UbD Enduring Understandings & Essential Questions

Stage 1

Dr. Robert MayesUniversity of Wyoming

Science and Mathematics Teaching Center

rmayes2@uwyo.edu

Caution: Assessing for understanding is not as easy as it appears

Minds of Our Own Thin Air

http://www.learner.org/resources/series26.html

Evidence of Understanding

Think like an assessor Conventional Design

Stage 1 Stage 3 Stage 2 Assessor (Backward) Design

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

Stage 1: Desired results – enduring idea Stage 2: Evidence – assessment tasks Stage 3: Learning Plan - activity

Stage 1: Desired Results – 4 categories

Established Goals (G) National, state, local, professional standards,

program objectives, learner outcomes Enduring Understandings (U)

What we want students to come to understand about the big ideas

Essential Questions (Q) Open-ended provocative questions designed to

guide student inquiry and focus on uncovering big ideas

Knowledge and Skills (KS) Discrete objectives students are to know and be

able to do

Desired Results Design Elements Overview – Handout

(GUQKS) Structure of Knowledge – Activity (KSU)

Identifying Enduring Understandings (Activity – KSU)

Background: field of possible content, topics, skills and resources Cannot address all so obligated to make

choices

Worth being familiar with

Important to know and do

Enduring Understanding

Identifying EnduringUnderstandings

Worth Being Familiar With (Largest Ring) Expose to broad brush knowledge but do

not require mastery Assess through quizzes and tests

Identifying Enduring Understandings

Important to Know and Do (Middle Ring) Important knowledge: facts, concepts and principles Important skills: processes, strategies and methods Mastery by students is prerequisite for success in

accomplishing key performances (understanding)

Enduring Understanding (Smallest Ring) Anchor unit and establish rationale for it Big Ideas – Why is this worth studying? Assessed by Performance

Essential Questions

Staying focused on enduring understandings is accomplished by: Framing goals in terms of essential questions Specifying the desired understandings Specifying key performance tasks

Write-out: What is an essential question? Students take turns providing their interpretation of

the above question from reading Chapter 5 by writing a word or phase on the board. Students cannot talk, but they can write responses to other students’ input.

Essential Questions

Provocative questions and big ideas lead to engaging students in inquiry, uncovering ideas, and developing understanding

Avoids activity-orientation or coverage orientation of teaching

Standards make mistake of framing core content as factlike sentences rather than revealing them to be summary insights derived from questions and inquires

Essential Question Characteristics Cause genuine and relevant inquiry into big ideas

and core content Provoke deep thought, lively discussion, sustained

inquiry, and new understanding; lead to new questions

Require students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify answers

Stimulate vital, ongoing rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons

Spark meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences

Naturally recur, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects

Essential Questions - different levels of specificity Overarching: more abstract or general

understandings that are transferable, broader in scope so involve generalizations that transcend the unit forming bridges to other units and courses

Topical: topic specific insights, generalizations derived from the specific content knowledge and skills of the unit

Essential Questions - 4 types

Scope

Intent Topical Overarching

Guiding (closed) Unit specific questions, converge toward settled understanding

General questions, cut across unit/subject but still converge to desired understanding

Open Stimulate inquiry and deepen understanding of important ideas within a unit, do not converge to settled understanding

Broad and deep questions that remain open in the discipline, cut across unit/subject boundaries

Need overarching to ensure transferNeed topical to avoid aimless drifting discussionsNeed open questions to promote intellectual freedom and questioning authority

CreatingEssential Questions

Convert declarative statements to questions - Jeopardy Approach Standards - declarative to interrogative

Enduring ideasUse 6 facets of understanding to

generate questions

6 Facets of Understanding

1. Explanation

2. Interpretation

3. Application

4. Perspective

5. Empathy

6. Self-Knowledge

Insight vs. PerformanceConundrum of Insight vs. Performance Performance Ability: revealed in Explain,

Interpret, and Apply Facets of Understanding Insight: revealed in Perspective, Empathy,

and Self-knowledge facets of Understanding Insight – basis of discovery: perceive essence of

problem, but may have difficulty articulating it Performance - articulation and accuracy of

formalized knowledge is often overvalued by assessor

Communication of idea, clarity, and justification are part of understanding

Essential Questions from Skills Important understandings are often

implicit or embedded in skill development

High level use of skill involves innovation, judgment, and efficiency Genuine Performance requires making

choices from repertoire of skills to solve challenging problems

To be skillful is to work purposefully and strategically, requires understanding of key principles at work

Filter for Essential Questions &Enduring Understandings

To what extent are the outcome statements: enduring and transferable big ideas, having value

beyond the classroom? (intellectual linchpin) big ideas and core processes at the heart of the

discipline? (authentic learning, active constructor) abstract, counterintuitive, often misunderstood,

require uncovering? big ideas embedded in facts, skills, and activities?

Activity: EQ and EU Sieve (QU)Activity: Drafting Essential Questions (Q)

Dr. Robert MayesUniversity of WyomingScience and Mathematics Teaching Centerrmayes2@uwyo.edu