1. Understanding By Design
What’s the BIG IDEA???

2. A prayer for Learning
We thank you, God, for words. They help us to give you praise. We thank you for the journey of learning to read and for the world of creation that you open wide with the gift of the printed word. We thank you, God, for the mystery of numbers, for infinity, for symmetry and for patterns. We thank you, God, for music, for rhythm, for harmony, for song, for instruments and the beauty of sound. We thank you, God, for the scientific mind, for discovery, for experiment and for the need to know. All creation breaks open to us. You have given us the ultimate gift of learning. You call us to seek and find and to be created anew. Lord, it is in the learning that we are truly alive. Amen.

3. Consider this………. What is the purpose of a teaching/learning program??
From your experience, what are the elements of a good teaching program?

4. What is UBD?
A tool for educational planning focused on “teaching for understanding”.
A “framework for designing curriculum units, performance assessments and instruction that lead your students to deep understanding of the content you teach”
Designed by nationally recognised educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

5. UBD…….. IS NOT a prescriptive program a philosophy of education IS
a design for learning
a way of thinking
A robust approach to planning
Focused on designing curricular units

6. Backward design
To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.
-Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. (1989)

7. Backward Design
Understanding by Design relies on what Wiggins and McTighe call "backward design".
In backward design, the teacher starts with classroom outcomes and then plans the assessment and learning activities that will help to determine student ability and foster student understanding.
The emphasis of UbD is on "backward design", the practice of looking at the outcomes in order to design curriculum units, performance assessments, and classroom instruction.
Understanding by Design relies on what Wiggins and McTighe call "backward design" (also known as "backwards planning"). Teachers, according to UbD proponents, traditionally start curriculum planning with activities and textbooks instead of identifying classroom learning goals and planning towards that goal. In backward design, the teacher starts with classroom outcomes and then plans the curriculum, choosing activities and materials that help determine student ability and foster student learning.
Teaching is not Rocket Science-

8. Backward Design
It seems “backward” in that it starts from the opposite end of the planning process we typically go through to design courses where we usually start by thinking about how to teach our content. 
Backward Design, in contrast, leaves teaching activities until the end and starts with the desired results of that teaching. 

9. Backward Design
In other words, Wiggins and McTighe argue that you can’t start planning how you’re going to teach until you know exactly what you want your students to learn. 
“Teaching is a means to an end.  Having a clear goal helps us educators to focus our planning and guide purposeful action toward the intended results.”

10. Why “backward”? The stages are logical but they go against habits
We’re used to jumping to lesson and activity ideas - before clarifying our performance goals for students
By thinking through the assessments upfront, we ensure greater alignment of our goals and means, and that teaching is focused on desired results

11. Teaching for Understanding
A central premise of Understanding by Design.
There should be coherent curriculum design and clear distinctions between big ideas and essential questions.
Teachers should tell students about big ideas and essential questions, performance requirements, and evaluative criteria at the beginning of the unit or course.
Students should be able to describe the goals (big ideas and essential questions) and performance requirements of the unit or course.
"Teaching for understanding" is another central premise of Understanding by Design. It should be evident in course design, teacher and student attitudes, and the classroom learning environment.
There should be coherent curriculum design and clear distinctions between big ideas and essential questions.
Teachers should tell students about big ideas and essential questions, performance requirements, and evaluative criteria at the beginning of the unit or course.
Students should be able to describe the goals (big ideas and essential questions) and performance requirements of the unit or course.
The classroom learning environment should have high expectations and incentives for all students to come to understand the big ideas and answer the essential questions.

12. Where does UBD fit in?

13. The Backward Design Process
Identify desired results
What should students know, understand, and be able to do? What is worthy of understanding? What enduring understandings are desired?
Consider goals
Examine content standards (district, state & national)
Review curriculum expectations
Teacher/students interests
Determine acceptable evidence
How will we know if students have achieved the desired results and met the standards? What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency?
Consider a range of assessment methods — informal and formal assessments during a unit
Think like assessors before designing specific units and lessons to determine how/whether students have attained desired understandings
Plan learning experiences and instruction
What enabling knowledge (facts, concepts, and principles) and skills (procedures) 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 coached, and how should it best be taught in light of performance goals?
What materials and resources are best suited to accomplish these goals?
Is the overall design coherent and effective?

14. Stage 1 - Desired Results Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Objectives
Stage 1 - Desired Results
Established Goals:
Understandings
Students will understand that…..
Essential Questions:
Students learn about
Students learn to …….
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Performance tasks:
Other evidence:
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
Outcomes
Informal assessment
Formal Assessment
Teaching and Learning strategies

15. Not necessary to fill in the template “in order”!
Not necessary to fill in the template “in order”
There are many ‘doorways’ into successful design – you can start with...
Content standards
Performance goals
A key resource or activity
A required assessment
A big idea, often misunderstood
An important skill or process
An existing unit or lesson to edit

16. Misconception Alert: the work is non-linear!
Misconception Alert: the work is non-linear
It doesn’t matter where you start as long as the final design is coherent (all elements aligned)
Clarifying one element or Stage often forces changes to another element or Stage
The template “blueprint” is logical but the process is non-linear (think: home improvement!)
But still ends up being aligned constructively

17. Each element is found behind a menu tab when designing units
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3 L
Learning
Plan U
Understandings T
Task(s) Q
Questions R
Rubric(s)
Content
Standards CS OE
Other
Evidence K
Knowledge
& Skill

18. Some questions for identifying truly “big ideas”
Does it have many layers and nuances, not obvious to the naïve or inexperienced person?
Can it yield great depth and breadth of insight into the subject? Can it be used throughout K-12?
Do you have to dig deep to really understand its subtle meanings and implications even if anyone can have a surface grasp of it?
Is it (therefore) prone to misunderstanding as well as disagreement?
Are you likely to change your mind about its meaning and importance over a lifetime?
Does it reflect the core ideas as judged by experts?

19. You’ve got to go
below the surface...

20. to uncover the
really ‘big ideas.’

21. 3 Stages of Design, elaborated
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction

22. Big ideas reflected throughout Design
Stage 1 – Desired Results
Established Goals:
Big ideas are often implied and sometimes stated in goals or content standards, look for key concepts, consider the ides in key nouns (unit descriptor)
Understandings:
Students will understand that …
Essential Questions:
Big ideas are explicitly highlighted here.
Students will know …
Students will be able to …
Big ideas are implied here.
Consider the larger ideas that connect the facts and the larger purposes for mastering the skill.
Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks:
A constant focus on and effective use of Big Ideas should be at the heart of performance tasks (as reflected in task guidelines and rubrics). 6 Facets of understanding and GRASPS
Other evidence:
Quizzes, tests and prompts should relate to Big Ideas (e.g. oral or written questions on one or more of the Essential Questions
Stage 3 – Learning Plan
Learning activities:
The learning plan should ensure that Big Ideas are uncovered through inquiry activities and explicit instruction. The overall goal is to help learners make sense of the content, content discrete facts and skills to larger ideas, apply this knowledge in meaningful ways, and see the purpose of learning activities. Consider W.H.E.R.E.T.O.

23. Enduring Understandings
STAGE 1 - Clarifying content priorities
Worth being familiar with
Important
to know and do
Big Ideas
and
Enduring Understandings
Worth being familiar with:
Become aware of
Encounter
Broad-brush knowledge
Important to know and do
Required Knowledge and
Required Skills
An Enduring Understanding
Involves the Big Ideas that give meaning and importance to facts
Can transfer to other topics, fields and adult life
Is usually not obvious, often counterintuitive, and easily misunderstood
May provide a conceptual foundation for basic skills
Is deliberately framed as a generalisation - the ‘moral of the story’.
A Big idea
Provides a conceptual lens for prioritising content
Serves as an organiser for connecting important facts, skills and actions
Transfers to other contexts
Manifests itself in various ways within disciplines
Requires uncoverage because of abstraction

24. Identifying Essential Questions and Understandings
Topics and Big Ideas
What essential questions are raised by this idea or topic?
What, specifically, about the idea or topic do you want students to come to understand?
Why study _____________? So what?
What makes the study of ____________ universal?
If the unit on ______________ is a story, what is the moral of the story?
What’s the Big Idea implied in the skill or process of ____________?
What larger concept, issue, or problem underlies _____________?
What couldn’t we do if we didn’t understand ____________?
How is ___________ used and applied in the larger world?
What is a real-world insight about __________?
What is the value of studying ____________?
Essential Questions
Understandings

25. Essential Questions… Open ended: no single answer
Doorway: lead to ‘big ideas’ and core processes
Generative: spark enquiry and raise other questions
Recur: can and should be revisited
Work booklet: Tips for Using Essential Questions (page 106)
Big Ideas, Understandings and Essential Questions
Essential questions are ‘open’
They do not have a specific answer
There is an invitation to explore conceptual understandings
Engage creative and critical thinking
Lead to depth
Promote thinking, discussion and debate
You cannot ‘google’ it!

26. Stage 1 – Identify desired results.
Key: Focus on Big ideas
Enduring Understandings: What specific insights about big ideas do we want students to leave with?
What essential questions will frame the teaching and learning, pointing toward key issues and ideas, and suggest meaningful and provocative inquiry into content?
What should students know and be able to do?
What content standards are addressed explicitly by the unit? U Q K CS

27. The “big idea” of Stage 1:
There is a clear focus in the unit
on the big ideas
Implications:
Organize content around key concepts
Show how the big ideas offer a purpose and rationale for the student
You will need to “unpack” Content standards in many cases to make the implied big ideas clear

28. From Big Ideas to Understandings about them
An understanding is a
“moral of the story” about the big ideas
What specific insights will students take away about the the meaning of ‘content’ via big ideas?
Understandings summarize the desired insights we want students to realize

29. Understanding, defined: They are...
specific generalizations about the “big ideas.” They summarize the key meanings, inferences, and importance of the ‘content’
deliberately framed as a full sentence “moral of the story” – “Students will understand THAT…”
Require “uncoverage” because they are not “facts” to the novice, but unobvious inferences drawn from facts - counter-intuitive & easily misunderstood

30. Understandings: examples...
Great artists often break with conventions to better express what they see and feel.
Price is a function of supply and demand.
Friendships can be deepened or undone by hard times
History is the story told by the “winners”
F = ma (weight is not mass)
Math models simplify physical relations – and even sometimes distort relations – to deepen our understanding of them
The storyteller rarely tells the meaning of the story

31. Knowledge vs. Understanding
An understanding is an unobvious and important inference, needing “uncoverage” in the unit; knowledge is a set of established “facts”.
Understandings make sense of facts, skills, and ideas: they tell us what our knowledge means; they ‘connect the dots’
Any understandings are inherently fallible “theories”; knowledge consists of the accepted “facts” upon which a “theory” is based and the “facts” which a “theory” yields.

32. Essential Questions Q What questions –
are arguable - and important to argue about?
are at the heart of the subject?
recur - and should recur - in professional work, adult life, as well as in classroom inquiry?
raise more questions – provoking and sustaining engaged inquiry?
often raise important conceptual or philosophical issues?
can provide organizing purpose for meaningful & connected learning?

33. Sample Essential Questions:
Who are my true friends - and how do I know for sure?
How “rational” is the market?
Does a good read differ from a ‘great book’? Why are some books fads, and others classics?
To what extent is geography destiny?
Should an axiom be obvious?
How different is a scientific theory from a plausible belief?
What is the government’s proper role?

34. 3 Stages of Design: Stage 2
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction

35. STAGE 2. Determine acceptable evidence
Think about how you will decide if students are starting to master the knowledge and skills you want them to gain. 
What will you accept as evidence that students are making progress toward the learning goals of the course? 
How will you know if they are “getting it”?
Consider a wide range of assessment methods that match our learning goals so we can attain the evidence we want. 
In the second phase of Backward Design, you think about how you will decide if students are starting to master the knowledge and skills you want them to gain.  What will you accept as evidence that students are making progress toward the learning goals of the course?  How will you know if they are “getting it”?
When planning how you will collect this evidence, consider a wide range of assessment methods (for example, essay tests, term papers, short-answer quizzes, homework assignments, lab projects, problems to solve, etc.) in order to ensure that you test for exactly the learning you want them to gain.  In other words, sometimes our assessments don’t match our learning goals and we therefore cannot attain the evidence we want. 
For example, if one of your goals is for student to learn how to problem-solve, give them an assessment that requires a demonstration of their problem-solving skills.  Have them write out each step they took in addressing the problem, and an explanation of why they took it, instead of simply providing the right answer

36. STAGE 2 -Six facets of understanding
Desired Understanding
Explain demonstrate, derive, describe, design, exhibit, express, induce, instruct, justify, model, predict, prove, show, synthesise, teach
Apply Adapt, build, create, de-bug, decide, design, exhibit, invent, perform, produce, propose, solve, test, use
Perspective analyse, argue, compare, contrast, criticise, infer
Empathy assume role of, believe, be like, be open to, consider, imagine, relate, role-play
Interpret create analogies, critique, document, evaluate, illustrate, judge, make meaning of, make sense of, provide metaphors,
Be aware of, believe, be like, be open to , consider, imagine, relate, role-play
Self Knowledge

37. 6 FACETS of UNDERSTANDING....
Explanation
Interpretation
Application
Perspective
Empathy
Self Knowledge
Go to your work booklet page 1 (258)

38. Determining Acceptable Evidence GRASPS
Goal
Your task is …
The goal is to…
The problem or challenge is to…
The obstacle to overcome is…
Role
You are…
You have been asked to…
Your job is…
Audience
Your client is…
Your target audience is…
You need to convince…
Situation
The context you find yourself in is…
The challenge involves dealing with…
Product, Performance and Purpose
You will create…in order to…
You need to develop … so that…
Standards and Criteria for Success
Your performance needs to…
Your work will be judged by…
Your product must meet the following standards…
A successful result will…

39. A design tool... G R A S P goal role audience situation
product, performance, purpose
standards and criteria for success
GRASPS is a design tool to create authentic and effective tasks
It is a useful acronym
Gives students a context in which to demonstrate their understanding

40. Assessment Precedes Instruction Diagnostic FOR learning Formative
Summative
Precedes Instruction
FOR learning
OF Learning
Work Booklet: Three types of Classroom Assessments (page 233)
Sound assessment requires multiple sources of evidence collected over time.
We do not want the same picture over and over again- we need different pictures- think if a photo album.
There is also no one best assessment- the best assessment gives the right evidence- match the assessment evidence with the learning goals.

41. Assessment FOR Learning
Acknowledges that assessment should occur as a regular part of teaching and learning.
The information gained from assessment activities can be used to shape the teaching and learning process.

42. Assessment OF Learning
Assessment for accountability purposes to determine a student’s level of performance on a specific task.
Can be obtained at the conclusion of a unit of teaching and learning.
The information gained is often used in reporting.

43. Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
Template fields ask:
What are key complex performance tasks indicative of understanding?
What other evidence will be collected to build the case for understanding, knowledge, and skill?
What rubrics will be used to assess complex performance? T OE R

44. The big idea for Stage 2
The evidence should be credible & helpful.
Implications: the assessments should –
Be grounded in real-world applications, supplemented as needed by more traditional school evidence
Provide useful feedback to the learner, be transparent, and minimize secrecy
Be valid, reliable - aligned with the desired results of Stage 1 (and fair)

45. Just because the student “knows it” …
Evidence of understanding is a greater challenge than evidence that the student knows a correct or valid answer
Understanding is inferred, not seen
It can only be inferred if we see evidence that the student knows why (it works) so what? (why it matters), how (to apply it) – not just knowing that specific inference

46. Assessment of Understanding via the 6 facets
i.e. You really understand when you can:
explain, connect, systematize, predict it
show its meaning, importance
apply or adapt it to novel situations
see it as one plausible perspective among others, question its assumptions
see it as its author/speaker saw it
avoid and point out common misconceptions, biases, or simplistic views

47. Scenarios for Authentic Tasks
Build assessments anchored in authentic tasks using GRASPS:
What is the Goal in the scenario?
What is the Role?
Who is the Audience?
What is your Situation (context)?
What is the Performance challenge?
By what Standards will work be judged in the scenario? G R A S P S

48. Reliability: Snapshot vs. Photo Album
We need patterns that overcome inherent measurement error
Sound assessment (particularly of State Standards) requires multiple evidence over time - a photo album vs. a single snapshot

49. Some key understandings about assessment
The local assessment is direct; the state assessment is indirect (an audit of local work)
It is therefore always unwise to merely mimic the state’s assessment approaches
The only way to assess for understanding is via contextualized performance - “applying” in the broadest sense our knowledge and skill, wisely and effectively
Performance is more than the sum of the drills: using only conventional quizzes and tests is insufficient and as misleading as relying only on sideline drills to judge athletic performance ability

50. 3 Stages of Design: Stage 3
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction

51. Stage 3 – Plan Learning Experiences & Instruction
A focus on engaging and effective learning, “designed in”
What learning experiences and instruction will promote the desired understanding, knowledge and skill of Stage 1?
How will the design ensure that all students are maximally engaged and effective at meeting the goals? L

52. Note that some fields require you to enter one idea at a time
One idea per box allows for more powerful searching, selecting, and attaching to units when you browse
Essential questions
Enduring understandings
Tasks of complex performance
Rubrics
Also: makes expert reviewer assignment of “blue ribbons” more precise Q U T R

53. STAGE 3 -Plan learning experiences W.H.E.R.E.T.O.
Will the students know where they are going (the learning goals), why the material is important, and what is required of them?
Where
Will the students be hooked and held – engaged in digging into the Big Ideas?
Hooked
Will the students have adequate opportunities to explore and experience big ideas and receive instruction to equip them for the required performances?
Explore and experience
Will the students have adequate time to rethink, rehearse, revise and refine their work based on timely feedback?
Rethink, rehearse, revise, refine
Will the students have an opportunity to evaluate their work, reflect on their learning and set goals?
Evaluate
Is the learning plan tailored and flexible to address the interests and learning styles of all students?
Tailored
Is the learning plan organised and sequenced to maximise engagement and effectiveness?
Organised

54. 'It is what teachers think, what teachers do, and what teachers are at the level of the classroom that ultimately shapes the kind of learning that young people get.'
Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan

55. Differentiation... Should not be differentiated May be differentiated
Should be differentiated
Established Goals
Understandings and
Essential Questions
Criteria/Rubrics
Knowledge, Skills
Performance Tasks
Other Evidence
Learning Plan
See Work Book page 25
Traffic Lights
See Work Book -Strategies for Differentiating Process and Product
And Challenging High Ability Learners.