Understanding by Design - Chapter 1

"Our lessons, units, and courses should be logically inferred from the results sought, not derived from the methods, books, and activities with which we are most comfortable"

- Sometimes we, as teachers, just do a lesson because we did it last year and we like it and the kids liked it. Well, that's all great but does this lesson have a purpose?

I feel that with only so few hours a day to teach, I really have to make sure everything I do has a purpose.

"Too many teachers focus on the teaching and not on the learning"

- Teaching does not equal learning. I sometimes wish it did but id does not. The fact that I teach a lesson does not mean that students learned the material. I have to have something in place to check for understanding and then go from there - either moving on or going back and figuring out a different way to teach it.

"Content-focused design instead of result-focused design"

- Do we want to get through the content or do we want to understand and it?

"Hand on without being minds-on"

- Hand on activities are great but we have to make sure that "mind are on" at the same time. I admit that I have done activities that were just hands on. Oh well, it happens. But I won't do the same activity again without figuring out how to get the mind involved also.

"Engagement is necessary, but not sufficient, as an end result."

- Of course students have to pay attention and be engaged in order for learning to take place. But a lesson that is just fun and exciting without having any purpose is not going to improve their understanding.

"Routinely using the template and design tools, users will likely develop mental template of key ideas presented in this book"