1. Understanding by Design
The ‘Big Ideas’
of UbD

2. 3 Stages of (“Backward”) Design
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction

3. Understanding by Design Template
Unit Template
Overarching understandings
Knowledge and skill to be acquired
Essential Questions
The UbD template embodies the 3 stages of “Backward Design”
The template provides an easy mechanism for exchange of ideas

4. The “big ideas” of each stage:
Assessment Evidence
Learning
Activities
Understandings Essential Questions s t a g e 2 3
Standard(s): 1
Performance T
ask(s):
Other Evidence:
Unpack the content standards and ‘content’, focus on big ideas
What are the big ideas?
Analyze multiple sources of evidence, aligned with Stage 1
What’s the evidence?
Derive the implied learning from Stages 1 & 2
How will we get there?

5. Components of Each StageL
Learning
Plan U
Understandings T
Task(s) Q
Questions R
Rubric(s)
Content
Standards CS OE
Other
Evidence K
Knowledge
& Skill

6. Grade Level Expectations
Standards
Process Standards
Content Standards
Grade Level Expectations
“I Can” Statements

7. The big ideas provide a way to connect and recall knowledge
Humor
Figurative Language
Passion
Big Idea:
A writer’s voice produces a memorable experience in the reader
Originality
Honesty & Insight

8. Other Big Ideas in Literacy:
Rational persuasion vs. manipulation
Audience and purpose in writing
A story, as opposed to merely a list of events linked by “and then…”
Reading between the lines
writing as revision
A non-rhyming poem vs. prose
Fiction as a window into truth
A critical yet empathetic reader
A writer’s voice

9. Questions for identifying truly “big ideas”
Does it have many layers and nuances, not obvious to the naïve or inexperienced person? Reflect the core ideas as judged by experts?
Is it (therefore) prone to misunderstanding as well as disagreement?
Can it be used throughout K-12?
Are you likely to change your mind about its meaning and importance over a lifetime?

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

11. to uncover the
really ‘big ideas.’

12. 3 Stages of Design, elaborated
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Understandings: Examples...
Great artists often break with conventions to better express what they see and feel.
Friendships can be deepened or undone by hard times
History is the story told by the “winners”
The storyteller rarely tells the meaning of the story

18. 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’

19. Essential Questions What questions – Q
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

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

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

22. Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence
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

23. The evidence should be credible & helpful.
The big idea for Stage 2
The evidence should be credible & helpful.
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, and fair - aligned with the desired results of Stage 1

24. 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

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. For Reliability & Sufficiency: Use a Variety of Assessments
Varied types, over time:
Authentic tasks and projects
Academic exam questions, prompts, and problems
Quizzes and test items
Informal checks for understanding
Student self-assessments

29. Some key understandings about assessment
The local assessment is direct; the MAP is indirect (an audit of local work)
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

30. 3 Stages of Design: Stage 3
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction

31. Stage 3 Big Idea: E F C T I V E N
G A G IN G
and

32. 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

33. Think of your obligations via W. H. E. R. E. T. O.
“Where are we headed?” (the student’s Q!)
How will the student be ‘hooked’?
What opportunities will there be to be equipped, and to experience and explore key ideas?
What will provide opportunities to rethink, rehearse, refine and revise?
How will students evaluate their work?
How will the work be tailored to individual needs, interests, styles?
How will the work be organized for maximal engagement and effectiveness? H E R E T O