Transcript Document

UBD Backward Planning
Understanding by Design The Backward Planning Model
Plan Backwards!
Based on the work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
UBD Backward Planning
Why are we doing this?
Since the transition to Common Core
and Essential Standards, the district has
received requests for unit planning
sessions.
 Our ultimate goal is to have district unit
plans, but this is a process that may
take 3-5 years.
 This is Day One of that process. 

UBD Backward Planning
What IS UbD?
Integrating curriculum, instruction, and
assessment within a unit of study in any
discipline
 A unit design template for beginning
with the end in mind
 A way to enhance meaningful
understanding and transfer of learning

UBD Backward Planning
Key points to remember…

In order to begin, we must start at the end:
– Clarify results and evidence of them before
designing lessons.

UbD is a way of thinking more carefully about
design; it is NOT a program
 Thinking like an assessor (not only an activity
designer) is key to effective design
 Student work is only “coverage” or “nice
activity” unless focused on questions and big
ideas, related to the Standards
UBD Backward Planning
Key points to remember…

Too many students lack transferrable
knowledge
– Instruction has become an activity in repeating
the teacher

Most test questions are recall
– Where’s the deeper thinking?

The “Course” is NOT
– The textbook: that’s a resource
– The activities: these are steps
– The content: this is to be mastered

There is a BIG difference between just
knowing and really understanding…
UBD Backward Planning
“Results are what counts. You have to measure.”
Unit Planning should answer:
1. What big ideas and skills should students
leave knowing?
2. What counts as evidence that they really
learned this?
3. What learning experiences in the classroom
will get them there?
Grant Wiggins
Discuss: Where do you recognize evidence of
Backward Planning in your classroom?
UBD Backward Planning
Let’s hear from Mr. Wiggins…

Grant Wiggins’ Overview - video
UBD Backward Planning
Three Stages of Backward
Design
1. Identify Desired
Results
What is it that I want the
students to understand and
know and be able to do?
How will I know that they know
2. Determine
Acceptable Evidence what I want them to know?
3. Plan Learning
Experiences
What do I need to do in the
classroom to prepare them for
the assessment?
UBD Backward Planning
I want students to
understand…
The US Constitution
(this is content!)
The three branches of
US government
I want students to
understand THAT…
The US Constitution
was a solution based
on compromise to real
and pressing problems
and disagreements in
government
They were a brilliant
balance and limit of
powers.
UBD Backward Planning
What can content mastery do?
It gives us the means to an end!
 The end is…

– Providing students with real-world, problem
solving tools
– Equipping them to individually recognize,
plan for, and solve any problem that
involves the content
– Making them life-long learners
UBD Backward Planning
Give me an example…
Content Mastery: Fractions
 You want students to learn fractions to
recognize, frame, and solve any problem
that involves fractional relationships
independently.
 SO, design the unit BACKWARDS from
real problems and problem-solving
situations that you want students to be
able to solve on their own.

UBD Backward Planning
Give me one more example…
Content Mastery: Grammar
 You want students to learn grammar to
speak and write in any situation for
maximum effect independently.
 SO, design the unit BACKWARDS from
communication challenges and problems
that you want students to be able to solve
on their own.

UBD Backward Planning
The point…
UbD fosters transfer of learning to
create independent problem-solvers.
 We equip them with understandings,
skills, and knowledge that are essential
to real-life situations.


But…how…?
UBD Backward Planning
Let’s Look at the Templates
Basic Template Without Guiding
Questions/Statements
 Basic Template With Guiding
Questions/Statements
 MCS UbD Planning Template - With
PDSA and 5 Questions Embedded

UBD Backward Planning
Stage 1- Desired Results
Established Goals:
G
Understandings:
U Essential Questions:
Q
Students will understand that…
Students will know…
K Students will be able to…
S
Stage 2- Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks:
T
Other Evidence:
OE
Stage 3- Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
L
UBD Backward Planning
Stage 1- Identify Desired Results
Established Goals
What Common Core or Essential
Standard do students need to learn?
 What’s the point?
 How does this fit into the content
standards?
 What is the bigger purpose?
 Answer: Consider BIG IDEAS

UBD Backward Planning
Stage 1- Identify Desired Results
Established Goals
What are BIG IDEAS? (Think CONCEPTS)
– Core idea at the “heart” of the discipline
– Enduring: has lasting, universal value
– Transferable to other topics/disciplines
– Connective of facts and skills
– Requires “un-converage” or “unpacking”
UBD Backward Planning
Concepts as Big Ideas
Change
Justice
Exploration
Abundance
Charity
Environment
Freedom
Interaction
Communication
Migration
Patterns
Power
Symbols
Diversity
Culture
Conflict
Cycles
Fairness
Balance
Perspective
Friendship
What else can you think of?
UBD Backward Planning
Use Big Ideas to form Understandings and
Essential Questions
Understandings
What insights will students
take away about the
meanings of the content via
Big Ideas?
Understandings summarize
the desired insights we want
the students to realize about
the Big Ideas
Understandings connect
the dots; they tell us what our
knowledge means and make
sense of facts and skills.
Essential Questions
Important questions
that will reoccur
throughout our lives
Helps students make
sense of Big Ideas
through questioning and
then making decisions.
Engages and
motivates.
UBD Backward Planning
Understandings
Examples
Non-examples
An effective story engages
the reader by setting up
tensions about what will
happen next
When water disappears, it
turns into water vapor and
can reappear as liquid if the
water is cooled
Democracy requires a
courageous, not just a free
press.
Audience and purpose
Water covers threefourths of the earth’s
surface
A free press is
guaranteed by the 1st
Amendment.
UBD Backward Planning
Essential Questions…
– Push us to the heart of things
– Cause genuine and relevant inquiry into big ideas and
core content
– Provoke deep thought, lively discussion, sustained
inquiry, new understanding, and more questions
– Require students to consider alternatives, weigh
evidence, support ideas, and justify answers
– Stimulate vital, ongoing rethinking of big ideas,
assumptions, prior lessons
– Spark meaningful connections with prior learning and
personal experiences
– Naturally recur, creating opportunities for transfer to other
situations and subjects
UBD Backward Planning
Essential Questions
Examples
Non-examples
How would life be
different if we couldn’t
measure time?
How many minutes are in an
hour? A day?
In what ways does art
reflect, as well as shape,
culture?
Between what years did the
Italian Renaissance occur?
What is foreshadowing?
How do effective writers Can you find an example?
hook and hold their
readers?
UBD Backward Planning
Big Ideas
Literature
Culture
Human condition
Understanding
Great literature from
various cultures explores
enduring themes and reveals
recurrent aspects of the
human condition
Transfer&
Independent
thinkers
Essential Question
How can stories
from other places
and times be about
me?
UBD Backward Planning
Stage 1- Identify Desired Results
Knowledge and Skills
In order for students to perform well
on the assessments and competently
answer the Essential questions…
 What should they KNOW?
 What should they BE ABLE TO DO?

UBD Backward Planning
Knowledge and Skills
Knowledge includes…
Vocabulary/terminology
Definitions
Key factual information
Critical details
Important events and
people
Sequence/timeline
These questions HAVE
a correct answer!
Skills include…
Basic skills
Communication skills
Research/inquiry/
investigation skills
Thinking skills
(problem- solving,
decision making)
Study skills
Interpersonal or group
collaboration skills
UBD Backward Planning
Knowledge and Skills
Examples…
Pioneer vocabulary
terms
Cavalieri’s Principle
General health
problems caused by
poor nutrition
Examples…
Recognize and use
pioneer vocabulary in
context
Use Cavalieri’s
Principle to compare
volumes
Plan balanced diets for
themselves and others
UBD Backward Planning
Let’s recap: We clarified how to frame
desired results, but how can we assess
the students’ understanding of them?
 We must think like an assessor…

What evidence can show that students have
achieved the desired results?
What assessment tasks and other evidence
will anchor our curricular units and thus guide
instruction?
What should we look for to determine the
extent of student understanding?

On to Stage 2!
UBD Backward Planning
The Three Stages of Backward
Design
1. Identify Desired
Results
What is it that I want the
students to understand and
know and be able to do?
How will I know that they know
2. Determine
Acceptable Evidence what I want them to know?
3. Plan Learning
Experiences
What do I need to do in the
classroom to prepare them for
the assessment?
UBD Backward Planning
Stage 2!
Stage 1- Desired Results
Established Goals:
G
Understandings:
U Essential Questions:
Q
Students will understand that…
Students will know…
K Students will be able to…
S
Stage 2- Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks:
T
Other Evidence:
OE
Stage 3- Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
L
UBD Backward Planning
Stage 2- Determine Acceptable
Evidence
This is where UbD departs from
conventional unit design and planning.
 Before we plan the activities and
lessons, we must plan the assessment.
 What then logically follows is an orderly
progression of activities, specifically
designed to meet their target.

UBD Backward Planning
Stage 2- Determine Acceptable Evidence
Assessments are too often created
without carefully considering the
evidence needed or only as a means for
generating grades.
 Instead, consider this: How do we know
that the learner…

– met the goal through performance?
– “got” the understandings?
– deeply considered the essential questions?
UBD Backward Planning
Stage 2- Determine Acceptable Evidence
Understanding develops as a result of
ongoing inquiry.
 Think of effective assessment like a
scrapbook of mementos and pictures,
rather than a single snapshot.
 Gather lots of informal evidence along
the way in a variety of formats!
 Use the continuum on the next slide as
a guide.

UBD Backward Planning
Continuum of assessment
Think of anchoring your unit with a performance task.
But use the Other Evidence along the way.
(i.e. Don’t throw out all your old quizzes!)
Other evidence
UBD Backward Planning
What should a Performance
Task ask students to do?

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



Contextualize it to a real-world situation.
Require students to use judgment and innovation.
Call for exploration of the subject like a
professional in the field.
Replicate challenging situations in which people
are truly “tested” in life and work.
Compel students to use a repertoire of knowledge
and skill to negotiate a task
Allow opportunities to rehearse, practice, consult
resources, get feedback, and refine performance.
UBD Backward Planning
How can I create an authentic Performance Task
that fosters understanding?
G - Goal (What task do I want the students to achieve?)
 R - Role (What’s the student’s role in the task?)
 A - Audience (Who is the student’s target audience?)
 S - Situation (What’s the context? The challenge?)
 P - Performance (What will students create/develop?)
 S - Standards (On what criteria will they be judged?)

Remember: Make the tasks real world problems to solve!
UBD Backward Planning
Performance Tasks
Examples
You are a scientist charged
with designing an experiment to
determine which brand of
detergent best removes stains
Plan and budget for a four-day
tour in Virginia to help visitors
understand the state’s impact
on history and development of
our nation.
Design a flower garden for a
company with a logo that has
side-by-side circular,
rectangular, and triangular
shapes.
Non-examples
Create a volcano with
baking soda and vinegar
A final exam in history
with 50 multiple choice
and short answer
questions.
Make a poster collage
of 100 items for the
hundredth day of school
UBD Backward Planning
Any assessment you design should…
Have clearly articulated criteria
 Be valid and reliable
 Provide sufficient measure of the
desired result
 Encourage students to self-assess their
own learning

UBD Backward Planning
Sample Performance Tasks


Literacy Design
Collaborative Tasks
The Reading and
Writing Project Tasks

Social Studies Samples

Sample Math Tasks

Sample Math Tasks
(6-12)
UBD Backward Planning
So, we have clarified desired results and
discussed appropriate assessments.
 It’s time to plan the learning activities!
 As we move through Stage 3, remember
that it’s not about what WE want to
accomplish; it’s about what the learner
will need to…

– achieve the desired results from Stage 1
and
– perform well on the tasks in Stage 2.

On to Stage 3!
UBD Backward Planning
Three Stages of Backward
Design
1. Identify Desired
Results
What is it that I want the
students to understand and
know and be able to do?
How will I know that they know
2. Determine
Acceptable Evidence what I want them to know?
3. Plan Learning
Experiences
What do I need to do in the
classroom to prepare them for
the assessment?
UBD Backward Planning
Stage 3!
Stage 1- Desired Results
Established Goals:
G
Understandings:
U
Students will understand that…
Students will know…
K
Essential Questions:
Q
Students will be able to…
S
Stage 2- Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks:
T
Other Evidence:
Stage 3- Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
L
OE
UBD Backward Planning
Use WHERETO in instructional
planning

W- Ensure the students know WHERE the unit is headed and WHY
 H- HOOK students in the beginning; HOLD their attention throughout
 E- EQUIP students with necessary experiences, tools, knowledge, and
know-how to meet performance goals

R- Provide students with numerous opportunities to RETHINK their big
ideas, REFLECT on progress, and REVISE their work

E- Build in opportunities for students to EVALUATE progress and selfassess

T- Be TAILORED to reflect individual talents, interests, styles, and
needs

O- Be ORGANIZED to optimize deep understanding, not superficial
coverage
UBD Backward Planning
Note on WHERETO
This is NOT a recipe, formula, or
prescribed sequence
 It is, like the Six Facets, a way of
judging, assessing, and testing lessons
and units.
 How should the WHERETO elements
be combined and ordered? It’s up to the
designer!

UBD Backward Planning
Yes, UbD units are time consuming and
challenging to create…

If we want our students to wrestle with
timeless, universal questions, gain a
deeper understanding of the world, and
then transfer that rich experience to
engage in authentic, problem-solving
activities, shouldn’t we be thoughtful
about the design process?
UBD Backward Planning
The answer is YES.
If you would like to learn more, please
consult Understanding by Design, by
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe.
 All slides in this PowerPoint have been
adapted from their work.
 Good luck in your design process and
remember, when you begin, always
keep the end in mind!
