UbD Chapter 1

Prior to being introduced to Understanding by Design, I had never been taught or seen other credentialed teachers use this method to construct lesson plans. I had seen teachers use activity based plans to design their lesson plans, so I embraced the challenge to learn something that will help me become a more effective teacher. I agree with the quote in the beginning of Chapter 1 which defines teachers as designers. The California state standards indeed play a role in helping teachers construct their designs to meet end results just like an architect designs his plans for the end result of a structure. The whole idea behind UbD is to plan backward. A teacher therefore would start by focusing on the desired learning, then the evidence of such learning, and last he or she would consider and contruct those activities that would achieve those goals. I agree that too many teachers do emphasize the teaching and not the learning. A teacher must be clear about the results before any planning into content methods and activities can be designed to reach those learning goals. This chapter explained the "twin sins" (activity oriented design and the coverage-based design) lead to " hands -on without being minds-on. The three stages of backward design presented in this chapter were stage one the identification of desired results, stage two determining the acceptable evidence, and finally stage three which is the planning of learning experiences and instruction. Understanding this way to design lessons will undoubtedly be a process of practice. I find this design fascinating and am motivated to learn.