ch. 9: Bringing It All Together: Curriculum and Instruction Through the Lens of UbD and DI

In this chapter, Tomlinson and McTighe described how the backwards planning and differentiation works together. As teachers we must identify, determine, plan, regard, address, view, use, employ, and gather. We have the tools, but we must learn how to employ them to the needs of all our students. Big ideas are important. They lead to the big picture, but if we don’t apply them properly so we assure that all our students learn. Tomlinson provided a performance task rubric so we have an example to go by. A performance task is something to keep track of throughout the whole unit. We must always start with a pre-assessment to diagnose what we need to cover in the lesson. I always like how my teachers came up with fun, interactive games to test us on what we know and what we need to learn. They pre-assessed us without having us know that we were even being tested. This way all the anxiety was lifted. From the pre-assessment we discover how we need to carry out a plan and with differentiation we realize how to help each individual. Tomlinson warned us about the two primary purposes, (1) ensuring maximum growth and (2) providing adequate flexibility. In these purposes we must think about the indicators of environment, curriculum, teacher, and learners. If all these indicators work together success will happen and we, as teachers will try to strive for success.