We had our assessment on explorers today. I coarsely looked through them, but was fairly pleased with the result. The questions that were missed tended to be those that required some close reading of the question (exp: "where did Columbus BELIEVE he reached?") or the text (religious beliefs). I haven't even thought about the writing yet, but I'm hopeful.
Coming up next we are traveling to the early colonies. What is a colony? What was colonial life like? I sat down and mapped out my outcomes for the unit. What I need to look at is the list of reading gle's I want to hit, and how I am going to accomplish that. Comparing and contrasting will be one of the main things, as the various colonies are detailed in the text. Since we've done that once, I'll be excited to see the next round come a bit easier.
So do you normally start with the GLEs and EALRs? What do you think of backward design? BTW, I am the anonymous on the other comments. I was not logged in to Blogger. Sorry about that! I am doing a thematic unit on the colonies and my essential understanding is that the price of freedom (religous or otherwise) was high. I want to do a colonial simulation that lets the students know that colonial life was not always about the Thanksgiving dinner.
ReplyDeleteAt UWB we learned to use Wiggins/McTighe's (sp?) backwards design. I think it makes sense, as you want to know what it is that you want kids to know so that you can teach it effectively. I start with a combination of the GLE's and my assessment. What is it that the kids are going to see in the end, and then work backwards to how you are going to teach it. How will you work in your reading, writing, etc?
ReplyDeleteWith regards to your essential understanding, you'll need to unpack freedom as well as the notion of price. How will you assess that they have come to that understanding?
Did you really need to add another step to an already daunting project? Just kidding!!! Thanks for letting me know. I would have never even thought of that. I am working on the simulation now and am getting an idea for how I will assess these ideas.
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