Understanding by Design

Ensuring Learning
through Lesson Design

i.e. Backward Design

Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
 Big Idea …… “Making Best
Practices, Common Practice”
 We teach so that others may
understand.
 Our challenges:
• Finding time to ‘teach all standards’
and maintain the rigor (teaching for
understanding - not just ‘to cover’)
• Making lessons meaningful
• Engaging students in the learning
process
 Old saying….

 “If you don’t know exactly where

you are headed, then any road will
get you there.”
 Three Stages of UbD
 Stage 1: Identify the Desired Results
• Unpack the learning, prioritize learning
goals, determine expectations ….
 Clarify Learning Outcomes

Stage 2: Determine Acceptable

Evidence
Stage 3: Plan learning experiences
and instruction
“Let the main ideas which are
introduced into a child’s education
be few and important, and let them
be thrown into every combination
possible.”

 -Whitehead, 1929
Understanding is the ability to
transfer learning to new,
different and unique
experiences.”
Wiggins
 A Big Idea … (bottom line)
 Provides a ‘lens for prioritizing’
 Serves as an organizer for facts, skills and actions
… focusing on big ideas, helps students see
purpose and relevance of pieces
 Support Transference … create coherence
 Manifest itself in many ways and in many content
areas
 Requires Uncovering - its meaning is abstract, so it
must be discovered, constructed or inferred by
learners
 2nd Component:
Essential Questions

“To question means to lay open, to

place in the open. Only a person
who has questions can have real
understanding.”
Gadamer, 1994
 Essential Questions …
 Have no simple ‘right answer; they are meant to be
argued and discussed (discovered, uncovered)
 Designed to provoke and sustain inquiry
 Often address the foundational or historical issues
of a subject
 Lead to more questions
 Naturally come back again when learning
 Encourage ongoing re-thinking of big ideas,
assumptions, prior learning (transference…)
 Could be overarching or topical
 3rd Component - Desired
Outcomes
 Determine the Learning Goal
(standard)
 Clarify specifically what the student will
know, understand, and be able to do
(unpack the standards)
 Stage 1: Identify the Desired Results
 Stage 2: Determine Acceptable
Evidence
• What evidence could be used to
document and validate the learning
that has been achieved
• Evidence is gathered throughout the
learning time - includes formative and
not only summative assessments
 Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction
 Stage 1: Identify the Desired Results
 Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence
 Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and
instruction
• What specific content and skills must be
‘taught’ to achieve desired results?
• What is the best way to ‘teach’ the
content and skills?
• What resources will we need?
• How much time might be required for
learning?
"Reduce your plan to writing... The moment you
complete this, you will have definitely given
concrete form to the intangible desire." - Napoleon
Hill
 Lasting thought ….

“For any subject taught in primary

school, we might ask [is it] worth an
adult’s knowing, and whether having
known it as a child makes a person a
better adult. A negative or ambiguous
answer means the material is cluttering
up the curriculum.”
 Bruner, 1960
UbD - Stage 2
Assessment Evidence
 Why Assess?
 Assessments are not just to provide a ‘grade’
 Purpose of assessment:
• Determine if learner ‘got it’……Gather evidence which
demonstrates learning outcomes were achieved
• Help teachers determine extent of student understanding
• Guide next steps of instructions
• Provide appropriate scaffolding/differentiated instruction for
students throughout the learning experience
• Provide feedback to stakeholders (students/parents)
 Performance
tasks
Kinds of evidence …

Continuum of Assessments

Academic
prompts
Tests and
quizzes
Observations
and dialogues
Informal checks for
understanding
 Bloom’s Taxonomy

Knowledge Application Synthesis

Comprehension Analysis Evaluation

Emerging Developing Proficient Advanced

Heard of it Know it Can apply it Can teach it

Explain Apply Empathy

Interpret Perspective Self-knowledge

6-Facets of Learning
 Stage 3
Designing the Lessons