www.bsu.edu/epic january 2007 p.1 evidence-based professional and instructional change

www.bsu.edu/epic January 2007 p.1

Evidence-based Professional and Instructional Change


EPIC is…

A curriculum development project

A professional development initiative

A supporting framework for school improvement

A $705K project funded by IHCE


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


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


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


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


Worth BeingFamiliar With

Clarifying Content Priorities

Important toKnow and Do

© 1998 Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

EnduringUnderstandings


Worth BeingFamiliar With

Establishing Curricular Priorities and Assessment-Stage 2

Important toKnow and Do

© 1998 Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

EnduringUnderstandings

Traditional Quizzes and Tests

Performance Tasks and Projects

•Paper and pencil•Selected response•Constructed response

•Complex•Open-ended•Authentic


1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences

& instruction

3 Stages of (“Backward”) Design

© 2002 Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe


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



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!)

!



The “big ideas” of each stage:

Assessment Evidence

Learning Activities

Understandings Essential Questions

stage

2

stage

3

Standard(s):

stage

1

Performance Task(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?



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


What’s the evidence?

Determine Acceptable Evidence

Museum Display(Performance Task)


How will we get there?

Member of Larkin’s Wagon Train

You’ve got to go below the surface...


to uncover the really ‘big ideas.’






& instruction

3 Stages of Design, elaborated



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



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.



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.




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.




What content standards are addressed explicitly by the unit?

5.5.3--Read fiction and nonfiction stories about conflicts among and between groups of people at different stages in the formation of the United States


The “big idea” of Stage 1:

There is a clear focus in the unit on the big ideasImplications: 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



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



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



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



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.



Essential QuestionsWhat 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



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






& instruction

3 Stages of Design: Stage 2



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



Scenarios for Authentic Tasks

Build assessments anchored in authentic tasks using GRASPS: What is the Goal in the scenario? What is the Role? Who is the Audience? What is your Situation (context)? What is the Performance challenge? By what Standards will work be judged in the

scenario?

SPS

GRA

T



Reliability: Snapshot vs. Photo AlbumWe 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



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


Building Rubrics





& instruction

3 Stages of Design: Stage 3



Stage 3 big idea:

EFFECTIVE

and

ENGAGING



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



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?

WHE

E

R

L

TO



Collaboration Technologies

Support professional discourse

EPIC Community will be available in SmartDESKTOP for all teachers in Indiana


SmartDESKTOP


For More Information

www.bsu.edu/epic

[email protected]

765-285-7600


The big ideas provide a way to connect and recall knowledge

The Parallel postulate

S.A.S. Congruence

A2 + B2 = C2

Like rules of a game

Like Bill of Rights

Big Idea: A system

of many powerful inferences from a

small set of givens



“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



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?



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


www.bsu.edu/epic january 2007 p.1 evidence-based professional and instructional change

Documents

assessment evidence

authentic slide

dissemination slide

ihce slide

assessment development

instruments stage

desired results stage

page template slide