Understanding by Design

Using Backward Design to Create

Meaningful Units of Study
(Adapted from and based on the work of
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe)

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.

The Big Ideas of UbD

UbD big idea

Why is this
important?

If not

Backward
Design

Plans need to be well

aligned to be effective

Twin sins: Aimless

activity and coverage

Transfer as
goal

The essence of
understanding and the
point of schooling

Students fail to apply

learning

Understanding
via Big Ideas

How transfer occurs;

creates connections in
learning

Fragmented learning;
more difficult, less
engaging

Meaningful
Learning

This engages and

invites students

Plans need to be well

aligned to be effective

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
The work is only coverage or nice activity
unless focused on questions and big ideas,
related to the Standards

Key points to remember

Too many students learn without thinking
Instruction has become an activity in repeating the
teacher

Most test questions are recall

Wheres the deeper thinking?

The Course is NOT

The textbook: thats 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

The difference
I want students to
understand

I want students to
understand THAT

The US Constitution

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.

(this is content!)
The three branches of
US government

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

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.

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.

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.
Buthow?

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?

The three stages within the unit template

Stage 1- Desired Results
Established Goals:

Understandings:

U Essential Questions:

Students will understand that

Students will know

K Students will be able to

Stage 2- Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks:

Other Evidence:

OE

Stage 3- Learning Plan

Learning Activities:

Three Stages
The following slides will take you
through how to construct a unit, using
the three stages of backward design
So, as you read, think of a unit that you
currently teach or would like to teach.
As we go, consider how your unit would
fit in to the three stages.

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?

Stage 1!
Stage 1- Desired Results
Established Goals:

Understandings:

U Essential Questions:

Students will understand that

Students will know

K Students will be able to

Stage 2- Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks:

Other Evidence:

OE

Stage 3- Learning Plan

Learning Activities:

Stage 1- Identify Desired Results

Established Goals

What goal am I addressing?

Whats the point?
How does this fit into the content
standards?
What should they come away having
learned?
What is the bigger purpose?
Answer: Consider BIG IDEAS

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

How can I tell if something is a Big Idea?

Does it have many layers and nuances, not obvious
to the nave or inexperienced person?
Does it yield optimal depth and breadth of insight
into the subject?
Do you have to dig deep to really understand its
meanings and implications even if you have a
surface grasp of it?
Is it (therefore) prone to misunderstanding as well as
disagreement?

Are you likely to change your mind about its

meaning and importance over a lifetime?

Does it reflect the core ideas as judged by experts?

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?

Use Big Ideas to form Understandings

and Essential Questions
Understandings

Essential Questions

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.

Important questions that will

reoccur throughout our lives
Helps students make sense
of Big Ideas through
questioning and then making
decisions.
Engages and motivates.

Stage 1- Identify Desired Results

Understandings (Often called Enduring Understandings)

Written as generalizations
Framed around Big Ideas
Beyond specific content
Cuts to the core of the discipline
The overall A-ha!
Start with Students will understand THAT
NOT: facts, definitions, trite statements,
the obvious, duh

Stage 1- Identify Desired Results

Examples

Understandings
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 three-fourths

of the earths surface

A free press is guaranteed

by the 1st Amendment.

Stage 1- Identify Desired Results

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 transer to other
situations and subjects

Stage 1- Identify Desired Results

Examples

Essential Questions
Non-examples

How would life be different if How many minutes are in an

we couldnt measure time?
hour? A day?
In what ways does art
reflect, as well as shape,
culture?

Between what years did the

Italian Renaissance occur?

How do effective writers

hook and hold their readers?

What is foreshadowing?
Can you find an example?

What do I do with Essential Questions?

Post them in your classroom
Use them in planning, assessing and
during instruction.
Use them as a touchstone for discussion
If I dontthe questions disappearand
meaning, transfer, and connections are
lost

From Big Ideas, to Understandings,

to Essential Questions
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?

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?

Stage 1- Identify Desired Results

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/investi
gation skills
Thinking skills
(problem- solving,
decision making)
Study skills
Interpersonal or group
collaboration skills

Stage 1- Identify Desired Results

Knowledge and Skills
Examples
Pioneer vocabulary
terms
Cavalieris Principle
General health
problems caused by
poor nutrition

Examples
Recognize and use
pioneer vocabulary in
context
Use Cavalieris
Principle to compare
volumes
Plan balanced diets for
themselves and others

 Lets 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!

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?

Stage 2!
Stage 1- Desired Results
Established Goals:

Understandings:

U Essential Questions:

Students will understand that

Students will know

K Students will be able to

Stage 2- Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks:

Other Evidence:

OE

Stage 3- Learning Plan

Learning Activities:

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.

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?

How to tell if youre thinking like an assessor

Assessors ask:

Activity designers ask:

What would be sufficient and

revealing evidence of understanding?
Given the goals, what performance
tasks must anchor the unit and focus
the instructional work?
What are the different types of
evidence required by Stage 1?
Against what criteria will we
appropriately consider work and assess
levels of quality?
Did the assessments reveal and
distinguish those who really understood
from those who only seemed to? Am I
clear on the reasons behond learner
mistakes?

What would be fun and interesting

activities on this topic?
What projects might students wish to
do on this topic?
What tests should I give, based on the
content taught?
How will I give students a grade and
(justify it to their parents)?
How well did the activities work?
How did the students do on the test?

If you were asking questions

on the left side of the last
slide, youre ready to design
some assessment evidence!

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.

Continuum of assessment
Think of anchoring your unit with a performance
task.
But use the Other Evidence along the way.
(i.e. Dont throw out all your old quizzes!)

Other evidence

What should a Performance Task

ask students to do?
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.
Use the Six Facets of Understanding

The Six Facets of Understanding

Use these when generating ideas for Performance Tasks!

When we truly understand, we

1. Can Explain (generalize, connect, provide examples)
2. Can Interpret (tell accessible stories, provide dimension)
3. Can Apply (use what we know in real contexts)
4. Have perspective (see points of views through critical eyes)
5. Can Empathize (walk in anothers shoes, value what others do)
6. Have Self-knowledge (metacognitive awareness, know what we
dont know, reflect on meaning of learning and experience)

These are excellent starting points or touchstones

for performance tasks!

How can I create an authentic Performance

Task that fosters understanding?
Use GRASPS to assist in the creation!

G - Goal (What task do I want the students to achieve?)

R - Role (Whats the students role in the task?)
A - Audience (Who is the students target audience?)
S - Situation (Whats 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!

Stage 2- Identify Desired Results

Examples

Performance Tasks
Non-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 states impact on
history and development of our
nation.
Design a flower garden for a
company with a logo that has
side-by-sde circular, retangular
and triangular shapes.

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

Consider: 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

 So, we have clarified desired results and

discussed appropriate assessments.
Its time to plan the learning activities!
As we move through Stage 3, remember
that its not about what WE want to
accomplish; its 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!

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?

Stage 3!
Stage 1- Desired Results
Established Goals:

Understandings:

U Essential Questions:

Students will understand that

Students will know

K Students will be able to

Stage 2- Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks:

Other Evidence:

OE

Stage 3- Learning Plan

Learning Activities:

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 knowhow 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 self-assess

T- Be TAILORED to reflect individual talents, interests, styles, and needs
O- Be ORGANIZED to optimize deep understanding, not superficial
coverage

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? Its up to the
designer!

Yes, UbD units are time consuming

and challenging to create
They should be.
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, shouldnt we be thoughtful
about the design process?

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!