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Designed for Understanding

January 17 , 2013 BTPS Assessment Facilitator Meeting. Designed for Understanding. Coffee Break: 10:30 a.m. – 10: 45 a.m. Why understanding is everything…. The twin sins of design.

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Designed for Understanding

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  1. January 17, 2013 BTPS Assessment Facilitator Meeting Designed for Understanding

  2. Coffee Break:10:30 a.m. – 10: 45 a.m.

  3. Why understanding is everything…

  4. The twin sins of design Typical instruction in schools is activityand/ or coverage- focused… neither of which gets at the heart of learning.

  5. Today’s Essential Questions: • To what extent are outcomes, assessments and learning activities aligned in teacher planning (horizontally and vertically)? • How do we facilitate a deeper understanding of curriculum with our students? or (how do we make it more likely, by our design, that more students really understand what they are asked to learn?) • What constitutes effective learning?

  6. Today’s Agenda • Designing for understanding - an overview (10:45 – 11:30) • Resources to support your work (11:30 – 12:00) • Lunch  (12:00 – 12:30) • Choose a stage + Work time (12:30 –2:30) • Peer/ Self reflection and next steps (2:30 – 3:00)

  7. Begin with the end in mind… • 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. - Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. 1989, p.98

  8. A Focus on “Understanding”… • Eliminates the twin sins • Is backward in design (Stages 1, 2, and 3) • Engages students in inquiry & “uncovering” ideas. • Achieves quality control in learning and & assessment designs.

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

  10. The 3 Stages of Backwards Design… • 1. Identify desired results 2. Determine acceptable evidence • 3. Plan learning experiences and instruction The ideas and concepts of UBD discussed here are taken from the work of Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins, Understanding by Design, 2004.

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

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

  13. ! Not necessary to fill in the template “in order” • There are many ‘doorways’ into successful design – you can start with... • Curriculum outcomes • Performance goals • A key resource or activity • A required assessment • A big idea • An important skill or process • An existing unit or lesson to edit

  14. ! Misconception Alert:the work is non-linear • It doesn’t matter where you start as long as the final design is coherent (all elements aligned) • Clarifying one element or Stage often forces changes to another element or Stage • The template “blueprint” is logical but the process is non-linear (think: home improvement!)

  15. Immigration Railroad Treaties signed Big Idea: The Confederation of Canada Constitution The big ideas provide a way to connect and recall knowledge BNA Act

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

  17. Stage 1 – Identify desired results. • 1. What are the big ideas/ enduring understandings we students to leave with? What will they remember 10 years from now. • 2. What essential questions will frame the teaching and learning that uncovers key issues and ideas, through meaningful and provocative inquiry into content? • 3. What should students know(knowledge outcomes) and be able to do (skills outcomes)? • 4. What curricular outcomes are addressed explicitly by the unit?

  18. Stage 1: Establishing Curricular Priorities Worth being familiar with Important to know and do Enduring Understanding

  19. 1. Big Ideas… • Organize topical content around key concepts • Offer a purpose and rationale for the student to want to consider the content • Oftenneed “unpacked” from Alberta Education curriculum to make them clear • Are written as understandings that summarize the desired insights we want students to realize

  20. Understandings 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…” • unobvious inferences drawn from facts (not the facts themselves), counter-intuitive& easily misunderstood • Able to connect the dots between facts, skills, and ideas: they tell us what our knowledge means

  21. ie.) Students will understand that… • Great artists often break with conventions to better express what they see and feel. • Price is a function of supply and demand. • Friendships can be deepened or undone by hard times • History is the story told by the “winners” • F = ma (weight is not mass) • Math models simplify physical relations – and even sometimes distort relations – to deepen our understanding of them • The storyteller rarely tells the meaning of the story

  22. 2. Essential Questions • Essential questions guide inquiry into the big ideas/ enduring understandings * ensure that questions are essential, not leading (which are designed to cover knowledge, not inquire into it)

  23. 2. Essential Questions Q Ask what questions – • 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?

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

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

  26. 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? (triangulated evidence) • What rubrics will be used to assess complex performance? T OE R

  27. The big ideas for Stage 2 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 - aligned with the desired results of Stage 1

  28. Assessment Evidence Cautions… • Evidence of understanding is a greater challenge than evidence that the student knows a correct or valid answer • Understanding is inferred, not seen • Seek a photo album of evidence, not a single snapshot. Patterns help overcome inherent measurement error

  29. 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

  30. Scenarios for Authentic Tasks T • 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

  31. 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

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

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

  34. Stage 3 – Plan Learning Experiences & Instruction L • 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 (how are you scaffolding) at meeting the goals?

  35. Think of your obligations via W. H. E. R. E. T. O. L W • “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

  36. Traffic Lights Green:I’ve got it Yellow:I am getting there and may need some assistance Red:I don’t understand– Help!

  37. 3 Simple Steps to Planning Tools for your use- www.assessmentcoaches.wikispaces.com - general resources - templates to consider/ use - reflections/ self-assessment tools

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