Week 4 Assignment 1!

When I wrote Stage 1 for the ELA reading and writing it was the first time I had ever used Understanding by Design to plan a lesson. I found it to be challenging but definitely worthwhile. I have been trying to use UbD principals to plan my lessons for my students this week and it has helped me a lot. First I think about what we accomplished last class and what my goals are for this class. The desired results are what knowledge or understanding I want to teach my students in the class. I aim to teach my students skills that they can use for life. Essential questions are based on the understanding and application of the facts. They are questions designed to encourage students to use critical thinking skills and acquire knowledge that will be transferable to other areas. In I asked my students questions that could not be found in the text but required a level of comprehension. Examples were …..  “What can you tell me about this character? Compare him to yourself. What main idea is the author trying to convey in this story?” I also asked questions to see if they understood the idea the author was trying to give over, such as, “Did you fully understand the topic? What is your view of this idea?” In writing I tried to include questions based on the skills I wanted the students to develop. I included questions like “How did the writing start? Did it pique your interest? Can you think of a more interesting way to introduce your writing?” Through these lessons I hope to give my students tools that they can use for life. I want them to love to learn and to be able to think and figure things out of their own. In this way they will develop into critical thinkers and developers and this can take them very far in life.