Question 4

Question Four:

I don’t think my planning has really been inline with what UBD outlines. I don’t take a backwards design approach. I guess to an extent I have an end result in mind. For instance, for all works of literature that I cover, I want the students to comprehend the plot as well as recognize and appreciate literary devices. I also want them to be able to identify and understand themes, symbols and motifs as well as the methods of characterization utilized. However, I don’t start planning the unit by coming up with the big overlying questions. I typically start with the novel and focus on the comprehension of the words and the plot first. The thought behind that is that if the students don’t understand the basics, they can’t really go anywhere from there. The assessments that I give the students are usually focused on smaller skills and understanding verses the big picture. For instance, I just assigned a compare and contrast essay between two characters from different texts, I assigned this because it will help them to work on their writing skills while making a connection between two tests and utilizing higher level thinking to make the comparisons. Additionally, the outside text is written by Maya Angelou, who is one of the motifs in the novel we are studying, so it helps the students to understand that concept better too. It seemed like a valid assignment to me, but not quite in alignment with the proposed thought process outlined in UBD.