Understanding by Design

1. Understanding by Design Backward Instructional Design and Planning

2. Survey Trends! 61% of you rated yourself a level 1 11% of you rated yourself a level 2 6 % of you rated yourself a level 3 22% of you rated yourself a level 4 “I would like enough background knowledge and skills to be able to support teachers better understand how to “begin with an end in mind.” I want to help teachers move from “covering” the curriculum to a deeper understanding of processes, strategies and assessments.”

3. Purpose(s) of Session 1. Identify key principles of UbD 2. Share misconceptions (What UbD is not!) 3. Identify why and how HCPS is using the principles found in UbD 4. Provide participants with opportunities to engage with the concepts and reflect on current practices within his or her school

4. UbD Overview VIDEO CLIP

5. “To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction” (1) - Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

6. What is Understanding by Design? • An instructional planning framework focused on unit design that assists in developing and deepening understanding of important ideas • Essential Question: How do we make it more likely – by our design – that more students really understand what they are asked to learn? • UbD seeks to more thoroughly clarify the concept of “understanding” while exploring principles or characteristics of effective “design”

7. Essential Questions What is the best way to design for both content mastery and understanding? How can we accomplish the goal of understanding if the textbooks we use dispense volumes of out-of-context knowledge? How realistic is teaching for understanding in a world of content standards and high stakes tests?

8. “Twin Sins of Instructional Design” 1. Activity Focused Teaching 2. Coverage Focused Teaching

9. What UbD is not… • UbD is not a prescriptive program to be followed step by step. It is a conceptual framework and provides ideas for design that increase the likelihood of deep student understanding • UbD is not a philosophy of education • UbD provides little in the way of teaching strategies. It focuses more on “robust” planning • UbD is not focused on individual lesson planning. The focus is on the design of curricular units • UbD is not intended to be a “catch all”.

10. Three Stages of Design Backward Planning 1. Desired Results. 2. Assessment Evidence. 3. Learning Plan.

11. Why “backward”? • The stages are logical but they go against habits • We’re used to jumping to lesson and activity ideas - before clarifying our performance goals for students • By thinking through the assessments upfront, we ensure greater alignment of our goals and means, and that teaching is focused on desired results

12. 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

13. Taking a Closer Look at Understandings: They are... • specific generalizations about the “big ideas.” They summarize the key meanings, inferences, and importance of the ‘content’ • require “uncoverage” because they are not “facts” to the novice, but unobvious inferences drawn from facts - counter-intuitive & easily misunderstood • deliberately framed as a full sentence “moral of the story” – “Students will understand THAT…”

14. 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

15. The Big Ideas • Defined: Refers to transferable concepts, principles, and theories that should serve as the focal point or heart of the curricula, instruction, assessment. There is an interrelationship among the Enduring Understanding and the Essential Questions.

16. Three Stages of Design Backward Planning 1. Desired Results. 2. Assessment Evidence 3. Learning Plan.

17. 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

18. Knowledge Assessment Types Worth being familiar with (40 days) Traditional quizzes and tests •paper/pencil •selected-response •constructed-response --40 month and 40 day Important to know and do (40 months) Performance tasks and projects •open-ended •complex •authentic --40 month and 40 year Enduring Understanding (40 years) What do you want students to know and be able to do……… AND REMEMBER?

19. Three Stages of Design Backward Planning 1. Desired Results. 2. Assessment Evidence. 3. Learning Plan.

20. E F F E C T I V E E N GAGING and Stage 3 big idea:

21. A Performance Task is Authentic if it… • Is realistic. • Requires judgment and innovation. • Asks a student to “do” the subject. • Replicates or simulates the contexts in which adults are tested in the workplace. • Assess a student’s ability to efficiently and effectively use a repertoire of knowledge and skills to negotiate a complex task. • Allows appropriate opportunities to rehearse, practice, and consult resources; obtain feedback on performances; and refine performances and products.

22. Reflecting upon the elementary, middle and high school video clips… How does the teacher uncover content with questions, feedback, discussion, the identification of issues, concepts, and core ideas to help students apply and transfer knowledge?

23. Uncoverage The process of going into depth with content. The opposite of coverage.

24. Understanding requires Uncoverage • Uncoverage = focused questions, feedback, diagonostic assessment (formative and summative) • Uncoverage = the identification of the issues, assumptions and gray areas within student understanding • Uncoverage = the awareness of core ideas that promote application and transfer in order to avoid forgetfulness and misconceptions.

25. Uncoverage and Understanding • With clear goals in mind, purposeful planning and thoughtful inquiry, teachers can discover that students have deeper learning and can apply what they know to other situations. • Teachers can also discover that students have misconceptions and misunderstandings. • The misunderstandings present opportunities for both teachers and students.

26. Reflection • What were your initial impressions of Heather and on what did you base those impressions? • Why did Heather change some of her ideas but not others? • How might using a “misconceptions analysis” approach to instruction helpful to teachers?

27. Questions to Ponder when misunderstandings are discovered.

28. Do you have experience with misunderstandings?

29. Reflections/Next Steps Book Study (PLC) On-going reinforcement of components through HCPS Instructional Model On-going PD to include hands-on planning workshops Curriculum Development/Implementation Teams and Focus Groups