Weekly Investment #3

What is a plan and who are our learners?

The week's weekly investment explored the planning process for courses and how we connect material we aspire to teach to our learners.

We explored backward design in course planning, scaffolding, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Understanding by Design and other methods for instructional planning.

1) How do we plan for instruction?

Instruction is best planned for with the end result in mind. First, we must identify the desired results. With the result in mind to format an essential question.

Then, we must plan for assessment of learning. According to ASCD.org's Understanding by design there are six facets for understanding for assessments:

When someone truly understands, they:

• Can explain concepts, principles, and processes by putting it their own words, teaching it to others, justifying their answers, and showing their reasoning. 
• Can interpret by making sense of data, text, and experience through images, analogies, stories, and models. 
• Can apply by effectively using and adapting what they know in new and complex contexts. 
• Demonstrate perspective by seeing the big picture and recognizing different points of view. 
• Display empathy by perceiving sensitively and walking in someone else’s shoes. 
• Have self-knowledge by showing meta-cognitive awareness, using productive habits of mind, and reflecting on the meaning of the learning and experience.

The third and final part of the lesson planning process is planning the learning experiences and instruction. This seems odd to be the final step, but it makes sense. Many people see a really cool activity and want to incorporate it into the classroom in some fashion, and by doing this they create a lesson for that activity, not a meaningful activity for the lesson.

Keep in mind that while we lesson plan, we must first identify the destination before we attempt to select the route we will drive to get there.

2) What are the similarities between Significant Learning; Understanding by Design and the Universal Design for Learning?

The Universal Design for Learning is geared toward developing significant learning for unique learners to address the what, how, and why of the content they are learning. 

Understanding by Design is a three-step, backward design process which teachers utilize to develop significant learning. 

The two are different but not mutually exclusive. In fact, they overlap quite a bit and must both be used to design courses, units, and lessons for significant learning.

3) How you will incorporate the three pillars of Universal Design for Learning: multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression, and multiple means of engagement?

Multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement must be incorporated in your planning process. By incorporating these three pillars we break down barriers.

Incorporating multiple means of representation can happen in several ways. A specific example can include first, learning about a ruminant digestive system by discussing the function of each stomach, then looking at imagines of each stomach and inspecting their surface structures to correlate with their functions. In addition to pictures and discussion a teacher can incorporate a video, visit a farm with a cannulated cow, or ask a butcher for the digestive organs from ruminant animals. Through out the learning process students should be asked to recall vocabulary and functions for the various ruminant digestive parts. 

Multiple means of action and expression can be incorporated into lessons and plans in several ways, also. We aspire to allow students to choose from multiple options to express what they know and their levels of proficiency. This can look like allowing them to design a project to display their knowledge in a summative assessment, or simply asking a student open ended questions.

Multiple means of engagement is the most challenging pillar for me to comprehend how to incorporate. I understand that each student is unique and won't be intrinsically motivated to explore each topic or activity. Incorporating multiple means of engagement would mean allowing them more freedom to explore specific parts of a topic, once the basic knowledge and vocabulary have been captured. A specific example could look like a student learning the basic content of greenhouse management, but investigating the economic impacts of aphids in a greenhouse because economics and business models fire up that specific student. 

4) What is Scaffolding?

In education scaffolding means giving the students the support they need, in a positive interaction between the teacher and the student, to learn and utilize information you have given them. Scaffolding is how teachers get students to stretch, and reach the zone of proximal development.

We achieve scaffolding in a few steps. First, the teacher begins by teaching at a level the students can understand. Then, the teacher poses a problem out-loud of the students to process. Following the problem the teacher proposes a solution using action, images, and language.

This process is repeated and students are given positive reinforcement, regardless of their answer, to encourage participation. Through this repetition the students will grasp the new concepts, via scaffolding.