The Understanding by Design Handbook - McTighe and Wiggins
The curriculum course I'm taking this semester is based on The Understanding by Design Handbook by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. The book presents a system for curriculum design. The system is a form of top-down design, starting with determining understandings to be reached by the students. Next, performances of those understandings are planned, and finally instruction and indvidual lessons.
Starting my planning with a larger understanding is a new idea for me. I've been finding it easy to get trapped in a 'what I am going to do with them for 45 minutes tomorrow?' mentality. 'What do I want them to come away with and how can I use those 45 minutes to get them there?' is a must better starting place.
As much as a like the overall concept, however, I have my doubts about the specific structure. The worksheet approach is not a good fit for the way I do my planning, and the same thought process will not work for every type of unit. Sometimes I start from a technology big idea 'I want my students to understand how a computer program is made up of individual instructions, carried out in order', but sometimes I start my lesson planning with a list of mundane skills. 'Before my fifth grade can create digital Greek myths for social studies, they need to understand how animation works.' Animation isn't a big understanding to carry them through life, it is a skill.
Still, this reading (and this class) have inspired me to re-do my calendars and charts and really think about where my classes are headed and how I want to get there.