The Backwards Design ProcessUnit 3

Unit 3 ObjectivesDeconstruct the 1st step of the backwards

design---creating a culminating performance.

Incorporating elements of constructivist learning into unit design

Writing essential questions for unit design

Defining creativity and innovation

Integrating technology so that unit activities and assessments are seamlessly utilized and so that technology amplifies learning

First grade example of using this method

Collaboration, creativity and innovative thinkingIntegral part of the ISTE NETS-S; students construct knowledge and develop innovative products while using digital tools

Read Chapter 6 from Integrating Technology into Teaching.

What does a culminating performance look like?

Begin with end in mind

Culminating performance allow you to make final assessment on how well students relate to content to transferable conceptual ideas AND how well they are able to perform with their knowledge.

Assess students over one or two major ideas for the unit Includes critical knowledge and skills

Demonstrated through a complex, authentic performance

Attributes of a culminating performanceShould be a learning time as well as a final

measure

Should be something significant, worthy of the investment of time…a longer term, sustained kind of learning experience

Teachers guide students to make their own generalizations by framing them inside essential questions

Part of a series of assessments from throughout the unit

4 Steps for designingaCulminating Performance

Step 1: Align learning targets with curriculum standards Formulate essential

questions that pairs two or more concepts into a question that focuses the learning targets

Essential questions created from learning targets convey an important idea that will transfer through time and across cultures

Step 2: Create assessments that match learning target types Assessments should

provide reliable and valid data

Measures if students learned the standard

Incorporates the essential questions of your unit

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Step 3: Select instructional strategies most appropriate for learning targets

Match strategy to target

Step 4: Choose technologies that support instruction and learning based on the intent of the target

Writing essential questions Essential questions ask about conceptual

relationships Falls on the synthesis level of thinking because

questions ask about deeper, transferrable ideas that arise from fact-based studies.

Example: If the LT was to identify famous figures in American history, the question might be…. What does it mean to be a leader? Or… How did John Adams shape the future of America? …. Why do we remember leaders long after their lives have ended?

Writing a Culminating TaskAsk yourself “What do you want students to do?”

Begin with a cognitive verb such as investigate and then tie it into the big idea of your unit.

Next ask “why?”. Use words like “to understand that….”. Complete the statement by thinking beyond the topic to the importance or significance of what they’ve been studying. What is the transferable lesson to be taken away from this unit?

Lastly answer “how?” Begin a new sentence that frames up how students will demonstrate their understanding from the “why” step.

Suppose you were teaching about man’s inhumanity through studying the Holocaust

Step #1: Investigate the Holocaust

Step #2: To understand that leaders may abuse political or social power

Step #3: You are a prosecutor with the War Crimes Tribunal. Prepare a case trying Adolph Hitler for his alleged war crimes against the Jewish people in Germany during the Holocaust. Research primary and secondary documents and build your case around the themes of “crimes against humanity” and “abuse of power”. Use digital tools to gather all your evidence and prepare clear and specific arguments, present your case to the court. (Erickson, p 89-97)

Or teaching about transportation in a kindergarten classStep #1: Investigate, observe and analyze three

forms of transportation: land sea, air and determine how each mode of transportation moves

Step #2: …in order to prove that for something to move there must be a source of energy

Step #3: Create three moving vehicles: land, sea and air. Your vehicle designs must move from one place to another. Build and decorate your vehicle with materials found in the classroom. Demonstrate and explain how energy powers your vehicle. (Erickson, p109)

Or teaching a photography unit Step #1: Investigate the perspective that art, and specifically

photography communicates.

Step #2…in order to understand that words, images and light combined, create powerful communications and affects image.

Step #3: Analyze and evaluate your own photographs to understand that a body of work in art communicates a clear style, message or both. Create and present a portfolio of eight digital images that communicate your style, message and both.

As an art jurist, draw another artist’s (student’s) name and present a 3-minute enhanced podcast summary and critique of the message and style. Be sure to sync the images for the listener to see as you give your critique. (adapted from Erickson, p 127)

Culminating performances must include elements of authentic assessment

Stiggens defines “Performance assessment call upon the examinee to demonstrate specific skills and competencies, that is, to apply the skills and knowledge they have mastered”

The most obvious use of Web 2.0 tools for assessment would be for students to be use a wide variety of media. “If we consider the state standards for any particular subject area, it is easy for educators to plan interesting instruction around that standard, using a balanced approach that includes a variety of technological activities.”)

Examples of authentic, technology integrated culminating performances

Social studies students work in small groups to create their own social bookmarks that not only identify critical Web sites about a topic but also demonstrate their deep understanding of the topic through their tags;

Art students prepare art projects using a certain artist’s style and then, through videoconferencing, have that artist critique their work in real time. The artist can see all the subtle details because of the high quality streaming video.

Elementary math students record the clothing that people wear in different countries with real time Web 2.0 webcam and then analyze the country’s culture through a graph of the clothing

Middle-school science students can add to a class wiki about stream life; the teacher can assess the students’ unique contributions about the part of the stream they analyzed with their use of probe ware (collecting data directly to their laptop or handheld data collection device) and the students’ ability to synthesize the information about the diverse elements of the stream ecosystem.

Students can use an e-portfolio materials online so that distant reviewers can quickly download the e-portfolio files and assess their standards-based skills development.

Students can engage in multinational conversations about school life to demonstrate their ability to communicate to diverse audiences through verbal and visual modes as their teachers assess those skills in authentic real-time situations

Creativity and innovation is target for NETS-S #1A culminating performance must be complex

so students must be involved in deep thinking, using ideas in new ways and applying the knowledge they’ve acquired.

Students must develop new ways to approach problems, propose solutions, test out ideas by collaborating with others or designing something that puts a new twist on existing ideas

Watch Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk about creativity

What’s the definition of creativity?

Ability to come up with new ideas that are surprising yet intelligible and also valuable in some way (Boden, 2001)

A rare and unique talent in a particular field of endeavour (Ausubel, 1963)

An act that produces effective surprises (Bruner, 1965)

A cognitive process in which several intelligences are working in harmony (Gardner, 1999)

Why is important to think about about technology and creative thinking when designing a culminating performance?

GatewaysTechnology can more effective infuse the qualities of social interaction, problem solving and creative cognition.

Technology enhance the learning experience

Enables the learner to have more of an authentic experience

Assignments and Activities Practice writing essential questions for the CP.

Since this is not an easy task, you will post your ideas and get feedback from your classmates using the Online Forums.

Post this week’s discovery about Classroom 2.0 on your blog.

Post your essential questions when they are completed on your wiki page

Write and post the rubric that you will use to judge the Culminating Project’s product or performance on your wiki page