Understanding by Design: Next steps

1. Understanding by Design: Next steps Tom Rye Donna Herold ASCD Faculty 2010 Understanding by Design Training, Allen Parish

2. Think of a successful learning experience. Identify three characteristics that made it successful: 1. 2. 3.

3. Our Outcomes • Explore backward design principles and common misunderstandings about design; • Identify desired results for unit of study and draft a complete unit to include an assessment and learning plan; • Review unit of study applying design standards • Strategize about how to collaboratively develop multiple units, courses, and programs as you move forward ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

4. Tasks: • Design a unit for a period of instruction between 1-6 weeks. • Review units by applying design standards and offering feedback to improve design. • Explore what an Understanding by Design classroom looks like. ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

5. Essential Questions: • Why Understanding by Design? Why 21st Century Skills? • What strategies are there for evaluating and revising existing UbD units? • What is a performance task? • To what extent can we truly implement a performance task into every unit of instruction? • How can we assess/grade performance tasks reliably and practically? • What does a UbD classroom actually look like? • How do we continue to move forward professionally? 

6. Why are we here? What do you want your students to remember about your class ten, twenty years from now? ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

7. What is Understanding? • Understanding Understanding • Big ideas make meaning of the learning and permit transfer • Transfer is the key evidence of understanding (or lack of it) • Good design • best done “backward” from the desired understanding • Given the understanding we seek, we ask: what follows for assessment and for student learning? ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

8. Designing for understanding: • “Understanding is never a passive possession of information or mere automaticity of skill, but the capacity to act wisely, decisively and effectively.” • -- Schooling by Design (2007) ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

9. What is ‘understanding’? - really ‘getting it’? 9 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold • What does understanding as a goal require of - • ‘Designs’ - our planning? • Learning and teaching activities? • Assessment and feedback to learners? • How do we achieve understanding by design vs. ‘good fortune’?

10. Three stages of backward design 1. Identify desired results 2. Determine acceptable evidence 3. Plan learning experiences & instruction 10 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

11. Three stages of backward design 11 • What should students be able to • DO with their learning? 2. What IS valid evidence of ability to meet the long-term transfer goal? 3. What learning experiences & instruction do students need to get there? ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

12. Typically: Without checking for alignment Without checking for alignment 12 • Identify content to be acquired 2. Brainstorm lessons to teach the content 3. Create an assessment to judge if students learned the content ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

13. Unit Template Overarching understandings Essential Questions Knowledge and skill to be acquired UbD design template ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

14. 1. Identify desired results 2. Determine acceptable evidence 3. Plan learning experiences & instruction Three stages of backward design ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

15. Stage 1:Desired results Stage 1 - Desired Results EstablishedGoals • Excerpted from program level documents • Demonstrates how unit will embody system expectations Enduring Understanding(s): EssentialQuestion(s): • Inquiry students pursue to earn insights and develop proficiency • Insights students earn that will transfer to new learning Students will know and be able to do: • Content priorities for the unit / course / subject • Students will be accountable to demonstrate in their work • Key vocabulary concepts ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

16. “Research on expertise suggests that a superficial coverage of many topics in the domain may be a poor way to help students develop the competencies that will prepare them for future learning and work.” -- Bransford, How People Learn What the research says ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

17. From the Agriculture Age to the Conceptual Age Affluence, Technology, Globalization Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers) Information Age (knowledge worker) Industrial Age (factory workers) Agricultural Age (farmers) 21st century 18th century 19th century 20th century ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

18. Are we developing. . . communicators . . . leaders . . . creators . . . critical thinkers . . . self-directed workers? ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

19. Really Ready to Work? ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

20. Partnership for 21st Century Core Themes and skills THEMES: Global Awareness Financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy Civic literacy, Health and environmental literacy SKILLS: Creativity and Innovation Information, Media, and Technology Skills Life and Career Skills ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

21. 21st Century skills / themes checklist

22. Design Standards for Enduring Understandings • Big ideas at the heart of the discipline • Requires “uncoverage” • Lasting value beyond the classroom • Measurable ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

23. Nice to know Worth being familiar with Foundational knowledge & skill Important to know & do “Big ideas” worth exploring and understanding in depth Big ideas & Enduring Understandings Establishing Priorities: From “Big Ideas” to Enduring Understandings ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

24. 40-40-40 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 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

25. Key protests of Civil Rights Movement Nice to know Foundational knowledge & skill Analyze effects of landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education “Big ideas” worth exploring and understanding in depth Conflict creates change ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

26. Enduring Understandings for 21st Century Skills In pairs, write an enduring understanding derived from the 21st century skills/themes

27. 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. ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

28. 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. ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

29. 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. ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

30. 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. ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

31. Sample enduring understandings 31 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold 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: 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.

32. Which of the following are enduring understandings? ASCD O Fallon SD 90-- 2010; Donna Herold • 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.

33. Task: Choose a unit for your work today Create two or three Enduring Understandings for your unit. Remember to incorporate 21st Century Skills and/or Themes Be ready to share your understandings at 10:10

34. Enduring Understanding:Conflict creates change Essential Question: To what extent did the conflicts of the Civil Rights movement create a platform for political change? ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

35. Designing with Essential Questions 35 • 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 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

36. Design Standards for Essential Questions 36 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold • Align with enduring understandings • Provoke genuine inquiry • Encourage transfer

37. Is this an Essential Question? What are the elements of writing? How do you find the mean? To what extent can you lie with statistics? What are the causes of the Civil War? Why read old books? To what extent can we predict the future?

38. Sample essential questions 38 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold • 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?

39. Sample essential questions 39 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold • 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?

40. Sample essential questions 40 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold • 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?

41. Sample essential questions 41 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold • 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?

42. Sample essential questions 42 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold • How do my words/actions impact myself/others? • When does opportunity become innovation? When does innovation become a way of life? • 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?

43. How the big ideas hang togetherSample from a teacher’s draft ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

44. Moving from an enduring understanding to an essential question 44 ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold Enduring Understanding: Draft Essential Question:

45. ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

46. Essential Questions vs. Good Questions ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

47. knowledge and skills . . .assist students in gaining understanding AND in illustratingtheir understanding ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

48. Content—Knowledge--Skills ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

49. ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold

50. 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 • Appropriate given the unit focus, assessments, and time allotted • Choice of verb indicates performance expectation Designer’s choice whether to separate knowledge and skills ASCD Allen Parish 2010; Rye and Herold