Chapter 2

Intro & Chapter 1 "Backward Design"

"To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination" (Covey,1989)

I wanted to start with this quotation that I found in the Introduction because it was kind of revealing for me, after reading it  I immediately  started thinking about my teaching and try to remember if I do this or not, then I continued with my reading and then something similar happened to me after this example of addressing the same topic through different subjects but with a different approach. I know that this is suggested in the curriculum in the Cross-curricular activities where we as teachers of English are supposed to connect the topics with other subjects, but what seems so simple in a real context is really difficult to achieve , and I realized that sometimes there are so many bureaucracy into our job that we forget about these kind of things that are supposed to be relevant to keep in mind but are harder than they look like. 
I must point out that the introduction as well as the first chapter were very pleasant to read because I think that the way in which the information is presented helps reader to reflect a lot about the topics. 
In my case it called my attention that despite the fact that some "good students" get good marks does not necessarily reflect that they understood that was taught, in the current educational system and due to the standardized test students are more used to just memorize contents but then they can be easily forgotten "if you don't use it you lose it" and I think that this is even more frequent than we can imagine. Students do not put into practice what they learn. 
In my teaching through these four years I have seen how students tend to be more engaged with the kind of assessments that are not the traditional test with multiple choices and true or false (closed questions), but they feel more willing to develop new activities, which is very positive in terms of motivation, but there is always the risk for teachers at the moment to design activities that can be fun or creative but not necessarily involving intellectual purpose, so in this sense we need to be very clear about what we want to assess and also to let our students know that it is expected from them in that way they won't feel confused or frustrated.