copyright (c) 1998 by the association for supervision and curriculum development. all rights...

Copyright (C) 1998 by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. All rights reserved.

Workshop Understandings

Effective curriculum design evolves from clear goals and is aligned across all stages.

UbD is a way of thinking more carefully about curriculum and unit design.

UbD design standards improves teaching and learning

Teaching and assessing for understanding enhances learning of content standards.


Essential Questions

Why are the best curriculum designs “backward”?

What is good/effective design?Why teach for understanding?How will we know what students really

understand?What is the difference between

understanding and knowing?


It’s important to understand a few things that UbD is NOT…

UbD does not purport to be anything new; the authors consider it to be the synthesis of educational best practices.

UbD is not a “fix” for what’s “broken” in classrooms. It is a framework for promoting understanding, and a method for designing engagement.

The UbD framework does not suggest that everything we ask students to learn must be focused on deep, sophisticated understandings.


What has worked against understanding in schools?

Instruction has not always prioritized important ideas that are worthy of understanding. To most students, various activities and textbook topics appear of equal importance.

Unit design has not always worked to foster understanding because it has not encouraged students to explore essential questions, link key ideas, or rethink their ideas and theories.

We are often guilty of not providing clear performance targets. Students do not know the purpose of activities and are not asked to connect their learning to performance requirements.

The evidence of understanding has not been established.

“Students can hit any appropriate achievement target that is clear and holds still for them.”

-Rick Stiggins

Assessment Training Institute .


Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

Enduring UnderstandingsEssential questionsKnowledge and Skills .



Enduring Understandings come from… Unit Topics Deconstructed standards


Enduring Understandings (pg.71)

• Anchor the units* Provide a larger purpose

• The big ideas• What we want students

to retain after they have forgotten many of the details.

Worth being familiar with

Important to know and do

Enduring Understanding

s



Enduring Understandings

Example: Your Driving Test & the 40/40/40 filter


Enduring Understandings

You must be within twelve inches of the curb

when parallel parking.

On your mind for 40 Minutes

On your mind for 40 days

On your mind for 40+ years

Your hands are always on your cell

pho…I mean steering wheel.

Obeying driving laws increases

safety.


Overarching and Topical Understandings

Pg. 87 - 100


Enduring UnderstandingsYour Turn




s

In your table groups come up with your own example of a 40/40/40 filter! .




What essential question(s) will guide and focus the teaching and learning? .


Essential Questions (pg. 108)

Have no one obvious right answerRaise additional important questions

(perhaps across content areas)Recur naturallyFramed to provoke/sustain student interest


Overarching questions:• Go beyond the unit and focus on

larger, broader ideas• Specific ideas or information about

the unit is not mentioned• Link other topics or subject areas• Create a theme within the

classroom including several different subject areas .


Topical questions:

• More specific• Can be answered by researching the

material within the unit assigned• May be difficult to answer, but can be

answered using the facts and information from within the unit

- compare the two on pg. 115


Essential Questions:

Your TurnIn your table groups sort through the sample Essential Questions to determine which are topical and which are overarching

.


6 Facets of UnderstandingThese facets can be used as a stimulus for generating Essential Questions:

ExplanationInterpretationApplicationPerspectiveEmpathySelf-Knowledge


Essential Questions

Whenever possible EQ’s should be in age appropriate language.

Example: How does an organism’s structure enable it to survive in its environment?

Example: How does the size, shape, and strength of an animal help it to live where it does?




What essential question(s) will guide and focus the teaching and learning?

What knowledge and skills will be needed?

.


Skills and Knowledge

Once you have yourunderstanding andquestions, you need todetermine whatprerequisite knowledge isneeded to support theunderstanding.

Facts Dates Vocabulary Simple Concepts .

.

Knowledge that is Worth being

familiar with

Knowledge and skills that are

important to know and do


s


Our Example

Topic: GeologyEALR: Science 1.2.4

Classify rocks and soils into groups based on their chemical and physical properties; describe the processes by which rocks and soils are formed.


Our Example

Enduring Understandings:

Rocks are grouped into categories based on contents.


Essential Questions:

Why?

How?

To what extent?


6 Facets of UnderstandingThese facets can be used as a stimulus for generating Essential Questions:

ExplanationInterpretationApplicationPerspectiveEmpathySelf-Knowledge


Your Turn

Using the Enduring Understanding you’ve developed, create some Essential Questions.


6 FacetsYour TurnTake the EQ’s that were generated and

sort them by the 6 facetsExamine the patterns regarding types of

facets that are most often usedDiscuss the skills and prior knowledge that

will be needed

copyright (c) 1998 by the association for supervision and curriculum development. all rights...

Documents

curriculum development

copyright c

best curriculum

ubd design standards

worthy of understanding

evidence of understanding

sophisticated understandings

unit design