Chapter 9: Bringing it all Together: Curriculum and Instruction through the Lens of UBD and DI

This chapter re-outlined the goals of understanding by design and differentiated instruction at the beginning. It then gave an example of a lesson plan using the backwards design model to show what instructional planning might look like. This type of planning focuses on goal clarity and flexibility of the methods used to arrive at that goal. After, it described about how to differentiate to fit the instruction to the learners. It stated that differentiate instruction is more fluid, I guess that fits with the need to be flexible. While teaching a differentiated lesson it is important to work in the reverse way than the backwards design model. Where as you would start at the goals and work to the activities in UbD, while teaching a teacher has to consider where the students are already and work towards the goal. It then gave several examples of differentiated parts of a lesson. The chapter closed with a list of indicators that would show in a classroom that uses these two methods. This affects me as a teacher by reiterating and showing in a concise list all the things I have read about in the book. The main points that I took from this is always keep the goal in mind and in the minds of the students and be flexible. This affects my students by being in an environment with a curriculum and a teacher that all promote learning.