Some Notes and Information for
a Discussion about Understanding by Design
You can order Understanding by Design at least two ways:
Barnes
and Noble (might be quicker) or ASCD
(UPS Ground only)
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe developed the Understanding
by Design system, with workshops, books, videos,
etc., to share their ideas about backward curriculum design. [SEE: "Are
the Best Curricular Designs "Backward"?] Here's an excerpt
from this article:
Why do we describe the most effective curricular designs as
"backward"? We do so because many teachers begin with textbooks,
favored lessons, and time-honored activities rather than deriving those
tools from targeted goals or standards. We are advocating the reverse: One
starts with the end-the desired results (goals or standards)-and then derives
the curriculum from the evidence of learning (performances) called for by
the standard and the teaching needed to equip students to perform....
Backward design may be thought of as purposeful task analysis: Given a task
to be accomplished, how do we get there? Or one might call it planned coaching:
What kinds of lessons and practices are needed to master key performances?
The approach to curricular design we are advocating is logically forward
and commonsensical but backward in terms of conventional habits, whereby
teachers typically think in terms of a series of activities (as in the apples
unit presented in the Introduction) or how best to cover a topic.
The creators of Understanding by Design recommend that teachers "consider
the big ideas you want students to come to understand as the result of exploring
a particular topic."
READ THE INTRO
& FIRST TWO CHAPTERS of "Understanding by Design" here!
In their Understanding by Design Handbook (order
here), they offer several examples that "illustrate the movement
from a broad topic, to a focus on particular aspects of the topic, (and
then) to specific understandings."
They stress that "desired understandings" should be expressed
as "specific, yet abstract, generalizations or propositions."
Here are several examples of the process they describe:
Phrased as a topic:
friendship
Phrased as a more focused topic:
the difference between friends, family, acquaintances, and teammates
Stated as a specific generalization:
True friendship is revealed more through challenging times than through
happy times.
Phrased as a topic:
weather
Phrased as a more focused topic:
causes of different types of severe weather
Stated as a specific generalization:
* Weather and climate conditions occur as a result of the transfer of energy
into and out of the earth's atmosphere.
* Energy from the sun heats the earth unevenly, causing air movements that
produce changing weather patterns.
* When making predictions, weather forecasters must consider many variables,
which are constantly changing.
Phrased as a topic:
American Revolution
Phrased as a more focused topic:
causes and effects of the American Revolution
Stated as a specific generalization:
* The American Revolution was fought primarily over whether colonists should
have the full rights of a British citizen living in the mother country or
should be subject to "colonial rule."
* The Revolution began defining what it means to be an "American"
-- a process that continues through today.
You'll find many useful worksheets and (more graphically pleasing!)
presentations of ideas in The Understanding by Design Workbook, available
at ASCD's UBD Exchange website.
Browse several chapters of the original UBD book here.
THE UBD DISCUSSION WILL BEGIN ON
THE MIDDLEWEB BOOKLIST ON JULY 23.
Here's how to join the Booklist. Please note that although you can join
the list now, you will not be able to receive or send mail to the list before
Monday, July 23.
To SUBSCRIBE to the list, send a mail message to
listserv@sreb.org
with the following in the body of the message:
subscribe MWbooklist your_full_name
To SEND MAIL TO THE LIST once you've subscribed, use this address in the
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THE DIGEST VERSION OF THE BOOKLIST WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR THIS DISCUSSION.
The discussion of Understanding by Design began July 23.
See a running archive of the discussion here!