Backward Design

     Hello friends! It has been a long two weeks, but there is always more topics to be discussed so we are back again. Today I wanted to talk to you about a curriculum design that has always stood out to me as being effective. This is called backward design. Backward design challenges traditional methods of curriculum design and offers a more in depth lesson plan that can effectively teach a concept in a more interesting and engaging manner.  Backward design is a way of creating your course plan which is (as insinuated) the opposite compared to the traditional plan. If you haven’t heard of this before then you’re in for a treat. Let us go through the step by step process on what it means to use Backward Design. The pretext to this method is that an educator must have a thorough understanding of her students and the curriculum. The reasons for this are obvious. As I spoke about in my previous post it is extremely important that teachers do not assume that all students are the same. This is because all students are unique and therefore process information in unique ways. By understanding every student individually a teacher is able to create a lesson plan that is effective for the whole class. It is also important for teachers to understand the curriculum, because otherwise it would be very difficult to create a lesson plan based on it. 

      The first step of backwards design is to identify the KDB of the unit. We’re going to take a minute here to discuss what KDB is and why it is important to our education. KDB stands for know, do, and be. These three aspects are very important when creating a lesson. Knowing is understanding the basic knowledge required for a lesson. The information stated by the curriculum that is necessary for students to learn. It does not matter how original and interesting a lesson plan is. If it does not teach the students what is required then it is not effective. If I am running an English lesson on Shakespeare, there are many interesting activities that I can brainstorm to make his stories come to life (such as them acting it out). I can engage my students and help them understand the story. But all this is useless if I don’t teach them the deeper meaning of Shakespeare’s scripts. The student will remember that Macbeth died, but they won’t understand the lesson about the negative effects of revenge taught through this. The next step is to do. After students know this base knowledge, they can connect ideas together and do hands on projects to help the ideas sink in and gain a deeper understanding of the information and how it can be applied to a real world setting. I think that it is very important in any subject that a student understands the applications of the lesson. If you explain how certain streams of math or science can be applied in everyday life the students will be more engaged. The final step is be. This is a little more abstract than doing. Being is the skills gained from lessons and course plans, such as critical thinking, good work habits, or the importance of social issues.

      The second step in this method is to create a rich performance assessment. This strongly ties in with having a deep understanding of your students. This step requires the educator to create a form of assessment that most accurately depicts what the student has learned. Depending on the student, the assessment could be in the form of a test, a verbal presentation, or a hands on project. This evaluation should also benefit the student. By using assessment for learning, the form of evaluation can be used to progress the students knowledge of a subject and enhance his or her learning. Assessment of learning is much more effective compared to assessment of learning, because you are not simply labeling the student with a grade, but progressing him towards a goal. The final step to backwards design is to work on the daily instruction. This is where you tie in all of the previous thoughts and ideas to create a day to day lesson plan that you will present to your class. this step is about organizing all of your ideas on a subject into daily activities and manageable sizes. I believe that using this method of backwards design an educator can effectively produce a curriculum design that can benefit each and every unique student.

Education, technology, and pointless comments.

          Alright, now that we've been introduced lets get down to business. Education. A topic discussed over and over, and I use the word "discussed" very lightly because if there is one thing that I have learned throughout the past four years studying education, it is that there are many people with many strong opinions on such a broad subject. Consequently, when two people with two different opinions have a "discussion", it can easily turn into an argument. Needless to say it can be a touchy subject, and one that deserves to be. I think it goes without saying that education is an extremely important factor of our society. Observing from a time-based perspective, the average child spends 8 hours a day in their school, 5 times a week, for 10 months. plugging those into a calculator means that a student spends about 1680 hours a year in the hands of our educational system. Adding on to this we're not including the time someone spends on extra-curricular activities or simply working on their studies after class. While were making a point of how big this topic is, let us pile on the fact that these are children we are talking about... you know, those little things that have an infinitely large energy supply and spend the majority of their time mistaking me for a tree and hanging off my arms. I am willing to overlook all of that though, because this tiny beings have an impressive knack for absorbing everything around them. And by everything, I mean everything. I think we have all heard the reference between a child's mind and a sponge. This not only insinuates that they are exceptional at learning new information, but that the environment they are put in has a large effect on their life, and as stated earlier the average child spends a large portion of their time in the hands of our educational system. If our educational system is going to have such a large effect on a student's life it is only natural to want to make it as constructive as possible. This marks the appearance of many questions which fall upon future educators. How do we optimize the effectiveness of our education? How do we nurture our students to become critical thinkers?  to be logical people? contributing members of society? How do I cultivate the smartest doctor? the most creative artist? The most skilled engineer? And in my opinion the most important question of all, how do I ensure that my students have a future in which they are happy? I don't know the answer to any of these, I'm just some random university student trying to scrape by. What I am hoping for is that throughout this blog we will come closer to solving these issues.

         Lets get started shall we? There is no time to waste. It is impossible to critique our educational system without analyzing the backbone of schooling itself, curriculum. There are many different forms of curriculum, the most obvious one being the formal curriculum. Formal curriculum is the information in the provincial ministry of education documents as well as the course syllabi. It is what tells the educator that their first grade class will be learning addition instead of quantum physics. Formal curriculum is an important aspect of our education because it ensures that all students who graduate from the same year share the same essential knowledge for them to effectively further their studies, as well as be able to function in society. As an example, being able to add is a pretty handy skill to have in every day life, although 5 year old Mark will probably think otherwise. This is why  it is a good thing that (1) everyone knows how to add, and (2) somebody more qualified than I is determining what essential knowledge is. The second form of curriculum is informal Curriculum. This includes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are gained through extra-curricular activities as well as other activities that occur outside of school. I am a strong believer that extra-curricular activities are a great way to gain social skills, teamwork skills, self esteem, and many other positive characteristics. Informal Curriculum is very well thought through in our education system, there are activities for everybody from sports teams to drama clubs to game meetings (I was always part of the later two). The third form of curriculum, as well as the least obvious (as insinuated by its name) is the hidden curriculum. Hidden curriculum is considered a sort of side effect of education. It is the social norms, values and beliefs that are conveyed unintentionally through both the instructor and the educational environment. These beliefs often reflect the status quo and are often widely accepted in the societal context. Unfortunately the hidden curriculum has the ability to reproduced undesirable behaviors, a common example of which is bullying. Luckily, if considered the hidden curriculum can also be used to promote positive behaviors and create a safe work environment.

      Moving on from the general picture there are also specific models of curriculum, the most commonly known of which is our traditional curriculum. We all know what this is because we have all experienced it. The classic classroom situation where the educator stands at the front of the class while his or her students sit there quietly and accept the information being poured into their heads. Along with this comes standardized testing, one general form of assessment that is said to fairly grade all students. Contrary to this belief it is also well known that every person processes and outputs information differently, so how is it logical that one general form of assessment can judge how much a student has improved intellectually over the course of a year? I'm sure we all know that one friend who can stand up in front of his peers and express his ideas extremely well verbally, but push a pen and paper on his desk and he'll spend the next hour staring out the window. Is it then accurate for his teacher to pick up the blank page and assume it reflects what is happening inside his head? Of course not. But that is currently how our education system runs. Fortunately there are other models of curriculum which are more effective, a personal favourite of mine being project based learning. This model includes learning the formal education through a hands on approach, by working on projects in groups which relate to the course material. This provides the opportunity for children to collaborate with each other and create a physical result of the course material. I believe that there is no better way to understand course material than to discover it yourself, instead of being told the answers by the teacher. Project based learning provides an opportunity for students to discover the lesson themselves.

     The last thing that I want to talk about with you today is technology. The use of technology in our everyday life has increased drastically over time. With the increased popularity of computers, phones, ipads and many other devices over the past decade or two, it is only natural that our education board would to discuss using technology within the classroom to promote learning. After all, children at younger and younger ages are wanting to use their cellphones in class, so why not make it beneficial? This concept of using technology in class includes doing projects on computers, having smart boards within the classroom, and even including phones in everyday lessons. I believe that it can be very beneficial, but at the same time it is important to approach this issue very cautiously because when you bring technology into the classroom you also bring many distractions with it as well. If students are to be on their phones in class, educators need to find a way to make sure its for educational purposes and not playing on their applications. This is obviously much easier said than done, considering students have an impressive ability to find distractions in anything and everything while in class. I mean, I had a pen and paper in front of me and hour ago that were meant solely for educational purposes, yet somehow I find myself drawing abusive amounts of stick figures in class instead of writing down Euclid's axioms. This was not because I do not enjoy Euclid's axioms, they are quite a thrilling set of rules and I'm sure that Euclid was a swell human being that doesn't deserve to be overlooked due to a doodle. I simply did not feel involved in the lesson. To reiterate what I have already said I am a firm believer that in order to create an effective classroom an educator has to promote collaboration, engage your students, and utilize technology.

Introductions and Formalities

Hi,


My name is Mark and this is the place where I write things that I think. I don't think I've ever actually seen a blog until the previous half hour of my life, so I'm still trying to wrap my head around what the concept of this whole page is. One thing I have realized is that having a blog means that it is an opportunity for me to be as self centered as I want, because lets be real, who here is going to stop me?... nobody...? that's what I thought. Anyways as part of an introduction of myself I should explain that the reason this blog exists is for me to express my thoughts and reflections on an education course of which I am a part of, as you will soon find out. Just as well I feel it is necessary to explain to you just how technologically illiterate I am, considering it took me the larger portion of an hour just to sign up for this thing. Therefore I apologize in advance for the poor nature of my blogging page, as well as any formalities of blogging that I am unaware of. And there it is, I have officially made my first post on my blog! A large milestone in my life hopefully followed by many more. I will spend the next half hour attempting to figure out how to post a picture of a puppy such that reading this paragraph wasn't a complete waste of time for you. Until next time, farewell from Mark and Mr. Fluffles.

Mr. Fluffles