1. Understanding by Design Training Module #2
Essential Questions & Enduring Understanding

2. Essential Questions & Enduring Understanding
This training module is based on the works of Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins’ Understanding by Design.
This module was built by AISD to support Understanding by Design concepts in the classroom.
AISD Curriculum documents such as Yearly Itineraries and Curriculum Road Maps are written in the UbD Framework Design.
At the end of the training, you will need to complete an Online Assessment to get credit for completing the module.

3. Essential Questions & Enduring Understanding
Goals for this module:
Understand what a “Big Idea” is.
Understand how Essential Questions reflect key questions, focus the learning unit, and prioritize learning.
Recognize what an understanding is.

4. Essential Questions & Enduring Understanding
Big Ideas

5. Big Ideas An idea that causes students think, question, and explore
Makes sense of isolated facts
Big Ideas
A tool for getting more specific understandings
A theme
What is a Big Idea?
Acts like a lens helping to see content clearer
Helps students see connections between facts

6. Big Ideas
Move your mouse pointer over the letters to learn more about BIG IDEAS B I G D E A

7. Unifying concepts (the modern “flat” world of interdependence)
Big Ideas B I G D E A
Unifying concepts (the modern “flat” world of interdependence)

8. Big Ideas B I G D E A
Organizing themes (love conquers all)

9. Big Ideas B I G D E A
Key strategies and rules of thumb (turn complex quantities into the more familiar and simple to work with via mathematical equivalences)

10. Big Ideas
Dilemmas (we simplify reality in math and science models – with some loss and possible oversight of important detail) B I G D E A

11. Big Ideas B I G D E A
Striking paradox (poverty amid plenty)

12. Big Ideas
Endless debates or issues (nature versus nurture) B I G D E A

13. Big Ideas B I G D E A
Persistent problems or challenges (global warming)
Click to continue

14. Big Ideas
Can you find the “Big Ideas” in this unit? Write them in the box.
Move the mouse over the image to view a larger version. Click the image to return to this slide.

15. Essential Questions & Enduring Understanding

16. What is an Essential Question?
Causes genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas of the core content.
Spark meaningful connections with prior learning and personal experiences.
Essential Questions
Provoke deep thought, lively discussion, sustained inquiry, and new understanding as well as more questions.
Require students to consider alternatives, weigh evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers.
What is an Essential Question?
Naturally recur, creating opportunities for transfer to other situations.
Stimulate vital ongoing rethinking of big ideas, assumptions, and prior lessons.

17. Click and Drag the Question to the correct column.
Non-Essential Question:
Essential Questions:
How does the body turn food into energy?
Why is it important to be healthy?
Why is food important for the human body?
What are the elements of a story?
Why does the future tense matter?
How did (any event) cause (any event) to happen?
How much does grammar matter?
What makes a good story?

18. And here are the answers. How did you do?
Non-Essential Question:
Essential Questions:
Why does the future tense matter?
Why is food important for the human body?
Why is it important to be healthy?
What makes a good story?
How does the body turn food into energy?
How much does grammar matter?
What are the elements of a story?
How did (any event) cause (any event) to happen?

19. A question is Essential if…
Essential Questions
A question is Essential if…
People encounter the question in their daily lives
It has different but acceptable responses
It can be argued
It is worth asking again and again
Can be revisited
It makes students reflect and extend their thinking

20. Essential Questions in the CRM

21. Enduring Understanding

22. Enduring Understanding
Gained through “guided inference” with help from the teacher or another to come to a conclusion.
Specific insight, inference, or conclusion about the Big Idea.
Enduring Understanding
A sentence stating the students’ conclusions about the subject via “The Big Idea.”
What is an Enduring Understanding?
“An understanding [is] the moral of the story, or rather, your unit.” (Wiggins and McTighe 80)

23. Click and move the Enduring Understanding under the correct heading
Not Enduring Understanding
The student will understand that…
The student will understand…
Statistical analysis and data display often reveal patterns that may not be obvious.
True friendship.
In a free-market economy, price is a function of supply and demand.
The most efficient and effective stroke mechanics in swimming involve pushing the maximum amount of water directly backward.
Wind is a force of nature.
True friendship is revealed during difficult times, not happy times.
The price of long-distance phone calls has declined during the past decade.

24. And the answers are? How did you do?
Enduring Understanding
Not Enduring Understanding
The student will understand that…
The student will understand…
Statistical analysis and data display often reveal patterns that may not be obvious.
The price of long-distance phone calls has declined during the past decade.
True friendship is revealed during difficult times, not happy times.
True friendship.
In a free-market economy, price is a function of supply and demand.
Wind is a force of nature.
The most efficient and effective stroke mechanics in swimming involve pushing the maximum amount of water directly backward.

25. Enduring Understanding
Is this an Understanding?
I want students to understand the Civil War.

26. Essential Questions & Enduring Understanding

27. Essential Questions & Enduring Understanding:
Assessment
Please follow the instructions to complete the assessment for Understanding by Design #2 so you will get credit for the training.
Open Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome
Type into the address bar
Sign in information:
Username: AustinISD (case sensitive)
Password: raiders
Click on the “Understanding by Design #2” canvas.
Follow the instructions on the assignment sticky.

28. References
Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units. Alexandria: ASCD, Print.

30. Let’s Think about this Look at this way: This would be better:
What specifically do you want students to understand about the Civil War?
This would be better:
“I want my students to understand that the war was fought over issues of economic history and states’ rights; the morality of slavery was not the sole cause of the war’s beginning.”
The best understandings are made to show and help teachers and students know which specific ideas the unit is meant to achieve.

31. that's Correct Look at this way: This would be better:
What specifically do you want students to understand about the Civil War?
This would be better:
“I want my students to understand that the war was fought over issues of economic history and states’ rights; the morality of slavery was not the sole cause of the war’s beginning.”
The best understandings are made to show and help teachers and students know which specific ideas the unit is meant to achieve.

32. To run new features Click + move the cursor = Drag and Drop
Click + Ctrl = Zoom out
Click + Ctrl + Alt = Zoom in
Click + Shift = Rotate clockwise by 45 degrees at a time
Click + Alt = Input Text
Click + Shift + Alt = Calculate Formulas

33. “Big Ideas” help push students to successfully transfer knowledge.
Understandings reflect the “Big Ideas” answer to Essential Questions.
Big Ideas!
Essential Questions pose questions about “Big Ideas”.