Siary
Rodriguez
Understanding by
Design Template
As a prekindergarten teacher, I must understand and apply design principles to provide meaningful and compelling learning experiences for my young students. The insights of renowned educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2005), who have underscored the significance of this approach in guiding teaching toward clear and meaningful goals, are particularly relevant to our context.
By understanding and comprehending design, I can plan activities and lessons that set achievable comprehension goals for my prekindergarten students. For example, in a science lesson, I could design an activity where students have to observe and describe the changes in a plant over time. Beginning with the end in mind helps me identify the essential learning outcomes I want my students to achieve, making it easier to guide my teaching more effectively.
Design is not just about comprehension and content goals. It's about fostering deep and lasting understanding in our students. This means going beyond surface-level knowledge and encouraging students to make connections, think critically, and apply what they've learned. By prioritizing this understanding, I can create learning experiences that promote my students' cognitive, social, and emotional skills from an early age. This approach goes beyond knowledge acquisition, preparing our students for a well-rounded future.
Understanding design also allows me to design authentic assessments that reflect real-world situations, enabling my students to demonstrate their knowledge meaningfully. This approach allows me to assess my students' progress more accurately and provide feedback that promotes their continued growth and development.
In summary, as a prekindergarten teacher, understanding and applying curriculum design as proposed by Wiggins and McTighe is vital to providing enriching educational experiences that prepare my students for future academic and personal success.
As educators, we are privileged to create an environment where students feel motivated and inspired to learn and excel. Since students spend a significant portion of their time in the classroom, we can foster a meaningful learning environment that increases their attention, focus, and critical thinking skills and shapes their learning experience. This is a source of and testament to our dedication and fulfillment in our work.
To create such an environment, we must adopt a learner-centered approach emphasizing collaboration, integration, creativity, and imagination. A tool that can help us do this is Fink's three-column table.
Understanding by Design 3 Stages
This table, known as Fink's three-column table, is a valuable tool for developing a focused, results-based instruction plan. It has three columns: one for outcomes, one for activities, and one for assessments. This method allows us to identify six specific objectives: fundamental, application, human dimension, care, and learning to learn. By using this table, we can ensure that our curriculum design is comprehensive, balanced, and aligned with our educational goals.
Completing the UbD Template is a crucial step in our curriculum design process. It helps us take the 3-column table results to the next level by defining desired outcomes, assessment evidence, and a learning plan. For instance, the UbD Template could help us determine the desired result in a language learning unit: ' Students will be able to communicate effectively in English. ' The assessment evidence could be a role-play activity where students must use English to solve a problem. The learning plan could include reading, writing, and speaking exercises. By adopting these strategies, we, as educators, play a crucial role in creating a constructive and meaningful learning environment that fosters growth and success for all students.
My Big Audacious Goal (BHAG) for this course is to revolutionize how my students acquire knowledge and their relationship to learning. I aspire to instill in them an innate passion for discovering, questioning, and education, not just within the four walls of the classroom but in every aspect of their lives. My BHAG is cultivating a dynamic, collaborative learning community where every student feels valued, motivated, and empowered to reach their full potential.
I aim to challenge them to step out of their comfort zone, embrace failure as part of the learning process, and cultivate a growth mindset that drives them to pursue bold goals and become change agents in their educational journey and beyond. My BHAG is nothing less than transforming lives through the power of meaningful learning and limitless exploration of knowledge.
BHAG (Long-Term Big and Audacious Goal):
Our goal is to transform early childhood education by implementing a comprehensive approach to teaching language and mathematics. Through this approach, we aim to empower all students, regardless of their individual needs, to reach their full academic and personal potential. This goal aligns with the Comprehensive Development TEKS (K.6).
