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

Standards-Based Nice to Know Important to Know Essential to Know Standards-based planning enables us to help our students hit the target. As educators, we have to be extremely clear about what we want students to Know, Understand and Be Able to Do. In a moment, we are going to look at Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s Backwards Planning model as a strategy to do this. First, let’s take a moment to practice deciding what is Essential to know in a unit of study, Important to know and Nice to know. On Chart, ask participants to brainstorm: Next,

Preparation for construction Demolition and construction The process of planning effective instruction for your students is like renovating your dream house!! It involves: Envisioning A Design phase Preparation for construction Demolition and construction The finished product Wiggins likens state standards to the building codes that a home renovator must work within. The goal of a renovation is not to meet the codes! It’s to build your dream house – within the codes. Now that we know what is essential, it is time to begin building our dream unit!! Envisioning – Thinking big about what you want and comparing it to what exists now Design phase – Planning the steps to get to the vision; at this stage, it’s important to have design principles – in schools, a clear idea of how students learn best Preparation for construction – Getting the materials in place Demolition and construction – The messy part The finished product – Evaluating it against the design. Wiggins likens state standards to the building codes that a home renovator must work within. The goal of a renovation is not to meet the codes! It’s to build your dream house – within the codes.

“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? The key questions in planning for unit development should be: What big ideas and skills should students leave knowing. This includes skills and big understandings. What should they remember next year and the year after, when they’ve forgotten the name or date that they memorized for this learning? What counts as evidence that they really learned this? What do you currently use to determine this? Notice that in my planning, this comes second, not last! What learning experiences can I plan to get them there? What should I consider about these students, their learning styles, their preferences, their needs?   This will be our outline for completing the backwards design model. Grant Wiggins Discuss: Where do you recognize evidence of Backward Planning within this course?

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results a. What enduring understandings are desired? b. What essential questions will guide this unit and focus teaching/learning? c. What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit? It is important to remember that our Big Ideas and Essential Questions need to be aligned with assessments and teaching and learning activities. Our desired results begin with the Goal, which comes directly from our MA Frameworks Enduring Understandings: describe the specific insights about big ideas that we want students to leave with? Our Essential Questions will frame the teaching and learning, pointing toward key issues and ideas, and suggest meaningful and provocative inquiry into content Finally, determining what students should know and be able to do will guide our lesson development. Let’s look more closely at each of these steps.

What we want students to Know (Facts) Vocabulary Terminology Definitions Key factual information Formulas Critical details Important events and people Sequence and timelines We want students to have a foundational knowledge of the material. We want students to be able to speak with each other about the topic. That means that there are things that students need to “remember” in order to participate in this learning. Think of the Know as the “facts”. Bring in the list one term at a time. Suggest a topic to be used throughout the rest of the slideshow: Settling the West.

What we want students to be able to REMEMBER (Understandings): Many pioneers, especially children, died from disease. Much hard work was required to settle new land – clearing fields, constructing shelter. The pioneers had to grow, or hunt, for their food. Often, they went hungry. Settlers faced attacks by Native American tribes on whose land they traveled or settled. When we talk about student understanding, we should consider students’ ability to Explain Interpret Apply Shift perspective Empathize And Self-assess If our big understanding is that pioneers faced many hardships settling the West, then students should be able to explain that using what they’ve learned as evidence. Big Idea (The UNDERSTANDING) The pioneers faced many hardships in the settlement of the West.

What we want students to be able to DO: (Skills) Basic skills – decoding, computation Communication skills – listening, speaking, writing Thinking skills – compare, infer, analyze, interpret Research, inquiry, investigation skills Study skills – notetaking, fill out charts Interpersonal, group skills

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results a. What enduring understandings are desired? b. What essential questions will guide this unit and focus teaching/learning? c. What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit? That kind of thinking is so important to effective planning. Teachers who differentiate are reflective about their students and their curriculum. We receive the frameworks, yet we must internalize them, analyze them, determine importance within them if we are to be effective with our students. Essential Questions offer us an opening into how to make this learning meaningful for our students. These questions come from our personal connections to the learning. These are our ideas for how to build interest in what we are going to be learning. Writing a good essential question can be challenging at first. Let’s spend some time looking at what makes a good essential question.

Essential Questions should be… Arguable - and important to argue about At the heart of the subject Recurring - in professional work, adult life, as well as in classroom inquiry Raising more questions for learners – provoking and sustaining engaged inquiry Centered around important conceptual or philosophical issues A tool for organizing purpose; for making student learning meaningful and connected These are questions which touch our hearts and souls. They are central to our lives. They help to define what it means to be human. The greatest novels, the greatest plays, the greatest songs and the greatest paintings all explore Essential Questions in some manner. Essential Questions are at the heart of the search for Truth. Essential Questions offer the organizing focus for a unit. If the U.S. History class will spend a month on a topic such as the Civil War, students explore the events and the experience with a mind toward casting light upon one of the following questions, or they develop Essential Questions of their own . . . Why do we have to fight wars? Do we have to fight wars? Some say our country remains wounded by the slavery experience and the Civil War. In what ways might this claim be true and in what ways untrue? What evidence can you supply to substantiate your case? How much diversity can any nation tolerate?

What causes a species to become extinct? Essential Question: What causes a species to become extinct? Topical Essential Question: What caused dinosaurs to become extinct? Guiding Question: What is an omnivore? What was the largest species of dinosaur? There are notable differences in Essential Questions. Our questions may remain “large” in that we ask about a “species”. If we want a topical essential questions, we can change “species” to “dinosaurs”. A Guiding Question is NOT an Essential Question. The simplest way to separate the two is to consider that: The answer to a Guided Question is in the learning; waiting to be found. The answer to an Essential Question is answered based on developing opinions and most often is not a right or wrong answer. You may think of them as “answerable” and “not answerable”. You MAY take the opportunity here to develop Essential Questions with the group. Suggestion: Each person writes one essential question for the unit they are currently in. Shuffle and redistribute to the group. Ask groups to rate the questions using the rubric at the end of Day Three script. This can solidify their understanding of developing good Essential Questions.

Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence d. Through what performance tasks(s) will students demonstrate understanding, knowledge, and skill? e. Through what prompts/academic problems or test/quiz items will students demonstrate understanding, as well as more discrete knowledge, and skill? f. Through what unprompted evidence (e.g., observations, work samples, etc.) will students demonstrate understanding, knowledge, and skill? g. How will students reflect upon, and self-assess their learning? Multiple forms of assessment Difference between performance assessment and other evidence. Graded and not graded. authentic performance tasks Performance Evidence: What we see in the classroom as the students PERFORM the tasks of learning and making meaning. Ask participants: What Performance Evidence do you see in your classroom? Other Evidence: What is GRADED in the classroom. Ask participants: What Other Evidence do you use in your classroom?

Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction h. What sequence of teaching and learning experiences will equip students to develop and demonstrate the desired understandings? How will the design – W = Help students know where the unit is going? H = Hook all students and hold their interest? E = Equip the students, explore the issues, and experience the key ideas? R = Provide built-in opportunities to rethink and revise their understandings and work? E = Allow students to evaluate their work Remember the six facets of understanding --- explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess? Step 3 brings us to the part where we begin to develop the “How To” for making it all happen. The following WHERETO model is very useful in considering this unit plan. W - “Where are we headed?” (the student’s Q!) H - How will the student be ‘hooked’? E - What opportunities will there be to be equipped, and to experience and explore key ideas? R - What will provide opportunities to rethink, rehearse, refine and revise? E - How will students evaluate and exhibit their work? T - How will the work be tailored to individual needs, interests, styles? O - How will the work be organized for maximal engagement and effectiveness?

THE TEACHER Big ideas and Essential Questions Performance requirements Evaluative criteria Hooks Variety of strategies / Variety of resources Facilitates students' active construction of meaning (rather than simply telling) Incorporates the six facets of understanding Uses questioning, probing, and feedback Teaches basic knowledge and skills (in the context of big ideas and explores essential questions) Uses information from formative assessments THE TEACHER We’re going to watch a video of a 6th grade math teacher, Kay Toliver. I would like you to use the chart on page – of your packet to document how she addresses the WHERE TO in her lesson design. Let’s take a quick refresh at what we hope to see from the teacher, the learner and the learning environment. (use this and the following 2 slides and then show video.

THE LEARNER Describe the goals and performance requirements Explain what they are doing and why Hooked and remain engaged Describe the criteria by which their work will be evaluated Demonstrate learning Generate relevant questions Able to explain and justify their work and their answers Self- or peer-assessment Use the criteria or rubrics Set relevant goals THE LEARNER

CLASSROOM ENVIRON MENT Big ideas and essential questions are posted and remain central to the work of the students Norms and culture of the classroom support learning High expectations for all ALL students and their ideas are treated with dignity and respect Rubrics are provided Samples or models of student work are made visible. Learning experiences are differentiated as needed CLASSROOM ENVIRON MENT