2009/12/07

Reflection

Understanding by Design is a great helping tool to design units and their lessons as long as one understands the framework. Originally, I was a bit horrified about the depth of the whole way to write things down, but then I found out that the reason is simple – clarity. I thought that there are often interrelated points that often make some ideas from Stage 1 redundant when they are mentioned in the Stage 3. But then I realised that, actually, the Stage 3 explores those Stage 1 ideas in a particular setting, which thus makes the whole unit unique. Similarly, the assessment activities in the Stage 2 are not just simply repeated in the Stage 3 – they are applied in order to foster students’ understanding.

Also, having a clear idea about the unit and lessons helps to create a file that could be copied by other teachers without any problems. I believe that Vijaya and I made a guide for our unit that does not leave any other of potential teachers confused. Although we did not have to necessarily include all the sections (for example, as I believe, the Learning experience plan in the Stage #3), their inclusion makes this unite a level more comprehensive and clear about its progress. Our aim is to look at physical concepts of electricity through chemistry and mathematics so that student’s achieve a conclusive understanding of energy conservation and lifestyle change. I would say that our Big Ideas (see below) that unwrap the unit into Understandings and Knowledge (see the Stage 2) are:

• to understand what matter is composed of
• to learn the periodic law and apply the characteristics of Mendeleev’s periodic table to understand the relationships that exist between the atoms, which are the basic building blocks of the universe
• to understand  that energy can be transformed and used in other forms such as light, heat and motion
• to see mathematical relations of fundamental electric units, i.e. electrical current, voltage, resistance and power
• and to understand that the electricity use in a typical U.S. home can be decreased by a change in lifestyle.

I believe that no matter what topic the students learn, they should gain a chance of multiple perspectives. Similarly, applying their knowledge to other fields is important, as you could have noticed in my Lesson Plan #3 where I set the students for development of their curiosity during the next lesson (describing light bulbs and their chemical structure). In particular, it is clear that there would be no Physics without Mathematics or without Chemistry. Being aware of concepts from both fields at the same time makes a real inter-disciplinary scholar. I do not want my students to think that mathematics is something more just because I happen teaching it; I want them to share my belief that mathematics is useful to illustrate many other (if not all) fields but without those fields, there would be no need for mathematics. I mean that it is nice to have mathematical knowledge but it is not a real knowledge unless it can be applied to explain natural or human events. For our unit, there is no point for students to understand fractions and reciprocals, if they will not use that to further develop their intellectual quest.

As far as the sample lessons I provided are concerned, I tried to include various examples of teaching styles that include technology and other modern learning ways too. I found out that by specifically designing the unit, it is difficult to follow a course book (if I wanted to do so, I would violate the concepts of the UbD framework to choose tools and activities on the end). Therefore, I compiled information from many various resources and crated my own handouts to be deliberately used throughout the class. They follow an idea of a big snowball – the level of difficulty gradually progresses as students’ knowledge expands and so they have to pay attention to both the outer layer (the new knowledge) and the core (initial knowledge). There would not be one without the other one (or you could say that a big snowball cannot be small, i.e. just the core, and that there is no hollow snowball).

On the other hand, I am aware of the importance literature has on students’ learning experiences. Therefore, I searched various internet databases and selected a few books to provide supportive material. These recommended readings were:

• “Electricity” by Steven Parker, Science Museum (ISBN: 0751361321/ ISBN-13: 9780751361322) – for better visual information about electricity, i.e. colored photographs of real-life objects
• “Conductors and Insulators” by Angela Royston (ISBN: 9781432914431 (143291443X)) – for comprehensive understanding of conductors, insulators and electrical circuits
• and “Electricity (Eyewitness Books Series)” by Steve Parker and Laura Buller (ISBN: 0756613884, ISBN-13: 9780756613884) – for supportive information about electricity from physical, biological and chemical point of view, i.e. how electricity works nerves and muscles, what causes lightning, how electricity can transmit voices and images across an ocean, what makes a silicon chip work, discovering the amazing speed of charged atoms, what happens when you tune in the radio, etc.

Overall, I have gone through an enlightening process of self-exploration and I figured out how to properly design a unit and its lessons. Also, I am aware that such task is time-consuming and one does not always have a chance to do as much as s/he wants or as fast as s/he wants. Having said that, I am admitting that cooperation with Vijaya was definitely challenging. I have a feeling that we often talked too much about the same points which I though we have already covered. I guess that it was somewhat necessary, but I usually had less time than her due to my other commitments. I wanted to move on and be done. Of course, I wanted to reflect and revaluate but I though we were going to do it on the end, not after each little step. I learnt about myself that I am one of ‘those’ who write a complete essay and then revise, while Vijaya was probably an opposite case of a person who stops after each paragraph and makes adjustments. And therefore, I felt like I was doing some things all over again for no reason. But in fact, there was a reason – to cooperate and compromise one’s ideas in order to achieve a mutual agreement that best exemplifies thoughts of both sides.