questions. The one thing I am struggling with is being prepared for their questions and direction and have answers for them or a way for them to find answers.

Instructional Strategy

Get the gist:

During science we have been studying the three kinds of rocks. Our sharing was to share what you know about igneous rocks but you can only use 3 words. I told them it didn’t have to be a complete sentence, but rather 3 words that have to do with igneous rocks. Some students did a great job and showed me they could summarize what they remembered into 3 words. Others had a hard time only using 3 words and wanted to share more and some students used 3 words but they were about other kinds of rocks. I feel like this strategy was a high yield strategy because they had to summarize their notes into 3 important words. This was independent so I could tell who remembered key points about rocks and who could decipher what is important enough to share.

Constructivism

After reading through the constructivism power point and making my map, it was amazing to see how connecting the idea on constructivism is to assessment, backward design and effective instruction. I was validated in some of the ways I have been teaching and I was also left with a few questions and thoughts about how to move to a more constructivist approach. I think my next step to fully understanding would be to find a constructivist lesson on you tube or something about how the teacher uses questions and prior knowledge to drive instruction.

I noticed many connections between the idea of constructivism and backward design. I actually thought backward design is exactly an example of a constructivist strategy because the structures are the same. You start with questions and big ideas and get student input to drive instruction. Backward design and constructivism are very student centered and the teacher takes a back seat and is more of a questioner and a guide. There are certain instructional strategies that would work well with a constructivist theme. Any strategy that allows the students to question and research and take responsibility for their own learning will apply to the constructivist idea. One strategy that stood out in the power point was using engaging activities that may contradict students initial ideas about the topic leading them to new information or transforming their learning. When thinking of assessment the teacher needs to think broadly and assess students on wether they can apply their learning to solving a problem rather than just spitting out facts. When assessing in a constructivist structure the teacher should observe the students' questions and investigation and see if they can apply their learning to the big ideas.