Transcript Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions

Enduring Understandings
and Essential Questions
Phase 1 of the Understanding by
Design Process:
Identify Desired Results
By Bryon Christian
and Cristy Rohla
Enduring Understandings
Examples of understanding
statements that are welldeveloped
Examples of understanding
statements that are not
well-developed
Understand the causes and effects
Understand the causes and effects
of the Civil War: Understand why the of the Civil War.
Civil War was fought over states’
Understand the Civil War.
rights (not just slavery), and that the
issues persist today (e.g., debates
over the federal role in education and
welfare).
Understand that essay writing is
iterative, not linear; why and how
various techniques (e.g., imagining a
reader’s response and objections, and
concept webs) work; and the benefits
of drafts, critiques, and revision for
achieving more persuasive arguments.
Understand how to write a fiveparagraph essay.
Understand (describe or define)
the difference between an essay and
a narrative
Indicators that a targeted understanding
is not specific enough:
• If teachers cannot agree on exactly what
is to be taught or emphasized in the unit.
• If teachers cannot agree on what should
be assessed.
• If students and parents cannot tell from
the unit description exactly what is to be
learned and how success will be
determined.
• If students do not know what to focus on
in their study or how to study it.
A few thoughts on Essential
Questions from McTighe and Wiggins
Practically speaking, educators must reframe
content standards and outcome statements
into rich questions, and then design
assignments and assessments to explore big
ideas and evoke thoughtful and supportable
answers. In contrast, most current curricular
frameworks and standards documents make
the mistake of framing core content as fact
like sentences rather than revealing them to
be summary insights, derived from questions
and inquiries.
Characteristics of Essential Questions
• Have no one obvious right answer
• Raise other important questions, often across
subject-area boundaries
• Address the philosophical or conceptual
foundations of a discipline
• Recur naturally
• Are framed to provoke and sustain student
interest
Types of Essential Questions:
Overarching and Topical
Two types of essential questions might frame a
unit: overarching and topical.
As the phrase implies, overarching questions transcend the
particulars of a unit and point toward larger, transferable
ideas.
Topical questions are more specific. They lead to particular
understandings related to the topics of this unit the
inferences and generalizations teachers want students to
uncover. Topical questions may not necessarily be easy to
answer, but they are answerable using the facts and
materials of the unit.
Essential Questions
Overarching
Topical
Art
Unit on masks
In what ways does art reflect and
shape culture?
How do artists choose tools,
techniques, and materials to
express their ideas?
What role have masks played in
various cultures?
What do masks and their use
reveal about a culture?
What tools, techniques, and
materials are used in creating
masks from different cultures?
Literature
Unit on mysteries
What makes a great story?
How do effective writers hook
and hold their readers?
What is unique about the mystery
genre?
How do great mystery writers
hook and hold their readers?
Essential Questions
Overarching
Economics
How does something acquire value?
What changes the worth of
something?
Topical
Unit on money and introductory
economics
Why do we need money?
How is the value of a baseball card
determined?
Geography
Unit on state or region
How does the topography, climate,
and natural resources of a region
influence how people live and work?
Why is _________ located there?
How do the topography, climate and
natural resources on South Dakota’s
plains influence the lifestyle and
work of the inhabitants?
Why is Pierre, the state capital,
located where it is?
Mathematics
Unit on parallel postulate
If axioms are like the rules of a
game, when should we change the
rules?
Why is this an axiom if it’s so
complex? What no longer holds
true if we deny it?
Identify Desired Results
The blank background within the middle ring represents the field of possible content that
might be examined during a unit or course. Since not all of this can reasonably be
addressed, we move within the larger ring to identify knowledge that students should be
familiar with. During the unit, what do we want students to hear, read, view, research, or
otherwise encounter?
Worth Being
Familiar With
Important to know
and do
“Enduring”
Understanding
Identify Desired Results
In the middle ring, we sharpen our choices by specifying important knowledge
(facts, concepts, and principles) and skills (processes, strategies, and methods). We
would say that student learning is incomplete if the unit concluded without mastery
of these essentials.
Worth Being
Familiar With
Important to know
and do
“Enduring”
Understanding
Identify Desired Results
The smallest ring requires finer-grain choices and a focus on intellectual priorities.
Here we select the enduring understandings that will anchor the unit and establish a
rationale for it. The term enduring refers to the big ideas, or the important
understandings, that we want students to “get inside of” and retain after they’ve
forgotten many of the details.
Worth Being
Familiar With
Important to know
and do
“Enduring”
Understanding