LTM 631 Cathy Boerner 2/5/11 Response #1

Response to Backward Design (Childre, Sands and Pope) Backward Design is a strategy rooted in the Constructivist Approach to teaching. With its emphasis on addressing students prior knowledge and external backgrounds, this approach is about addressing the whole child with authentic learning experiences that children can relate to while finding meaningful applications for new knowledge. The teaching is student-centered and begins with asking as a teacher: What do I want my students to know? Backward design is a method of lesson planning that begins with this question and ends with how the learning will happen. Step One: Identify Learners First, I want to identify my classroom needs both as a whole and individually. This doesnt just mean what grade level and subject I am. I want to gather a lot of background information about my students to understand whom my students are beyond the classroom, extending into their family life, cultural identities and educational background. From reading this article I understand that this is how I can get to know my students prior knowledge while thinking about how I can incorporate their external lives into authentic learning experiences. I also want to have a deep understanding of each students strengths and weaknesses and to take these into account as I begin to design my instruction. Ive learned it is crucial to know how an individual students learning disability affects their

education and how I can incorporate this into every class activity. The article makes a good point, articulating how important it is to blend my accommodations for students with disabilities into the lessons rather than addressing them afterwards, or as an addon to a lesson. Step Two: Identify Curricular Priorities Regardless of whether the school I teach at takes a rigid stance in keeping with state and local standards or if I have a certain amount of freedom to decide how and when I will teach these standards, I need to be very aware of them because this is how I will begin to design my instruction. As I think about which standard I am targeting within any given instruction, I will begin to form essential questions that frame this standard. These essential questions are shared at the beginning of a unit to initiate student interest and motivation toward the subject. These questions are very broad and are meant to be able to span across any subject and stand up to any duration of time. When I decide which standard I am addressing for any unit I need to take into account what kinds of prior knowledge my students will need to have in order to accomplish this new learning goal. If my students do not possess the necessary prior knowledge to apply the new standard, I will need to decide how to accommodate for this in my lesson plan or if it would be more appropriate to teach the standard at a later time.

Step Three: Design Assessment Framework Next, I will be asking myself: What evidence will demonstrate student understanding of the unit standards? It is at this point that I will be determining how I can assess my students learning not just after but also throughout the lesson. I want to assess for students understanding. It is more important that my students understand the

subject on a deeper level than recalling specific facts. This ties in with the essential questions that guide each unit. As per Backward Design, I will need to create a framework that includes various forms of assessment such as tasks, projects, quizzes, oral and written explanations, and informal assessments. Step Four: Create Learning Activities After I have developed my assessment framework I am now ready to create the learning activities for the unit or lesson. As I keep into account both my essential questions and my assessment strategies, I want to think of activities that will be engaging to my students. In order to engage all of my students I need to consider each students unique needs. In order to engage my students I need to provide clear and explicit directions and/or steps for each segment of the activity. My students need to know what is expected of them and I expect that they will be able to follow each step, taking into account the accommodations required for particular students. I need to create authentic activities that my students can relate to if I want them to be engaged. By doing so students can create their own meaning based on their prior experiences and knowledge. I want to my students to think deeply about the subject while I continually refer to the essential questions. The article emphasizes the all too common problem with classroom instruction and its failure to support students with disabilities in a thorough and meaningful way. Since almost all schools are including children with disabilities in standard classrooms, I need to have a large bank of strategies for how I will accommodate for these children at all times.

The article provides some specific examples of how to include interactive learning experiences. It states that students with disabilities often need learning experiences that provide repetition and feedback. I may need to simplify instructions for individual students. Another way to articulate my instructions will be to offer various visual and audio forms of instruction. While orally going through the steps of each activity I can write them down on a chalkboard or dry erase board as I go along, offering a visual way to show the steps. It is extremely important that I give my students a lot of feedback throughout my interactions within each activity. Many students need continual encouragement and positive feedback. My feedback should be specific and aimed towards motivating students to continue trying. I now know that the best ways to apply special intervention/strategies is to include them throughout each activity and to incorporate them in a way that accommodations are available throughout the classroom. For example, while applying various methods to inform my students of instructions, I will want to have the instructions readily available class-wide-- on the chalkboard, on paper, through oral repetition and even photographs or other visual media that I might have available. I believe this strategy benefits the entire classroom and does not only help particular students with disabilities. All children can benefit from instructional accessibility. Often times instructions for activities need to be repeated for all learners, providing the necessary clarity each child needs to understand how to participate in any given activity. This would be especially true for the lower grade levels I want to teach. Providing instructional repetition and multiple forms of demonstration is the key to all

students clearly understanding what is expected of them. If students understand what is expected of them, they are likely to be more engaged in the activity. It is with demonstration, accessibility and engagement that learning is most likely to occur for all students. I will need to learn much more about all of the forms of special education intervention that occur within an inclusive classroom. At this point I feel I have limited understanding of the specific interventions and accommodations that occur in classrooms currently.