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Response to Reading #6 in Literacy and Curriculum

Chapter 8 of Integrating Differentiated Instruction + Understanding by Design focuses on grading and reporting achievement.  The authors begin by saying that grading can be viewed as a 2 part process including assigning symbolic letters or numbers at the end of a specific time to serve as a summary statement and reporting the evaluation to students and parents.  The goal of grades and reporting is to communicate to important audiences (parents and students) high quality feedback to support the learning process and encourage learner success.  Thus, teachers have to be very careful how they think about grading and reporting.  The guiding principles of this in this chapter include the following: 1) Grades and Reports should be based on clearly specified learning goals and performance standards, 2) evidence used for grading should be valid, 3) grading should be based on established criteria, not arbitrary norms, 4) not everything should be included in grades, 5) avoid grading based on averages, and 6) focus on achievement and report other factors separately.  These principles come from a consensus from experts in the area.  Teachers are often concerned that grading can also hard the motivation of their students.  Students with learning disabilities, language issues, emotional matters and other challenges can really struggled when they are graded in norm-based grading systems.  They keep getting lower grades and often end up concluding that they are stupid or school is stupid.  And conversely, advanced students can thrive in competitive grading systems but they also learn that effort is not necessarily a precursor to success.  Teachers want to make sure that students learn persistence in the face of difficulty, the ability to take intellectual risks, and pleasure in work.  It’s a struggle for a teacher to provide a single grade for a marking period and consider all the factors like attitude, attendance, behavior, participation, work completion and more. However, the authors advocate grading and reporting reform so that 2-3 separate factors are reported.  Those include grades for achievement of goals, progress toward goals, and work habits. Incorporating these allow students to have more opportunities to succeed without lowering standards. They also involve separate grades reflecting personal growth since each student comes from different backgrounds and starting points with varied strengths and weaknesses.  Reform would also involve a more comprehensive reporting system that acknowledges good work habits like completing work on time, asking questions for clarification, persisting when faced with challenging material, listening to feedback and making revisions.  Reform would involve clear communication and would make a huge impact on student motivation because they would begin seeing they have a chance at success finally, no matter where they start from.  The authors advocate teachers think of evaluations as reporting systems instead of report cards because they include multiple methods of communication to parents and students.  These changes would need to occur at a systematic level in America so each district would have to work to enact these changes.  

Chapter 9 discusses how teachers can bring together curriculum and instruction through the lens of UbD and DI so they give a sample of how instructional planning might look for a teacher who uses backward design to craft curriculum and differentiation.  The authors review the essential elements in those two models that help guide a teacher trying to integrate them both. They include 1) identifying desired learning results for the subject and topics they teach, 2) determining acceptable evidence of student learning, 3) planning learning experiences and instruction based on the first two principles 4) regarding learner differences as inevitable, important, and valuable in teaching and learning, 5) addressing learners affective needs as a means of supporting student success, 6) periodically reviewing and articulating clear learning goals that specific what students should know, understand, and be able to do as a result of each segment of learning, using systematic pre-assessment and ongoing assessment aligned with designated goals to make instructional decisions and adaptations, 8) employing flexibility to instructional planning and classroom routines to support success for each learner, and 9) gathering evidence of student learning in a variety of formats. The chapter offers an example of a unit planned with backward design and a rubric for the performance task.

The authors conclude by pointing out that the teacher who designed the unit established clarity about what is essential for students to know, understand, and be able to do by the end of the unit, what will constitute evidence of all those things, and the steps necessary to guide the students to the desired outcomes. The chapter also discusses how to focus on students in relation to desired results, how to carry out and differentiate the teaching plan, and determine student success by breaking down each area and listening important points. They give an example of a specific adjustment to an assignment and discuss all the possible modifications and stress the purposes are to ensure maximum growth for the full range of learners and provide flexible and valid evidence of student understanding. An observer in a classroom utilizing UbD and DI will be able to look at the learning environment, curriculum, teacher, and learners to see how they are implemented. This chapter is concluded with the authors saying that UbD and DI do challenge teachers but they are the best of content AND learner-centered planning, teaching, and assessing.

The authors conclude the book in chapter 10 by breaking down how teachers can move forward to integrate UbD and DI in stages.  Stage 1 includes considering the desired results, Stage 2 involves shifting thinking to think like an assessor by asking essential questions, and Stage 3 is about thinking specifically how they are going to "get there”. Individual teachers can do so many things to move forward like reviewing contents of the book regarding observable indicators and make plans to try them out and find colleagues with whom to work. Schools and district level educators can help teachers by establishing study groups to discuss the book, viewing and discussing videos on DI and UbD, sending teams to workshops and conferences or sponsor them, identify teachers to spearhead implementation, conduct focused faculty meetings and more. In these chapters I really appreciated how the authors broke down steps for implementation very specifically.  They do not just lob  out tasks and goals out without being clear how a teacher would really think and behave on a daily basis. I appreciated the example lessons provided and all the varied lists of suggestions they provided that would help an educator choose what works best for themselves and their students.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/interview-grant-wiggins-power-backwards-design-ben-johnson - This article is an interview with Grant Wiggins about Backwards Design where he discusses assessment.

http://www.ascd.org/research-a-topic/student-assessment-and-grading-resources.aspx - This link includes videos with educators speaking about assessment and grading.

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Response Reflection for Integrating DI & UbD ch. 6-7

Chapter 6 is titled Responsive Teaching with UbD in Academically Diverse Classrooms and it addresses questions like “What should be the curricular ‘givens‘ in instructional planning?”, “How can teachers use classroom elements flexibly to support student success?”, “How can teachers make instructional planning more manageable and efficient?, “How can teachers select instructional strategies that are responsive to student need?” and “How do teachers organize and manage their classrooms to support responsive instruction?” There are so many other questions a teacher has when contemplating but the four main ones are 1) who are the students I will teach?, 2) What matters most for students to learn here, 3) How must I teach to ensure that each student grows systematically toward attainment of the goal and moves beyond it when indicated? and 4) How will I know who is successful and who is not yet successful with particular goals?

The chapter begins why listing four of the main beliefs that shape our vision of an effective classroom that UbD and DI share. 1) Virtually all students should consistently experience curricula rooted in the important ideas of a discipline that require them to make meaning of information and think at high levels.�� This is a reflection of the key principle of “respectful teaching” in DI. 2) Students need opportunities to learn the basics ad opportunities to apply them in meaningful ways. This is about all students participating in “playing the game” as well as participating in sideline drills from time to time. 3) There is a need for balance between student construction of meaning and teacher guidance. This is about remembering that different individuals construct meaning from their differing experiences, abilities, and interests on different timetables with different support systems.  4) Students need to know the learning goals of a unit or lesson and criteria for successful demonstrating proficiency with the goals. The authors remind us about how the 3 stages of backward design can assist teachers in moving from planning quality curriculum to implementing it responsively.  

The chapter then moves on to encourage teachers to ask new additional questions like “How do I give directions for tasks?”, “How will I know what students understand and can do?”, “How do I keep their interest?”, “How do I know when to start and stop the various segments of a plan?”, “How do we transition from one part of a lesson to the next?”, and “How do I distribute resource materials?” The authors liken a teacher’s role to that of a jazz musician who sometimes plans and sometimes improvises. They then give tables that list different elements along with examples of flexible use and what learner need is addressed.  Those elements include time, space, resources, student groupings, teaching strategies, learning strategies, and teacher partnerships.  

The authors emphasize that DI is not about teachers having to learn to be specialists in dozens of areas but rather develop varied reasonable approaches that demonstrate anticipatory planning and look for emerging patterns in our classrooms which can also be regarded as cluster learning.  They give another table addressing some common student patterns like the need for reading support, vocabulary building, difficulty attending class, addressing strengths in an area of study, and the need for targeted instruction and practice and show sample ways to address the patterns and explain the kinds of students who might benefit from those approaches.  These tables are great resources for any teacher who is looking for new and refreshing ideas for instructional strategies and assessments. 

The chapter then focused on discussing how teachers need to find classroom management routines because research shows teachers with orderly classrooms teach for meaning and understanding.  The last table in this chapter addresses some areas of concern in managing a D.I. classroom like time management, noise control, classroom movement, flexible use of classroom space, organizing and distributing materials and resources, monitoring student work, and making time for the teacher to work with small groups.  The authors then list lots of useful questions to consider about those areas and sample strategies for addressing the concerns.

I thought the section on Final Thoughts really resonated with me when it discussed how many teachers get overwhelmed thinking about having to adapt to all kinds of new strategies because we can’t visualize it happening in the classroom since we didn’t have models of this kind of instruction for ourselves growing up.  But just as we try to grow in our personal lives, we can grow professionally and implement small changes a little at a time and persist to eventually feel a sense of accomplishment as we change our habits.  I totally identified with this section because I’ve found myself thinking these exact same things as we’ve learned about many of these other ideas.

Chapter 7 - Teaching for Understanding in Academically Diverse Classrooms

Questions addressed in this chapter include “How does teaching for deep understanding differ from ‘coverage’-oriented’ instruction?”, “How should we ‘uncover’ the content to develop and deepen student understanding of important ideas and processes?”, What instructional approaches help students to make meaning for themselves?”, and “What about those students who haven’t mastered the basics?” The authors start off by discussing how students and teachers both have different roles in differentiated classrooms.  They intend to emphasize principles and practices to enhance the likelihood that each learner understands the enduring ideas that define the content being studied.  

They address the term “covering” the material and at that it conveys the wrong idea about the job of teaching.  An essential question about content is “If the content we study represents the ‘answers’, then what were the questions?” Another is “How does what you read influence how you read?” and “How do effective writers hook and hold their readers?” These question are all meant to help students uncover why they are learning what they are and open to door to important reading concepts and uncover a variety of writing concepts ad techniques. The authors list other important questions for each content area. They give 6 practical tips for using essential questions in teaching:1) Less is more, 2) Be sure students understand key vocabulary necessary to explore the questions, 3) Because the intent is to engage the learners, use “kid language” as needed to make them more accessible, 4) Help students personalize the questions, 5) Post the essential questions in the classroom, and 6) Use follow up strategies to engage far more students and deepen their understanding and their thinking.  They list those follow up strategies as well.

The authors revisit the six facts of understanding from earlier chapters and introduce us to considering them as a framework for generating learning activities and they provide performance verbs that teachers can use when planning possible ways in which students may demonstrate their understanding.They also give an example of brainstorming using those 5 facets when trying to generate possible learning activities.  The authors also discuss how teachers often think of learning as “climbing the ladder” model of cognition where students have to master important facts before engaging in higher thinking skills but they point out two flaws with this model.  Those are that it is at odds with contemporary views of the learning process and hurts low achieving students.  

They also discuss the WHERETO framework which is an acronym for a set of questions: W - How will I help learners know what they will be learning? Why is this worth learning? What evidence will show their learning? How will their performance be evaluated?  H - How will I hook and engage the learners? In what ways will I help them connect desired learning to their experiences and interests?” E - How will I equip students to master identified standards and succeed with the targeted performances? What learning experiences will help develop and deepen understanding of important ideas? R - How will I encourage the learners to rethink previous learning? How will I encourage ongoing revision and refinement? E - How will I promote students’ self-evaluation and reflection? T - How will I tailor the learning activities and my teaching to address the different readiness levels, learning profiles, and interests of my students? and O - How will the learning experiences be organized to maximize engaging and effective learning? What sequence will work best for my students and this context? All these questions are designed to help the learner.  

I really appreciate all the very specific examples that are outlined in the chapters in this book.  They don’t just throw out “you should” directives without backing them up with reasoning and practical examples of implementation for the classroom.  

https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/understanding-by-design/ - This is a website from Vanderbilt University discussing Backward Design.

http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/docs/ccsa/conference/2015/presentations/145.pdf - This is a presentation by administration at a school in North Carolina about UbD and backward design.