Doorways to Understanding

Every time we are about to introduce a new topic or idea to our students, we expect them to relate the hints given with some issue of their lives, to think beyond what is being asked and open their minds. In chapter 5 of Understanding by design, Wiggins and Mc Tighe introduce the topic of the Essential Questions deeply. These questions, as it was stated before, are to introduce a new topic, and help them to understand what is going to be taught better. The idea is that they were able to carry out the process of transferring information so that they can make progress of their different skills.

If we talk about the main characteristics that make these questions “essential”, we can realize that, first of all, these questions have to be directed to them, their interests, their needs, issues and topics of their own real lives; these have to be timeless as well, they should not have an answer, they have to be totally open for students to think and therefore develop their cognitive skills. This means that each student may answer that question in a different way, depending on their life experience. As we have already learned from Wiggins and Mc Tighe, is that every topic to be taught has to have a purspose, a purpose where students are suppossed to develop their skills or at least, some of them; and this has to be included in those questions.

The authors point out two different kind os Essentials Questions, the ones related to specific topics and the other group of questions which is about more general topics. They say that it is necessary to mix up these two kinds of questions because they can give different kind of information and details which, undoubtedly, will enrich the topic introduction.The importance of these essential questions is that we are doing very important things without letting learners know. We are making them be the protagonists of the lesson and what is more, we are collecting information about themselves, which is absolutely much useful, in order to start teaching a lesson meaningfully. By getting all that information, we are able to head the planning in a specific way. These questions have to be catching and suitable for them. They have to feel encouraged to keep thinking about the question at home, so that they can make conncetions base don their own experiences.

As far as my own teaching experience has taught me, studets always feel encouraged to learn English, they really like it if the teacher provides the conditions to do it so, in a second language classroom, these questions can be really helpful in all levels. It does not matter if the concepts in a language are not specific but very general since in English or in any language, we are teaching skills such as productive and recpetive for them to communicate, not contents like in the other school subjects.

Backward Design

Teaching is not about giving students contents for them to learn only, but to plan the way how those contents will be delivered, and go on a follow up during the process of assessment in order to check if the expected outcomes are being fulfilled, as well. For teachers all these is pure art since they have to determine, from the very begining what they want to get from their students, therefore to design the way so thst they can achieve those goals. In chapter 1 of Understandiong by Design, Wiggins and Mc Tighe present “Backward Design” which is a useful technique based on an appropriate teaching in relation to the desired learnings. This means teaching with a purpose.

The success in Backward Desing is the planning based on priorities, which are: needs, students’ interests, class size, diversity in all terms, etc. Only if teachers have considered those factors, they can determine the expected outcomes. Backward Design is not about planning isolated lessons with unconnected activities, but a neverending chain that includes the previous tasks that students have done before, what we want and expect our students to learn, etc, everything goes by hand. The author say: “...the challenge is to focus first on the desired learnings from which appropriate teaching will logically follow”, that means that we, as teachers, have to visualize the class panorama (their behaviour, reactions, and what I want them to learn) first, and then I will take the “how to do it” step. Let’s remember that students are the protagonists of their learning process, this is why teachers have to provide the propper contents, methods and activities for them to succeed.

Backward Design also critizes the traditional method that teachers take when teaching, named by the authors: “The twin sins of traditional design”. If we start thinking about the way how teachers proceed when planning, we are going to agree that two are the main elements that they always consider what the authors call: an “activity-oriented curricula” which is only based on the activities and not about the learning, it seems that if students complete those activities, they are making proress, however, they do not provide any evidence of learning. The other element is “coverage”, which refers to go through a text book or a topic page by page with no purpose at all. Since most students are not passive people, they may ask questions like: What’s the point? What is the big idea here? or To what does this relate? Students feel and know when topics are unconnected and when they are definetely not learning.

There are three main stages in Backward Design. The first one is: “Identify desired results”, which is what we want students to learn, what it is appealing to their needs and reality and what is required to be taught by the ministry or the school education program. The second is “Determine acceptable evidence”. The unit or course should let us (teachers) collect good enough evidence in order to fulfill those desired learning and therefore making important desicions, and finally, the third one is “Plan learning experiences and instruction”, which pretends to equip students with all what they need in order to have an experience of learning, something meaningful that they remember and find it useful.

So far, I have realized that Backward Design is what definitely may help teacher to create experiences of learning with the students, which must be their goal. Their planning should be specific and concrete, making them participate and checking all what is happening in the classroom in terms of learning in order to collect evidence for the assessment process. Every student who is not following the lesson, bothering others and disrupting everybody is mainly because the plan has failed, this is why, teachers should be more careful and smart at the moment of designing; that is the moment of sharing information, of asking for help when needed and of thinking of making the most out of what students will be able to do in the language classroom.