1. success and understanding Chuck McWilliams, MRH School District
Understanding By Design: A “Backward Design” Approach to Teaching and Learning
Unlocking the keys to
success and understanding
Chuck McWilliams, MRH School District
June 2nd, 2008

2. "There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight."
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist
McWilliams, 2008

3. I’m originally from Iowa Teaching emphasis: Biology
My Background
I’m originally from Iowa
Teaching emphasis: Biology
Past 14 Years in St. Louis and at MRH:
First 6…
Past 8…
UbD was the event that sparked the new beginning of my role as a teacher and leader
McWilliams, 2008

4. A Brief History of UbD at MRH: Year 1 - 4
2000 to
2001
Intro to UbD Summer Leadership Seminar; Design teams form to write unit/study UbD
2002
Adv UbD Summer Training; Continue writing units/courses; Focus on assessment
2003
More UbD summer workshops; Peer Assessment/Unit revision; Reading in Content Area
2004
Continue work on Unit Revisions; Pedagogical study teams form; Study/Research: Reading in Content Area, Coop. Learning, and Critical Thinking
McWilliams, 2008

5. Pedagogical Study at MRH
Reading in the Content Area
1:1 Laptops
in ‘07-’08
Developing
Teacher Competencies
UbD
Study
Critical Thinking
Cooperative Learning
McWilliams, 2008

6. A Brief History of UbD at MRH: Year 5 - 8
2004 to
2005
Summer UbD conference; Write Teacher Pedagogical Competencies; Begin working in PAT team study groups; Finish ALL unit designs
2006
Summer UbD/DI Conference; Work on competencies in PAT teams; “Polishing the Stone” UbD Workshop
2007
Misc. Summer workshops/curriculum development; PAT team work; Cognitive Coaching training/implementation w/ PAT specialists; eMINTS training begins at Middle School
2008
MRH hosts AbD w/ Parkway & Bayless; continue working in PAT teams; eMINTS training at MS and HS; Orientation to D2L environment
McWilliams, 2008

7. Year 9: The Future of UbD Study at MRH
Taking MRH Curriculum to the web
McWilliams, 2008

8. Year 9: The Future of UbD Study at MRH
Taking MRH Curriculum to the web
McWilliams, 2008

9. Benefits of Using UbD
It’s a framework for research-based practices- it’s the GLUE that binds all we do!
Promotes teamwork - DESIGN TEAMS!
Promotes professional conversation about WHAT should be taught - ID Essentials!
Increased insight about the purposefulness of curriculum and its impact on students.
McWilliams, 2008

10. Analyzing unit design and student work leads to improved curriculum.
Even MORE Benefits...
Implementing UbD units helps me re-evaluate my priorities - throughout daily instruction!
Emphasis is on assessment! Helps students prepare for MAP and other tests.
Analyzing unit design and student work leads to improved curriculum.
My curriculum is living and breathing - Never something that’s finished.
McWilliams, 2008

11. Learning and Cognition
Research:
Learning and Cognition
“Learning with understanding is more likely to promote transfer than simply memorizing information from a text or lecture.”
-Bransford, et. Al., How People Learn, p.224
McWilliams, 2008

12. UbD Supports Learning and Cognition
From How People Learn (National Research Council, 2000):
Teachers need to recognize and draw-out preconceptions from their students and base instructional decisions on the information they get from their students.
Teachers need to teach their subject matter in a depth so that facts are conveyed in a context with examples and a conceptual framework.
Teachers need to integrate metacognitive skills into the curriculum and teach those skills explicitly.
McWilliams, 2008

13. Some important questions...
What is worth understanding?
What is understanding? How will we know that students really understand?
Why are the best curriculum designs “backward”?
How might teachers “work smarter” (not harder!) in curriculum design?
McWilliams, 2008

14. The “Understanding by Design” Approach
“Backward Design”
The “Understanding by Design” Approach
by Wiggins and McTighe
Stage 1 - Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions, Key Knowledge and Skills
Stage 2 - Assess Enduring Understandings
Stage 3 - Design Meaningful Learning Activities
McWilliams, 2008

15. How It All Fits Together
Workshop
McWilliams, 2008

16. Understanding by Design
is not…
a prescriptive program
an instructional model
opposed to traditional testing and grading
McWilliams, 2008

17. Think like an assessor! Key to Backward Design
View: “A Private Universe”
Note: Provide an example in your own experience when you thought everyone understood the lesson, but students still couldn’t explain.
McWilliams, 2008

18. A Private Universe
McWilliams, 2008

19. Think like an assessor! Key to Backward Design
Be clear about what evidence of learning you seek.
Design assessments before you design lessons and activities.
McWilliams, 2008

20. Structure of Knowledge
BIG IDEAS
Principles
and
Generalizations
Key Concepts and Core Processes
Facts and Skills
Wiggins, Grant, & McTighe, Jay. (1998). Understanding by Design. ASCD.
McWilliams, 2008

21. More specifically… What is knowledge?
Declarative Knowledge
Knowing WHAT
Procedural Knowledge
Knowing HOW
Structural Knowledge
Knowing WHY
-Jonassen, Computers as Mindtools for Schools, 2000
McWilliams, 2008

22. Matters of Understanding
Big ideas or core processes at the “heart” of the discipline
“Enduring” - lasting value beyond the classroom
Transferable to other topics and inquiries
Require “uncoverage”
McWilliams, 2008

23. Two Types of Understandings
Overarching - Example: Great artists often break with established traditions, conventions and techniques to better express what they see and feel.
Topical - Example: Impressionist artists used novel painting techniques to represent everyday life. They used color, light, and shadow to convey the impression of reflected light at a particular moment.
McWilliams, 2008

24. Concepts - Transferable “Big Ideas”
examples...
Adaptation
Change
Energy
Exploration
Freedom
Interaction
Justice
Migration
Patterns
Power
Symbol
Systems
McWilliams, 2008

25. Junk Bags
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26. Establishing Curricular Priorities
worth being
familiar with
“nice to know”
important to
know and do
foundational concepts & skills
“big ideas”
worth
understanding
enduring understandings
Wiggins, Grant, & McTighe, Jay. (1998). Understanding by Design. ASCD.
McWilliams, 2008

27. Establishing Curricular Priorities
Content Standards
Identify “Big Ideas”
Then,frame them as generalizations and essential questions
worth being
familiar with
important to
know and do
“big ideas”
worth
understanding
Wiggins, Grant, & McTighe, Jay. (1998). Understanding by Design. ASCD.
McWilliams, 2008

28. Finding “Big Ideas” in the Content Standards
Ask:
Why? So what?
What is the “moral of the story”?
How is ____ applied in the world beyond the classroom?
What couldn’t we do if we didn’t understand ____ ?
McWilliams, 2008

29. Six Facets of Understanding:
What is Understanding?
Six Facets of Understanding:
Application
Explanation
Interpretation
Empathy
Perspective
Self-Knowledge
Superficial Coverage
versus
Uncovering the Big Ideas
McWilliams, 2008

30. The Six Facets of Understanding
Explanation
Interpretation
Application
_______
Perspective
Empathy
Self-Knowledge
Wiggins, Grant, & McTighe, Jay. (1998). Understanding by Design. ASCD.
McWilliams, 2008

31. Using UbD in a Sophomore Biology Class
Chuck McWilliams, Biology Teacher
Maplewood-Richmond Heights HS Maplewood, MO
McWilliams, 2008

32. Planning For a “New” Course
Develop Course Enduring Understandings
Ex.) Life functions as a complex system that exists at many different levels
Develop Essential Questions
Ex.) How can scientists lead us to understanding how life functions as a system?
Develop course assessments - semester exams
Develop individual units and assessments
McWilliams, 2008

33. A “New” Biology Course
How does a(n) ________ come to know the world and humans’ place in it?
Each of the eight instructional units focuses on the Perspective of a scientist
During the year, each student will become a:
Biologist
Ecologist
Biochemist
Cell Biologist
Molecular Biologist
Geneticist
Naturalist
Taxonomist
McWilliams, 2008

34. Learning from Different Perspectives
Cell Biologist
Molecular Biologist
Biochemist
Geneticist
Ecologist
Naturalist
Student
Biologist
Taxonomist
Biology: Exploring Multiple Scientific Perspectives
McWilliams, 2008

35. Sample Unit: Unit 6 - Geneticist
Enduring Understandings: EU
Patterns of inheritance can be predicted in living things.
Genetic and environmental factors determine the physical characteristics of living things.
As genetic research continues, society will face ethical challenges. Participating in the ethical decision making process will require carefully analyzing scientific research and understanding different points of view.
McWilliams, 2008

36. What will Guide My Students?
Essential Questions
What will Guide My Students?
If offspring inherit their parents genes, then why don’t they look exactly like their parents?
What effect does the environment have on gene expression?
How will scientists use the information from generated the Human Genome Project?
McWilliams, 2008

37. Performance Assessment
How will I know my students understand?
PersonaGen® Array 119™ Genetic Test
Students receive a simulated genetic test (multiple tests all at once)
They must interpret their profile
Research and learn about their assigned “mutations”
Write a 6 paragraph essay detailing their profile and the effect it would have on their personal and career life
Also included in the essay is a discussion/analysis concerning genetic testing in general
In class discussion and rubrics included
McWilliams, 2008

38. How It All Fits Together
McWilliams, 2008

39. How It All Fits Together
How will we organize and sequence the learning? O
How will we tailor the learning plan? T
How will students self-evaluate and reflect on their learning? E
How will we help students rethink and revise? R
How will we equip students for expected performances?
How will we hook and hold student interest? H
Where are we going? Why? What is expected? W W H E R T O
McWilliams, 2008

40. How It All Fits Together
McWilliams, 2008

41. Some Lessons Learned About Stage 3
Protecting your favorite activities?
Including FUN activities?
Be aware of TIME and pacing
Scaffold toward the Performance Task and other assessments
Unit Planning vs. Lesson Planning
McWilliams, 2008

42. How It All Fits Together
McWilliams, 2008

43. Table Talk - Essential Questions
What makes essential questions essential about learning?
What are the characteristics of effective essential questions?
McWilliams, 2008

44. Ideally, Essential Questions should…
Go to heart of discipline
Recur naturally throughout ones learning and in the history of the field
Raise further questions into the unit’s “Big Idea”
Have no one right answer (debatable)
Be deliberately framed to provoke and sustain student interest and engage the students in attempting to answer the questions
Be derived from the enduring understandings
McWilliams, 2008

45. Tips on writing EQs: Tips! Organize units around questions
Design assessment tasks that are explicitly linked to the questions
Frame questions in “kid language” to make them more accessible
Sequence the questions so that they naturally lead to one another
Post the essential questions in the classroom and refer back to them throughout the unit
Allot sufficient time for discussion of questions with students
Through a survey or informal checks, ensure that every child understands
McWilliams, 2008

46. Examples of good ones...
How can a diet be healthy for one person and not another?
Why do people move?
How does where we live influence how we live?
What makes places unique and different?
What is the relationship between cooperation and competition?
McWilliams, 2008

47. Not so good ones… Is the weatherman always right? Is Huck Finn a hero?
How many legs does a spider have?
How does an elephant use its trunk?
How do you measure 3-D objects?
How are fractions and percentages related?
McWilliams, 2008

48. Assessing Essential Questions
McWilliams, 2008

49. Is the unit focused on important and engaging questions?
Level 3:
Important and thought provoking;more than single “correct” answer, promote inquiry rather than recall, great potential for student engagement, unifying focus to guide teaching/learning
Level 2:
Appropriate for topic; not clearly focused on most important ideas/concepts; do not have single “correct” answer, may not require much inquiry or engage students
Level 1:
Do not focus on big ideas/core processes; not thought provoking; unlikely to engage students; may have one “correct answer” and be too narrow to guide unit
McWilliams, 2008

50. Barriers to Making UbD Work?
Lessons from Chapter 13:
Misconception #1 - “Yes, but… we have to teach to the test.”
Misconception #2 - “Yes, but… we have to much content to cover.”
Misconception #3 - “Yes, but… this work is too hard and I just don’t have the time.”
Wiggins, Grant, & McTighe, Jay. (1998). Understanding by Design. ASCD.
McWilliams, 2008

51. Challenges using UbD
UbD takes TIME to become part of the culture of the learning community.
It can create tension and anxiety!
Success requires ongoing professional dialogue, sharing, support, and encouragement
It’s for every teacher! Peer support!
It works WITH high stakes testing!
McWilliams, 2008

52. Process vs. Product: Asking Questions
I finished writing this unit and/or lesson. Am I finished now?
Is curriculum “living and breathing?”
How do I find time? Time!?! Reflective practitioners take time to assess, rethink, and revise unit designs.
ALWAYS ASK: What keeps students most engaged in meaningful work?
McWilliams, 2008

53. Lessons Learned About UbD
Implementing UbD units helps me re-evaluate my priorities - throughout daily instruction!
Emphasis is on assessment! Helps students prepare for state tests.
Analyzing unit design and student work leads to improved curriculum.
My curriculum is living and breathing - Never something that’s finished.
McWilliams, 2008

54. The Key to Success!
“We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.”
-Galileo Galilei
16th century Italian scientist
McWilliams, 2008

55. Have a Great Journey This Year!
Enjoy learning in your curriculum teams!
McWilliams, 2008