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I chose a science unit called BioBlitz, from the 5th grade curriculum. This is a unit we are currently working on in class, which covers topics such as biodiversity in ecosystems, interactions between living and nonliving things, the flow of energy between organisms, and how factors can have an impact on ecosystems and their natural flow. Since we are currently working on this unit, I thought choosing this unit to reflect on would be beneficial because I can reflect as I go, and apply any changes into my UBD Template. While going through this lesson currently, I found that while the curriculum had a lot of great resources, it was very "textbook" type material, and I want something more learner centered. I want students exploring on their own. I want them to take their own paths, rather than just giving them the materials with answers. I have even been able to apply some of these changes into my teaching this year as I have gone, because this activity allowed me to think about it beforehand. One of the activities I added, was a hands on BioBlitz of our schoolyard. Students got to go outside, and explore, and observe the biodiversity of our schoolyard. They recorded anything they found, and tried to label it correctly. Another activity I added, was a homework assignment which has students Bioblitz their area at home. Then they came in, and we discussed and compared all the findings at their different homes. These activities made the learning much more engaging for kids. Another activity I added, was the Jigsaw activity, that had students become experts on one classification (for example, invertebrates), and then they taught the rest of the class. The curriculum had students using a worksheet and a reading, to just read and record information. This seemed boring, and too much work. Kids learning from each other can be so much more beneficial. These activities ultimately are much better for the ultimate assessment at end of the unit, which asks them to come up with a plan to help improve or maintain the biodiversity in our school yard. The UBD process helps set kids up for success, rather than just give them learning activities and assessments that are just busy work. It gives them experiences which  are meaningful to them, and gives them a final assessment which actually benefits their local community.  

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I chose a science unit called BioBlitz, from the 5th grade curriculum. This is a unit we are currently working on in class, which covers topics such as biodiversity in ecosystems, interactions between living and nonliving things, the flow of energy between organisms, and how factors can have an impact on ecosystems and their natural flow. Since we are currently working on this unit, I thought choosing this unit to reflect on would be beneficial because I can reflect as I go, and apply any changes into my UBD Template. While going through this lesson currently, I found that while the curriculum had a lot of great resources, it was very "textbook" type material, and I want something more learner centered. I want students exploring on their own. I want them to take their own paths, rather than just giving them the materials with answers. I have even been able to apply some of these changes into my teaching this year as I have gone, because this activity allowed me to think about it beforehand. One of the activities I added, was a hands on BioBlitz of our schoolyard. Students got to go outside, and explore, and observe the biodiversity of our schoolyard. They recorded anything they found, and tried to label it correctly. Another activity I added, was a homework assignment which has students Bioblitz their area at home. Then they came in, and we discussed and compared all the findings at their different homes. These activities made the learning much more engaging for kids. Another activity I added, was the Jigsaw activity, that had students become experts on one classification (for example, invertebrates), and then they taught the rest of the class. The curriculum had students using a worksheet and a reading, to just read and record information. This seemed boring, and too much work. Kids learning from each other can be so much more beneficial. These activities ultimately are much better for the ultimate assessment at end of the unit, which asks them to come up with a plan to help improve or maintain the biodiversity in our school yard. The UBD process helps set kids up for success, rather than just give them learning activities and assessments that are just busy work. It gives them experiences which  are meaningful to them, and gives them a final assessment which actually benefits their local community.  

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I used a unit I have been working on for several weeks. In art we are encouraged to work backwards in our planning, since we don’t have pre-determined lessons. I am always thinking of the art part for enduring understandings and essential questions. So normally, I would have known that I wanted students to create a painting of a bird and used the art John James Audubon for our reference. I would have planned the sketchbook bird watch for the lessons leading up to the painting. After listening to many of the UbD videos, I added the Earth Day piece and made my questions more broad. I think the students really made a big connection from the past to the present. And I think they also made a connection that art can make a statement in the school community. Their art is amazing this year because it is more personal.

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I revised a series of lessons in an introductory unit on counting. Improving this unit prompted me to give more thought to the objects that I could use for counting that would be more interesting than blocks, like Happy Meal toys, erasers, and milk caps. I also added exploring  with the manipulatives prior to counting to limit off-task behavior.  Using UbD gave an opportunity for intentional thought to my students ability to process new concepts and organize ideas. I was purposeful in considering options for anticipating individual student needs, and planning ahead for options if increased need arises. I find the pre-planning valuable towards the work for greater student success.

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I chose to modify a portion of the grade 5 unit 4 curriculum, specifically lessons 6-9. The purpose of the lessons are to develop an understanding of theme and tone and how illustrations contribute to these two elements of a story. Before applying the UbD process, the activities proposed in the lesson were procedural and were less than engaging. Students were assessed through long written responses in each lesson. After revising the series of lesson using the UbD process, students' learning will be much more enhanced. I decided to incorporate more collaborative work and engaging formative assessments so I can quickly assess students' understanding throughout the lesson. I improved the checkpoint of the unit by increasing the rigor and focusing the assignment on the targeted standards. Using the UbD process helped me to better focus my lesson planning on the end goal and the standards and goals that my students need to achieve. It allowed me to remove the unnecessary components of lessons and better assess my students learning regarding targeted standards.

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This ELA unit focuses on how culture affects individuals, specifically the main character, Esperanze, in the book The House on Mango Street. For the end-of-unit assessment, students must write an argumentative essay in which they write about how culture either positively or negatively impacted Esperanza’s life. The supporting texts for this unit include the poem Legacies¸ by Nikki Giovanni, Our Daughter, by author Sandra Cisneros, an excerpt from Sandra Cisneros’ biography and an excerpt from Marianismo and Machismo. I decided to remove the Nikki Giovanni poem as it did not provide an example of Latin American culture like the rest of the supporting texts nor is the poem referenced in any future lessons. Throughout the unit, students perform smaller writing tasks leading up to the assessment, which I have left intact. However, I have changed many of the suggested note taking methods to be more learner-centered and have introduced arguments earlier in the unit to give students more time to prepare for the final task.  Using the UbD process enabled me to omit activities that would have only confused the students and streamline the learning, leaving me more time for small group activities and enrichment. It also gave me time to think through how I can deliver more learner-centered instruction and activities so that all learners have a chance at successfully completing the final task.

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I chose to review my Spanish 2 Unit 2 unit, which is titled "My Memories." This Unit covers a lot of vocabulary, and two verb tenses. The purpose of the unit is for students to build their vocabulary, and develop and understanding of the imperfect and present verb tenses. Previously in this unit, I focus on the vocabulary and verb tenses, but after modifying, I found I focused more on the students' abilities to compare their childhoods to their current lives. When I was more focused on the students' accuracy of the verb conjugations and correct use of vocabulary, I was less focused on their understanding of the differences between the two verb tenses. By incorporating more comparison throughout the unit, I can focus more on this, and less on their accuracy. In language we focus most on what the students can do, and not what they cannot do. So by focusing more on their ability to compare, I stopped focusing so much on what they couldn't do, but what they could. I also added a project to my unit, that would allow students to compare their childhoods to their current lives, which will also demonstrate their understanding of the vocabulary and the verb tenses. Overall, the UbD process allowed me to step back and see what I really needed to focus on.

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I chose to review my Japanese inspired Notan project that I teach to 8th grade. Art has always considered backwards mapping when planning units. It's much easier to have the end in mind when developing ideas, in our case it's that end goal is always the final product. I have taught the Japanese design concept of Notan in the past, but never considered the idea of personalizing until this year. The part that I chose to edit for my UbD unit plan was that aspect of it, not only does it make it final products more interesting, but it also boosts student engagement. I also implemented the use of vocabulary review. I thought it would be interesting if I considered adding some sort of Nearpod or other online activity where I can check for understanding.

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The unit I chose to rework was 4th grade math, unit two which works on strategies for multiplication. Before it was mostly teacher led. I taught the strategies, they did them and we moved on. They had the choice of which one to use on the assessment but they never had to explain why the strategy worked for them or had to collaborate with classmates. When I went back through I knew my goal was to have the students solve a problem using a strategy of their choice. I wanted to introduce them to all of the concepts but I also knew the importance of student choice and student collaboration. I started by changing the activities to more student led. I still need to do the initial teaching but after students are experts they can help their classmates out. This collaboration also encourages students to want to become experts and being able to explains something to a classmate shows mastery. In addition, I added student choice to assessment. I will be able to prove their understanding through any of the assessments.

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I chose to do my Spanish 2 Unit 3 unit, titled "My healthy life". I just completed this unit with my students so I thought it would be the best one to reflect on. This unit holds a lot of vocabulary the students should know from Spanish 1 (such as food, etc.) but it focused on expanding what they already knew into how to live a healthy life. The purpose for this unit is to reinforce a healthy lifestyle, not just through the food they eat but through their daily actions as well. They learned about healthy activities/ways to reduce stress, and the importance of working out. Reflecting on this unit I was able to change some of their activities during their unit, I realized I held some of my students to high expectations with their prior knowledge and not all of my students met that mark. Some of them did not have the prior knowledge I was looking for and I did not adjust my plans accordingly. The students read a few infographics and educational articles (in Spanish) about healthy foods/life choices and they had a mini group project in which they had to create an advertisement with one excuse and list at least 5 ways around it. For their assessments they used the curriculum given Mid-Unit and Final IPA along with another project of creating an exercise video. After reviewing this unit I have been able to add in a couple of activities that will aid my students who do not have as much prior knowledge. This will help give them a stronger foundation and can help up move a little faster in the beginning of the unit while still keeping a high comprehension rate. The UbD process helped me to understand how I can individualize my instruction more during this unit to optimize participation and motivation.

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I chose to do my 5th grade Science Unit on Earth Systems. It is the unit we just finished and I thought it would be beneficial to reflect back on this unit. The purpose of this unit is to have students understand the four spheres of Earth and how they interact with one another. The part of the unit I chose to change was the delivery of the information. I did both of the performance tasks with my students, and they were successful. But I think the teaching of the content could've been more learner-centered. My students relied a lot on me presenting the material, and using our textbook (online workbook) to find the information. I decided moving forward to kind of flip my classroom for the upcoming units (and have my students complete the textbook readings and lectures for homework) so we can focus on performance tasks and hands-on activities in class. I would change the way I delivered the content for this unit. I would allow them more opportunities to figure out the information by providing more hands-on activities and engaging activities. I would talk less and have my students share more. By using the UbD framework,  I was able to easily adjust my teaching practices to make sure that my performance tasks were the most important part of my lessons.

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For this assignment, I selected the fourth grade ELA unit 3 called "Taking a Stand". In this unit students are required to integrate information from multiple sources in order to develop info-graphics and opinions on social topics. Originally this unit was more centered around teacher led lecturing and modeling. The research and opinion assignments were also based on very specific topics, which really didn't allow children to become fully engaged and motivated in their own learning. After applying the UbD process to this series of lessons, I feel that I was able to better align lessons with the unit's formative assessments. By starting with the end in mind, I was able to strategically determine what other skills would be necessary for students acquire before taking on such big tasks. One of the tasks that I added was an exploration of text structure and author's purpose. Something that will better prepare them for the creation of their own info-graphics that will need to communicate information clearly in an organized way. Another addition to this unit, was the exploration of the essential questions and the "I Can" statements. Students are more motivated when they know what they are working towards. Throughout a unit of study we will revisit the "I Can" statements as we master each one. The final change that I made was in the social topic that students are able to research. Instead of pre selecting a topic I felt that it would be more student centered if learners were able to select a topic of their choice. Going through the UbD process has helped me to understand how important it is to begin with the end in mind. Its an effective and relatively easy way to individualize, align, and provide meaningful learning experiences to students. Going forward I will definitely be utilizing this process before starting a unit and developing lessons.

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For this task I looked the lessons in the fourth grade ELA Unit called A Life in Stories: An Author Study of Kate DiCamillio. Through out the unit the students are asked to complete short focused research in order to draw connections between authors and their stories. This particular unit was actually one of the better designed ones. However, in planning this unit and after reviewing and revamping my teammates and I did rework or rearrange the sequence of some of the lessons. Oftentimes, the placement of a checkpoint assignment is just before a culminating event. This is too late in the unit to be a true "checkpoint." In order to give students opportunities to demonstrate understanding and practice skills independently and receive feedback, we try to move checkpoint activities toward the middle of the unit. This also helps better prepare students for their final assessment, the culminating event. Also, by planning with end product in mind and sharing this information with students they are more engaged during their literature circles through out the unit, knowing they will be held accountable by using that information later in a project or presentation. In order to prepare for this checkpoint- a research task- one of the lessons we added (and I will spend more time on next time)was reading with a question in mind and note taking. Many students did not have prior research skills so it was difficult for them to make connections between the author and the text as they did not have quality information about the author's life. Re-planning this unit using UbD helped me remember how planning with the end in mind helps set students up to be more independently successful. It also helps me plan for opportunities to differentiate and provide meaningful, individualized experiences for students along the way rather than simply providing multiple means of representation for the culminating event. We have been using back-mapping to plan our most recent units. I definitely see myself continuing to use the UbD template and process throughout lesson planning.