Understanding by Design

Adapted fromGrant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

Understanding by Design

Identify desired results

Plan learning experiences and

instruction

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We Need Students Who Can Think

Learning Goals

• Acquisition of knowledge and skill• Ability to Make Meaning• Transfer of knowledge to new

situations

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Transfer

Acquire

MakeMeanin

g

Learnfor

Understanding

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The Big Ideas of UbD

A Focus on Design“Backward” from understanding-based goals

A Focus on UnderstandingBig Ideas grasped and transfer of learning as the

goal of education

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How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and

School---Bransford

Application of Knowledge---transfer Think in terms of the Big Ideas Depth Timely specific feedback Performance-based assessment- “Real World” Self-assessment Open-ended questions Understandings/Generalizations Inquiry- Active Learning

“The capacity to apply facts, concepts, and skills in new

situations in appropriate ways.

-----Dr. Howard Gardner

Handouts Pg. 26

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You’ve got to go below the surface...

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“Breadth over Depth”----------------Was the Old Approach

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THE FOLLOWING ARE ALL QUOTES FROM Science Tests of Students

11 Years Old:

Think About This!

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"Germinate: To become a naturalized German.”

Think About This!

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"When you breathe, you inspire. When you do not

breathe, you expire.”

Think About This!

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"Mushrooms always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas.”

Think About This!

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"To prevent contraception: wear a condominium.”

Think About This!

If you know where you are going, you are more likely to

get there.

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Work Smarter not HarderPlan for Success

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STAGE 1:

STAGE 3:

STAGE 2:

U Q

G

T OE

L

It doesn’t matter where you begin or how you proceed - as long as the design ends up with all elements aligned!

Design process is non-linear

Link assessments to curricular priorities

‘big ideas’

worth understanding

important to

know & doPerformance tasks and projects• Open ended• Complex• authentic

worth being familiar with

Traditional quizzes

and tests• Paper/pencil• Selected-response• Constructed response

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Stage 1 Identify Desired Results

• Enduring Understanding Framed as a generalization The Big Picture/Big Idea Something beyond the specific

content The heart of the discipline

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Enduring Understanding

The “Aha”The Moral of the StoryInsight into the Standards

(Unpacking)The “forevers”

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Avoid

• Simple Facts• Definitions• The Obvious• Trite Statements• The “Duh” Factor

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Examples of Enduring Understandings

1. Laws and rules prevent chaos.2. Fairy tales often illustrate profound philosophical

truths3. The words of poetry stir up feelings and ideas in

the reader or listener.4. In music the silence is as important as the notes.5. Mathematics is a language consisting of symbols

and rules.6. Living things grow and change, sometimes in

predictable patterns

Skills Compared to Understandings

Skill Understanding

Reading text The author’s meaning in a story is rarely explicit; one must read between the lines.

Creating scoring opportunities in soccer One needs to create space, spreading the defense as broadly and deeply as possible

Asking directions in Spanish Knowing whether or not one has been understood requires attention to nonverbal as well as to verbal feedback.

Speaking presuasively in public Persuasion often involves an emotional appeal to the particular wishes, needs, hopes, and fears of an audience, irrespective of how logical and rational the argument.

From the Understanding by Design Handbook p. 89

Pay Attention!

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=40c570a322f1b0b65909