January 2007 p.1 Evidence-based Professional and Instructional Change

January 2007 p.2 EPIC is… A curriculum development project A professional development initiative A supporting framework for school improvement A $705K project funded by IHCE

January 2007 p.3 The EPIC Model Connecting curriculum design with evidence- gathering technologies Unpacking academic standards in curriculum development and assessment instrumentation Analyzing evidence of meaningful instruction with broader array of assessments Strengthening professional development with collaboration and dissemination

January 2007 p.4 Stages of EPIC Participation Stage 1 (UbD): Determine desired results Stage 2 (UbD): Develop performance tasks and instruments Stage 3 (UbD): Plan for learning activities Stage 4 (EPIC): Gather and analyze assessment evidence Stage 5 (EPIC): Revise and disseminate curriculum *Refer to 5 page template

January 2007 p.5 The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People “To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.” -Stephen Covey

January 2007 p.6 Understanding in All Stages Based on Wiggins and McTighe’s six facets of understanding to serve as recursive model in curriculum and assessment development: Explanation Interpretation Application Perspective Empathy Self-knowledge

January 2007 p.7 Worth Being Familiar With Clarifying Content Priorities Important to Know and Do © 1998 Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe Enduring Understandings

January 2007 p.8 Worth Being Familiar With Establishing Curricular Priorities and Assessment-Stage 2 Important to Know and Do © 1998 Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe Enduring Understandings Traditional Quizzes and Tests Performance Tasks and Projects Paper and pencil Selected response Constructed response Complex Open-ended Authentic

January 2007 p.9 1. Identify desired results 2. Determine acceptable evidence 3. Plan learning experiences & instruction 3 Stages of (“Backward”) Design © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.10 Why “backward”? 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 © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.11 Misconception Alert: the work is non-linear It doesn’t matter where you start as long as the final design is coherent (all elements aligned) Clarifying one element or Stage often forces changes to another element or Stage The template “blueprint” is logical but the process is non-linear (think: home improvement!) ! © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.12 The “big ideas” of each stage: Assessment Evidence LearningActivities Understandings Essential Questions s t a g e 2 s t a g e 3 Standard(s): s t a g e 1 PerformanceTask(s):Other Evidence: Unpack the content standards and ‘content’, focus on big ideas Analyze multiple sources of evidence, aligned with Stage 1 Derive the implied learning from Stages 1 & 2 What are the big ideas? What’s the evidence? How will we get there? © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.13 What are the big ideas? -Pioneer Spirit Understanding: Successful pioneers rely on courage,… Essential Question What is pioneer Spirit? Do you consider yourself a pioneer? Why? Why Not?

January 2007 p.14 What’s the evidence? Determine Acceptable Evidence Museum Display (Performance Task)

January 2007 p.15 How will we get there? Member of Larkin’s Wagon Train

You’ve got to go below the surface... © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.17 to uncover the really ‘big ideas.’ © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p Identify desired results 2. Determine acceptable evidence 3. Plan learning experiences & instruction 3 Stages of Design, elaborated © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.19 Stage 1 – Identify desired results. Key: Focus on Big ideas Enduring Understandings: What specific insights about big ideas do we want students to leave with? What essential questions will frame the teaching and learning, pointing toward key issues and ideas, and suggest meaningful and provocative inquiry into content? What should students know and be able to do? What content standards are addressed explicitly by the unit? U K Q CS © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.20 Key: Focus on Big ideas Enduring Understandings: What specific insights about big ideas do we want students to leave with?  Students will understand that the settlement of the West threatened the lifestyle and culture of the Native American tribes living on the plains. Stage 1 – Identify desired results.

January 2007 p.21 Key: Focus on Big ideas What essential questions will frame the teaching and learning, pointing toward key issues and ideas, and suggest meaningful and provocative inquiry into content?  What happens when cultures collide? Stage 1 – Identify desired results.

January 2007 p.22 Stage 1 – Identify desired results. Key: Focus on Big ideas What should students know and be able to do?  Key factual information about the current status of the Native American tribes who were impacted by the Westward Expansion.  Use research skills to uncover information about the current lives of the Native American tribes.

January 2007 p.23 Stage 1 – Identify desired results. Key: Focus on Big ideas What content standards are addressed explicitly by the unit? Read fiction and nonfiction stories about conflicts among and between groups of people at different stages in the formation of the United States

January 2007 p.24 The “big idea” of Stage 1: There is a clear focus in the unit on the big ideas Implications: Organize content around key concepts Show how the big ideas offer a purpose and rationale for the student You will need to “unpack” Content standards in many cases to make the implied big ideas clear © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.25 An understanding is a “moral of the story” about the big ideas What specific insights will students take away about the the meaning of ‘content’ via big ideas? Understandings summarize the desired insights we want students to realize From Big Ideas to Understandings about them U © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.26 Understanding, defined: They are... specific generalizations about the “big ideas.” They summarize the key meanings, inferences, and importance of the ‘content’ deliberately framed as a full sentence “moral of the story” – “Students will understand THAT …” Require “uncoverage” because they are not “facts” to the novice, but unobvious inferences drawn from facts - counter-intuitive & easily misunderstood © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.27 Understandings: examples... The settlement of the West threatened the lifestyle and culture of the Native American tribes living on the plains. Price is a function of supply and demand. Friendships can be deepened or undone by hard times Great artists often break with conventions to better express what they see and feel. F = ma (weight is not mass) Math models simplify physical relations – and even sometimes distort relations – to deepen our understanding of them The storyteller rarely tells the meaning of the story U © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.28 Knowledge vs. Understanding An understanding is an unobvious and important inference, needing “uncoverage” in the unit; knowledge is a set of established “facts”. Understandings make sense of facts, skills, and ideas: they tell us what our knowledge means; they ‘connect the dots’ Any understandings are inherently fallible “theories”; knowledge consists of the accepted “facts” upon which a “theory” is based and the “facts” which a “theory” yields. © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.29 Essential Questions What questions – are arguable - and important to argue about? are at the heart of the subject? recur - and should recur - in professional work, adult life, as well as in classroom inquiry? raise more questions – provoking and sustaining engaged inquiry? often raise important conceptual or philosophical issues? can provide organizing purpose for meaningful & connected learning? Q © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.30 Sample Essential Questions: What happens when cultures collide? Who are my true friends - and how do I know for sure? Does a good read differ from a ‘great book’? Why are some books fads, and others classics? To what extent is geography destiny? Should an axiom be obvious? How different is a scientific theory from a plausible belief? What is the government’s proper role? Q © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p Identify desired results 2. Determine acceptable evidence 3. Plan learning experiences & instruction 3 Stages of Design: Stage 2 © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.32 Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence Template fields ask: What are key complex performance tasks indicative of understanding? What other evidence will be collected to build the case for understanding, knowledge, and skill? What rubrics will be used to assess complex performance? T OE R © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.33 Scenarios for Authentic Tasks Build assessments anchored in authentic tasks using GRASPS: What is the G oal in the scenario? What is the R ole? Who is the A udience? What is your S ituation (context)? What is the P erformance challenge? By what S tandards will work be judged in the scenario? S P S G R A T © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.34 Reliability: Snapshot vs. Photo Album We need patterns that overcome inherent measurement error Sound assessment (particularly of State Standards) requires multiple evidence over time - a photo album vs. a single snapshot © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.35 Assessment Technologies Providing teachers with tools to translate assessment goals into evidence gathering and analysis EPIC teachers are currently creating standards-based rubrics in BSU’s rGrade rGrade’s digital gradebook helps manage rubric-based, performance assessment in everyday practice

January 2007 p.36 Building Rubrics

January 2007 p Identify desired results 2. Determine acceptable evidence 3. Plan learning experiences & instruction 3 Stages of Design: Stage 3 © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.38 Stage 3 big idea: EFFECTIVEEFFECTIVE and E N G A G IN G © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.39 Stage 3 – Plan Learning Experiences & Instruction A focus on engaging and effective learning, “designed in” What learning experiences and instruction will promote the desired understanding, knowledge and skill of Stage 1? How will the design ensure that all students are maximally engaged and effective at meeting the goals? L © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.40 Think of your obligations via W. H. E. R. E. T. O. “ Where are we headed?” (the student’s Q!) How will the student be ‘hooked’? What opportunities will there be to be equipped, and to experience and explore key ideas? What will provide opportunities to rethink, rehearse, refine and revise? How will students evaluate their work? How will the work be tailored to individual needs, interests, styles? How will the work be organized for maximal engagement and effectiveness? W H E E R L T O © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.41 Collaboration Technologies Support professional discourse EPIC Community will be available in SmartDESKTOP for all teachers in Indiana

January 2007 p.42 SmartDESKTOP

January 2007 p.43 For More Information

January 2007 p.44 The big ideas provide a way to connect and recall knowledge The Parallel postulate S.A.S. Congruence A 2 + B 2 = C 2 Like rules of a game Like Bill of Rights Big Idea: A system of many powerful inferences from a small set of givens © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.45 “Big Ideas” are typically revealed via – Core concepts Focusing themes On-going debates/issues Insightful perspectives Illuminating paradox/problem Organizing theory Overarching principle Underlying assumption (Key questions) (Insightful inferences from facts) U Q © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.46 Some questions for identifying truly “big ideas” Does it have many layers and nuances, not obvious to the naïve or inexperienced person? Can it yield great depth and breadth of insight into the subject? Can it be used throughout K-12? Do you have to dig deep to really understand its subtle meanings and implications even if anyone can have a surface grasp of it? Is it (therefore) prone to misunderstanding as well as disagreement? Are you likely to change your mind about its meaning and importance over a lifetime? Does it reflect the core ideas as judged by experts? © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.47 Big Ideas in Literacy: Examples Rational persuasion (vs. manipulation) audience and purpose in writing A story, as opposed to merely a list of events linked by “and then…” reading between the lines writing as revision a non-rhyming poem vs. prose fiction as a window into truth A critical yet empathetic reader A writer’s voice © 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe

January 2007 p.48