Transcript Muir Middle School

Muir Middle School
ESSENTIAL
QUESTIONS
and ENDURING
UNDERSTANDINGS
© 2005 LD7
1
LAUSD 08/2005
Your Favorite Novel, Song,
Painting, and Film
As you know it, what
is the essential theme
or understanding the
author or creator is
trying to
communicate?
Would this work have
an Essential Question?
An Enduring
Understanding? What
is it???!!
© 2005 LD7
2
LAUSD 08/2005
BLUE MOON
Essential Question:
How can we find true love?
What is “it” that happens when
we “fall” for someone?
Essential Understanding:
Finding true love is unpredictable and has
no formula…although a full moon might
help!!!
© 2005 LD7
3
LAUSD 08/2005
1776 by David McCullough
Essential Question:
How is a great leader different than
the average person?
Enduring Understanding:
A great leader may have great
strengths, weaknesses, and
incredible luck.
© 2005 LD7
4
LAUSD 08/2005
The greatest novels, plays, songs and the
greatest paintings all explore Essential
Questions. They spark our curiousity.
Essential Questions probe the
issues confronting us . . . matters
which elude simple answers:
Life - Death - Marriage - Identity Purpose - Betrayal - Honor Integrity - Courage - Temptation Faith - Leadership - Addiction Invention - Inspiration.
© 2005 LD7
5
LAUSD 08/2005
Essential Questions touch our hearts and souls.
They are central to our lives. They help to define
what it means to be human.
Most important thoughts during our lives will center
on such questions.
They may take a life time to answer!
What does it mean to be a good friend?
Who will I include in my circle of friends?
How shall I treat my friends?
How do I cope with the loss of a friend?
What can I learn about friends and friendships from
the novels we read in school?
© 2005 LD7
6
LAUSD 08/2005
Some Essential Questions:
Why do we have to fight wars?
Do we have to fight wars?
How could political issues or ideas ever become
more important than family loyalties?
Some say our country remains wounded by the
slavery experience and the Civil War. In what
ways might this claim be true and in what ways
untrue? What evidence can you supply?
© 2005 LD7
7
LAUSD 08/2005
How can countries avoid the kind of bloodshed and
devastation we experienced during our Civil War?
How much diversity can any nation tolerate?
Who showed greater bravery and courage, the
front line soldiers and the nurses who tended to the
wounded and dying or the leaders of the war
effort?
© 2005 LD7
8
LAUSD 08/2005
More Essential Questions:
Does a good read differ from a ‘great book’?
Why are some books fads, and others classics?
To what extent is geography destiny?
Should an axiom be obvious?
How different is a scientific theory from a
plausible belief?
What is the government’s proper role?
© 2005 LD7
9
LAUSD 08/2005
You’ve got to go
below the surface...
to uncover the
really ‘big ideas.’
© 2005 LD7
11
LAUSD 08/2005
The “big ideas” of each stage:
STANDARD):
3 C’s
Unpack the content
standards and
content, cognitive
action, and concept
Understandings
s
t
a
g
e
1
Essential Questions
What are the big ideas?
Assessment Evidence
Analyze multiple
sources of evidence
Performance Task(s):
s
t
a
g
e
2
Other Evidence:
What’s the evidence?
LearningActivities
Derive the implied
learning
© 2005 LD7
s
t
a
g
e
3
How will we get there?
Scaffolding Lessons
12
LAUSD 08/2005
Filters for Essential Questions and
Enduring Understandings
•It has value beyond the classroom
•It contributes to world citizenship
•It has real world applications
•It may change over time
•It raises more questions
•It requires “uncoverage”
•It may be arguable, prone to misunderstanding
•It requires “doing”
•It is engaging, and intriguing
•It ‘endures’ a lifetime!
© 2005 LD7
13
LAUSD 08/2005
3 Stages of Design,
elaborated
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction
© 2005 LD7
14
LAUSD 08/2005
Stage 1: Identify desired results.
Key: Focus on Big ideas
1.
What content standards are addressed explicitly
by the unit?
2.
What essential questions will frame the teaching
toward key ideas, and suggest meaningful and
provocative inquiry into content?
Enduring Understandings: What specific insights
about big ideas do we want students to leave
with? ………The Moral of the Story!
What should students know and be able to do?
3.
4.
© 2005 LD7
15
LAUSD 08/2005
Muir’s Super Social Studies
Department:
Standard
Essential Question
Enduring
Understanding
Scaffolding/Lessons
Culminating Task
© 2005 LD7
16
LAUSD 08/2005
Understandings: examples...
 Great
U
artists often break with conventions to
better express what they see and feel.
 Price is a function of supply and demand.
 Friendships can be deepened or undone by
hard times
 History is the story told by the “winners”
 F = ma (weight is not mass)
 Math models simplify physical relations – and
even sometimes distort relations – to deepen
our understanding of them
 The storyteller rarely tells the meaning
of the story
© 2005 LD7
17
LAUSD 08/2005
The “big idea” of
Stage 1:
There is a clear focus in the unit
on the big ideas
Implications:
Organize content around key concepts
 Show how the big ideas offer a purpose and
rationale for the student
 You will need to “unpack” Content standards in
many cases to make the implied big ideas clear

© 2005 LD7
18
LAUSD 08/2005
Essential Questions
Q
What questions –
are arguable - and important to argue about?
 are at the heart of the subject?
 recur - and should recur - in professional work,
adult life, as well as in classroom inquiry?
 raise more questions – provoking and
sustaining engaged inquiry?
 often raise important conceptual or
philosophical issues?
 can provide organizing purpose for
meaningful & connected learning?

© 2005 LD7
19
LAUSD 08/2005
3 Stages of Design:
Stage 2
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction
© 2005 LD7
20
LAUSD 08/2005
Stage 2 – Assessment
Evidence
Template fields ask:

What are key complex performance tasks
indicative of understanding?

What other evidence will be collected to build
the case for understanding, knowledge, and
OE
skill?

What rubrics will be used to assess complex R
performance?
© 2005 LD7
21
LAUSD 08/2005
T
The big idea
for Stage 2
The evidence should be credible & helpful.
Implications: the assessments should –
 Be
grounded in real-world applications,
supplemented as needed by more
traditional school evidence
 Provide useful feedback to the learner, be
transparent, and minimize secrecy
 Be valid, reliable - aligned with the
desired results of Stage 1 (and fair)
© 2005 LD7
22
LAUSD 08/2005
Assessment of Understanding
via the 6 facets
i.e. You really understand when you can:
explain, connect, systematize, predict it
 show its meaning, importance
 apply or adapt it to novel situations
 see it as one plausible perspective among
others, question its assumptions
 see it as its author/speaker saw it
 avoid and point out common misconceptions,
biases, or simplistic views

© 2005 LD7
23
LAUSD 08/2005
Scenarios for Authentic Tasks
G
R
A
S
P
S
© 2005 LD7
Build assessments anchored in
authentic tasks using GRASPS:
 What is the Goal in the scenario?
 What is the Role?
 Who is the Audience?

What is your Situation (context)?
What is the Performance challenge?
 By what Standards will work be judged
in the scenario?

24
LAUSD 08/2005
T
For Reliability & Sufficiency:
Use a Variety of Assessments
Varied types, over time:
 authentic
tasks and projects
 academic
exam questions, prompts,
and problems
 quizzes
and test items
 informal
 student
© 2005 LD7
checks for understanding
self-assessments
25
LAUSD 08/2005
3 Stages of Design:
Stage 3
1. Identify desired results
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan learning experiences
& instruction
© 2005 LD7
26
LAUSD 08/2005
Stage 3 big idea:
E
F
F
E
C
T
I
V
E
© 2005 LD7
and
27
E
N
G
A
G
I
N
G
LAUSD 08/2005
Stage 3 – Plan Learning
Experiences & Instruction
A focus on engaging and effective
learning, “designed in”
 What
learning experiences and
instruction will promote the desired
understanding, knowledge and skill of
Stage 1?
 How will the design ensure that all
students are maximally engaged and
effective at meeting the goals?
© 2005 LD7
28
LAUSD 08/2005
L
Think of your obligations via
W. H. E. R. E. T. O.
W
H
E
R
E
T
O
© 2005 LD7
L
“Where are we headed?” (the student’s Q!)
How will the student be ‘hooked’?
What opportunities will there be to be equipped,
and to experience and explore key ideas?
What will provide opportunities to rethink,
rehearse, refine and revise?
How will students evaluate their work?
How will the work be tailored to individual
needs, interests, styles?
How will the work be organized for maximal
engagement and effectiveness?
29
LAUSD 08/2005
© 2005 LD7
30
LAUSD 08/2005
Your Favorite Novel, Song,
Painting, and Film
Title: Novel-Song-Painting-Film___________________________
Would this work have an Essential Question? What is it???!!
As you know it, what is the Enduring Understanding the author or
creator is trying to communicate?
© 2005 LD7
31
LAUSD 08/2005
Your Favorite Novel, Song,
Painting, and Film
Created by
Steven Steinberg
LD7 Social Studies Specialist
© 2005 LD7
32
LAUSD 08/2005