Chapter 2 " Understanding Understanding"

How do our students understand us or English  language? Are they able to understand the language? 
In this chapter the authors ask us about these questions to reflect on our practice, if we are aware of students understanding process  , because there is a huge gap between knowing and understanding;  there is a misconception between know, know how and understand.

Our understanding of the world is different from one person to  another, so students have different ways to understand. We, as teachers, need to reflect on the best "ways" to encourage students' understanding. How to do this? Giving to the class different points of view on the same problem; making them analyse, summarise, evaluate, and through effective application. To understand is to have done something on ther right way.

Understanding is also to transfer our knowledge to use it in different contexts, going beyond the information given.  We need an education focus on helping students in how to solve problems using big ideas and tranferable strategies, not just how to use specific facts, information and formulas.

Transfer is understand not just memorize, it is to apply, modify, adjust, and adapt an idea to the particulars of a situation. We transfer our  previous knowledge and skills to a new situation.

According to Backward design, the priority is the goal to get student undertanding. If we design based on big ideas, we can make learning more effective  Students should be pushed forward on their learning and be independent on this process, more than be dependent on our instruction. 

Chapter 1 Backward Design

Curriculum is designed by teachers to accomplish a main goal, make students to learn in an effective way. We as teachers may take advantage of all the means at hand. Eventhough, we are guided by a national or institutional specific standards. We have to be aware of our students needs and motivations; and other factors that may influence in the curricula design.

A good curriculum design takes in cosideration the results we want to get from our students, not just the means we are going to use to accomplish any goal.

Think Backward

When we start the process of "backward design", we most have some things in consideration before; we have to know students specific and desire learning, evidence of the learning, last what are we going to do, aka activities.

When we think backward, we see the big picture, the goals; and then we start seing the smaller features to get the real deal, understanding. Which specific understanding are we after?, How to get this understanding? and Which activities are going to use to accomplish students understanding? These are some of the questions we have to reflect on and answer before planning.

Many teachers focus on the teaching not the learning. The important thing is to ask ourselves, What our students need to accomplish learning goals? and, Why are we asking students to do this particular activity?. We have to be explicit on the answers to get a clear objective for our curriculum.

Twin Sins

This part of the chapter is focus in two different teaching approaches. Activity- oriented curricula does not have an explicit focus on important ideas and appropriate evidence of learning. The activity is not the learning, students have to think on the meaning of the activity.

Coverage-oriented is just going through a text book, which covers the content but does not focus its importance for the students. 

Students will not know what they have learned, and teachers will be unable to answer if understanding takes place through activity-oriented or covered approaches. So, the proposal is to design from learning and its goals.

Stages of Backward Design

 • Identify desired results: Setting curriculum goals.

• Determine acceptable evidence: To document and validate that learning has been achieved by students.

• Plan learning experience and instruction : Teachers and planners  have to "think like an assessor".

And interesting point in this Chapter is to think about how to assess before knowing how are we going to teach what we are going to teach. In a way to understand the goal before the process. 

 For teachers thinking design backward may be an awkward and unnatural, time consuming and stressful process.

Understanding by Design Wiggins, Introduction to the book

 The book introduction gives us some clues about the contest covered by the authors.
It starts presenting 4 educational situations in different context and subjects. Based on these is the authors present some sins when educators or planners design their curricula, focusing mainly on activity-focused teaching and coverage-focused teaching, both concepts will be explain in Chapter 1.

The principal subject matter of the book is to create/design curricula to accomplish students understanding, seen not just a single ability, and knowing that an educational project or curricula has to have in consideration the development of a family of interrelated abilities. To achieve this aim is necesary to answer some questions, being the most important, in my point of view, How realistic is teaching for understandig in a world of content standards and high-stakes tests?

Trying to answer the questions presented this is the proposal:

• Design a curricula to engage students to their learning process.
• Order the methods to assess our students understanding, knowledge and skills.
• Predict students misunderstandings, through curriculum, assessments and clear instructions.
• Predict all the students problem by backward design.
• Six facets of understanding and explore its implication.
• Unit template in the design of curricula focusing on students understanding.

The book audience are all educators interested on design a more effective curricula. This book is an invitation to improve the pedagogical work inside and outside the classroom as professional developement.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. In this blog I will analized chapter by chapter the book "Understanding by Design" by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. Hope you enjoy the travel, and my comments about the book.