Week 13 / Keystone Assignment

1.    Think back to your many experiences with well-designed learning, both in and out of school. What was the most well-designed learning experience you have ever encountered as a learner? What features of the design- not the teacher's style or your interests-made the learning so engaging and effective? (Design elements include challenges posed, sequence of activities, resources provided, assignments, assessments, groupings, site, and teacher's role.) Briefly describe the sign.

      From my experience, the most well designed learning experience I encountered was in undergraduate school while taking differential equations. The class was assigned to read a mathematical test to gauge understanding of the topic for the next lesson. When we came into class, the teacher would discuss the target goal of the day, present the class with a problem, and then have the class figure it out together. He would select a random student to come up on the board, kind of putting you on the spot. You would explain what you knew how to do, if you didn't know what to do then it wasn't a problem. The student would still remain in front of the class and your classmates would help to determine a solution. The only time the professor would actually teach material would be when none of the class knew what to do. He would guide us through the work but we basically taught ourselves and each other. It was a very student centered class and helped shy students participate more.

 2.    In sharing your recollections and analyses with your peers, build a list of generalizations that follow from the accounts. What do well-designed learning experiences have in common? In other words, what must be built in by design for any learning experience to be maximally effective and engaging for students. 

      In order for a learning experience to be well designed it must be student centered, have a target goal, have exploratory components, and most importantly assess understanding at multiple levels. In my school, we have DOK (Depth of Knowledge) questions. DOK 1 and 2 are very general and basic questions, DOK 3 and 4 get deeper into understanding. Any successful learning experience should result in students answering the DOK 3 and 4 questions correct and complete.

3.    Where in your school or the school that you are observing are the characteristics of best design most likely to be seen in action? In what programs and subject areas would we most expect to see these characteristics, compared with other programs or subjects? Are there any patterns, If so, why? 

      I believe that the Social Studies and Science classrooms have the most freedom to do many of these supports. Nowadays, the Math and ELA curriculum is so rigorous and teachers are given so little time to teach these curricula.  I know in middle school, the assessments (that rate us as teachers) are given in April. That leaves two more months of school after the state test! Social Studies and Science classes still have measures of student learning tests that need to be given but have more freedom with the curriculum. This allows the teachers to spend days, if not weeks on a single topic, tackling it from all angles and with different approaches.

4.    After a study of sample units, and one of your own designs, edit or amend your list of characteristics of the best designs, as appropriate.

      I feel that the best lesson designs stem from backward design. Lessons should contain some sort of technology as either a support or the main method of learning. Supporting ELL and IEP students is extremely important as learners are unique and differentiation is necessary. In addition every lesson should contain student choice, ICT's, formal and informal assessment, and questioning.

Keystone Assignment 

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