1. Understanding by Design
ASCD Thomas Rye
Tamalpais Union High School District

2. Understandings
Understanding by Design is a way of thinking more carefully about curriculum, unit, lesson design, and more.
UbD focuses on transferable, big ideas of the targeted content as well as standards.
The ultimate goal is transfer by way of a performance (or transfer) task.
The purpose of assessment is to provide reliable and authentic evidence of progress toward understanding.

3. Outcomes:
Design a departmental plan for your school or district using the Understanding by Design framework.
Explore and understand the ideas of Understanding by Design from both a classroom and counseling perspective.

4. Essential Questions: Why Understanding by Design?
To what extent is an Understanding by Design classroom different?
How can Understanding by Design help articulate and achieve counseling goals?

5. Understanding by Design is NOT
The panacea for the woes of education. A formula for planning curriculum. A rigid system. A set of questions or statements posted on classroom walls.

6. Understanding by Design is
A way of thinking about getting students to explore the most important questions and concepts in their subjects in school.
A flexible framework to help students transfer knowledge and skills into new contexts that require explanation, interpretation, application, empathy, perspective, or self-knowledge.

7. Understanding by Design
Builds on best practices and approaches from education.
Helps address the “So what?” question when (not if) it comes up in class.

8. 40-40-40 Nice to know “Big ideas” worth exploring and understanding
A timeline detailing the early history of the Internet
Nice to know
Foundational
knowledge & skill
How to evaluate the credibility of Internet sources
“Big ideas”
worth
exploring and
understanding
in depth
Emerging technologies have the power to change the way we understand our world 8 8

9. Understanding by Design is a tool.

10. “Let the main ideas which are introduced into a child’s education be few and important, and let them be thrown into every combination possible. The child should make them his own, and should understand their application here and now in the circumstances of his actual life” (Whitehead, The Aims of Education 1912).

11. Understanding by Design 101
Big Ideas Backward Design Transfer

12. Ngised Drawkcab
Identify Desired Results Determine Sufficient Evidence Plan Learning Experiences
Donna

13. Why is this called “backward” design?

14. Transfer
“The appropriate and fruitful use of knowledge in a new or different context from that which it was initially learned.” --UbD Professional Development Workbook (292).

15. Assessment and Transfer
You teach certain skills, knowledge, concepts, and standards in order to accomplish what?
Your students must be able to do or know_________________ in order to independently ______________. (transfer goal)

16. Counseling Standards Academic Development Career Development
Personal / Social Development

17. Establishing Your Goals
Collaboration
Sharing

18. Three stages of backward design
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction

19. What are the Big Ideas for your Department?
Goal Setting
Taking Responsibility

20. Conflict, revolution, change
Big ideas:
Conflict, revolution, change
Essential Question:
To what extent did the conflicts of the Civil Rights movement create a platform for political change? 20

21. From Big Ideas to Essential Questions
Interpreting Functions Why is it important for students to do this?
Erik

22. Designing with Essential Questions
More question-based, problem-based, and challenge-based design: as opposed to content-based design
Moving away from the textbook as syllabus: to the textbook as resource, in support of understanding- focused goals
More like athletics, art: complex performances of transfer that require the inferences and the content 22

23. Design Standards for Essential Questions
Align with big ideas and enduring understandings
Provoke genuine inquiry
Encourage transfer 23

24. Sample essential questions
Math
How can you represent the same number in different ways? How can that help you?
To what extent can you lie with statistics?
What are the limits of this mathematical model?
Physical Education
What makes this technique work? When (and who) is it best for?
What’s our strategy? How is it working? What adjustments do we need to make?
How does the way I talk affect the other players?
How do I get better at this?

25. Sample essential questions
Business and Applied Arts
What’s the best tool/materials for the job?
Is failure necessary for personal growth?
What do existing models help me see? How does that influence my work?
When should I follow an example? When do I go out on my own?

26. Sample essential questions
Social Studies
What story do maps tell?
What makes a community work?
How do the stories we tell shape who we are?
To what extent can one person change the world?
Photograph
How does a camera record a moment?
How do I use technique to create a vision?
What makes an image memorable?
Dance
Why does my mind need to know what my body is doing?

27. Sample essential questions
Language Arts
What does a good listener do?
What does a reader bring to a text?
How do you write so other people can understand what you are trying to say?
What makes a story work?
What is the speaker trying to communicate? How does the delivery influence my response?
How do I figure out meaning when I don’t understand all of the words?
Science
How do you know something is alive?
Are we destined to become our parents?
How is this system designed to handle change?

28. Sample essential questions
How do my words/actions impact myself/others?
What is the pattern here? What does it help me see?
How does a reader work to make meaning from a text?
What am I focusing on as I’m working? How does that affect the quality of my work?
How will what I’m learning help me achieve my goals? 28

29. Is this an Essential Question?
What are the elements of writing?
Define “scientific method.”
To what extent can you lie with statistics?
What are the dates of the Civil War?
Why read old books?
To what extent can we predict the future?

30. Task:
Write 2-3 essential questions for your unit.

31. How Essential Questions tie to Enduring Understandings
Big Idea
Enduring Understandings
Essential Questions
Cultural voice / heritage
A group’s identity is defined by a shared system of beliefs and practices.
How does family influence who we are? Who we become?
What makes a group powerful?
What do we learn about a group/culture by the stories they tell?
Donna

32. OVERARCHING ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How are root words used in language to form vocabulary?
Why does supporting our opinions with facts give authenticity to our words?
TOPICAL ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How can we analyze a character’s point of view for perspective?
How do we compare and contrast for meaning through different forms of writing, such as letters, memos, diary entries, and transcripts?
How can we express and support our opinions with facts in order to effectively write a persuasive essay?

33. Experiencing Voices of Courage
OVERARCHING ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS
Using our own voice in writing gives authenticity and character to our words.
TOPICAL ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS
Persuasive essays are an effective avenue to voice opinion and to justify reasons for thoughts and actions.
Identifying a character’s point of view allows us to understand and analyze differing thoughts, motives, and actions.
Comparing and contrasting various forms of writing help us analyze how different meanings can be conveyed.

34. Design Standards for Enduring Understandings
Big ideas at the heart of the discipline
Requires “uncoverage”
Lasting value beyond the classroom
Measurable
Remember the frame: “Students will understand that . . .”

35. Sample enduring understandings
Computers/Business Education
A good planner knows why and when to make adjustments.
Success and failures are measured in every area of business.
Audience and purpose influence the choice, use and presentation of language.
Satisfying a customer at any cost is not always good for business.

36. Sample enduring understandings
Environmental Science:
Citizens have a responsibility to voice their opinions about important issues in articulate and educated ways.
Environmental awareness and stewardship are crucial toward developing civic responsibility.
Letter writing can be a powerful way to bring about change in the community.
Mathematics:
Mathematics is a useful language for symbolically modeling and thus simplifying and analyzing our world.
Math can give visualization to what cannot be seen.
Probability models are useful tools for making decisions and predictions. 36

37. Sample enduring understandings
Social Studies
A union is only as strong as its citizens belief in it and each other.
The government structure reflects the amount of faith the leaders have in its people.
We have become more democratic over time.
English
Youth cannot always know what is right because of inexperience.
You are judged by the rules you follow and the rules you break.

38. Sample enduring understandings
Physical Education/Health
Knowing the rules can create opportunities.
A team is more than a collection of individuals.
Risk-taking has both expected and unexpected consequences.

39. Sample enduring understandings
Art
The context in which a piece is created impacts the audience’s perception of the piece.
Experience and opportunities provide inspiration for further pursuits.
FACS
Pursuing a career path requires structured long-term planning and willingness to deviate from those plans to take risks.
You are judged by the rules you follow and the rules you break.

40. Which of the following are enduring understandings?
Writing involves many elements.
In a free-market economy, price is a function of supply and demand.
DNA
Students will understand how to compare and order fractions, decimals, percents, and numbers written in scientific notation.
Students will understand that there are numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems.
Erik 40

41. Task: Moving from essential questions to enduring understandings:
Draft Enduring Understandings for your unit.

42. knowledge and skills . . .assist students in gaining understanding AND
in illustrating their understanding
Donna

43. Knowledge, Skills, and Understanding

44. Design Standards for Knowledge and Skills
What students should know
Appropriate given the unit focus, assessments, and time allotted
Succinctly stated
What students should be able to do
Choice of verb indicates performance expectation

45. Identifying key knowledge and skills
Given the targeted content standards and understandings, what will students need to know and be able to do?
Knowledge: • __________________
Skills: • __________________

46. - vocabulary/ terminology - definitions - key factual information
Factual knowledge
includes...
- vocabulary/ terminology
- definitions
- key factual information
- critical details
- important events and people
- sequence/timeline

47. includes... 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

48. Task:
Identify (and reference standards where appropriate) Knowledge and Skills for your unit.

49. Self-assessment of Stage One:
Task:
Self-assessment of Stage One:
Are the understandings declarative statements that demand exploration?
To what extent will the essential questions engage students and guide them to understanding?
To what extent is stage 1 truly centered on understanding?
Are knowledge and skills aligned with and appropriate for the understandings?
Erik

50. Three stages of backward design
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction

51. Desired results for Stage 2
The purpose of assessment is to provide reliable and authentic evidence of understanding.
Assessment not only measures student performance, it motivates it.
If you value the desired result, learners deserve accessible opportunities to demonstrate learning.

52. Recognizing the limits of testing
“Evaluation is a complex, multi-faceted process. Different tests provide different information, and no single test can give a complete picture of a student’s academic development. -- from CTB/McGraw-Hill Terra Nova Test Manual 52

53. How to Assess Targets The snapshot.
Brainstorm a list of adjectives describing this student. What can you infer?
Weighing all the evidence (not just the smoking gun)
We are the judge – we don’t convict someone of understanding until we see ALL the evidence
Variety of evidence – learning styles, student interests, etc.

54. How to Assess Targets The photo album versus the snapshot.
Weighing all the evidence (not just the smoking gun)
We are the judge – we don’t convict someone of understanding until we see ALL the evidence
Variety of evidence – learning styles, student interests, etc.

55. Stage 2: Assessment Plan
Stage 2 - Assessment Evidence
Transfer Task(s):
Other Evidence:
-All other forms of assessment
Quizzes, tests, prompts, work samples
Observations
Student self-assessment
Performance task
Products / Performances
Academic Prompts 55

56. Stage 2: Assessment Plan
Stage 2 - Assessment Evidence
Transfer Task(s):
Other Evidence:
Determine types of assessment
Diagnostic
Formative
Summative
Primary evidence 56

57. Enduring Understandings
Traditional quizzes & tests
Paper/pencil
Selected-response
Constructed response
Worth being
familiar with
Nice to know
Foundational
knowledge & skill
Important to
know & do
“Big ideas”
worth
exploring and
understanding
in depth
Big ideas &
Enduring Understandings
Performance tasks & projects
Complex
Open ended
Authentic 57 57

58. Designing performance tasks
GRASPS
Goal
Role
Audience
Situation
Product/Performance
Standards

59. Is the task relevant?
Connected to the classroom — demonstration / extension of what was learned
Connected to the real world — work that professionals in the field would do
Connected to student’s life —
Connected to capacity — students have clarity on what is expected from them and the necessary skills / knowledge to be successful

60. Do students have the ability to be successful?
Assess before teaching
Offer appropriate choices
Provide feedback early and often
Encourage self-assessment and goal setting
Allow new evidence of achievement to replace old evidence

61. Brainstorm possible transfer evidence for your unit.
Task:
Brainstorm possible transfer evidence for your unit.
Consider the transfer goals from stage 1
Are slides 93 and 95 redundant? Should we move the examples before 93 and just keep one of these two slides?

62. Put some photos on the desktop of possible other PTs/Academic prompts from Donna-- possibly add one or two in needed area

63. Task: Alignment of Assessments: To what extent do your assessments…
assess the enduring understandings?
assess the knowledge and skills?
Check for gaps and points of emphasis. tr 63

64. Design a transfer task for your unit.
Identify the other evidence that will round out your assessments

65. Rubrics: Tied to Stage one Definitions Most importantly: Analytic
Holistic
Gradual Release of Responsibility
Most importantly:
Tied to Stage one t

66. 4 3 2 1 Rubrics Understanding Knowledge & Skill
Unpacking understanding
Do an example together 66

67. Task:
Begin writing rubric criteria for your transfer task/understandings.

68. Review Standards—Stage Two:
Is there a range of assessments as opposed to a single task/test (photo album vs. snapshot)?
Could a student be successful on the assessment package without truly understanding?
Could the student understand and not be successful on the assessment package?

69. Three stages of backward design
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction

70. Questions What does a UbD classroom actually look like?
What are the implications of Understanding by Design for instruction?

71. A M T Acquire Information Constructing Meaning Transfer DNew knowledge
Internalizing knowldege/skill, growing level of proficiency
Independent transfer in new situations – always the goal – the dream: that a student would actually use what you taught them outside of school 71

72. ‘Enduring Understanding’
Learners must Acquire and Make Meaning out of information in the service of understanding and Transferring it.

73. Acquire information
A fact is a fact; a skill is a skill. We acquire each in turn. Acquisition does not yield understanding; it is necessary but not sufficient. If I have skills and facts, it does not mean that I understand. I cannot, however, understand without those skills and facts. 73

74. Most Common Acquisition Strategies
Lectures
Showing exemplars
Modeling
Questioning
Readings
Videos, Guest Speakers, Demonstrations D

75. Learning Calculus Acquisition vs. Meaning Making
Start
Finish
2x3
3x5
2x5
5x7
4x10
3x8
6x2
15x4
10x4
35x6
40x9
24x7 T

76. Constructing meaning What do these facts imply?
When would I use this skill (or not)?
What is their sense, import, value?
To ask, however, is to ask what those facts and skills mean.
Sounds a lot like constructivism 76

77. Instruction that supports active construction of meaning:
Problem-Based Learning
Socratic Seminar
Reciprocal Teaching
Questioning & probing
Use of analogies
Understanding-reflection notebooks
Rethinking and revising prompts T

78. Typical Meaning Making Strategies
Identifying Similarities and Differences
Summarizing and Internalizing
Nonlinguistic Representations
Cues, Questions, and Organizers
Generating Hypotheses
Adapted from A Handbook of Classroom Instruction that Works. Robert Marzano, et al. ASCD T

79. Transfer
How should I apply my prior facts, skills, and ideas effectively in this particular situation?
The situation must be new and uncharted.
The goal is independent transfer.
A third question can also be asked:
I must take what I have previously acquired and understood, and see how it can best be used in a particular and novel situation.
Really just a take on Bloom’s taxonomy and Marzano’s terms acquire and integrate knowledge, extend and refine knowledge, and meaningfully use knowledge 79

80. No thinking activated without ambiguity!!!
This demand runs counter to our instincts as teachers: we work hard to make things easier and unambiguous (i.e. when acquisition is the goal)

81. Learning to Transfer Continually reference transfer goals
Have students practice judgment in using different skills
Provide regular feedback
Vary the settings / formats / contexts / modes / language
Have students regularly generalize
Require students to constantly reword / rephrase / re- present

82. Typical Transfer Activities
Create a product or performance as an assessment or activity that is authentic (as ‘real world’ as possible).
Develop a hypothesis-Design an experimental inquiry to test it.
Select and use problem-solving and decision making strategies previously learned in new and unique situations.
Give a persuasive speech based on research on a specific topic and persuasion. D

83. Acquisition: Transfer: Action Verbs for AMT Meaning Making:
Define, Identify, Calculate, Discern, Identify, Memorize, Notice, Select, Paraphrase, Plug in, Recall, State
Transfer:
Adapt (based on feedback), Adjust (based on results), Apply, Create, Design, Innovate, Self-Assess, Solve, Trouble shoot
Meaning Making:
Analyze, Compare, Contrast, Critique, Defend, Explain, Evaluate, Generalize, Interpret, Justify/Support, Prove, Summarize, Synthesize, Test, Translate, Verify
D and T

84. Students practice tying their shoes
Some Examples of AMT A M T
Students practice tying their shoes
Students draw/speak the steps of lace tying
Students discuss the pros and cons of laces vs. Velcro, and different methods of tying
Students teach others to tie rope or ribbons T

85. Stage 3: Plan
Stage 3 - Learning Plan
Design a set of learning experiences that fosters understanding and transfer.

86. So, what is understanding?
“To understand is to be able to wisely and effectively use what one knows, in context – to “apply” our knowledge and skill effectively, in a realistic setting.”
-- Wiggins and McTighe

87. W
Where are we headed? How will the student be ‘hooked’? What opportunities will there be to be equipped, experienced, and explore key ideas? What will provide opportunities to rethink, rehearse, refine and revise? How will students evaluate their work? How will work be tailored to individual needs, interests, styles? How will work be organized for maximal engagement and effectiveness? H E R E T
Graphic of WHERETO in packet -- page 9 T O

88. Task:
Design a Stage Three learning plan for your unit.
Indicate order, code with A-M-T

89. Summary and Reflection
How can Understanding by Design help students in their academic development?
How can Understanding by Design help articulate and achieve counseling goals?
What are your next steps?

90. Contract Information