- Jun 2024
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carla.umn.edu carla.umn.edu
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By designing the assessment first, you can now purposefully select structures and vocabulary that will help the students reach the learning goals you have set for the unit.
I have never done this before. I just taught them the text and assumed that they should know what I taught. All the quizzes and projects were designed after. But I think doing it backwards does make more sense that I will definitely try.
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You should narrow your focus to four to six goals that are interrelated, that reflect increased communication, greater cultural insights, and an understanding of the theme.
For younger students, I feel it's also hard to reflect greater cultural insight.
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With the Standards as a mindset, you can now select a theme. The theme has to reflect important learning—the theme has to be worth studying. It should address a “big idea” that has enduring value beyond the classroom
I do not quite get the idea here. We use a series of textbooks during our weekend Chinese school. Each lesson has a topic, for example, greeting, family, time, ... that includes either a dialogue or text related to the topic. In this case, how do you select a theme? Does it mean I should extend the topic beyond the text?
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Think beyond a vocabulary theme to an essential question: do you form opinions about people based on what they wear? Is what you wear a reflection of your personality? Do you stereotype people by their clothing styles? Would your characterizations of people based on what they wear be valid in another culture? A "big idea" might be responding to the question: "Does clothing tell a story?" You have now changed a vocabulary-based theme into an intriguing question to engage your students in meaningful communication. Exploring possible answers to the question connects the learning to the real world.
Even I love this point, I do have some concerns about it, especially this "clothing" topic. Such as do you form opinions about people based on what they wear? etc. Is this too personalized? Will such topic make the students uncomfortable?
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Now you need to articulate how Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities support the Communication goals.
I also had a hard time doing this. Because of the age of my students, most of them have very little interest. It's also difficult to me how to make the students' learning to be deepened.
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Think beyond a vocabulary theme to an essential question: do you form opinions about people based on what they wear? Is what you wear a reflection of your personality? Do you stereotype people by their clothing styles? Would your characterizations of people based on what they wear be valid in another culture? A "big idea" might be responding to the question: "Does clothing tell a story?" You have now changed a vocabulary-based theme into an intriguing question to engage your students in meaningful communication. Exploring possible answers to the question connects the learning to the real world.
I love this point a lot! But I have the same question as victoria_richter has. My students are in grades 5 and 6. But I think I will try it in the coming semester to see how it works.
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