UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN USING BACKWARDS PLANNING TO ENSURE

UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN USING BACKWARDS PLANNING TO ENSURE STUDENT LEARNING PATRICK KING DECEMBER 5, 2015

TODAY’S OBJECTIVES 1. Introduce the concepts of Understanding by Design. 2. As we go through the steps of Ub. D, teachers will design parts of a unit over the course of 3 tasks. 3. Teachers will share and offer each other meaningful feedback with a focus on Ub. D concepts.

CATCH-A-CHEATER 3000 The head of the Xi’an Department of Education is worried about students cheating in their classes, and he is offering a 10, 000 RMB prize to anyone who can design an anti-cheating machine that can guarantee 100% that no students will be able to cheat. With a group of 4 or 5, take 10 minutes to design an anticheating machine.

THE CREATORS OF UBD The Understanding by Design Framework was created by Jay Mc. Tighe and Grant Wiggins while working for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Their work Understanding by Design was originally printed in 1998 and has been updated since then.

THE CORE OF UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN, PART 1 Backwards Planning = 1 st Results, 2 nd Assessments, 3 rd Lessons 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 that teaching is focused on desired results

THE CORE OF UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN, PART 2 Focus on understanding Students are not just receiving knowledge. • Students show understanding by explaining, interpreting, applying, and self-assessing NOT just by remembering, repeating, etc. • To show understanding students must transfer the knowledge/skills they learn and use them in an authentic performance task.

Identify desired results (standards) Determine acceptable evidence (assessments) Plan learning experience and instruction (lessons)

IN ORDER TO BEGIN, WE MUST START AT THE END! 1. What do you want the students to know? 2. What do you want the students to be able to do? If we do not answer these questions well, we risk creating activities that are not aligned. As we create activities, we must always look back at our desired results and our assessments to make sure that the activities are aligned.

STAGE 1: IDENTIFYING DESIRED RESULTS • Established Goals: What are the standards that you are required to teach for this unit? • Transfer: How will students show that they have reached those standards? • Meaning: Why will this learning be meaningful? What are the big ideas? • Acquisition: What knowledge and skills will students acquire?

GUANGZHOU GRADE 6 SEMESTER 1: PAST EXPERIENCES

Established Goals Transfer 1. Students are able to talk fluidly about past experiences. 2. Students are able to discuss past events and historical figures and express an opinion about them. 3. Students are able to use the past tense in short written communication such as diary entries, letters, or short Students will be able to independently use their learning to… Share information about the past and express opinions/thoughts about the past. Meaning Understandings Students will understand that… Speaking about what has happened in the past can help us understand each other better. Speaking about the past is essential to communication. Essential Questions How important is it to communicate about the past? Acquisition Students will know… How to form the past simple tense, including some irregular forms. Certain words or phrases are used to indicate the past/present tense. Students will be skilled at… Using the simple past tense in conversation and writing.

WHAT IS AN ESSENTIAL QUESTION? • • It is arguable. There is not one right answer. It could raise more questions. It raises important conceptual or philosophical issues It can provide a guiding purpose for meaningful & connected learning.

TASK #1: IDENTIFYING DESIRED RESULTS With a group of 2 -4, try to complete Stage 1 using a unit or topic from your class. -Think about how students will transfer what they have learned in class to some kind of meaningful performance. -For your essential question, think about why students are learning this topic? What purpose does it serve? Why is it significant or valuable?

STAGE 2: DETERMINE ACCEPTABLE EVIDENCE What are performance tasks that will indicate understanding? You really understand when you can: • explain it • show its meaning and importance • apply or adapt it to novel situations (not scripted) • What other evidence will be collected to build the case for understanding, knowledge, and skill.

WHEN THINKING OF ASSESSMENTS • Performance tasks are grounded in real-world applications. How will the skill or knowledge be used in real life? • Provide useful feedback to the learner (What did they do well? Where did they make mistakes? ) • Be aligned with the desired results of Stage 1

G. R. A. S. P. S. Goal in the scenario? What is the students’ Role? Who is the Audience? • What is the • • • What is your • What is the • By what Situation (context)? Performance challenge? Standards will work be judged in the scenario?

WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT? GRASPS Goal: Your task is to have a discussion without preparation (improvise) in the past tense. Role: ? ? (You will draw the name of a famous character 10 minutes before presenting). Audience: You want your classmates to be able to guess who you are based on what you say in the conversation. Situation: You have limited time to think/prepare , and you will have to interact with your other group members. Product/Performance/Purpose: You will perform an improvised discussion to show that you can use the past tense appropriately in an unplanned, uncontrolled situation. Standards: Excellent Okay Needs Improvement • Uses past tense correctly throughout. • Smoothly responds and interacts with group members. • Makes 1 or 2 mistakes with the past tense. • Responds and interacts with group members with some difficulty. • Makes 3+ mistakes with the past tense. • Struggles to respond or interact with group members.

TASK #2: CREATE A GRASPS PERFORMANCE TASK Using your desired results from Task #1, create at least one GRASPS performance task that could serve as evidence that your students have reached those desired results.

STAGE 3: PLAN LEARNING EXPERIENCES AND INSTRUCTION A focus on engaging and effective learning… • What learning experiences and instruction will promote the desired understanding, knowledge and skill? • How will you best promote the deepening of understanding and interest? • How will you prepare students for the performance(s)?

WHERE? : AN APPROACH TO LESSON PLANNING • W = Where are we headed? and why? (from the student’s perspective) • H = How will the student be ‘hooked’? • E = What opportunities will there be to experience and explore key ideas. • R = How will we provide opportunities to rethink, rehearse, refine and revise? • E = How will students evaluate (so as to improve) their own performance?

TASK #3 CREATE A LEARNING PLAN TO PREPARE YOUR STUDENTS FOR YOUR GRASPS TASK What instruction, activities, and practice will prepare your students to complete the task? Remember to stay aligned! All of your activities should be helping your students build the knowledge and skills from Task 1: Identify Desired Results.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Wiggins, G. and Mc. Tighe, J. (nd) Understanding by Design: A brief introduction. Center for Technology & School Change at Teachers College, Columbia University. Retrieved 11/15/15. Wiggins, G. , & Mc. Tighe, J. (2005). Understanding by Design (Expanded 2 nd ed. ). Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. http: //www. authenticeducation. org

THANK YOU! Weixin: patrickking Email: mrpatrickking@outlook. com