Differentiated Instruction (DI)

Meets Understand by Design (UbD)

UB EDUC- 503October 15, 2012

Understanding by DesignThe Big Ideas of UbD

Forthcoming slides adapted from the work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

3 Stages of (“Backward”) Design

Stage 1: Identify desired results

Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence

Stage 3: Plan learning experiences & instruction

Why “backward”?

The stages are logical, but they go against habits

We’re used to jumping to lesson and activity ideas - before clarifying our performance goals for students

By thinking through the assessments upfront, we ensure greater alignment of our goals and means, and that teaching is focused on desired results

3 Stages of (“Backward”) Design

Stage 1: Identify desired results

Stage 2: Determine acceptable evidence

Stage 3: Plan learning experiences & instruction

Key: Focus on Big ideas

Enduring Understandings: What specific insights about big ideas do we want students to leave with?

What essential questions will frame the teaching and learning, pointing toward key issues and ideas, and suggest meaningful and provocative inquiry into content?

What should students know and be able to do?

What content standards are addressed explicitly by the unit?

Establishing Priorities

Six Facets of Understanding

Explain - provide thorough, supported, and justifiable accounts of phenomena, facts and data

Interpret - tell meaningful stories; offer apt translations; provide a revealing historical or personal dimension to ideas and events; make it personal or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies, and models.

Apply - effectively use and adapt what is known in diverse contexts.

Perspective - can see and hear points of view through critical eyes and ears; see the big picture.

Empathize - find value in what others might find odd, alien, or implausible; perceive sensitively on the basis of prior direct experience.

Self-Knowledge - perceive the personal style, prejudices, projections, and habits of mind that both shape and impede our own understanding; having an awareness of what one does not understand and why understanding is so hard

Brainstorming Essential Questions Based on the

Facets

Provocative Essential Questions

Have no one obvious right answer.

Raise other important questions.

Address the philosophical or conceptual foundations of a discipline.

Recur naturally.

Are framed to provoke and sustain student interest.

Reflection - Stage 1

Choose 1 to answer individually.

Share response in a small group.

Group selects 2 to share with class.

I was surprised…

I have been wondering…

I realized that…

Tonight I learned...

3 Stages of Design: Stage 2

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences & instruction

Just because the student “knows it” …

Evidence of understanding is a greater challenge than evidence that the student knows a correct or valid answer

Understanding is inferred, not seen

It can only be inferred if we see evidence that the student knows why (it works) so what? (why it matters), how (to apply it) – not just knowing that specific inference

Reliability: Snapshot vs. Photo Album

We need patterns that overcome inherent measurement error

Sound assessment (particularly of State Standards) requires multiple evidence over time - a photo album vs. a single snapshot

For Reliability & Sufficiency:

Use a Variety of Assessments

Varied types, over time:authentic tasks and projects

academic exam questions, prompts, and problems

quizzes and test items

informal checks for understanding

student self-assessments

Curricular Priorities and Assessment Methods

Assessment of Understanding Brainstorming….

Using the Facets of Understanding

Considering a Range of Evidence

Determining Possible Performances

A Performance Task is Authentic if it…

Is realistic.

Requires judgment and innovation.

Asks a student to “do” the subject.

Replicates or simulates the contexts in which adults are tested in the workplace.

Assess a student’s ability to efficiently and effectively use a repertoire of knowledge and skills to negotiate a complex task.

Allows appropriate opportunities to rehearse, practice, and consult resources; obtain feedback on performances; and refine performances and products.

Rubrics, Checklists, and Other Evidence

UBD Templates

http://4teachers.org

RubiStar

PBL Checklists

QuizStar

3 Stages of Design: Stage 3

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences & instruction

Stage 3 big idea:

Think of your obligations via

W. H. E. R. E. T. O.“Where are we headed?”

How will the student be ‘hooked’?

What opportunities will there be to be equipped, and to experience and explore key ideas?

What will provide opportunities to rethink, rehearse, refine and revise?

How will students evaluate their work?

How will the work be tailored to individual needs, interests, styles?

How will the work be organized for maximal engagement and effectiveness?

Exit Card

When I think of implementing the UbD model,

I feel ______ because _____________________.