Comments on: Understanding by Design: Backward Design

By: Marcia

Marcia — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 00:38:51 +0000

I think Backwards Design is a great teaching method. Of course, I just finished my college program and we had to study Wiggins. I was amazed when I started my student teaching and had to attend professional development classes centered on UbD. All of the student teachers were smiling. For once, we had a leg up on our collaborating teachers:))

By: Dana Huff

Dana Huff — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 00:25:59 +0000

Nani, I'm going to see if it's on EBSCO. Thanks for the tip.

Update: No dice. Not on EBSCO that I could find. I sure wish my school had a JSTOR subscription.

By: Nani

Nani — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 23:55:21 +0000

This post recalls an essay that I read this very afternoon by Francine Prose, titled “I Know Why the Caged Bird Can’t Read,” about the superficiality of the approach to literature in the classroom. I highly recommend it. At the very least, it gave this English teacher pause.

I can’t find the article online but it was published in Harper’s, September 1999. On the off-chance someone might have the anthology where I found it, it is on page 89 in The Language of Composition, by Shea, Scanlon and Aufses.

By: Dana

Dana — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 18:54:33 +0000

Don’t be TOO hard on yourself. The spaghetti-on-the-wall approach, “hoping some of it sticks,” is better than “hoping it keeps them quiet and they don’t cause trouble!”

A concern of mine is that “backward design,” IOW, creating the assessment before doing the instruction, sounds like it would lead to teaching-for-coverage rather than teaching-for-understanding, because … well, like you said about 20th century literature, what happens if you don’t get through all of it?

I’m definitely on board with this; I want to be intentional about what I teach and I CERTAINLY would love to be more effective in teaching it! That was one of the issues I had with the workbook – I kept thinking, “you don’t have to explain why this is such a good idea; if I didn’t believe you, I sure as anything wouldn’t've bought the darn book!” I need help with application – connecting the ideas to what I do in preparing, teaching and assessing.

Linda Darling-Hammond’s book, The Right to Learn, gives anecdotal (and I *think* research-based, too) support for collaborative planning, but I agree with you: as teachers, we like it when others think we know what we’re doing! *laugh* That’s one reason I’m really looking forward to online collaboration; I may feel like a fool, but at least I don’t have to FACE anybody while I do!!