Understanding by DesignNESD Model for Curriculum ImplementationPresented by DI Team

March, 2009

What is Understanding by Design (UbD)?

Unit-planning process Created by Grant Wiggins and Jay

McTighe Known as “backwards design” Begins with the end in mind Beginning stages of UbD

Basic Stages of UbD

Stage 1:Identify desired results Curriculum Goals and Learner Outcomes Big Ideas Essential Questions/ Enduring Understandings Know/ Understand/ Do

Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence Formative/Summative Assessments

Stage 3: Plan learning experiences and instruction Developing the Learning Plan Consider how to differentiate

Stages of Backward Design

Curriculum Actualization

UbD requires teachers to examine curriculum to align the learning plan/assessment with provincial expectations

UbD leads students and teachers to higher level of thinking and inquiry

Links assessment directly to learning outcomes

Establishing Curricular Priorities

Meeting the Learner Needs

Invites us to attend to the child Allows for scaffolding for students Clarifies outcomes that all children are

expected to learn Clarifies what students need to

understand, know, do

The How-to’s of UbD

Categories within the process are most important

Many entry points UbD takes time to do well Units are often revised as teachers reflect

on effectiveness Process may guided by organizer use

Big Ideas

Invite higher levels of thinking Requires uncovering throughout the unit Transfers across grades or subject areas‘A big idea is a way of usefully seeing connections,

not just another piece of knowledge…..it is more like a theme than the facts of a story.’ (Grant Wiggins, 2007)

Essential Questions/Enduring Understandings

Stimulates thought, provokes inquiry, and generates questions

Interdisciplinary – invites you to transfer and apply learning

Links to curriculum

‘They require new thought rather than the mere collection of facts, second-hand opinions, or “cut-and-paste” thinking…many of us believe that schools should devote more time to essential questions and less time to Trivial Pursuit.’ (Jamie McKenzie, 2008)