Activity: Plan and conduct a faculty staff development session.

Description: The faculty and staff spent a portion of the January in-service day learning
about unit planning through Backard Design. This professional development
opportunity as designed because it backard design is part of the pro!ect coach
evaluation model and teachers are have been asked to use the common core standards to
create literacy based units that have been planned used the backard design model.
Agenda for the Day:
Backard Design "ntroduction Poerpoint
#rade $evel Planning %sing Backard Design Template
- &oaches to assist and support planning
'hat ent ell(
The best part of this professional development as that the teachers came ith materials
and they ere ready to participate. " kne several eeks before e left for &hristmas
break that e ould be coming back from 'inter )acation to this professional
development opportunity. *ince " kne that this as coming+ " took the opportunity to
email the faculty to let them kno that they ould need to ork as a grade level on
gathering materials that they could use to begin planning a backard designed unit. 'e
spent the first part of the morning revieing the PoerPoint and the various elements that
go into a unit that is planned based on the backard design model. This as very
important and this ent very ell because there ere a lot of ,uestions especially about
the various kinds of ,uestions. -olloing the PoerPoint+ the teachers orked ith their
grade level teams to create the ne.t unit hile the coaches /math+ literacy+ and
instructional0 rotated to each grade level for support. This too ent very ell because it
alloed for grade levels to have open conversations and for ,uestions to be ansered.
'hat did not(
There simply is not enough time. 1ight hen grade levels started getting on a roll time
started running out. The momentum as there+ but the time as clicking aay. This as
a ma!or problem because " fear that some grade levels never ent back to finish hat
they had started even though they ere ell on their ay to something great2 There ere
also some teachers that continued to be negative about the entire process. 1egardless of
hat e said they simply did not understand hy you ould need to plan in this manner.
They ere very verbal and did not shy aay from telling their group that they thought
that this as a aste of time. "t got to the point that it as not orth the effort of trying
to change that person3s mind+ but rather refocus the rest of the group3s attention back on
the positive hich is ultimately hat happened.
#iven the chance to do it again+ ho ould you do it better(
'e needed to devote the entire day to this PD. 'e had other items on our agenda for the
day and there as simply too much. Teachers like to complete things and it really
bugged them that the unit as not completed. 'e also need to revie our group norms
prior to beginning the meeting to prevent negative comments. By revieing the norms
e can reinforce the idea that e are there to be professionals and comments need to be
made as a ay of helping us gro.
UNIT TITLE:
GRADE or COURSE:
Stage 1 Desired Result
Established Goals:
Commo Core Learig Stadards:
!ig Ideas: Essetial "uestios:
Cotet: S#ills:
Terms $ %o&abular':
Stage ( Assessmet E)ide&e
*er+orma&e Tas#: Other E)ide&e:
Stage , Learig *la
Uit *la Tem-late
Uit Title:
Tea&her ad se&tio:
Grade$Sub.e&t:
Legth ad timig o+ uit:
Stage 1 Desired Results
Established Goals$State Stadard/s0:
Uderstadig/s0$goals:
Big ideas (enduring understandings) - Students
will understand that
Essetial "uestio/s0:
Essential questions for each Big Idea (in
provocative, student-friendly language)
Studets 1ill #o1:
Knowledge and vocaulary needed to support
what
you want students to e ale to do
Studets 1ill be able to:
S!ills to e taught or reinforced, including haits
of "ind
Stage ( Assessmet E)ide&e
*er+orma&e Tas#/s0:
# perfor"ance tas! to assess student "astery
for"atively and su""atively, including an
e$e"plar of proficient student wor! and a scoring
ruric
Other E)ide&e:
Interi" assess"ents to chec! for understanding,
qui%%es, tests, student self-assess"ents
Stage , Learig *la234ERETO
# lesson-y-lesson instructional plan !eeping the following processes in "ind
&ay '(
&ay )(*etc*
+,+here we-re headed and why
.,.oo! and hold student-s attention
E,Equip students with what they need for success
/,/ethin!, reflect, and revise
E,Evaluate progress 0 self-assess
1,1ailor learning for differences a"ong students
2,2rgani%e for deep understanding