#essentialquestions

Chapter 6

UBD and DI are linked and required the teacher to think about both when planning.  The questions that are asked when a teacher is planning instruction for their students are

    1. What matters most for my students to learn?

    2. What sequence will allow my students to have the most amount of learning?

    3. How are my students doing as individuals when they are trying to make sense of important ideas and/or skills?

    4. Who needs my help with understanding?

    5. How can arranging my classroom time allow for the most learning?

    6. How can we work as a team to help everyone in the class?

    7. What will be the best method for some students to work while I help other students?

    8.  How can I gather evidence of my students' successes with the essential goals?

You should ask yourself these important questions when wanting to plan for the best learning of your students.  

The reading also stated four core beliefs that help create our vision for our classrooms to be effective. 1. All students should consistently experience curricula rooted in important ideas of a discipline that requires them to make meaning of information and think at high levels. 2. Students need opportunities to learn the “basics: and opportunities to apply them in meaningful ways.  3. there is a need for a balance between student construction of meaning and teacher guidance. 4. Students need to know the learning goals of a unit or lesson and criteria for successfully demonstrating proficiency with the goals.  

The questions asked in Planning instruction for Understanding in a Differentiated Classroom are so vital when thinking of how to plan for all students.  They should be asked during every lesson you as a teacher create.  

1. How do I five directions for tasks?

2. How will I know what students understand and can do?

3. How do I keep their interest?

4. How do I know when to start and stop the various segments of a plan?

5. How do we transition from one part of a lesson to the Next?

How do I distribute resource materials?

In order to answer these questions, you need to know your students.  If you don’t then you might not know how they understand instructions or how long they can sit and stay on task.  

Chapter 7

I love how the chapter starts out “ Understanding must be earned”  If you truly think about that statement it is very true.  Memorization is important and I see the value of it.  I memorized my multiplication tables.  I know them by heart.  When someone says what is 9 x 7 I know it is 63 but do I truly understand what that means.  I think as an adult I do but when I was learning my “times tables” in 4th grade I could not explain why I knew that and what it actually meant.  As teachers when need to find a way for our students to truly understand the topics that we are teaching.  

Using Essential Questions:

It is what designs your curriculum.  What do you want your students to know?  Why is it important?  These are the questions you ask in Stage 1 of backward design.  In Stage 3 they are used to bring the subject matter to life through our teaching.  We want to stimulate student thinking.  We need to ask open-ended questions so they aren’t having to give a “prescribed” answer.  Students need to be allowed to “think”.  It gives students the ability to have deeper conversations about different subjects.