the bad news: public schools in the united states are failing miserably. the good news: what we need...
TRANSCRIPT
“Backward Design”
THE BAD NEWS: Public schools in the United States are failing miserably.
THE GOOD NEWS: What we need to
change is in our control.
“A guaranteed and viable
curriculum is the #1 school-level
impacting student achievement.”
THE PROBLEM:Traditional curriculums are
dysfunctional.
Toss
Question
For more information go to:
commoncore.org
Architects, moviemakers, cooks, lawyers, doctors, and software coders are totally focused on achieving very specific effects, and
they keep adjusting their plans and actions to ensure the product, performance, or result sought.
What specific performance goals
do we have for students?
Real Life Example:
Conventional schooling is fixated on coverage of discrete
content; teachers work in isolation from other teachers; teachers work with textbooks
relating only to their particular content, not the institution’s
goals; no mechanism exists to ensure that assessments and
grades reflect coherent practice related to mission.
The idea of school has no meaning if each teacher, even a hardworking and
highly qualified one, is free to teach and assess as he
wishes.
The course CANNOT be the textbook!
The textbook should be used as a resource, like the Encyclopedia.
We rarely have to justify what we teach, how we teach, or how we assess students’
progress.
What is the point
of school?
Toss
Question
The point is NOT to “get good at
school” or “know stuff” in each
subject.
A list of content and activities is not a plan; marching
through material can never ensure habits of mind and
genuine ability.
Content mastery is NOT the
ultimate goal of school.
The point of education in a single phrase: Worthy accomplishment,
achieved by causing thoughtful and effective understanding that
enables transfer.
To learn in school how to make sense of learnings in order to lead better lives out of school; to learn
now to apply lessons to later challenges, effectively and
thoughtfully.
“Transfer”
What high level thinking skills are we teaching?
When transferring skills, students should
be able to integrate their knowledge and
skills, along with various mature habits
of mind, to successfully perform in situations “that they have never before encountered.”
“Transfer Skills”First Example: After learning about the
three branches of government, students should propose a policy/solution to a current related issue.
Second Example: After reading Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” students should be able to write a persuasive letter for a different purpose to a different audience.
What do
teachers need?
1) We need a clear and powerful vision of where
we want to end up, based on our mission
and agreed-upon learning principles.
2) A constant and unflinching assessment of
where we stand at present against the
mission.
3) Timely adjustments based on regular analysis of the gap between vision and reality, between goals
and results.
What do students
need?
Students need to see the
relationship between what they
study and its application in the
real-world contexts.
The POINTof Content!
I want students to learn__________ so that, in the long run, they will be
able, on their own, __________________________.
Students can RARELY answer these questions:
Why are we learning this?
How is this going to benefit me in the real world?
What should
curriculum achieve?
Curriculum should spiral in two ways: (1) courses and units
would be organized around a few cornerstone disciplinary
tasks, towards which all teaching and learning would be focused and prioritized; and (2) the same essential questions
would recur, in different forms, over the course of the entire
education.
Sample Essential Questions:
How is written language different from spoken language? What makes writing worth reading?
What is this voice thing, anyway?
Why am I writing? For Whom? What am I trying to achieve through my writing? Who will read my writing? What will work best for my audience?
Why do we need grammar?
How do effective writers hook and hold their readers? What makes writing easy to follow? What
is the best beginning? What is the best ending? What is the best order (sequence)? What is a
complete thought?
A successful curriculum shows teachers how to use the content.
What does success look like?
The curriculum must show how learners are expected to use content to accomplish meaningful performances.
If we were successful, students would have:- Accomplished…- Developed autonomy in…- Used their learning to…- Faced and overcome such key challenges as…- Created…- Overcome such misconceptions and habits of thinking as…
This means far more emphasis on making clear the purpose of every exercise, every lesson
plan, every unit, every term, every education.
Examples ofBackward Design:
What is fair? Can math help?
Four 6th grade classes had a race of all the students. Devise at
least 2 different ways to determine a fair ranking
of the four classes, given the results in the
table.
What is the most fair way to score these
students? Be ready to defend your answers.
Mrs. G Mr. W Mr. S Mrs. G4 6 1 29 7 3 511 10 14 1520 16 19 1721 22 23 3125 24 28 3326 27 30 3639 34 * ** 35 * *
Assessment Problems!
“Tests must involve situations new to the student…Ideally we are seeking a problem which will test the extent to which the student has learned to apply an abstraction in a practical way.”
Final Assessment – “Transfer Task”
Based on our study in this unit on the various measures of central tendency,
and the pros and cons of using “averages” in various situations, propose
a “fair” grading system for use in this class. How should everyone’s grade be calculated? Why is your system fair? How does math help us answer this
question with specific reference to when and where to use mean, median, and
mode.
Backwards from Goals: Meaning
I want students to leave my course having understood that –
•The Constitution was a solution, based on compromise, to real problems of balance and limit of powers.
•That the compromise has long, sometimes bitter history – with many fights that are with us and will always be with us.
Backwards from Goals: Transfer
I want students to transfer that understanding, on their own, to concretely address current situations:
•Design a government for Iraq •Design a school government
• Role play a Constitutional Convention
What information do you strongly agree
with?
Toss
Questions
Why haven’t most curriculums been setup this way?
What are teachers doing wrong?
What other thoughts do you have?