1. Connecting Content and Kids
Integrated Curriculum, Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design
Connecting Content
and Kids

2. UbD and DI: An Essential Partnership
Integrating Differentiated Instruction + Understanding by Design:
Connecting Content and Kids
by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe

3. “In effective classrooms, teachers consistently attend to at least four elements:
whom they teach (students),
where they teach (learning environment),
what they teach (content), and
how they teach (instruction).
If teachers lose sight of any one of the elements and
cease investing effort in it, the whole fabric of their
work is damaged and the quality of learning impaired.”
Read Chapter One

4. Teaching is an Integrated Process
Curriculum
Assessment
Learning Environment
Instruction

5. The primary goal of quality curriculum design is to develop and deepen student understanding.
Evidence of student understanding is revealed when students apply (transfer) knowledge in authentic contexts.
Effective curriculum development following the principles of backward design helps avoid the twin problems of textbook coverage and activity-oriented teaching in which no clear priorities and purposes are apparent.
Regular reviews of curriculum and assessment designs, based on design standards, provide quality control and inform needed adjustments. Regular reviews of “results” (i.e., student achievement) should be followed by needed adjustments to curriculum and instruction.
Teachers provide opportunities for students to explore, interpret, apply, shift perspectives, empathize, and self-assess. These six facets provide conceptual lenses through which student understanding is assessed.
Teachers, students, and districts benefit by “working smarter” and using technology and other vehicles to collaboratively design, share, and critique units of study.
UbD is not a program, but a way of thinking, not a program. with the goal of promoting better student understanding.

6. The Big Ideas of UbD
UbD Big Idea
What’s the Point
If not…
Backward Design
Plans need to be well aligned to be effective
Aimless activity and coverage
Transfer as Goal
It is the essence of understanding and the point of schooling
Students fail to apply; poor learning
Understanding
via Big Idea
That’s how transfer happens, makes learning more connected
Learning is fragmented; more difficult, less engaging
Meaningful learning
That’s what is most engaging and inviting
You lose many kids over time
UbD is not a program, but a way of thinking, with the goal of promoting better student understanding.

7. What Really Matters in Teaching?
Students

8. Categories of
Student Variance
Contributors to the Category
Biology
Gender
Neurological “wiring” for learning
Abilities
Disabilities
Development
Degree of Privilege
Economic status
Race
Culture
Support system
Language
Experience
Positioning for learning
Adult models
Trust
Self-concept
Motivation
Temperament
Interpersonal skills
Preference/
Learning Styles
Interests
Learning preferences
Preferences for individuals
Categories of Student Variance with Contributors that have some Implications for Learning

9. How do we get our students to Learn? To Think?
KNOWING
UNDERSTANDING
How do we move students from
knowing to understanding?

10. What Really Matters in Learning
Content

11. Integration: An ESU Contribution
Relationship between and among disciplines and bodies of knowledge
Reading, writing and creating are ways to organize thinking and knowing
Children learn better and more deeply if learning is connected
Integration provides multiple entry points for diverse learners
Integration supports authentic work, personal engagement and understanding

12. Important Questions for Planning
How can we promote UNDERSTANDING more by design than by good fortune?
How do you know when they “GOT IT”? What is and isn’t evidence of UNDERSTANDING?
How do we move beyond designing merely interesting activities or textbook coverage? How do we teach for UNDERSTANDING?

13. Six Facets of Understanding
How do we know what
we really understand?

14. When we truly understand we can:
Explain – Provide theories, ‘the why’
Interpret – Meaning, stories, translations
Apply – Use and adapt what we know in diverse contexts
Perspective – Other points of view, critical stance; zoom in/out
Empathize – “Walk in the shoes of…”
Self-Knowledge – Wisdom, “knowing thyself”, aware of prejudice

15. Where do we begin the Unit?
Step 1 - IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS
BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND!
DO IT FIRST; DO IT WELL
Step 2 - DETERMINE ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE
CLARIFIES WHAT LEARNING LOOKS LIKE IN THIS UNIT OF INSTRUCTION FOR ALL STUDENTS
Step 3 - PLAN DIFFERENTIATED EXPERIENCES AND INSTRUCTION
DETERMINES THE LEVEL OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND DEPTH OF UNDERSTANDING
Step 4 - SET THE STAGE FOR LEARNING
PROVIDES THE SUPPORT & RESOURCES FOR LEARNING IN THROUGHOUT THE UNIT

16. - Design Template Should not be differentiated May be differentiated
Should be differentiated

17. Stage 1: Identifying Desired Results
What is worthy and requiring of understanding?

18. Enduring Understanding
Learning Goals & Standards
Big Idea
EXPLORATION
Essential Questions
STAGE ONE: What is worthy of knowing?

19. Stage 1: Key Design Elements
How can we unpack the goals (e.g. content standards, district goals) to derive big ideas?
What “big ideas” do we want students to come to understand?
What essential questions and understandings will stimulate and promote inquiry?
What knowledge and skills need to be acquired given the understandings and related content standards?

21. Big Ideas: What are they?
Is it a Big Idea?
A core idea or process at the “heart” of the discipline?
Enduring – has lasting value?
Connecting Idea – Will it help link discrete facts/skills, disciplines?
Require “uncoverage” (it is often abstract or a misunderstood idea)
Transferable to other topics?

22. Stage 1: Identifying Desired Results
Decide on the essential questions and Big Idea
Questions which point to the big ideas and deepen inquiry?
Identify what is important to know and do
Create learning goals for each topic, use enabling words
Check national, state, and district standards
Possible regional topic opportunities
Teacher expertise and interest
Isolate the “enduring understanding”
A generalization that connects to the “Big Idea” and cuts across and integrates learning goals
Must incorporate and value each topics for an integrated unit - Content is set of linked ideas
Take the filter test: Important to know as an adult? Integral to discipline’s process or product? Something to uncover? Inherently engaging to students?

23. Select a BIG IDEA(s) - An abstract and transferable concept, theme or process at the hear of a subject or topic
Mood
Order patterns
Perspective
Production or consumption
Proof
Survival
Relationships
Repetition
Rhythm
Structures
Sustainability
Systems
Democracy
Tyranny
Wealth
OTHERS?
Abundance or capacity
Acceptance or rejection
Adaptation
Aging or maturity
Balance
Challenge
Change or continuity
Character
Communities
Conflict
Connections
Conservation
Cooperation
Correlation
Courage
Creativity
Culture
Cycles
Defense or protection
Democracy
Discovery
Diversity
Environments
Equilibrium
Evolution
Exploration
Fabrication
Fairness
Harmony
Honor
Interactions
Interdependence
Invention
Justice
Liberty
Loyalty
Migration

24. From Big Ideas to Understandings and Essential Questions
Important, provocative question that recur throughout our lives
Core ideas and inquiries within the discipline
Helps students effectively inquire and make sense of the big idea(s) and requires students to make decisions about answers
Engages a specific and diverse of learners
Understandings
What specific insights will students take away about the meaning of “content” via big ideas?
Understandings summarize the desired insights we want students to realize
Understandings make sense of facts, skill, and ideas: they tell us what our knowledge means, connect the dots

25. Knowledge Skills Basic skills- e.g. decoding, drawing
Communication skills – e.g. listening, speaking, writing
Research/inquiry/ investigation skills
Thinking skills – e.g. comparing, problem solving, decision making
Study skills – e.g. note taking
Interpersonal, Group skills
Vocabulary/terminology
Definitions
Key factual information
Critical details
Important events and people
Sequence/timeline

26. Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence
What is Evidence of Understanding?

27. STAGE 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence
Think like an Assessor!
What is the purpose for assessment?
Diagnostic, Formative, or Summative
Refer back to Stage 1: Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions, learning goals?
Who are your learners?
What methods and scoring tools will show understanding?
Consider a wide range of assessment methods and scoring tools.
Anchor assessment with performance tasks or projects; use traditional assessments to round out the picture
Assessment filters? Valid, reliable, sufficient, feasible, authentic work, student friendly

28. Collect Acceptable & Sufficient Evidence
May be differentiated

29. Summative Project: Create an Authentic “performances of understanding”
G - a real-world goal
R - a meaningful role for the student
A - authentic, or simulated real-world
audience(s)
S - a conceptualized situation that involve real-world
application
P - student generated culminating products and
performances
S - consensus driven performance standards
(criteria) for judging success

30. STAGE 2: Thinking Process WHAT IS EVIDENCE OF UNDERSTANDING?
Determine the Performance task or Project = Summative Assessment Method
Isolate key criteria for assessing summative performance or project – Create a Rubric for Summative Project! - May be differentiated
Select supportive Assessments:
Formative Assessments - while learning
Diagnostic Assessments - before learning
4. Isolate criteria and develop tools for supportive assessments methods - May be differentiated

31. ASSESSMENT PLANNING KEEP IN MIND
ASSESSMENT PLANNING KEEP IN MIND Purpose: Diagnostic, Formative, Summative Student Outcomes/Learning Goals Learner Characteristics
Assessment Methods
Case Study Charts
Checklist Demonstrations
Essay Exams &Quizzes
Exhibitions Graphic Organizers
Group Project Guided Response
Interviews Journal or Log
Open Response Performance
Observation Problem-solving
Product Project
Portfolio Rubric
Research Paper Short Answer
Scoring Tools
Chart
Checklist
Graphic Organizer
Rubrics
Scales
Exam/Quiz Key
Observation with criteria

32. Stage 3: Plan Differentiated Experiences & Instruction
What learning experiences and instruction
promote engagement, understanding
and achievement for ALL students?

33. Stage 3: Plan Differentiated Experiences & Instruction
Use the learning cycle to sequence experiences within and across disciplines
Awareness • Exploration • Elaboration • Utilization
Select a variety of highly effective strategies from research-based repertoire of teaching strategies
Differentiate instruction to accommodate for advanced learners, learners and struggling learners
Check connection to Stage 1: enduring understanding and essential questions, learning goals.

34. The Learning Cycle
Exploration
Awareness
Elaboration
Utilization

35. UbD Instructional Plan
Awareness
Read/Write
Social Studies
Science
Visual
Art
Modifications
Exploration
Elaboration
Utilizaiton

36. SELECT
Research Based Instructional Strategies

37. INSTRUCTION
Must be Differentiated for Diverse Learners

38. Stage 4: Set the Stage for Learning
How will the learning environment
support, stimulate, inspire and
validate student learning?

39. Stage 4: Set the Stage for Learning
Plan an Integrated Learning Center
Draw the center design and add appropriate modifications or assistive technologies
Identify where and how will you communicate and share student learning with others including process and products
List the resources, artifacts, and materials you need to successfully teach this unit.
Identify which artists and/or works of art support visual literacy and connections to other disciplines.
Determine the children’s literature needed to support the curriculum content and verbal literacy - leveled books.
Select other materials, games, artifacts you may need to support learning of all students.

40. Where to Begin Your Unit?
Step 1 - IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS
KEY STEP FOR THE ENTIRE UNIT - BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND!
DO IT FIRST; DO IT WELL
Step 2 - DETERMINE ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE
CLARIFIES WHAT LEARNING LOOKS LIKE IN THIS UNIT OF INSTRUCTION
Step 3 - PLAN EXPERIENCES AND INSTRUCTION
DETERMINES THE LEVEL OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND DEPTH OF UNDERSTANDING
Step 4 - SET THE STAGE FOR LEARNING
PROVIDES THE SUPPORT & RESOURCES FOR LEARNING IN THIS UNIT