Understanding by Design Jacque Melin GVSU www formativedifferentiated

Understanding by Design Jacque Melin – GVSU www. formativedifferentiated. com

Goals for Week 2 o To illustrate and practice backward-design planning and thinking (Ub. D). o To define “understanding. ” o To begin to sketch a new unit using the Ub. D templates (include standards, transfer goal(s), enduring understanding(s), essential question(s) only). STUDENT FRIENDLY o I can practice backward-design thinking (Ub. D). o I can define “understanding” (for a unit I will teach). o I can begin to sketch a unit using the Ub. D templates (including the standards, transfer goal(s), enduring understanding(s), and essential question(s)).

Clock Partners Near you 12 Your choice 9 3 6 Similar grade level Not near you

Fist to Five o Show the number of fingers on a scale, with 1 being lowest and 5 the highest. o How well do you feel you know this information? Understanding by Design – for Unit Design 5. I know it so well I could explain it to anyone. 4. I can do it alone. 3. I need some help. 2. I could use more practice. FIST - I am only beginning.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z From Fogarty & Pete – Wildly Exciting, 2010

UNIT PLANNING A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A Few Questions to Begin 1. Does it matter that teachers have a clearning destination for their students? 2. Does it matter whether the destination is likely to help students build stronger, more productive, more satisfying lives? 3. Does it matter if we know whether our students arrive at the destination? 4. Does it matter if some students are lost and have no idea how to reconnect with us and with learning? 5. Does it matter if some students are consistently ahead and spend considerable time waiting for the rest of us to catch up?

If your answer to any of the questions is, “Yes, ” you’re in the right place…

A Few Questions to Begin 1. Does it matter that teachers have a clearning destination for their students? 2. Does it matter whether the destination is likely to help students build stronger, more productive, more satisfying lives? 3. Does it matter if we know whether our students arrive at the destination? 4. Does it matter if some students are lost and have no idea how to reconnect with us and with learning? 5. Does it matter if some students are consistently ahead and spend considerable time waiting for the rest of us to catch up?

Understanding by Design – Mc. Tighe and Wiggins

Classroom Assessment for Student Learning: Doing it Right – Using it Well Stiggins, et al

We’re here to explore connections between… o Quality curriculum o Quality assessment o Quality instruction On behalf of the students we teach.

The challenge: align goals, assessments, lessons

Why Understanding by Design • The need: results • In even our best students and their work, we see frequent – • Amnesia • Persistent misunderstanding • Rigid knowledge – no transfer

Why Understanding by Design • The need: design • TWIN SINS: • “Aimless but fun Activity” and “Superficial Coverage”

“Coverage” Orientation o September -------------------- June Content standards are the goals, not text coverage. Use the textbook as a resource -- not the syllabus!

Understanding by Design o Unit = Short for a “unit of study”. Units represent a coherent chunk of work in courses or strands, across days or weeks. An example is a unit on linear equations that falls under algebra (the subject). o Though no hard and fast criteria signify what a unit is, educators generally think of a unit as a body of subject matter that is somewhere in length between a lesson and an entre course of study; that focuses on a major topic or process and that lasts between a few days and a few weeks.

The Best Designs for Learning

Understanding by Design

Understanding by Design o Stage 1: Identify Desired Results o Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence o Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction o Stage 4: Reflection

Access Prior Knowledge o You will demonstrate three stages of Ub. D. o Please do this with your 12: 00 Partner.

Stage 1 If the desired end result is for learners to. . . o Drive in heavy traffic with aggressive and inattentive drivers without accident or anger.

Stage 2 then you need evidence of the learners’ ability to. . . o Handle real as well as simulated driving conditions in which defensive driving is required by traffic and behavior of other drivers.

Stage 3 then the learning events need to. . . o Help novices become skilled in handling the automobile; o help them learn and practice defensive driving in a variety of situations; o help them learn to defuse anger using humor and different thought patterns, etc.

Your turn… o Use the short Ub. D Template to demonstrate three stages of Ub. D by thinking how to successfully o “plan a trip” or o “cook a meal. ”

New Information The Eight Tenets of Ub. D 1. Ub. D is a way of thinking purposefully about curricular planning and school reform (21 st Century Skills/Learning). It offers a three-stage design process, a set of helpful design tools, and design standards—not a rigid program or prescriptive recipe.

3 Stages Stage 1: Desired Results o What long-term transfer goals are targeted? o What meanings should students make in order to arrive at important understandings? o What essential questions will students explore? o What knowledge and skill will students acquire? o What established goals/standards are targeted? Stage 2: Evidence o What performances and products will reveal evidence of meaning-making and transfer? o By what criteria will performance be assessed, in light of Stage 1 desired results? o What additional evidence will be collected for all Stage 1 desired results? o Are the assessments aligned to all Stage 1 elements? Stage 3: Learning Plan o What activities, experiences, and lessons will lead to achievement of the desired results and success at the assessments? o How will the learning plan help students with acquisition, meaning-making, and transfer? o How will the unit be sequenced and differentiated to optimize achievement for all learners? o How will progress be monitored? o Are the learning events in Stage 3 aligned with Stage 1 goals and Stage 2 assessments?

New Information The Eight Tenets of Ub. D 2. The primary goal of Ub. D is student understanding— the ability to make meaning of “big ideas” and to transfer learning.

New Information The Eight Tenets of Ub. D 3. Ub. D unpacks and transforms content standards into the relevant Stage 1 elements and appropriate assessments in Stage 2.

New Information The Eight Tenets of Ub. D 4. Understanding is revealed when students autonomously transfer their learning through authentic performance. Six facets of understanding—the capacities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and selfassess—serve as indicators of understanding.

New Information The Eight Tenets of Ub. D 5. Teachers are coaches of understanding, not mere purveyors of content or activity. They design for and support meaning-making and transfer by the learner and they adjust to achieve intended results based on constant monitoring.

New Information The Eight Tenets of Ub. D 6. Planning is best done backward from the desired results and the transfer tasks that embody the goals. The three stages (Desired Results, Evidence, Learning Plan) must align for the unit to be most effective.

New Information The Eight Tenets of Ub. D 8. Ub. D reflects a continuousimprovement approach. The result of curriculum designs— student performance—informs needed adjustments.

Understanding by Design o Stage 1: Identify Desired Results o What are the desired student learning outcomes for the unit? o What will students know and be able to do after they complete the unit?

Stage 1: Desired Results (Standards) o What long-term transfer goals are targeted? (Transfer) o What meanings should students make in order to arrive at important understandings (Enduring Understandings) o What essential questions will students explore? (Essential Questions) o What knowledge and skill will students acquire? (Know & Do)

Stage 1 Template – Identify Desired Results

Climate Unit Stage 1 – Desired Results Established Goals: 1. 3 Explain how the transfer of energy through radiation, conduction, and convection contributes to global atmospheric processes, such as storms, winds, and currents. 1. 4 Provide examples of how the unequal heating of Earth and the Coriolis effect influence global circulation patters, and show they impact Michigan weather and climate (e. g. , global winds, convection cells, land/Great Lakes breezes, etc. ) 1. 6 Describe the various conditions associated with frontal boundaries and cyclonic storms (e. g. , thunderstorms, winter storms, tornadoes), and their impact on human affairs, including storm preparations. Transfer Students will be able to independently use their learning to…. Accurately predict and compare the climates of varied locations in terms of key climatedetermining factors. Meaning Understandings Students will understand that… • The unequal heating between the equator and poles, Earth’s rotation, and the distribution of land ocean generate the global wind patterns that determine climate. • Most of what goes on in the universe involves some form of energy being transformed into another. Transformations of energy usually produce some energy in the form of heat, which spreads around by radiation and conduction into cooler places. Essential Questions Students will keep considering… • What causes weather and wind patterns? • What factors affect climate? • How do events in one geographic area affect another? • How does climate affect agriculture? • How can I apply these factors to locations on Earth to determine the climate? Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills Students will know… • Causes of wind and weather patterns. • Factors affecting climate. • Causes of the Coriolis effect. • How events in one geographic area affect another. • How climate affects agriculture. Students will be skilled at… • Interpreting data illustrating the relationship between air pressure and temperature. • Interpreting isobar maps of gradient pressure. • Applying the concepts of Newton’s First Law, the spherical geometry of the earth, and the centripetal acceleration to the Coriolis effect.

Algebra Unit Stage 1 – Desired Results Established Goals: Common Core Math Standards Interpret the structure of expressions. 1. Interpret expressions that represent a quantity in terms of its context. Write expressions in equivalent forms to solve problems. 3. Choose and produce an equivalent form of an expression to reveal and explain properties of the quantity represented by the expression. Rewrite rational expressions 6. Rewrite simple rational expressions in different forms. Mathematical practices 1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. Transfer Students will be able to independently use their learning to…. • Solve problems by simplifying them, using equivalent statements based on the properties of real numbers and the order of operations. • Analyze when any rule in any system (language, law, math) is an essential principle or merely conventional. Meaning Understandings Students will understand that… 1. Mathematics is a language, and over the centuries mathematicians have come to agree on certain conventions, or ways of doing things, so that we can communicate our intentions clearly and efficiently. 2. In mathematics, we accept certain truths as necessary to permit us to solve problems with logical certainty, while other rules are conventions that we assume just for effective communication. 3. We can use the commutative, associative, and distributive properties to turn complex and unfamiliar expressions into simpler and familiar ones to solve problems. Essential Questions Students will keep considering… 1. Why and when is it important to come to agreement on procedural rules in mathematics, sports/games, language? 2. What important rules and conventions are required to make algebra “work”? How can we distinguish between essential properties and agreed-upon, but arbitrary conventions? 3. Why and how do we simplify algebraic expressions? Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills Students will know… 1. The commutative property and to which operation it applies (and when it does not apply). 2. The associative property and to which operation it applies (and when it does not apply). Students will be skilled at… 1. Recognizing and applying the commutative, associative, and distributive properties to simplify algebraic expressions. 2. Using the convention of “order of operations” to perform calculations and simplify algebraic expressions.

Stage 1—Identify Desired Results • What long-term transfer goals are targeted? • What meanings should students make to arrive at important understandings? • What essential questions will students keep considering? • What knowledge and skill will students acquire? • What established goals/standards are targeted?

What long-term transfer goals are targeted? • They require application (not simply recognition or recall). • The application occurs in new situations (not ones previously taught or encountered; that is, the task cannot be accomplished as a result of rote learning). • The transfer requires a thoughtful assessment of which prior learning applies here; that is, some strategic thinking is required (not thoughtless plugging in of highlighted skills and facts). • The learners must apply their learning autonomously (on their own, without coaching or teacher support). • The learners must use habits of mind (e. g. , good judgment, persistence, self-regulation) along with academic understanding, knowledge, and skill to persist with the task and polish the work to suit purpose and audience. So what might be the transfer goals for your unit?

What Enduring Understandings are targeted? • Big Ideas – What do I want my students to really understand? Concepts, Themes, Inferences The Learner will Understand THAT…. So what might be the Enduring Understandings for your unit?

What Essential Questions are targeted? • Guiding questions Meant to be explored, argued, and continually revisited Open to many plausible interpretations and answers, , but eventually end in an understanding. Reflect genuine questions that real people seriously ask, either in their work or in their lives – not only asked in school So what might be the Essential Questions for your unit?

ASSESS WHAT? WHY ASSESS? What are the learning targets? What’s the purpose? Who will use the results? Are they clear? Are they good? ASSESS HOW? What method? Written well? Keys to Quality Classroom Assessment Sampled how? Avoid bias how? COMMUNICATE HOW? How manage information? How report?

Assessments Planning Sequence o Determine your unit o Locate the standards that are appropriate and important goals for this unit. o Ask yourself – “What types of standards are each of these? ” – Knowledge, reasoning, skills, product? ? ? o “Deconstruct” the standards into learning targets. o Change the learning targets into “student friendly targets. ” o Determine the sequence of teaching/learning the targets. o Decide where you will insert formative assessments (assessments FOR learning). o Determine what type of assessment this must be – selected response assessment, extended written response assessment, performance task assessment? ? ? o Develop the assessments o Develop the student analysis piece o Determine what you and the students must do next because of what you have learned from the assessment.

Knowledge/Understanding o The facts and concepts we want students to know. Some to be learned outright; some to be retrieved using reference materials. o Key words: explain, understand, describe, identify, tell, name, list, define, label, match, choose, recall, recognize, select, know o Example: L 3. 2. 1 Know and use the terms of basic logic.

Reasoning o Students use what they know to reason and solve problems, make decisions, plan, etc. o Key Words – analyze, compare/contrast, synthesize, classify, infer, evaluate, etc. o Example: L 3. 1. 1 Distinguish between inductive and deductive reasoning, identifying and providing examples of each.

Skills o Students use their knowledge and reasoning to act skillfully; where the doing is what is important. o Key words – observe, listen, perform, do, question, conduct, work, read, speak, use, demonstrate, explore, etc. o Example: A 3. 1. 2 Graph lines (including those of the form x = h and y = k) given appropriate information.

Products o Students use their knowledge, reasoning, and skills to create a concrete product. o Key words – design, produce, create, develop, make, write, draw, represent, display, model, construct, etc. o Example – S 6. 3 Carry out (large sample) significance tests for one proportion and the difference of two proportions, with emphasis on proper interpretation of results.

Stage 2—Determine Acceptable Evidence • What performances and products will reveal evidence of meaning-making and transfer? • By what criteria will performance be assessed, in light of Stage 1 desired results? • What additional evidence will be collected for all Stage 1 desired results? • Are the assessments aligned to all Stage 1 elements?

Stage 2 Template