Discussion 4c

• Math ~ Amanda LaTurner I enjoyed watching some of the videos on You Tube. The videos by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe were insightful. The video entitled Authentic Education was good at explaining Understanding by Design. I appreciated the effort to break it down into clear steps with some good examples. The entire concept is not new but it puts forth an effective way to put the concept in practice. I have always liked and tried to use the BAM (Backward Assessment Model) but the Understanding by Design model clarifies the flow better. One of my favorite scenes in a book is in Alice in Wonderland. Alice comes to a fork in the road and looks both ways wondering which way to go. Then she looks up to see the Cheshire Cat in a tree. She asks the cat for direction and he asks her, “Where do you want to go?” Of course Alice answers that she doesn’t know. What the cat says next is a key to life. He says, “If you don’t know where you are going, then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” As teachers we are given standards and the responsibility to teach them. However, if we don’t take time to examine what is success at mastering those standards, we can go off in some unnecessary paths. We have worked with teachers who love an activity so much that they try to contrive a way for it to fit into their program. They are also usually the ones who say there isn’t time to get everything covered. Do our lessons match the goals we have set? I think that using Understanding by Design will help us meet that challenge. If a student is asked why are you doing _____ and can answer in such a way that the _____ ties into the Big Idea or Essential Question, then we are on the right path. If you want to laugh out loud, watch the Robot Discussion. I would so like to say some of those things!