Wiggins Chapter 1

When we talk about designing in education, many teachers can agree on the difficultness that it implies. To design is the basis of our profession but unfortunately, the most affected one. The reasons, the lack of ideas that tells you how to do it, which procedures to use or in what should we focus on. In the first chapter of understanding by design, Wiggins gives you the parameters to start this designing. The most important statement in this chapter is the fact that teachers should design backwards. For this reason, Chapter 1 gives you the guide to do it well.

One of the important points that Wiggins presents in his book is the error that teachers do when designing. Many teachers believe that while more entertaining is the activity, the more students learn. However, this perception is hardly correct. In fact, many of these activities are in need of a real purpose. Children can be connected completely with the activity for almost the whole class. Unfortunately, looking this “connection or engagement” forward, it is strictly up in the air. It means that it is nothing that brings the activity down to earth. Another common mistake is the misunderstanding of the “Coverage” concept. Teachers are used to talk about coverage indicating that they have seen a certain amount of lessons; however, it does not imply an understanding of anything.

Afterwards, we found the stages of backward design. The first stage is the identification of the target results. what implies all the knowledge that, you want your students will be able to do and performance. Next, we found the determination of acceptable evidence. Here is what teachers will accept to say if students achieve or understood what was taught. Finally, there is the planning of the learning experiences and instructions: the clearness, the understanding and precision of the question to use. The importance of these stages is that they allow you to structure a well backward design, thus, making easier the process of design.

It is important to highlight why backward design is a fact of discussion for teachers. Wiggins explain to us that it is necessary to do this process because it helps teachers to maximize students’ knowledge but more, it lets you to make learning more effective. Finally, it is essential to put under spot the fact that teachers need to focus more on the purpose of the unit and each activity, instead of the methodology itself. It is more worthy to pay attention to what you think is more significant students know more than the how.