Reflection on my Ubd Lesson

The process of creating this lesson forced me to thoroughly think through what it was that I wanted the students to know, what my priorities were, and the evidence that I needed to know that they had learned. Because of the nature of my class schedule, I had decided to modify a lesson that I was already in the middle of so that I could put the Ubd template to immediate use. The goals and understandings were essentially already part of my lesson plan. What was difficult was determining the essential questions and deciding on evidence that supports of them. The process made me realize that what I had originally designed was somewhat "activity-oriented" and involved some "coverage" aspects.

I mainly liked the process, as I believe that backward design makes a whole lot of sense. But making sure I covered all the bases also was time-consuming, and since I had already spent a great deal of time originally designing this lesson, that I didn't like. I also felt I had to go back and review and state the standards that applied: I had already cited their numbers originally, but I realized it would be more meaningful for everyone, especially me, if the standard statements were written out. That also was time-consuming, but valuable in the long run, I thought.

I intend to use this template as much as possible in the future because all lessons should begin with essential questions and a decision as to what should be learned.