Garden City Public SchoolsUnderstanding by Design

A Presentation to the Board of Education

November 10, 2009

Mission Statement

The Garden City School District seeks to create an environment for learning which enables each student the

opportunity to grow as an individual as well as a group member while striving to achieve the optimal level of academic, social and

personal success.

Students will thrive in a learning environment that is developmentally appropriate, individualized and challenging.

Our goal and responsibility is to help each student develop an enthusiasm for learning, a respect for self and others,

and the skills to become a creative independent thinker and problem solver.

http://www.learner.org/vod/vod_window.html?pid=9

Obstacles encountered on the road to understanding

Understanding by Design: Key beliefs about the nature of learning

(Wiggins & McTighe, March 2006)

A key goal of learning is fluent and flexible transfer—successfully using one's knowledge and skill on worthy tasks in important, realistic situations.

Success at transfer depends on understanding the big ideas that connect otherwise isolated or inert facts, skills, and experiences, enabling learners to meet and understand new challenges.

An understanding is a realization that the learner experiences about the power of an idea. We cannot give understandings; we need to engineer them so that learners see for themselves how an idea can empower them to make sense of things.

Learners require clear priorities and a practical knowledge of the work products involved to meet goals and understand standards of excellence.

Learners require regular, timely, and user-friendly feedback to understand goals, produce quality work, and meet high standards.

UbD: Backward Design • Establish Goals

• NYS Standards & NYS Core Curricula

• Understandings:

• Students will know…Students will be able to…

• Essential Questions

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

• Performance Tasks

• Authentic assessments

• Criteria for assessment

• Other Evidence

• Tests, quizzes, homework, etc.

Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence

• Learning Activities

• Use WHERETO (where the unit is going and what is expected, hook and hold interest, experience key ideas and explore the issues, rethink and revise understandings and work, evaluate their work, tailored to the different needs, interests and abilities of students, organized to maximize engagements and effective learning) to guide instructional planning

Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences

and Instruction

As in: Your road test

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results- Understandings

Worth BeingFamiliar With

Important toKnow and Do

Big Ideas and Core Tasks

Familiar with•Key figures who contributed to the Reconstruction

Process

•All nonessential terminology (Freedmen’s Bureau,

scalawags, carpetbagger, etc.)

Important to know and do•Causes and effects of the passage of the Reconstruction

Amendments: 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments

•Social problems caused by Reconstruction: Black Codes, Ku

Klux Klan, Sharecropping & Segregation (Jim Crow

Laws)Causes and effects of the Supreme Court case

Plessy v. Ferguson

Big Ideas framed as Understandings•Government both reflects and shapes society.

•Throughout history, people have struggled to gain equality.

Core Tasks•Compare and evaluate the different Reconstruction Plans;

•Analyze the political, social and economic changes in the

South as a result of Reconstruction;

•Evaluate the overall success of Reconstruction in achieving

its goals;

•Evaluate the extent to which the “New South” was different

from the old south.

Big Ideas: Transfer Across Subjects and Grade Levels

Math• Standard 3: Mathematics

– Students will understand mathematics and become mathematically confident by communicating and reasoning mathematically, by applying mathematics in real-world settings…

• Big Idea

– Discussing the process of solving arithmetic problems leads to greater understanding of specific mathematical processes.

• Standard 4: Science

– Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science

• Big Ideas

– Living things depend on one another.

– Humans and Earth have a interdependent relationship.

Writing• Standard 1

– Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts…

• Big Ideas– Writers study a variety of texts to reflect on their learning and drive their growth.

Essential Questions: Doorways to Understanding

• Open-ended questions that are thought-provoking and interpretive

• Essential Questions are at the core of the content and often lead to or require further investigation

• Essential Questions:

– Have no obvious right answer

– Raise more questions

– Address concepts that are key to the discipline

• Major professional organizations endorse the use of essential questions to structure content

Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision

and Curriculum Development

Big Ideas Essential Questions

Art both reflects a people’s history and culture and

creates that history and culture.

• Are artists trailblazers or mirrors?

Poetry captures many ideas with a handful of words.

• What makes a line “poetic”?

Essential Questions: Overarching To what extent does geography shape history and culture?

• Native Americans

• Exploration

• Road to the American Revolution

• The American Revolution

• Manifest Destiny

• Civil War

• Industry

• Westward Expansion

• Imperialism

• WWI & WW II

• The Cold War

To what extent did the United States fulfill the ideals of the Declaration of Independence?

• Creating a Republic

• The New Government Begins

• The Jefferson Era

• Manifest Destiny

• The Civil War

• Reconstruction

• Westward Expansion

• Civil Rights Movement

What is worth fighting for? Can conflict be avoided?

• Native Americans

• Road to the American Revolution

• The American Revolution

• Creating a Republic

• The New Government Begins

• The Jefferson Era

• Manifest Destiny

• The Civil War

• Progressive Movement

• Westward Expansion

• Imperialism

• WWI

• WWII

• The Cold War

• The Gulf War & the War in IraqWhat makes writing worth reading?

• All units

Essential Questions: Topical

Overarching question

• To what extent did the United States fulfill the ideals of the Declaration of Independence?

Topical questions

• To what extent did the US fulfill the ideals of the Declaration of Independence by 1850?

• To what extent did Reconstruction result in equality for the freed slaves?

• How has the Supreme Court succeeded/failed in promoting the ideals of the Declaration of Independence?

What does it mean to Assess?

What assessment tasks will anchor our curricular units and guide our instruction?

How will we know if students have achieved the

desired results?

What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and

proficiency?

Stage 2: Determine Acceptable

Evidence: Begin with the End in Mind

Types of AssessmentA Balanced Approach

• Performance Task• The performance task is at the heart of the learning.

• A performance task is meant to be a real-world challenge in the thoughtful and effective use of knowledge and skill— an authentic test of understanding, in context.

• Criteria Referenced Assessment • Tests, Quizzes, Prompts

• These provide instructor and student with feedback on how well the facts and concepts are being understood.

• Unprompted Assessment and Self-Assessment • observations, dialogues, anecdotal notes

3-2-1 Card

Authentic Assessment in Progress

PerspectiveApplication

Explanation

Self Knowledge

InterpretationEmpathy

Global History 10R

Overarching Essential Question:

To what extent do individuals shape history?

Research Paper Assignment:

To what extent did ___________________ shape history?

W Where is the unit headed? And Why?

H Hook students in the beginning and Hold their attention

E Equip students with necessary experiences, tools, knowledge to meet performance goals

R Students should Rethink big ideas, Reflect on progress and Revise their work

E Provide opportunities for students to Evaluate progress and self-assess

T Tailor to reflect individual interest, talents, styles and needs

O Be organized to optimize deep understanding as opposed to superficial coverage

WHERE TO

Stage 3—Learning Experiences: Putting it all Together

Creating lessons and assessments that reflect the Big Ideas & Essential Questions

Unit Title: A Nation is Created

STAGE 1 – DESIRED RESULTS

Understanding(s) /Big Ideas:

Government policies shape the relationship between the government

and its citizens.

The actions of individuals shaped the course of early American

history.

The Declaration of Independences outlines the ideals on which the

United States was founded.

Essential Question(s):

What is the purpose of government?

How do individuals shape history?

What is worth fighting for? Can conflict be avoided?

To what extent has the history of the United States been a history of

progress for all people?

How does geography shape history?

Student Objectives/Learning Outcomes:

Students will be able to:

Identify laws passed by British Parliament to restrict colonist’s freedoms or tax the colonists after the French and Indian War

Describe the effect the French and Indian War had on the colonies and on Britain

Explain the political, economic and social causes of the American Revolution

Evaluate the effectiveness of colonial forms of protest

Evaluate the decision of the 13 Colonies to rebel from Britain

Describe the purpose of the Declaration of Independence

Compare the ideals of the Declaration of Independence to the reality of the United States of America in 1776

Identify and map key turning points in the American Revolution

Analyze the reasons for the United States victory in the American Revolution

STAGE 2 – ASSESSMENT EVIDENCEPerformance Task(s):

o Rewrite the Declaration of Independence in their own words.

o Create a timeline of events leading up to the Revolutionary War

o RAFT- students will write a letter to Parliament from the point

of view of a colonist

o Thesis based essay -- revolution

Other Evidence:

o Test

o DBP

STAGE 3 – LEARNING ACTIVITIESLearning Activities: Students will:

- participate in a town hall meeting in which they will debate the merits of breaking away from Britain.

- investigate the conditions of African Americans and women during the American Revolution using primary documents- paintings of

women, quotes from George Washington, diaries.

- read primary source documents about the winter at Valley Forge and write a poem from the point of view of one of the soldiers

- Reenact The Battle of Saratoga- students will be assigned to research a specific general involved in the Battle of Saratoga. With their

group they will research the general’s role in the battle. Students will then act out the battle using a giant map and army men showing

the strategy of each side as well as the outcome of the battle.

After the debate, students will respond, in writing, to the question:

Were the colonists justified in their fight against the British?

Students must write a thesis and support their view with evidence from the debate.

Were the colonists justified in their fight against the British?

Situation: Pretend you are a colonist in 1775. Your town has called a meeting to discuss whether the local militia should support the revolution against Britain.

Task: You will be assigned the perspective of either a Loyalist or Patriot. In yourassigned role, you will debate the issue of breaking away from Britain. You must try toconvince the members of your town to support your views. To prepare for the debate:

• Read selected primary sources from Loyalists and Patriots. •Identify arguments from both sides of the issue•Formulate your position and provide evidence to present at the town hall meeting•Discuss, with your neighbors. the merits of going to war with Britain • Participate in the town vote to decide the issue.

Essential Question: What is worth fighting for?

What Does a UbD Classroom Look Like?

PZ

Understanding by DesignUbD

Assessment in the World Languages Classroom

In a UbD Classroom:• Anticipate key misunderstandings and assesss to

determine if those misunderstandings were overcome

• Regularly ask students to “show their work,” give reasons for answers, and show connections to larger principles or ideas in the answers

• Ask the student to “transfer” that explanation to a new or different problem, situation or issue

• Tap into the various facets to broaden the evidence: When demanding a hands-on application, also require interpretation.

The Unit Collage illustrates an approach to

assessment that would be different from

traditional modes in that students are to

apply their knowledge of a thematic unit in

a creative way while adhering to specific

parameters. While they must also

demonstrate their basic recall knowledge

on a criterion referenced test on the same

material, the unit collage allows for

creative, higher order, “outside the box”

thinking. Students needed to use the

Backward Design model when planning

this collage, while also adhering to the

given guidelines. The main focus of the

unit collage is for students to “plan their

work” and “work their plan.”

Les Parties du Corps

Le visage

Le genou

Le nez

La bouche

Le cou

La main

La cheville

Le pied

Le coude

Les cheveux

Les Maladies

La grippe

Mal a l’estomac

De la fievre

Mal a l’oreille

Mal aux dents

Mal a la tete

The Connection Between Special Education &

Understanding By Design

Individualized Education Plan

(IEP) Goals

2009 Self Contained

Speech & Exposition Class

Why “Backward” Is Best

• Backward design provides an academic itinerary designed to reach a specific destination.

• By knowing our destination we can chart our academic course effectively.

Resources on our web site

…for your attention!

6 Facets of Understanding

Explanation: What does this mean? A student who understands can explain. To explain is to provide

thorough, supported, and justifiable evidence and argument. Student who are able to explain can make predictions, ask key questions, provide insights and identify the “big idea”.

Interpretation: What does this mean? A student who understands can interpret. To interpret is to tell

meaningful stories that offer various translations; providing background knowledge to ideas and events; make it personal or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies, and models.

Application: What does this mean? A student who understands can apply effectively. Students use and

adapt what is known in various contexts. Students are able to adjust as they understand.

Break this down to include associated picture with each slide

6 Facets of Understanding

Perspective: What does this mean?

A student who understands has perspective. Perspective is when a

student can see and hear points of view through critical eyes and

ears; know the limits and the worth of an idea; can see the big

picture.

Empathy: What does this mean?

A student needs to empathize to understand. To empathize is to find value in another’s situation or idea; assume that an odd idea may contain worthwhile insights; see incomplete or incorrect elements of ideas; explain misconceptions viewed by others.

Self Knowledge: What does this mean?

Self-Knowledge is the ability to perceive the personal style, prejudices and get beyond them; recognize strengths and weaknesses; question ones own ideas; accept feedback from others.

What Does NOT Change with UbD?

The teacher’s role as instructional leader

The teacher’s unique style as instructor

Classroom management

State and district standards and courses of study

Report cards

The teacher’s prerogatives as decision-maker in lesson

implementation