Leadership in Curriculum Course Reflection

I feel I hold onto my new knowledge and hopefuly understandings by a tenuous thread. It doesn't yet feel comfortable. I have too much fear of doing it wrong. One essential question I learned in my voice lessons is that the best singers get out of their own way. They learn correct technique - breathing, support, etc, and then trust the technique and sing. I hope I can transfer that to teaching: prepare as best I can with my new knowledge and understanding, which is based on my previous knowledge, and teach. Another voice lesson understanding: if you make a mistake, make it big. At least you'll know you made a mistake so you can fix it.

Understanding by design, the focus of this course, involves thinking about curriculum and lessons with the end result in mind. Assessments, which are traditionally planned after the lesson material is planned, are to be thought of in the beginning stages of curriculum/unit/lesson planning. Everything flows out of the big idea - or essential question, which is not necessarily content-specific. The UbD design forces the designer to think through the curriculum/unit/lesson from many angles and have coherence within the plan. UbD seems to be more efficient for unit and curriculum design. It is a bit tedious for daily lesson plans. I believe that once I get proficient at UbD, I will be able to design really effective units and create abbreviated daily lesson plans.

When I look at my Understanding by Design project, I see coherence, sense making and flow throughout the plan. Our museum table top exhibit opened my eyes to a major "big idea" in fashion design: pieces and the whole. I think focusing on this essential question in daily lessons will greatly improve student understanding and ability to "do" fashion design. The class is only a semester long - I have to maximize learning and new skills in a short time. UbD will help me evaluate what I do in the course. Is the planned activity relevant to the big idea? Can I rearrange things to accomodate my teacher mission statement, so I am actually doing what I say I'm doing? Can I explain/state things in a different way to make the "a-ha" moment happen sooner?

When I compare my Understanding by Design project with my teacher mission statement, I see a disturbing inconsistency. One of my goals as a teacher is to encourage students to practice democracy. While I give some choices for students in my lessons, I need to work on incuding democracy in the classroom. I love Wiggins and McTighe's (2005) idea of soliciting weekly or frequent student feedback. This will help me understand my students better and include their ideas and views more solidly in the classroom experience. Adding this student feedback activity will help students learn the democratic process as well as assist in constructing knowledge and creating community. Except for the democracy point just mentioned, I believe my UbD project and my teacher mission statement are in agreement. I create community in the classroom by having students collaborate, present to each other, listen to each other and critique each other. Respect for others is not written into the lesson plans but is a strong presence in the classroom. Students have opportunities to transfer knowledge and create understanding throught the class activities. Activities and learnings are chunked into skill sets or ideas so students can build their skill level and knowledge of how it all fits together. Students sometimes work by themselves and often work with others to discover ideas and create knowledge. Students learn from each other through collaboration, presentations and class discussions. They are given ample opportunities to practice their learning and skills through practical exercises and assessments. Students receive feedback from peers and the teacher and have regular opportunities to reflect on their learning.

This class has been intense. It's difficult to know what I will retain, but I am thankful for the opportunity to learn UbD from a knowledgeable professor and endlessly inspiring peers.

Wiggins, G. & McTigue, J. (2005). Understanding by design, expanded 2nd edition. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.