This book teaches a method of thinking about what is desired outcome with an educator’s purpose of teaching. In order for an educator to be clear on what he/she sought, and what they gained after the lesson, we also need to be specific on what the desired results.” Only by having specified the results can we focus the content, methods, and activities is most likely to achieve those results” (Mc Tighe & Wiggins, 2005, p. 15).

Begin with the end of the mind, is a straightforward and yet fascinating concept to me. Mc Tighe & Wiggins (2003) Lessons and units should be logically aligned from the results sought, it should not be designed from books or any methodology because it is easy. In Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe argue that backward design is focused primarily on student learning and understanding. When teachers are designing lessons, units, or courses, they often focus on the activities and instruction rather than the outputs of the instruction. Therefore, it can be stated that teachers often focus more on teaching rather than learning. This perspective can lead to the misconception that learning is an activity when, in fact, learning is derived from a careful consideration of the meaning of the activity (Bowen 2003).

 Figure 1.1 Ubd: Stages of Backward Design (McTighe & Wiggins, 2005, p. 18)

Bowen (2017) mentioned that backward design is an effective way of providing guidance for instruction and designing lessons, units, and courses. Once the learning goals, or desired results, have been identified, instructors will have an easier time developing assessments and instruction around grounded learning outcomes. My end purpose of having my student are to create their own websites and learn to code them, Please find my backward best design for my Computer Science class: Unit 2: Web Development.

My Ubd Design:

Going through each planning process(Finks’ 3-column table and McTighe&Wiggins’ Ubd) have given me the tools I need to help me create a significant learning environment for my students. Finks’ 3-column table see a bigger picture such human dimension and how the learner learns, each kind of learning can stimulate the other kinds of learning. On the other hand, the UbD method helps me to be specific and precise on how I will guide my student to understand the learning. I would definitely use both and hope that with the use of these fascinating tools I will be able to create a significant learning environment for my student’s success as well as the promotion of my Computer Science classes.

References:

Bowen, R. S.  (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design

Fink, L. D. (2003). Self-directed guide to designing courses for significant learning. Jossey-Bass

McTighe, J. &Wiggins, G. P. (2005). Understanding by design. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

UCF. (2020, July 9). Why everyone should learn HTML and CSS: UCF boot camp blog.     UCF Boot Camps. https://bootcamp.ce.ucf.edu/blog/why-everyone-should-learn-html-css/.