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Welcome/Nuts & Bolts

 Instructors: Ben Johnson, Heather Sanchez, Paul Schkade, Dan Shinneman.

 Course Essentials

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Technology Pre Assessment

Digital Natives & Digital Immigrants

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 R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, 1989, p. 98

Laying the plans…

 Backwards Design is like planning a road trip. First, you decide where to go. Then, you carefully plan the most efficient way to get there.

The Big Picture

1. Identify Desired Results 2. Determine Acceptable Evidence 3. Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction.

Foundations of Backwards Planning

 Step One: The Essential Question-What’s the big idea? Why does this matter?



Samples:

Language Arts:

How does literature reveal the values of a given culture or time period?

Math:

By what axioms are we able to prove the Pythagorean theorem?

Art:

Why has nature inspired so many artists over time?

Enduring Understandings…what we need to know to get to point “B”

 The road trip-if point “B” is Miami Beach, we need to know what major highways to take to get there (enduring understandings.)

Sample:

There is great diversity among individual American Indians as identity is developed, defined and redefined by many entities, organizations and people. There is a Continuum of Indian identity ranging from assimilated to traditional and is unique to each individual. There is no generic American Indian.

Learning Experiences: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

 Stage three:  The day to day learning experiences and assessments that are provided for students.

Some Sample Units

 Social Studies Unit  Literacy Unit

What is an Essential Question?

An Essential Question IS

    Gets at “why does all this matter, anyway?” Foster higher order thinking skills.

Usually don’t have a hard and fast answer.

Help “students effectively inquire and make sense of important but complicated ideas, knowledge, and know how.

An Essential Question IS NOT

   lesson objectives reworded in an interrogative format.

posted on the board and changed each day to reflect the goals of the lesson.

answered that day (week, unit, year, etc.).

Try it on for size…

Health: Why are there so many health problems caused by poor nutrition despite all of the available information about healthful eating?

History:When was the Magna Carta signed?

World Language: What are the major cultural differences between Americans and Latin Americans in terms of hospitality and acceptance?

Science: How have disease and plague impacted human societies over the course of the last 1,000 years?

Examples of the development of Enduring Understandings

“Students will understand the Civil War.”

Help!: what should they understand?

“Students will understand the causes of the Civil War.”

Better: narrows the focus but still does not state what Insights we want students to leave with.

“Students will understand that the Civil War was fought over states ’ rights issues more than over the morality of slavery.”

Best: Summarizes intended insight, helps students and teachers realize what types of learning activities are needed to support the understanding.

Try It On For Size…

 Using the sample units and what you just learned, please work on Stage One of your Understanding by Design Unit (UbD) individually or with your team…

Once you have established WHAT your students need to know, now we need to look at HOW you will know if they know it…

The Six Facets of Understanding…

  Facet One-Explanation:

sophisticated and apt theories and illustrations, which provide knowledgeable and justified accounts of events, actions and ideas

  Facet Two-Interpretation:

Interpretations, narratives, and translations that provide meaning.

 A cook explains why adding a little mustard to oil and vinegar enables them to mix: The mustard acts as an emulsifier.

 A grandfather tells stories about the Depression to illustrate the importance of saving for a rainy day.

The Six Facets of Understanding…

  Facet Four-Perspective:

Critical and insightful points of view.

  Facet Three-Application:

Ability to use knowledge effectively in new situations and diverse, realistic contexts.

 A ten year-old girl recognizes in TV advertising the fallacy of using popular figures to promote products.

 A young couple uses their knowledge of economics to develop an effective financial plan for saving and investing.

The Six Facets of Understanding…

  Facet Five-Empathy:

The ability to get inside another person’s feelings and worldview.

  Facet Six-Self Knowledge:

The wisdom to know one’s ignorance and how one’s patterns of thought and action inform as well as prejudice understanding.

 From British National Exam: “Romeo and Juliet Act. 4. Imagine you are Juliet. Write your thoughts and feelings explaining why you have to take this desperate action.”  Mindful of her learning style, a middle school student deliberately uses graphic organizers to help her study.

Pulling it all together…

 Working individually or in teams, work on Stage Two of your Backwards Design unit.  If time permits, move on to Stage Three (learning plan)!