Designing for Understanding: Update for Monday, 2 November 2009

It’s the last month of the first term and we started November off by looking back and looking ahead.  Here’s what it… ahem… looked like:

Microteaching Presentation Schedule

Those pesky Random Reign of Terror cards have another use – choosing a presentation order.  Here’s what we came up with for a microteaching schedule.

MY Microteaching Schedule

If you notice an error in the schedule, please comment on this post (in the space provided below this post) or drop me an email (lholbrook@sd43.bc.ca).

Practicum Timetable

While on prac over the next four weeks, please get a copy of your SA’s timetable.  This is an invaluable tool for helping Shep and I plan our visits on the 2-week and 13-week practica.  Here’s a sample schedule so you can see exactly what I’m after (following the “show don’t tell” philosophy):

Example of a Middle School Timetable

You can hand us a paper copy in class or email us an e-copy.  The deadline for handing in the Timetable is Wednesday, 25 November.

Our Response to the Stop, Start, & Continue Formative Assessment

Shep and I have a lot to say in response to your feedback on our practice.  In time, we will share all of our ideas but today we focused on:

  • Overlap between courses
  • Enhancing support for the ePortfolio.

In response to the latter item, Joe has agreed to offer an ePortfolio workshop on Wednesday, 25 November, a day that Shep and I will be away attending the graduation of students in last years MY cohort.

EDUC 310/316 Course Calendar

We highlighted the subjects of upcoming lessons in 310/316.  In essence, we’re focusing on unit planning, moving to microteaching presentations, and then holding student-instructor conferences.  You can access all the gory details via the Calendar for the Middle Years Cohort link in the Blogroll to the right of this post.

Introduction to the Understanding by Design Unit Planning Framework

In preparation for the planning of units for your January practicum… and beyond, we introduced Understanding by Design (UBD).

We started by considering the question: What steps might you follow in the creation of a unit plan? The class come up wtth the following responses (thanks Amber for taking the notes):

  • Choose a topic of study
  • PLOs
  • Student interest / relatable
  • Make an overall goal/objective
  • Timeframe (flexibility)
  • Check resources
  • Tie-in
  • Variety
  • Reflect/review
  • Be inclusive
  • Assessment
  • Learning environment
  • Product
  • Assessing prior knowledge

After that, we examined 4… er… 3 vignettes to see what each one suggested about understanding and the design of curriculum and assessment.  Here are the vignettes on a one-pager:

Intro to UBD Vignettes

Penultimately, we worked through an introductory UBD PowerPoint presentation that can be found here:

Intro to UbD PPT

For your viewing pleasure, here are the video clips from the PPT:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBt_GjOYXYM&feature=PlayList&p=833C8A47EA0079FA&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=8[/youtube]

and here’s an extended version of the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off clip:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWzMyKSIbFY[/youtube]

To extend your grasp of UBD, we asked you to read and respond to a UBD-related article, What Really Matters in Learning? (Content).

The article can be found below along with guidelines for responding to it.  Please bring your 1 – 2 double spaced (so someone can write between the lines) page response to next class for discussion:

What Really Matters in Learning? (Content) Article

Non-Fiction Response Journal Guidelines

As class ended, I collected an Exit Slip base on today’s class.  I’ll report out on the contents of those slips in the next class.  Here’s a handout with some background on and further readings related to the use of Exit Slips in the classroom:

How to Use Exit Slips

Cheers,

– Lawrence

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