Today’s Essential Question

• What does UbD look like/mean at Darby High School?

Today’s Enduring Understanding

• UbD is NOT about forms!!

UbD is…

• focused on exposure to best practices

• about promoting lasting understanding

• about simplification/clarification

• a thought process

• helpful in planning instruction around standards

• an organizational tool that helps the teacher

UbD is…

• a way to make sure your students know “why you are doing this.”

• a way to make sure YOU know “why you are doing this.”

• a conceptual framework that is open to the teacher’s interpretation

• a method to narrow an increasingly widening curriculum

UbD is…

• related to and in concert with Quality Work and 7 Habits

• a way to validate what you are already doing

UbD is NOT…

• dependent on forms

• a precursor to requiring more paperwork (lesson plans)

• an evaluation tool

• related to major structural/organizational/procedural change

Indicators of Success

• A teacher who plans for instruction by looking at the standards to be taught and designing the assessment first, then considering acceptable evidence, and then designing classroom activities.

Evidence of Success

• A teacher who has begun to start each class period by stating the essential question and/or listing enduring understandings

Evidence of Success

• A teacher who has eliminated an activity or a concept because he has realized that it is not tied to the desired results of the course.

Evidence of Success

• A teacher who is familiar with and takes into consideration the six facets of understanding when planning assessments and classroom activities:

• Explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, self-knowledge

What does UbD look like at Darby High School?

• Teachers at Darby High School have undergone a year of UbD training in an effort to:– Continually model best practices

– Define how instructional decisions are made

– Ensure that academic content standards and quality work remain a primary focus

– Aid teacher planning/organization

– Promote student understanding

– Validate our work

Did you notice…

• I never mentioned forms?!?!?!