I am pretty organized person and teacher and my students know this as well. In fact, they enjoy moving my color coded folders around just to see my reaction (yes a little OCD). I guess it's pretty fun watching the portly Italian teacher jump around trying to reorganize the folders in record time.
When I first thought about implementing it, I thought the kids would not notice because I am already the best. JUST KIDDING! But seriously, I did not think it would have made a big difference to me or the kids. I was wrong.
I told the kids I was going to teach the lesson using a different tool for graduate school; they were pretty curious so they went along with it.
I wrote the essential question on the board and the difference was already noticed. The students were already engaged (maybe because it was just different or maybe because it got them thinking...either way it got them thinking!).
The lesson was very organized because it had the question on the board constantly reminding us what we were doing and why we were doing it. It also gave me a teachable moment? We started talking about how music is used to tell a story (using the Imperfect and Present Perfect) and that came back to our objective and essential question.
The core activity of listening to the song and then completing the cloze activity went really well. Also, I believe the kids enjoyed singing the catchy song; here, they were also practicing the key language feature without even knowing it.
I asked the kids at the end how they liked the lesson and they agreed that it was better organized. They also liked the discussion triggered by the essential question.
Trying new stuff is always a good thing in the classroom. I also realized that the kids appreciate being part of something new. They were more involved and engaged for the entire class. Way to go Joe...I mean...UBD!
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