1. Where is My Understanding of Understanding by Design?
Sally Creel, K-5 Science Supervisor
Sandra Millsaps, K-5 Language Arts TSA

2. What it takes to be successful
“ Teaching needn’t be exceptional to have a profound effect; continuous common sense efforts to even roughly conform to effective practice and essential standards will make a life – changing difference for students across all socio – economic levels.” Schmoker

3. Word Sort
Work with your elbow partner to sort this group of words into categories of your choice.
There is no right answer.
Volunteers will share their
work in 5 minutes.

4. So what is UbD?
Understanding by Design is a way of thinking purposefully about planning,
not a program.

5. Understanding by Design is…
Curriculum template and design standards are a means to better promote local goals.
The template provides an easy mechanism for exchange of ideas
Focus is on collective efforts on quality teaching and learning but still embrace individual style, innovation, and creativity.

6. Backward planning is as easy as 1 - 2 - 3!
1 – Identify Desired Results
2 – Determine Acceptable Evidence
3 – Plan Learning Experiences

7. First, decide what students must know and be able to do
Step 1
Desired Results
Backward Planning
First, decide what students must know and be able to do

8. Sample GPS Standard
S4L2 Students will identify factors that affect the survival or extinction of organisms such as adaptation, variation of behaviors (hibernation) and external features (camouflage and protection).
b. Identify factors that may lead to the
extinction of some organisms.
Sample GPS standard from Science
Show the parts, code, element, standard…
These are posted on PICASSO…numbering has been changed to fit with state standards numbering. This should help with continuity between Cobb and State.

9. You’ve got to go below the surface…

10. to uncover the really big ideas!

11. Understandings Enduring Understanding: Unit Questions Lesson Questions
Students will understand that…
there are certain conditions that lead organisms to become endangered and or extinct.
Unit Questions
Lesson Questions
How do changes in the environment affect an organism?
How do external features of organisms help them to survive and reproduce? (e.g. camouflage, use of hibernation, protection, etc.).
How do organisms become extinct?
What would happen to a population if some of the plants or animals in the community became scarce, or if there were too many?
What is the enduring understanding we want students to come away with from this unit understanding…
p. 110 in the book….Intent and EQs and format of EQs
p. 126 in the book …Understandings

12. Know & Do Knowledge – Students will know…
Skills – Students will be able to…
Changes in the environment have an effect on the organism in that environment.
The conditions that lead to extinction of some organisms.
Survival / Extinction
Adaptation
External Features (i.e. Camouflage)
Behaviors (i.e. Hibernation)
Identify factors (behavioral and or external features) which have caused specific organisms to become endangered or extinct.
Determine the impact of changes in habitat, adaptation, and or behavior of an organism.
Once teachers have isolated the important nouns and verbs…then they can translate these into statements to guide the learning. This is the “Know and Do” we want students to come away with.
Wording Knowledge and Skills can be a bit tricky in the beginning. In your folder there is a hand-out on the left side with a planning sheet for your teachers to use when completing this process.
Please note that this is very different from skill and knowledge level of blooms…
p in book have info on Knowledge and Skills ….bottom of 58 and top of 59.

13. Performance-Based Instruction Rubric
From To
Plan
Planning based on selection of a topic, design of activities, administration of an assessment, offering a grade and feedback, then moving to the next topic
Planning that begins with selection of needed standards, identification of desired results, design of acceptable evidence of learning, planning learning experiences, and using data to differentiate instruction

14. Second, decide how you will know that
Step 2
Evidence
Backward Planning
Second, decide how you will know that
your students know

15. Assessment as Learning
Develop and support metacognition:
“Learning is not just a matter of transferring ideas from someone who is knowledgeable to someone who is not, but is an active process of cognitive restructuring that occurs when individuals interact with new ideas.”
- Rethinking Classroom Assessment

16. Partner Talk
What evidence is there of student interaction with new ideas in your building?
How do you know that teachers in your building know their students understand?
What are the ways teachers assess students?

17. Traditional Assessment Process Standards-based Assessment Process
Old vs. New
Traditional Assessment Process
Choose a topic
Instruction
Test/Essay/Project
Grade/Feedback
Next Topic!
Standards-based Assessment Process
Select Standard(s)
Determine Acceptable Evidence (ongoing assessments & performance tasks)
Determine instructional practices
Use data from assessment to re-teach or move on
p. 150
It is an unnatural process…
“To think like an assessor prior to designing lessons does not come naturally or easily to many teachers. We are far more used to thinking like an activity designer or teacher once we have a target. That is, we easily and unconsciously jump to Step 3 – the design of lessons, activities, and assignments – without first asking ourselves what performances and products we need to teach toward.”

18. Balanced Assessment?
Are unit assessments with the following formats balanced?
Multiple Choice
True / False
Matching
Fill in the blank
When your teachers think of balanced assessment, do they think like this? I must admit I was guilty at one time of thinking I was doing an outstanding job of balancing my assessments….
Look on page 152…the hand-out is in your folder…
Here is a continuum of assessments. These should be present in all units…

19. Performance Assessment
Types of Assessment
Selected Response
Constructed Response
Performance Assessment
Informal Assessment
Multiple Choice
True-False
Matching
Fill-in-the-blank (words, phrases)
Essay
Illustration
Matrix
Short answer (sentences, paragraphs)
Diagram
Web
Concept Map
Flowchart
Graph
Table
Presentation
Movement
Science lab
Athletic skill
Dramatization
Enactment
Project
Debate
Model
Exhibition
Recital
Oral questioning
Observation
Interview
Conference
Process description
Checklist
Rating scale
Journal sharing
Peer review
Thinking aloud a process
Student self-assessment
The state DOE has given us this chart in GPS redelivery training. It is helpful for teachers to see various instruments they can use to assess student progress…

20. Possible Assessments for S4L2b
Selected Response
Constructed Response
Performance Assessment
Informal Assessment
Which of the following Georgia organisms are endangered? Circle all that apply.
a. longleaf pine
b. eastern indigo
snake
c. gopher tortoise
d. brown thrasher
Frayer Model graphic organizer of an organism, with description, characteristics, example, & drawing.
Students will select one plant and one animal, illustrate each, and identify factors that affect the survival or extinction of the organisms such as adaptation, variation of behaviors (hibernation) and external features (camouflage and protection).
Class discussion: Devise a plan to protect or publicize the protection of endangered organism in your area.
Here are some samples of assessment evidence that would be acceptable for the science standard we have been unpacking….

21. Why do we assess?
Designed to produce defensible and accurate descriptions of student competence in relation to defined goals
Measure current level of what they know, do, and understand
Typically come at or near the end of a learning cycle (Don’t forget formative!)
-A. Zmuda

22. Performance-Based Instruction Rubric
From To
Communicate
Student work evaluated solely by the teacher
Accountability for student performance extends beyond the classroom and is intended to promote/further the student’s learning

23. Learning Experiences Step 3 In Backward Planning
Third, the teacher decides on the differentiated learning opportunities for the students based on steps 1 & 2.

24. Performance-Based Instruction Rubric
From To
Do & Use
Whole-class, teacher directed (e.g., lecturing)
Experiential, standards-based, hands-on/minds-on learning
Student passivity: sitting, listening, receiving, and absorbing information
Active learning: students doing, talking and collaborating
Presentational, one-way transmission of information from teacher to student
Diverse roles for teachers, including coaching, demonstrating, and modeling

25. We are focusing on the learning and not the teaching.
So why are we doing this?
We are focusing on the learning and not the teaching.

26. Learning Principles
1. The goal of all learning is fluent and flexible transfer – effective use of knowledge and skill.
2. Transfer depends upon understanding the big ideas that connect otherwise – isolated facts, skills, and experiences.
3. An understanding is a learner realization about the power of an idea. Formal learning at its best engineers such understandings by design rather than by good fortune.

27. Learning Principles
4. Learners need clear priorities, an understanding of how goals are best achieved, and helpful feedback in order to produce quality work.
5. Persistent learning requires seeing he value of what we are asked to learn, and being provided with the right blend of challenge and support in learning it.
- A. Zmuda

28. Logic Behind Backward Design
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.

29. Learning Communities
We are at a point in time where teams are recognized as a critical component of every enterprise – the predominant unit for decision making and getting things done…. Working in teams is the norm in a learning organization.
- Senge, et. Al. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

30. Learning Communities
The best way to achieve challenging goals is through teamwork. Where single individuals may despair of accomplishing a monumental task, teams nurture, support, and inspire each other.
- Noel Tichy, The Leadership Engine

31. EQ: Where is My Understanding of Understanding by Design?

32. Assessment for Learning