How it went?
To be truthful, students were not particularly motivated to learn about population distribution and density. But they did like the idea of having a specific goal for their learning. They understood how this lesson fit into the larger unit on populations of the world. They also understood how the skills would be employed on their upcoming project, not to mention future careers.
Students were excited to get out of their seats and move throughout the classroom. Several times while we did population density problems they commented..."we're like doing math right now". I'm amazed at how constrictive curriculum can be when it has a strong discipline focus. Kids are always surprised to find crossover skills or content. Students also appreciate the idea that there is a logical close to a lesson. We can always take 5 minutes to discuss if we have achieved our performance goal, and if we have used all specific learning tasks.
I remember having to run sprints in high school. My teammates and I would always work harder if we knew how many we would be running. And to a certain extent I feel that UbD has something to do with rewards schedules for students. It is important that we design lesson with the student perspective in mind. They must at all times understand why they are learning, how they can learn, and how they will know they have learned. Not only does this make the learner more effective, but it makes the teacher more available to handle individual student challenges.
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1 comment:
I feel it does add a orderly and focused component to my teaching that when students ask questions, I feel more comfortable answering and not feeling as though I didnt cover it. I agree that by thinking of the student first in the design, I challenged them to learn.
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