Understanding by Design Day 2

1. Understanding by DesignDay 2 Roosevelt Complex Secondary Science Training

2. Ground Rules

3. Desired Outcomes • Awareness of the UbD philosophy on assessment. • Awareness of the inquiry process. • Awareness of the taxonomic levels and alignment.

4. Peer Consultation • In small groups. • Presenters share his/her Stage 1 • At this time, the Consultants listen and jot down questions or ideas • Consultants share their questions and ideas • Presenters listen and jot down ideas • Presenters share their final thoughts • Share his/her commitment to improve their unit

5. Stage 2 • Think like an assessor, not an activity designer. • Goal of Stage 2 is to obtain valid, reliable, credible, and useful evidence. • Given the desired understanding, what evidence would show that they “got it”. • Focus on transferability not only on accuracy of knowledge and skills.

6. Two Approaches to Assessment • Thinking like an activity designer • What would be fun and interesting activities on this topic? • What projects might students do on this topic? • What tests/questions should I give, based on the content I taught? • How will I give the students a grade? • Thinking like an assessor • What would be sufficient and revealing evidence of understanding? • Given the goals, what performance tasks must anchor the unit and focus the work? • What are the different types of evidence required by Stage 1 desired results? • Will the assessment reveal who real understood and who only seemed to?

7. Authentic Assessment: • Is set in a scenario that replicates or stimulates the ways in which a person’s knowledge and abilities are tested in real-world situations? • Requires judgment and innovation. Will the students use their understanding and skills to solve a problem? • Allows appropriate opportunities to rehearse, practice, consult resources, and get feedback.

8. ContinueAuthentic Assessment: • Asks students to “do” the subject instead of reciting, restating, or replicating through demonstration what he/she was taught or already knows. • Allows students to pull together all of their understandings and skills to solve the problem rather then focus on discrete facts and drills. • It’s the game – not the drill.

9. Evidence of understanding • Effective assessment is like a scrapbook not a single snapshot. • Understanding is revealed as transferability of core ideas, knowledge, and skills during a challenging task in a variety of context. • Bloom: Assessment should include divergent thinking in which it is unlikely that the right solution to a problem can be set in advance.

10. Worth being familiar with Important to know and do Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings Kernel of Understanding • Traditional tests and quizzes • Short answer • Selected-response • Constructed response • Performance tasks and projects. • Complex • Open-ended • Authentic

11. Continuum of Assessment • Informal checks for understanding • Observations and dialogues • Tests and quizzes • Academic prompts • Performance Tasks

12. Other Criteria • One assessment may not be enough to fully assess all of the big ideas and benchmarks. • Performance assessment can be supplemented with: • Tests • Quizzes • Other lab reports • Activities

13. Observation of Process • Dialogue with peers • Presentations • Observation log of group dialogue • Observations of a performance Conferencing with teacher/peer Oral questioning Retelling in own words Journals Reflections  Constructed Response  Visual organizer/outline Story illustration Dialectical Journal Diagram Poster/letter to.. Clear Target Conversations Listening to Learners Collection of Products

14. Tying Stage 1 and 2 • Big Ideas and Essential Questions should be evident in the assessment. • Ensure that the big ideas and essential questions are prevalent in the performance assessment. • Essential Questions can be directly or indirectly addressed in the assessment. • Ensure that the identified skills and knowledge from stage 1 are prevalent in the performance assessment.

15. Stage 2 Example: Chemical Equilibrium: • You are a researcher hired by a group of expert mountain climbers. Hypoxia is a set of symptoms that comes from lack of oxygen in body tissues. It is often felt by mountain climbers as they ascend. Sherpa seem to feel no hypoxic discomfort. Why might that be? You have been hired to find out… • Design a series of experiments that would test the difference between Sherpa and mountain climbers. • Criteria for submission: • Use chemical equilibrium in your explanation • An explanation of what causes hypoxia. • A hypothesis on why Sherpa are not affected. • Details for experiments to test the hypothesis. • An explanation of any potential errors, concerns, or problems with the experiment.

16. Taxonomic Levels • Performance Assessment should be at a higher level of thinking. • Assessments should allow students to: • Analyze • Synthesize • Apply

17. Rubrics • Must be used with UbD assessment since there is no one right answer. • Should measure the quality of the student understanding, application, or analysis. • Criteria is not always the easiest to see (for example, number of pages, spelling, neat, etc.)

18. Rubrics • Types • Holistic • Analytic • Traits • Frequency • Understanding • Accuracy • Effectiveness • Independence • Clarity

19. Holistic vs. Analytic • Holistic • Focuses on the overall performance. • Analytic • Focuses on parts of the performance.

20. Reliability and Validity • Performance assessment and rubrics must be reviewed periodically. • Student work should be used to assess the quality of the UbD unit. Sharing with others is recommended.

21. Observation of Process • Dialogue with peers • Presentations • Observation log of group dialogue • Observations of a performance Conferencing with teacher/peer Oral questioning Retelling in own words Journals Reflections  Constructed Response  Visual organizer/outline Story illustration Dialectical Journal Diagram Poster/letter to.. Clear Target Conversations Listening to Learners Collection of Products Valid

22. Questions?

23. Peer Consultation • Gallery Walk • Complete your UbD unit up to Stage 2 • Present your units by subject area • Take a look at other units • Use the post it notes to leave • 1 Positive comment about the unit • 1 Question about the unit • 1 Suggestion for improvement about the unit