Week 4 Assignment 1

   In Backward Design, teachers establish goals and learning outcomes before specifying the content of their lesson. We want students to come out of the lesson having gained new skills and understandings, not just facts.  The Common Core State Standards guide teachers as they construct their lesson plans, and based on the standards, teachers can determine the desired results. I use a CCSS to establish the goals of each lesson. Once we specify the desired results, we can then outline exactly what we want our students to understand. Essential questions keep students on track. I create essential questions by thinking about what knowledge and understandings students must have in order to reach the desired results.
   As specified before, we want students to learn not only facts and information, but also skills. Teachers should make sure that they help their students develop skills that will be needed throughout their lives; we want them to be ready for college and to join the workforce. Incorporating critical thinking skills and problem solving skills among others are tools we want our students to have for the rest of their lives. Each of my lessons has students practicing these important skills.

Week 4 Assignment 2

Check out my Stage 2 presentation here.

Week 3 Assignment 2

CCSS W.6.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

Established Goals: Students will be able to gather relevant information and organize what they’ve gathered in order to examine a topic and convey ideas when writing an informative text.

Understandings: Students will understand that in order to write a clear and informative text, they must use information that they’ve carefully selected and organized.

Week 3 Assignment 1

CCSS RI.6.3. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text including figurative, connotative, and technical meaning.

Week 2 Assignment 2

How do people learn?

Backward Design

   I'd never heard of Backward Design before watching educator, Grant Wiggins's video presentation. His clear and organized workshop taught me a lot about this new concept.
   Backward Design is an effective planning framework for teachers in all fields of education. While planning a lesson, we need to keep long-term goals in mind, get the right blend of learning content and performance, and better engage our students. Backward Design aids instructors in achieving the ultimate goal of every educator, to enable our students to perform on their own and be able to transfer what they've learned to real-life situations.