Dr. Tricia Gallagher-Geurtsen received her doctoral degree in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University's Teachers College. Tricia was a bilingual public elementary school teacher and a migrant education teacher in California. Tricia presents and consults with K-12 teachers in workshops and in their classrooms, helping them to integrate research-based, flexible and engaging methods and strategies into their planning and teaching with the goals of:
- raising academic achievement for English Language Learners;
- making instruction more effective through Understanding by Design;
- increasing interest and relevance of social studies education;
- making the classroom more equitable for all learners.
As a teacher educator, Tricia has taught both preservice and inservice teachers methods and theory for teaching social studies, reading, science, integrated curriculum, English as a Second Language, and multicultural curriculum and teaching. She is the recipient of the 2003 American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Dissertation Award for Curriculum Studies and the 2003-2004 Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society Top Professor Award at Utah State University. Tricia writes and presents nationally about meeting the needs of diverse learners. Selected publications include Teaching English Language Learners: Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language Efforts published by Houghton Mifflin in 2009; Linguistic Privilege: Why educators should be concerned published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates in 2007; Instructor's Resource Manual to accompany Educational Foundations-- Diverse Perspectives published by Houghton Mifflin in 2009.
Backward Design 101: Effective Instructional Design (K-3, 3-6, or 7-12)
What's all the fuss about Backward Design? You've heard a lot about it, but what can it do for your classroom? This session will introduce teachers to the basics of Understanding by Design and why it is also called Backward Design. Teaching for real understanding that has lasting effects on our students is the goal of most educators. Understanding by Design is a set of ideas and practices that facilitate more effective and engaging learning for students. Teachers who use UbD when designing and teaching feel more confident that they know where they are going with their teaching and how they can get their students to that destination. Teachers will have the chance to think and talk about their particular course of study in terms of Big Ideas, Enduring Understandings, and Essential Questions and how UbD could revolutionize their thinking and planning of curriculum and instruction.
