Understanding by Design

What I liked:
1. This process really focuses on the student and the learning outcomes. As a teacher, it is easy to get wrapped up in covering a chapter/topic or creating a cool project. But UbD forces you to think about learning and design your lessons to maximize student understanding.
2. UbD encourages teachers to make connections within their lessons to other subjects and to real world situations. This type of learning is more meaningful and useful.
3. UbD encourages teachers to use their curriculum guides and content standards, rather than text books and teacher editions. I like the idea of planning in units to cover many standards in connected ways. But, this type of planning requires teachers to be very familiar with their subject, standards, and available materials. (It would be tough for a new teacher!)

What I didn't like:
1. It's a totally different process from what I was taught and what I do now. So, it took a lot of thinking and revising to create just one lesson. It's a very time consuming process. On the flip side, it can lead to a much higher quality of instruction. Also, I would assume that it gets easier as you utilize the format on a regular basis.
2. Some skills and topics do just need to be memorized. That doesn't mean that they aren't essential, important, or necessary in life.
3. Currently, the Kindergarten program in my district is half day, so I have limited time with both of my classes. Due to time constraints, I end up focusing on reading, math, and writing lessons, which my district (and I) consider to be the essential components of Kindergarten academic learning. Yet, I had a very hard time creating essential questions for the math and reading skills that I teach. I think this is because much of the skills are very basic (letter sound correspondence, number sense, etc.) and do require some memorization. I would appreciate any comments or feedback about how I could create better essential questions for these subject areas.

Additional Questions:

1. Different grade levels and subject areas require different teaching techniques. I think this design plan lends itself very nicely to social studies, literature, health, humanities, and some science lessons. It is a bit of a stretch to utilize it in some of the other discipline areas. I actually own the UbD book by Wiggins and McTighe. There are many examples of UbD lessons throughout the book, but very few for the younger grades or in the subject areas of reading and math. Have they considered revising this design plan to address these needs?

My UbD lesson:
(Please forgive me, but I couldn't figure out how to attach a document to my blog. So, I just pasted the whole thing here.)

Stage 1 – Identify Desired Results:

Established Goals:
Students will explore essential concepts about word patterns.
Students will utilize concepts about word patterns to develop their reading and writing abilities.

CCCS:
By the end of Kindergarten students will be able to:
3.1.B Demonstrate phonemic awareness by rhyming.
3.3.C Suggest rhyming words during word play, songs, or read-alouds.
3.4.A Listen to rhymes/songs to develop an understanding of letter/sound relationships.

Essential Understandings:
Many words contain patterns (or chunks) of similar letters.
Readers use patterns within words to help them with decoding, fluency, expression, and comprehension.

Essential Questions:
How do readers use patterns to help them with their reading skills?

Stage 2 – Determine Acceptable Evidence:

Performance Tasks:
Students create and present their own version of a nursery rhyme.

Other Evidence:
Skill Check - Identify rhyming words within the texts of several nursery rhymes.
Observation – Use letter tiles to spell groups of words that rhyme.
Discussion Prompt – Explain why some words rhyme and others do not.
Transfer – Read lists of words (real and nonsense) that contain previously learned rhyming patterns. Think of additional words and add them to these lists.

Stage 3 – Learning Activities:
W – Using a KWL chart, the teacher will record the reading strategies that students within the class already use in the K section of the graphic organizer. The teacher will then explain to the students that they are going to explore a new reading strategy called “using rhyming patterns”. This strategy will be listed in the W section of the graphic organizer. (At the conclusion of the unit, the teacher will record the new information that was learned by students during the unit in the L section of the graphic organizer.)
H – Students will listen to, echo read, act out, and retell a variety of nursery rhymes.
E – Students will be provided with their own copies of the nursery rhymes once they are familiar with the texts. The students will identify the rhyming words within the nursery rhymes. Students will use letter tiles to experiment with the words that rhyme. Students will discuss and verbalize the reasons that some words rhyme and others do not.
R - Students will be given lists of additional words (some real and some nonsense) that rhyme with some of the identified words from the nursery rhymes. They will be encouraged to use their previous experience with the words, as well as their understanding of rhyme, to decode the words. Students will also create their own list of words that rhyme with some of the identified words from the nursery rhymes.
E – Students will work with their list of rhyming words to create their own simple nursery rhymes.
T – Students will be able to work on their own nursery rhyme in groups of 1, 2, or 3 (depending upon personal interest, as well as ability). These groups will then choose to present their nursery rhyme through writing/illustration or speaking/role-playing.
O – This unit will be taught through whole group and small group work. Auditory, visual, and kinesthetic techniques will be used. The reading strategy learned in the unit will be referred to and practiced for the remainder of the school year (as well as in the other primary grades). It will also be utilized in writing/spelling lessons.