Weekly Vitamins: A Spoonful of Principles Helps the Units Get Planned

Just as the children Mary Poppins nannies need some sugar, the readings for this week were just what I needed to understand the value in unit planning. I knew on the surface what unit plans were, but didn't understand the tie-in between other units and goals of the year. I simply thought they were the over-arching topic and the lessons within the unit taught about that topic. Now I understand that every teacher has an interwoven structure that links all of the topics taught in a class and that there aren't only connections found within each lesson, but also connections between lessons and units. 

The chimney sweep

I had to clean out some of what I knew (or thought I knew) about unit planning and start from scratch. The general idea isn't what was new. It was the planning principles that I needed to understand. I found it really insightful reading about Bloom's taxonomy. I have known and even referenced it many times in the past. But I never knew it was revised. Seeing the two taxonomies side by side made me think about why it was changed and how knowing this new order would make a difference in how I went about teaching. 

The main difference that struck me was the switch in order between synthesis (now creating) and evaluation (now the verb form: evaluating). This new change makes sense to me. Students should first evaluate based on their knowledge and experience and the steps leading up to that one. When they are able to express their thoughts, it is then that they can add on to it or create something from what they've evaluated. 

psia-nw.org

I would liken it to a mechanics project. Students should evaluate what the best techniques are and critically think about how the project is made, what the best materials are, what important procedures they need to follow, etc. and then they can create on their own. If they've created what they've carefully evaluated, that would show the deepest understanding of the subject.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Just like the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious can be a mouthful, so can some of these theories and principles. But each list provides such valuable information that can be chunked into more manageable meanings. 

Significant learning (Fink, 2003) is all about the backbone of unit plans. There are many steps involved but they split it into three basic areas: building strong primary components, assembling components into a coherent whole, and finishing important remaining tasks. What I like about this set-up is that part 1 (building strong primary components) is all about the heart of the operation. This is the part that students experience and are directly impacted by it. Part 2, (assembling components into a coherent whole) is the fitting together of the course and determining the flow of the course. Finally, part 3 (finishing important remaining tasks) is the one that the teacher is impacted by the most. I'm glad Fink included this part because it talks about grading, potential issues, and reflection. This is so essential to the process. A teacher cannot only plan and implement, they must evaluate and reflect on what they've seen.

More and more I am seeing the need for self-reflection and the benefit it has to a classroom. I'd hope to get feedback from my students but also look at each element of the lesson, unit, and course as a whole and see how effective I was at meeting the objectives and goals established in part 1. 

There were also a lot of great principles outlined in Strategies for Great Teaching. The main points I got out of this were that every brain is unique and must be catered to in different ways. Emotions, experiences, and practice will help maximize learning and will allow students to be motivated. 

I'm sure every teacher faces the challenge of adapting to each students' specific needs. I hope that I would be able to find ways to include all of the elements of learning modalities, motivation, and types of intelligences to impact as many students as possible. 

The bottomless bag 

Just when I thought I've seen all of the theories another one finds its way to me. The theory of Understanding by Design is something so simple, yet is something I wouldn't have thought of in the same way. I love the concept of planning with the end in mind. What do I want my students to know when they leave? What is important for them if they were to pursue a career in this area of study? What should my lessons/units connect to when we reach the last day?

I tend to like working in chronological order so I would assume unit planning and course planning would start with identifying the units, and then planning lesson 1 for unit 1, then lesson 2, etc. I realize now that I can still follow this format, but if I don't first identify the desired results, I might just be teaching in circles. Or worse.. I might commit the "twin sins" of either activity-driven lessons or content coverage.. yikes! 

Content coverage doesn't teach what's important and doesn't make connections. It teaches that they should know a bunch of information by the end of the semester or before the test.
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If we teach with intent and purpose, and if students are actively working toward that purpose with a clear understanding of the goals, it won't be about covering information and sprinkling some activities. It will be about finding meaning and connections to the information they are learning. 

Relating to reality

Some of the readings really dove into the brain and how students learn. In my summer reading book Teaching Outside the Box: How to Grab Your Students by Their Brains by Louanne Johnson, she mentioned that there was a really good TED talk about how the left and right hemispheres of the brain operate differently, even though information is stored in all parts of the brain. She thinks that most teachers are more left-brain dominant, meaning that they are more analytical and thrive with literal meaning. Students, she feels, are right-brain dominant, so they seek images, patterns, and context to find meaning. Check out the TED talk on The Divided Brain to see what connections we can make to how students learn in the classroom and how teachers can use this information to adapt to their students.

Leaving Thought

"Great teaching is a series of purposeful acts, professional judgments, and designed decisions based on experience and theory about how learning happens best"-- (Derner and Reardon, 2004)

Newcomb, L.H., McCracken, J.D., Warmbrod, J.R., & Whittington, M.S. (1993). Methods of
teaching agriculture. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Reardon, M. & Derner, S. (2004) Strategies for great teaching. Chicago, Illinois: Zephyr Press

Mctighe, J. & Wiggins, G. (2012). Understanding by design framework. Retrieved from
http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf

Fink, L.D. (2003) A self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Retrieved
from http://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf

West Virginia University, (2010.). Bloom’s taxonomy. Retrieved from
http://community.wvu.edu/~lsmong/Articulate%20Blooms%20Wheel/blooms_wheel.html