Transcript Introduction to UBD - Spackenkill Union Free School District

Introduction to UbD
Stages 1
February 23, 2015
What UbD is NOT!
• Philosophy of teaching
• Approach to teaching
What is UbD?
•
Key Concepts that drive the planning framework
– We are more likely to be goal focused and effective when we plan by design.
– Long term goals are more likely reached through assessment and
planned instruction.
– There is more to assessment than just grading.
• Focus of design should be on curricular units rather than on
individual lesson plans.
– We ask ourselves:
• What is the point of our course?
• What needs to happen to support our long term instructional
goals?
• How do we establish desired outcomes and plan backward?
– Transforms Standards into learning targets based on big ideas and
transfer tasks.
– It establishes a continuous improvement model.
– “Chance favors the prepared mind”
Primary Goals of UbD
• Student understanding
– Making sense of the big ideas and the ability to
transfer their learning
– Goal is for students to be able to use the stuff, not
just learn the stuff, we teach
• Evidence of student understanding (stage 2
more later)
– Transferring learning through authentic learning
and performance (six facets of understanding)
Six Facets of Understanding
Handout 1 and discussion
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Explain
Interpret
Apply
Shift perspective
Empathize
Self assess
Key Research Findings to Support UbD
• The shift from ‘drill and kill’ to students’
understanding and application
– List of facts and formulas to big ideas
– Rote memory to understanding underlying principles
– Narrow context in which material is initially learned to
when it can be used-conditions of application
– Summative assessments to regular formative
assessments
– Assessments for factual knowledge to assessments
that check understanding or when, where and why to
use that knowledge
Introduction to Backward Design
handout 3
• Identify Desired Results (stage 1)
– What should students know, understand and be able to do?
• Big idea(s) and guiding questions
• Essential questions
• Determine Acceptable Evidence (stage 2)
– How will we know if students really understand the big idea(s)?
• Planning for learning experiences and instruction (stage 3) - General
Eisenhower said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that
plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
– What and how in light of performance goals
– Sequence of activities
– How will we make learning engaging and effective, given goals
and needed evidence of understanding?
Stage 1
Identifying Desired Results-Designing for
Understanding
• The goal is to make understanding (transference)
more likely by design.
• Design for the end (backward design):
– What is the big idea?
– What is the essential question based on that
big idea?
– What are the desired outcomes or learning
standards/goals?
– Keep template out-Document 1
Identifying Desired Results Cont.
Handout 4
– What will students:
• Know? (Factual knowledge and Skills)
• Understand?
• Be able to do?
Big Ideas
• Big ideas provide the basis for transfer and
relevance for the student.
– “education with inert ideas is not only useless it is
above all things harmful…let the main ideas which
are introduced be few and important…”
Whitehead 1929
• Ex. Newton’s Laws of Motion and Gravitation
• Big ideas are abstract and must be discovered
by the student, constructed and inferred, all
which lead to higher order thinking.
Big Ideas Continued
Handout 5
• The focus is on learning not teaching
• Big ideas are enduring understandings, not
finished in a lesson, connect lessons
throughout the year or years.
• Big ideas lead to essential questions
Essential Questions
• The goal of an essential question is to pursue
the question, not necessarily answer it.
• The answers students find should only lead to
more questions…that’s true learning
– Wiggins and McTighe
Characteristics of Essential Questions
• Open-ended provocative questions designed
to guide inquiry and focus instruction for
uncovering the important ideas of the content
• No simple right answer, meant to be argued
and discussed
• Lead to more questions
• Ongoing rethinking of big ideas
• Naturally recurring when learning
A Question is Essential When It:
Handout 6, 7, 8-activity
• Causes genuine and relevant inquiry into the big ideas
and core content
• Provokes deep thought, lively discussion, sustained
inquiry, and new understanding as well as more
questions
• Requires students to consider alternatives, weigh
evidence, support their ideas, and justify their answers
• Sparks meaningful connections with prior learning and
personal experiences
• Naturally recurs, creating opportunities for transfer to
other situations and subjects
Big Idea vs. Essential Question
• Just as a big idea will unpack into multiple essential
questions (usually), so an essential question will itself
unpack into multiple smaller questions. The smaller
questions are not unimportant, but it is crucial to
understand how the smaller questions relate to the Big
Idea. For instance:
• Essential Question: What traits and characteristics are
collectively used to determine a classification?
• Not an Essential Question: How many legs does a
spider have?
Take Ten Minutes to Look at Stage 1 on
Document 1
• Consider questions surrounding
– Established Goal(s)
– Understanding(s)
– Essential Question(s)
– What students will know and be able to do
• Look at the examples of Stage 1 before and
after backward design
• Comments?
Stage 2
Assessment Evidence
• Before we plan the lesson and activities the
assessment must be created
• Refer back to the Six Facets of Understanding
handout
Refer to Handouts 9-11
• Discuss in your groups
Stage 3
Planning the Learning Experience