At P.S.56Q in Richmond Hill, NY, we have been actively participating in trainings around Understanding By Design (UbD). UbD is a framework that is based on the idea that setting instructional goals are considered first before choosing instructional methods and assessments. With this mindset, you begin your planning by figuring out, “what is it that I want my students to learn at the end of this unit?” Once you’ve determined the goal, you then begin to think backwards in identifying how to achieve that goal. The things that need to be understood/learned in order to achieve that goal essentially become your lessons and assessments. Ms. Nicola is a second-grade teacher at P.S.56Q and was happy to participate in this project.
I asked Ms. Nicola to present me with a lesson plan that she would typically use in her second-grade classroom. She decided on a math lesson. This is a lesson that she typically used prior to any UbD training or any introduction to UDL frameworks. She provided me with some feedback when she performed the lesson with her class and I offered some feedback to her upon reviewing the plan.
Upon our discussions and introducing Ms. Nicola to some UDL Frameworks, we agreed that, with the UbD mindset in planning, we would want to explore revising the lesson utilizing the UDL framework – 5E model to which she would re-teach the lesson.
Reflections
In planning and observing Ms. Nicola teach this lesson after revising it using the 5E framework and comparing them to her reflection notes when she first taught this lesson, the small changes we made in the lesson certainly helped with certain areas like engagement and exploration. The inclusion of technology allowed for some students, whom don’t normally participate, to silently participate. I observed many students who used the iPads do show their work during number talks using features like different colors and zooming in and out of their works. Most that used the iPad to do their work were most eager to share and explain their thinking in solving the number talk. Ms. Nicola also agreed that offering the option of the iPad. She also mentioned how she noticed more participation when offering for students to share their screen to show their work. Overall, we both found the implementation of the UbD mindset along with the 5E Framework allowed for exploration of more ideas and integration of technology.
