THINK PAIR SHARE Think about what large ring means. Examples? Exchange thoughts with a partner. Share in large group. Repeat with rings 2 and then 3.

STAGE 1. IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS WORTH BEING FAMILIAR WITH: Since we cannot cover all areas, the largest ring represents knowledge that the students will hear, read, view, research or encounter.

STAGE 1. IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS IMPORTANT KNOWLEDGE/ SKILLS These are the facts, concepts and principals,processes, strategies and methods that are essential for mastery of the course.

IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: “big” ideas that anchor a course. -what they will remember when many details are forgotten

IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS FOUR CRITERIA FOR SELECTION: 1.To what extent does the idea, topic, process represent a “big idea” having enduring value beyond the classroom? “linchpin idea” Is this worth an adult’s knowing it?

IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS 2. To what extent does the idea, topic or process reside at the heart of the discipline? Will this involve an authentic learning situation? 3. To what extent does the idea, topic or process require uncoverage? What concepts do students have trouble grasping?

IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS 4.To what extent does the idea, topic or process offer potential for engaging students? Can we frame this in ways that provoke and connect to students’ interests (as questions, issues or problems) so that they will become engaged in sustained learning?

STAGE 2. DETERMINE ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE When planning to collect evidence of understanding, teachers should consider a range of assessment methods. (1.3, 1.4 & 1.5) Assessment of understanding involves a range of evidence over time rather than a single event. (test, project) Our unit or course will be anchored by performance tasks or projects.

STAGE 3: PLAN LEARNING EXPERIENCES KEY QUESTIONS: What enabling knowledge and skills will students need to perform effectively and achieve desired results? What activities will equip students with the needed knowledge and skills? What will need to be taught and how to achieve performance goals? What materials and resources are best suited? Is the design coherent and effective? (1.6)

WHAT SHOULD BE UNCOVERED? Complex, abstract and counterintuitive ideas Examples? students are involved in active questioning and practice to try out ideas and rethink what they thought they already knew Examples?

WHAT SHOULD BE UNCOVERED? HOW? Educators need to know what will need to be uncovered from the students’ point of view. We will need to go beyond most textbooks to bring important issues to life. Students must believe topic is worth uncovering.

FOCUSING ON PRIORITIES What knowledge is worth understanding - worth spending time on to uncover? What kind of achievement target is understanding and how does it differ from other targets or standards? What are matters of understanding in any achievement target? How does an educator identify or select the understanding element embedded or contained in any complex achievement target, such as ministry documents?

What knowledge is worth understanding? Enduring At the heart of the discipline Needing uncoverage Potentially engaging 3 degrees of specificity in program guidelines: topical statements general understandings specific understandings

understanding What kind of achievement target is understanding and how does it differ from other targets or standards? Students are able to use knowledge and/or skills in sophisticated, flexible ways. Students need to make conscious sense and apt use of the knowledge they are learning and the principles underlying it. Students have made links between facts/skill and can apply it in context. Students can apply this knowledge in authentic situations.

What are matters of understanding in any achievement target? What conceptual or theoretical elements might lie within any objective? Example: persuasive writing? Other examples?

What curricular elements are best suited for enduring understanding? Principles, laws, theories or concepts that are meaningful to students counterintuitive, nuanced, subtle or easily misunderstood ideas Conceptual or strategic element of any skill- what works, what doesn’t and why?

QUESTIONS GROUP WORK: Half of the group answer question 1; other half answer question 2 and be prepared to share major points of discussion. 1.What is the role of questions in traditional curriculum? 2.How is this role different in backwards design?

ESSENTIAL AND UNIT QUESTIONS ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS go to the heart of a discipline recur naturally throughout one’s learning and in the history of the field raise other important questions UNIT QUESTIONS provide subject and topic doorways to essential questions have no obvious right answer are deliberately framed to provoke and sustain student interest

ENTRY POINT QUESTIONS Four Criteria: framed for maximum simplicity worded in student friendly language provoke discussions and questions point towards larger essential and unit questions

WHAT CAN PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY REALLY UNDERSTAND? Can explain: Can interpret: Can apply: Have perspective: Can empathize: Have self-knowledge:

SIX FACETS OF UNDERSTANDING EXPLANATION INTERPRETATION APPLICATION PERSPECTIVE EMPATHY SELF-KNOWLEDGE

EXPLANATION definition: sophisticated and apt explanations and theories, which provide knowledgeable and justified accounts of events, actions and ideas includes knowledge of why and how and warranted opinions Examples: Questions: Why is that so? What explains these events? How can we prove it? How does this work? What is implied? To what is this connected? How?

WHAT ARE THE INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS? 5 “W” questions use unit and essential questions that demand student theories and explanations explain not just recall link facts to big ideas justify connections show their work, multiple solutions support conclusions

INTERPRETATION definition: interpretations, narratives and translations that provide meaning interpret, translate, make sense of, show the significance of, decode or make a story meaningful. Examples? Questions: What does it mean? Why does it matter? What does it illustrate or illuminate about human experience? How does it relate to me? What makes sense?

WHAT ARE THE INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS? Teach children to build stories not just passively take them in. Give out 2 or 3 versions of same event and have students create the “real” event. Peacemakers: students each give their version of the story of what happened. Then they are encouraged to come up with a common version.

APPLICATION Definition: the ability to use knowledge effectively in new situations and diverse contexts “You need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.” Examples? Questions: How and where can we use this knowledge, skill or process? How should my thinking and action be modified to meet the demands of this particular situation?

WHAT ARE THE INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS? Matching an idea to a context “We show our understanding of something by using it, adapting it and customizing it.” Real world problems Make the situation as close as possible to the situation face by a scholar, artist, engineer or other professionals.

PERSPECTIVE Definition: critical and insightful points of view. making tacit assumptions explicit. By shifting perspective one can create new theories, stories or applications. “Any answer to a complex question involves a point of view.” Examples? Questions: From who’s point of view? From which vantage point? What is assumed? What is justified or warranted? Is there adequate evidence? Is it reasonable? plausible? What are the strengths and weakness of the idea?

WHAT ARE THE INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS? Teach perspective in advertising, newspaper writing and editorials, television programming, text book writing and novels being studied. Provide explicit opportunities for students to confront alternative theories and diverse points of view involving the big ideas. Examples?

EMPATHY Definition: The ability to get inside another person’s feelings of worldview. The ability to walk in another’s shoes, to escape one’s own emotional reaction and grasp another’s. > change of heart Examples? Questions: How does it seem to you? What do they see that I don’t? What is the artist, songwriter, performer feeling, seeing and trying to make me feel or see too?

WHAT ARE THE INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS? Offer multiple perspectives on things such as: human rights issues environmental issues accounts of history topics in the news issues debated for an election controversial laws such as gun legislation. Have students experience things from another’s point of view. Examples?

SELF- KNOWLEDGE Definition: the wisdom to know one’s ignorance and how one’s patterns of thought and action inform as well as prejudice understanding. Examples? Questions: How does who I am shape my views? What are the limits of my understanding? What are my blind spots? What am I prone to misunderstand because of prejudice, habit or style?

WHAT ARE THE INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS? We need to continue teaching self reflection and assessing in the broadest terms. Increase time spent on metacognition. Uncover prejudices and thinking in either/or terms.

GROUP WORK Read the example about the nutrition unit. (p.35)

GROUP WORK: What are the essential questions in the unit plan you have chosen? What are the unit plan questions?