Understanding by Design - The Backward Planning Model

1. Plan Backwards! Understanding by Design - The Backward Planning Model Based on the work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

2. Why are we doing this? • Since the transition to Common Core and Essential Standards, the district has received requests for unit planning sessions. • Our ultimate goal is to have district unit plans, but this is a process that may take 3-5 years. • This is Day One of that process. 

3. What IS UbD? • Integrating curriculum, instruction, and assessment within a unit of study in any discipline • A unit design template for beginning with the end in mind • A way to enhance meaningful understanding and transfer of learning

4. Key points to remember… • In order to begin, we must start at the end: • Clarify results and evidence of them before designing lessons. • UbD is a way of thinking more carefully about design; it is NOT a program • Thinking like an assessor (not only an activity designer) is key to effective design • Student work is only “coverage” or “nice activity” unless focused on questions and big ideas, related to the Standards

5. Key points to remember… • Too many students lack transferrable knowledge • Instruction has become an activity in repeating the teacher • Most test questions are recall • Where’s the deeper thinking? • The “Course” is NOT • The textbook: that’s a resource • The activities: these are steps • The content: this is to be mastered • There is a BIG difference between just knowing and really understanding…

6. “Results are what counts. You have to measure.” • Unit Planning should answer: • What big ideas and skills should students leave knowing? • What counts as evidence that they really learned this? • What learning experiences in the classroom will get them there? Grant Wiggins Discuss: Where do you recognize evidence of Backward Planning in your classroom?

7. Let’s hear from Mr. Wiggins… • Grant Wiggins’ Overview - video

8. Three Stages of Backward Design Stage 1

10. What can content mastery do? • It gives us the means to an end! • The end is… • Providing students with real-world, problem solving tools • Equipping them to individually recognize, plan for, and solve any problem that involves the content • Making them life-long learners

11. Give me an example… • Content Mastery: Fractions • You want students to learn fractions to recognize, frame, and solve any problem that involves fractional relationships independently. • SO, design the unit BACKWARDS from real problems and problem-solving situations that you want students to be able to solve on their own.

12. Give me one more example… • Content Mastery: Grammar • You want students to learn grammar to speak and write in any situation for maximum effect independently. • SO, design the unit BACKWARDS from communication challenges and problems that you want students to be able to solve on their own.

13. The point… • UbD fosters transfer of learning to create independent problem-solvers. • We equip them with understandings, skills, and knowledge that are essential to real-life situations. • But…how…?

14. Let’s Look at the Templates • Basic Template Without Guiding Questions/Statements • Basic Template With Guiding Questions/Statements • MCS UbD Planning Template - With PDSA and 5 Questions Embedded

16. Stage 1- Identify Desired ResultsEstablished Goals • What Common Core or Essential Standard do students need to learn? • What’s the point? • How does this fit into the content standards? • What is the bigger purpose? • Answer: Consider BIG IDEAS

17. Stage 1- Identify Desired ResultsEstablished Goals What are BIG IDEAS? (Think CONCEPTS) • Core idea at the “heart” of the discipline • Enduring: has lasting, universal value • Transferable to other topics/disciplines • Connective of facts and skills • Requires “un-converage” or “unpacking”

18. Concepts as Big Ideas

19. Use Big Ideas to form Understandings and Essential Questions

20. Understandings

21. Essential Questions… • Push us to the heart of things • Cause genuine and relevant inquiry into big ideas and core content • Provoke deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, new understanding, and more questions • Require students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support ideas, and justify answers • Stimulate vital, ongoing rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, prior lessons • Spark meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences • Naturally recur, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations and subjects

22. Essential Questions

23. Big Ideas Literature Culture Human condition Transfer& Independent thinkers Essential Question How can stories from other places and times be about me? Understanding Great literature from various cultures explores enduring themes and reveals recurrent aspects of the human condition

24. Stage 1- Identify Desired ResultsKnowledge and Skills • In order for students to perform well on the assessments and competently answer the Essential questions… • What should they KNOW? • What should they BE ABLE TO DO?

25. Knowledge and Skills

26. Knowledge and Skills

27. Let’s recap: We clarified how to frame desired results, but how can we assess the students’ understanding of them? • We must think like an assessor… • What evidence can show that students have achieved the desired results? • What assessment tasks and other evidence will anchor our curricular units and thus guide instruction? • What should we look for to determine the extent of student understanding? • On to Stage 2!

28. The Three Stages of Backward Design Stage 2

29. Stage 2!

30. Stage 2- Determine Acceptable Evidence • This is where UbD departs from conventional unit design and planning. • Before we plan the activities and lessons, we must plan the assessment. • What then logically follows is an orderly progression of activities, specifically designed to meet their target.

31. Stage 2- Determine Acceptable Evidence • Assessments are too often created without carefully considering the evidence needed or only as a means for generating grades. • Instead, consider this: How do we know that the learner… • met the goal through performance? • “got” the understandings? • deeply considered the essential questions?

32. Stage 2- Determine Acceptable Evidence • Understanding develops as a result of ongoing inquiry. • Think of effective assessment like a scrapbook of mementos and pictures, rather than a single snapshot. • Gather lots of informal evidence along the way in a variety of formats! • Use the continuum on the next slide as a guide.

33. Continuum of assessment Think of anchoring your unit with a performance task. But use the Other Evidence along the way. (i.e. Don’t throw out all your old quizzes!) Informal checks for understanding Observations and dialogues Performance tasks Academic prompts Tests and quizzes Other evidence

34. What should a Performance Task ask students to do? • Contextualize it to a real-world situation. • Require students to use judgment and innovation. • Call for exploration of the subject like a professional in the field. • Replicate challenging situations in which people are truly “tested” in life and work. • Compel students to use a repertoire of knowledge and skill to negotiate a task • Allow opportunities to rehearse, practice, consult resources, get feedback, and refine performance.

35. How can I create an authentic Performance Task that fosters understanding? • G - Goal (What task do I want the students to achieve?) • R - Role (What’s the student’s role in the task?) • A - Audience (Who is the student’s target audience?) • S - Situation (What’s the context? The challenge?) • P - Performance (What will students create/develop?) • S - Standards (On what criteria will they be judged?) Remember: Make the tasks real world problems to solve!

36. Performance Tasks

37. Any assessment you design should… • Have clearly articulated criteria • Be valid and reliable • Provide sufficient measure of the desired result • Encourage students to self-assess their own learning

38. Sample Performance Tasks Social Studies Samples Sample Math Tasks Sample Math Tasks (6-12) • Literacy Design Collaborative Tasks • The Reading and Writing Project Tasks

39. So, we have clarified desired results and discussed appropriate assessments. • It’s time to plan the learning activities! • As we move through Stage 3, remember that it’s not about what WE want to accomplish; it’s about what the learner will need to… • achieve the desired results from Stage 1 and • perform well on the tasks in Stage 2. • On to Stage 3!

40. Three Stages of Backward Design Stage 3

41. Stage 3!

42. Use WHERETO in instructional planning • W- Ensure the students know WHERE the unit is headed and WHY • H- HOOK students in the beginning; HOLD their attention throughout • E- EQUIP students with necessary experiences, tools, knowledge, and know-how to meet performance goals • R- Provide students with numerous opportunities to RETHINK their big ideas, REFLECT on progress, and REVISE their work • E- Build in opportunities for students to EVALUATE progress and self-assess • T- Be TAILORED to reflect individual talents, interests, styles, and needs • O- Be ORGANIZED to optimize deep understanding, not superficial coverage

43. Note on WHERETO • This is NOT a recipe, formula, or prescribed sequence • It is, like the Six Facets, a way of judging, assessing, and testing lessons and units. • How should the WHERETO elements be combined and ordered? It’s up to the designer!

44. Yes, UbD units are time consuming and challenging to create… • If we want our students to wrestle with timeless, universal questions, gain a deeper understanding of the world, and then transfer that rich experience to engage in authentic, problem-solving activities, shouldn’t we be thoughtful about the design process?

45. The answer is YES. • If you would like to learn more, please consult Understanding by Design, by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. • All slides in this PowerPoint have been adapted from their work. • Good luck in your design process and remember, when you begin, always keep the end in mind!