Have you ever used the ten design questions from Marzano? I used the ten design questions this year while creating my unit plan for my career exploration classes. This year, I am teaching reading lab and career exploration. I thought it would be a great idea to try out the questions this year, especially since my district is supporting the use of Marzano’s strategies. I found the questions in The New Art and Science of Teaching by Robert J. Marzano and I thought, how can make this school year better than last year? I want to focus on learning and challenging pieces of work. I began thinking: “How can a unit plan help me prepare students to be better learners and grasp the main ideas of a unit?”. Once I found this recommendation from Marzano, I began to work it out by myself. The ten design questions are to focus the teacher’s mind on the final product and the steps to getting students to the product.
“A Well-Articulated Continuum of Knowledge”
The first six questions are considered the heart of the unit plan. According to Marzano: “…students will progress through a well-articulate continuum of knowledge that is integrated with the knowledge addressed in other unit” (109). In Marzano’s book, he lists six design areas for daily activities. They include:
- Design area 1: Activities that provide and communicate clear learning goals
- Design area 2: Assessment activities
- Design area 3: Direct instruction lessons
- Design area 4: Practicing and deepening lessons
- Design area 5: Knowledge application lessons
- Design area 6: Strategies used in all lessons
| Design Question 1 | How will I communicate clear learning goals that help students understand the progression of knowledge they are expected to master and where they are along that progression? |
| Design Question 2 | How will I design and administer assessments that help students understand how their test scores and grades are related to their status on the progression of knowledge they are expected to master? |
| Design Question 3 | When content is new, how will I design and deliver direct instruction lessons that help students understand which parts are important and how the parts fit together? |
| Design Question 4 | After presenting content, how will I design and deliver lessons that help students deepen their understanding and develop fluency in skills and processes? |
| Design Question 5 | After presenting content, how will I design and deliver lessons that help students to generate and defend claims through knowledge application? |
| Design Question 6 | Throughout all types of lessons, what strategies will I use to help students continually integrate new knowledge with old knowledge and revise their understanding accordingly? |
The first step I took was to print a copy of a school year calendar. At the top of the calendar, I wrote the units that I am supposed to cover from the pacing guide. For each week of the calendar, I wrote the lessons I was expecting to teach and then I began working on the design questions.
D.Q. # 1. I wrote that I will verbally state the clear learning goals along with writing the goal on the board. Students copy the learning goal from the board as their bell work daily. I will restate the learning goals throughout the lesson and check for understanding using the thumbs up/down strategy.
D.Q.#2. I will design assessments that include short constructed responses, proficiency scales (rubric), student demonstrations, and observations of students. For smaller daily assessments, students will write answers on an exit slip. For more formal assessments, I will use strategies such as read, write, discuss, and revise. I will provide a proficiency scale and have students write their answers on paper. I will use the proficiency scale to grade the revised portion of the activity. In career exploration, students must demonstrate their knowledge and skills. For example, students can demonstrate their knowledge of keeping a planner by using a planner for two weeks and keeping all events or homework up to date. Another example is demonstrating completing an application independently. Observations of students are completed daily when students talk to their elbow partners. I walk around and listen to students discuss the learning goal and make sure that they are on target.
D. Q.#3. When giving direct instruction, my goal is to introduce the main points of the lesson before allowing students to work in small groups. I give students a preassessment and use the data to prepare the lesson in small chunks. Students will complete many think-pair-shares, where I ask a question and students talk to their elbow partners to create answers to the question. During this stage, I will also use outlines, summaries, and graphic organizers.
D. Q. #4. After presenting the content, I will use the modeling strategy, have students engage in fluency practice, and incorporated guided practice. I like to find articles that are within a grade level and have students annotate the articles. Then I have the students talk to their elbow partner and finally, we discuss it as a whole class. The article provides added support and fluency practice to the students. Students understand better when they have an extra text that supports the lesson.
D.Q. #5. I will use problem-solving, decision-making, and student-designed tasks to help students generate and defend claims.
*Note-I used this strategy this week and students were able to increase their knowledge and grade through these strategies. Career exploration is about problem-solving and making life decisions. Students are able to think independently and critically about their future using these strategies.
D. Q. #6. I plan to use informational hooks, bell ringers, preview questions, and K-W-L strategies to connect past lessons to new content. During this time, if students need to revise their work, I can assist them to make corrections.
“The Mental Context for Learning”
Design questions 7-10 focus on engagement, classroom management, and high expectations. According to Marzano, “…the daily reminder asks teachers to keep specific students in mind who might require special attention” (110). These questions direct teachers to the “mental context for learning” and they are created to work all together to have a meaningful learning experience.
| Design Question 7 | What engagement strategies will I use to help students pay attention, be energized, be intrigued, and be inspired? |
| Design Question 8 | What strategies will I use to help students understand and follow rules and procedures? |
| Design Question 9 | What strategies will I use to help students feel welcome, accepted, and valued? |
| Design Question 10 | What strategies will I use to help typically reluctant students feel valued and comfortable interacting with me or their peers? |
D.Q. #7. I like to use random names frequently within my class because I can hear from every student versus calling on the same student. I plan to use hand signals, wait time, parking lot, and movie clips to engage students in the learning process.
D.Q. #8. I have implemented explaining rules and procedures to the students, generating rules and procedures with students, posting rules around the room, modeling with vignettes and role-playing. I use a series of graduated actions-first I make eye contact, I stand right next to the student and then talk to the student privately.
D. Q. #9. I love to greet the students at the door and I will continue to do that, along with attending after-school functions. This year, I created a photo bulletin with students’ photos from last year and I offered the new students to bring in a poster from home to post on the bulletin board. I have a huge binder with students’ background surveys, learning styles, and learning preferences. The binder is to review student information when needed.
D. Q. #10. The strategies I plan to use often are using nonverbal and verbal indicators of respect, response opportunities, evidence, and support for student answers, encouragement and wait time. I have methodically used these strategies this year and have witnessed positive results. For instance, my nonverbal and verbal indicators of respect can be a private thumbs up when a student is doing well. When a reluctant student is beginning to work, I may give the student a smile of approval.
At the beginning of this school year, I decided to produce better learning goals and continue to work on my classroom management. The ten design questions assist teachers with planning a unit with a goal in mind. I have witnessed success in answering the ten questions because it keeps me focused on the learning goal and how to engage with the students. I suggest every teacher review the ten questions and see if their unit planning helps them become more focus.
After you answer the ten design questions, tell me your experience in the comment section below.
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