Chapter 9: Curriculum and Instruction Through the Lens of UbD and DI

Chapter 9 discusses the actual application of the backward design model. In order to proficiently explore the model, the chapter worked its way through the stages. It was really helpful to see the stages in completion and the way they fit together to create a unit through backwards design. In addition to providing the unit plan, the chapter goes on to discuss differentiating the unit. I found this to be extremely helpful as up until this point we have only looked at hypothetical differentiation. While it is evident that planning needs to occur in advance, I didn’t really stop to consider the ways I would apply differentiated instruction in the actual classroom, but assumed instead that this would merely happen naturally. However, this chapter suggests that the teacher must come up with countless methods of differentiating the classroom with the acceptance that many of the plans will never be put into action. Another interesting aspect of this chapter was that it provided the teacher’s final unit rather than the unit while in progress. This is significant as students will be exposed to the “real” unit rather than the unit as it is created. I enjoyed the chapter’s inclusion of countless methods of differentiating the classroom, whether working with students who have a difficulty comprehending text, or students whose native language is not English. In addition, there was a follow up of this information which explored the long term success of the student, as well as methods of helping those students if they continued to struggle. The chapter provided a list of expectations presumably present in a differentiated classroom, stating that teachers will in time learn to gauge the most important of the items and recognize whether it is problematic if a circumstance is not prevalent.