If you know where you are going, it doesn’t always follow that you also know how to get there. Understanding by Design (UbD) supports the first part of the statement: knowing where you are going. Its three-stage curriculum planning framework is useful as a general guide for identifying where to lead the students in terms of understanding what they are supposed to be learning.
In Stage 1: Desired Results, teachers think about what goals they would like their students to learn. They also jot down the “big ideas”, “essential questions”, and what students should know after the lesson.
When I design instruction or plan a lesson I always start with making a map of everything I know about the subject. The map below is an example of a map I made for algebraic expressions. I won’t call it a conceptual map because it’s only the left part of it (the ones in black text) which deals with the concept of algebraic expressions. Those at the right (in red texts) describe what I know about the requisites of good teaching of algebraic expressions including my knowledge about students’ misconceptions and difficulties in this topic. Maybe, I should just call this kind of map, PCK Map, for pedagogical content knowledge map.
Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Map for Algebraic Expressions
I find doing the PCK Map a useful exercise because it helps me link concepts, synthesize my teaching knowledge about the topic, not leave out important ideas in the course of the teaching and of course in planning the details of the lesson especially in the selection of activity/tasks and in framing questions for discussions. I also find it useful in evaluating my teaching of the unit.
There are two ways a PCK Map can be enriched: (1) use Google (alright, go to the library and see what experts think are important to cover in the topic, they’re also outlined in the Standard) and (2), after each lesson or at the end of the unit, write your new knowledge about the topic especially students misconceptions and difficulties and how it can be addressed next time.
Click this link to see a the lesson plan I made based on the PCK Map. The lesson is about teaching combining algebraic expressions via a mathematical investigation activity.
