Understanding by Design
Why Use Backward Planning?
Alice in Wonderland
Alice is lost.
"Which way should I go?"
After a moment of silence, the Cheshire Cat said, "That
depends. . ."
Alice said, "Depends on what?"
The Cat said: "It depends on your destination. Where are
you going?"
"I don’t know. . . I just don’t know. . ." answered a confused
Alice.
"Then," said the Cheshire Cat, while grinning broadly, "It
really does not matter."
Understanding by Design…
To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear
understanding of your destination.
It means to know where you’re going
so that you better understand where you are now
so that the steps you take are
always in the right direction.
Stephen R. Covey
Understanding By Design
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
Understanding by Design
 a conceptual framework, design process and template,
and an accompanying set of design standards.
 a methodology to design or redesign any curriculum to
increase student understanding.
Understanding By Design
Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe
3 Stages
1. Identify Desired Results
2. Determine Acceptable Evidence
3. Plan Learning Experiences
The “Design” Approach:

Stage 1: What essential outcomes are worthy and
requiring of understanding?

Stage 2: What would be evidence of enduring
understanding?

Stage 3: What teaching and learning experiences
promote, foster, and support understanding, interest, and
excellence?
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April Break!!

Let’s “Design” a
vacation!!

What should we decide
first?

Other important factors?
Understanding by Design
Big Ideas
(established goals, content standards, learning outcomes)
Are defined by
Enduring Understandings + Essential Questions
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Big Ideas =Enduring Understandings + Essential Questions
“Big Ideas”- anchor understandings
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are broad, abstract, universal, timeless
connect and organize important ideas, skills and facts
are conceptual, thematic, theoretical
Courage, friendship, justice, evolution, diversity, loyalty,
acceptance, rejection.
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Understanding by Design
Big Ideas =Enduring Understandings + Essential Questions
Enduring Understandings
–
What do we want learners to understand, know,
and be able to do several years from now, once
they have forgotten the details?
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Understanding by Design
Big Ideas =Enduring Understandings + Essential Questions
Enduring Understanding:
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defines core ideas and processes
central to a discipline or concept (Big Idea)
transferable to other content and contexts
enduring value beyond the classroom
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Understanding by Design
Big Ideas =Enduring Understandings + Essential Questions
Enduring Understanding:
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summarizes strategic skills and principles
Assessed through performance tasks
incorporates realistic contexts and real-world
problems and solutions
Students apply knowledge and skills to a new
situation
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Understanding by Design
Big Ideas =Enduring Understandings + Essential Questions
"It is not possible to be a good thinker and a poor questioner."
` Richard Paul and Linda Elder
Essential Questions:
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requires the student to develop a plan or course of action.
requires the student to make a decision.
are powerful, directive and commit students to the process of
critical thinking through inquiry.
the answer to the essential question will require that students
craft a response that involves knowledge construction.
** Answers to essential questions are a direct measure
of student understanding.
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Understanding by Design
Big Ideas =Enduring Understandings + Essential Questions
Essential Questions:
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reside at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy (Bloom, 1954).
require students to EVALUATE (make a thoughtful choice
between options, with the choice based upon clearly stated
criteria),
to SYNTHESIZE (invent a new or different version)
to ANALYZE (develop a thorough and complex understanding
through skillful questioning).
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Understanding by Design
What Should Your Students Know?
After 40 days – facts/ surface knowledge
(worth being familiar with Measured by: Tests/quizzes)
After 40 months – Favorite part/character from a book
(important to know and do –
Measured by: performance tasks/projects)
After 40 years – Morals, Enduring Understandings
(Standards, program objectives, learning outcomesMeasured by: complex- open ended, authentic assessments)
Establishing
Curricular Priorities
Understanding by Design
Designing Units
Look at standards prior to developing units
(2-3 weeks in length)
This will help focus on Big Ideas (themes) and Enduring
Understandings
eg
Understanding by Design
Stage 1 : Identify Desired Results
What do I want the students to know and be able to do?
Big Ideas – Themes based upon standards
1.
2.
ENDURING
UNDERSTANDINGS:
Charlotte’s Web
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
Students will understand how reading
relates to life experiences by analyzing
and comparing the emotions, feelings,
and actions of characters to their own
experiences.
Students will understand the difference
between cause and effect and how
cause and effect can influence life
choices.
Charlotte’s Web
How, Why, To what extent:
(No more than 5 per unit)
1.
2.
How do some of the experiences of
the characters in Charlotte’s Web
relate to some of your own personal
experiences?
How does cause and effect influence
some of the events and outcomes in
Charlotte’s Web?
Understanding by Design
Stage 1 : Identify Desired Results
What do I want the students to know and be able to do?
Big Ideas – Themes based upon standards
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS:
How, Why, To what extent:
(No more than 5 per unit)
Hamlet
Hamlet
1. In Hamlet, Shakespeare explores many
issues of the human condition that are
still relevant today.
2. People respond to a crisis situation in a
variety of ways that reveal much about
human psychology and experience.
3. As is true with most matters of the
heart, revenge is not always as cut and
dry as we might like it to be.
4. Ghosts of the past haunt people in many
ways that affect their decision.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Why study an old book like Hamlet?
How do people respond in a crisis?
Is revenge okay? Why or why not?
To what extent do ghosts of the past haunt
us?
Understanding by Design
Stage 2: Assessment Evidence
 Performance assessment tasks will measure enduring understandings.
 Continuum of Informal & Formal Assessment Instruments
 Traditional Content-Focused Assessments – tests/quizzes
 Authentic, Open-Ended Performance Tasks and Projects
 Sound assessment requires multiple snapshots over time.
Understanding vs. Knowing
http://cooperativelearning.nuvvo.com/lesson/9592-seinfeldteaches-history
Six Facets of Understanding
UNDERSTANDING
Understanding by Design
Stage 2: Six Facets of Understanding
“A list of ingredients, but not yet dinner”
 How do we get students to think? To Learn?
 These facets mutually reinforce the concept of student understanding
 How do we know they understand? …
- the more we see a student explain, identify, apply, and offer
multiple points of view on the same idea, the more likely that the
student understands that idea.
Understanding by Design
Stage 3: Learning Plan
Instructional strategies and learning experiences
to achieve the desired result
WHERETO:
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W - Where are we going? Why? What?
H – Hook the students interests
E – Equip students for the Performance Task
R – Help students to rethink and revise
E – Students self-evaluate their learning
T – Tailor learning to varied needs
O – organize the sequence of learning
Understanding by Design
Stage 3: Learning Plan
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Individual lesson plans are constructed in stage 3
Ensure that Big Ideas are uncovered through inquiry
activities and explicit instruction
Help learners to make sense of content
Connect facts to skills to large ideas
Apply knowledge I meaningful ways
April Vacation - Conclusion


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What is the “BIG IDEA”
What are the “essential questions”
What are the “enduring understandings?”
References:

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria,
VA. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2004). Understanding by design:
Professional Development Workbook. Alexandria, VA. Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005, 2nd Edition). Understanding by design.
Alexandria, VA. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
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(http://www.fno.org/sept96/questions.html)
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Understanding By Design
THE END