I was so excited after last week's class because everything came together for me. I had been taught to create the assessment first, then work backwards to plan the lesson. The assessment being what I wanted my students to learn (SOLs). I thought by planning my lessons this way, I was making certain that my students were learning exactly what they needed to learn so that they would do well on the summative assessment. During our Doodles class last Wednesday, we discussed how students learn best when the activity, concept, and culture are interdependent. Lesson must be designed with what we want our students to know, what concept/knowledge they need to know, and whom in the real-world uses it. As a math teacher, I find that my students struggle with rote practice work. We think that giving lots of opportunities to practice will make our students better and stronger in math. However, what I realized was that if my students can't make a connection with why they need to learn a certain math concept or even when they will use it in real life, it's just rote memorization for them. Embedding activities is learning is an integral part of what is learned. Our students need the opportunities to have the culture and activities they participate in to have meaning and purpose so that they can use the acquired skill outside of the classroom. I need to have my students become problem solvers rather than problem do-ers. One of my favorite quotes from Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning (Brown, Collins, Duguid) states, "Don't teach students math; teach them to be mathematicians."
We were introduced to the third design principle, The Knowledge Principle, and didn't even realize it. At the start of class, when we were given a real-world problem (Don and his trip to Central Africa), we needed to become problem solvers. I had never used a medical database, but learning how to use it during the activity rather than being directly taught how to use it made the task of learning fun. I had to construct my own understanding because I was engaged in an authentic activity. I think about how I like to learn new concepts and idea; by doing. Why wouldn't I want to give my students the same opportunities?
Brilliant insights!!!! I am glad Don's adventures helped you see how tools, activity, and culture can be connected. I love that you connected your understanding to students' ability to understand!
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest failings of backwards planning is that typically one starts from the test (school culture), rather than "who in the real-world actually uses it" (authentic culture). So well said! I also really relate to what you said about math drills and practice. We see so much of that in traditional language teaching, too! Just as math drills do not lead to mathematical literacy, grammar drills are just as ineffective in leading students toward fluency.
ReplyDeleteJust this week I received an email from my principal reminding us that when we make our plans we should first have our assessment made and then work backward from there! I wanted to scream at the screen.
ReplyDeleteI felt just as excited when I left class! I was so empowered by our discussion, but teaching my students through real life activity. I had all these ideas flowing through my head.
I think the connection to backwards design you made is interesting. It has been the norm for so long that I don't think many people, who do it on a regular basis, even give it a second thought. That being said, I'm not sure if it's outdated by what we're learning... rather I think we've been misidentifying the assessment. For so long we've thought the SOLs or the SATs or the Unit Test or Final Exam were the assessment where the true assessment is how the skill is applied in real life situations. If we think of it in that sense than Backwards Design and Situated Cognition suddenly come into alignment.
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