© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/2005 1 Muir Middle School ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS and ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS.

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/20051

Muir Middle School

ESSENTIALQUESTIONS

and ENDURINGUNDERSTANDINGS

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/20052

Your Favorite Novel, Song, Painting, and Film

As you know it, what is the essential theme or understanding the author or creator is

trying to communicate?

Would this work have an Essential

Question? An Enduring

Understanding? What is it???!!

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/20053

BLUE MOONEssential Question:

How can we find true love?What is “it” that happens

whenwe “fall” for someone?

Essential Understanding:Finding true love is unpredictable and has no formula…although a

full moon might help!!!

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/20054

1776 by David McCulloughEssential Question:

How is a great leader different than

the average person?

Enduring Understanding:A great leader may have great strengths, weaknesses, and

incredible luck.

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/20055

The greatest novels, plays, songs and the greatest paintings all explore Essential Questions. They spark our curiousity.

Essential Questions probe the issues confronting us . . .

matters which elude simple answers:

Life - Death - Marriage - Identity - Purpose - Betrayal - Honor -

Integrity - Courage - Temptation - Faith - Leadership - Addiction -

Invention - Inspiration.

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/20056

Essential Questions touch our hearts and souls. They are central to our lives. They help to define

what it means to be human.Most important thoughts during our lives will center

on such questions.They may take a life time to answer!

What does it mean to be a good friend? Who will I include in my circle of friends?

How shall I treat my friends? How do I cope with the loss of a friend?

What can I learn about friends and friendships from the novels we read in school?

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/20057

Why do we have to fight wars? Do we have to fight wars?

How could political issues or ideas ever become more important than family loyalties?

Some say our country remains wounded by the slavery experience and the Civil War. In what

ways might this claim be true and in what ways untrue? What evidence can you supply?

Some Essential Questions:

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/20058

How can countries avoid the kind of bloodshed and devastation we experienced during our Civil War?

How much diversity can any nation tolerate?

Who showed greater bravery and courage, the front line soldiers and the nurses who tended to the

wounded and dying or the leaders of the war effort?

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/20059

More Essential Questions:Does a good read differ from a ‘great book’?

Why are some books fads, and others classics?

To what extent is geography destiny?

Should an axiom be obvious?

How different is a scientific theory from a plausible belief?

What is the government’s proper role?

You’ve got to go below the surface...

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to uncover the really ‘big ideas.’

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/200512

The “big ideas” of each stage:

Assessment Evidence

Learning Activities

Understandings Essential Questions

stage

2

stage

3

STANDARD):

stage

1

Performance Task(s): Other Evidence:

Unpack the content standards and content, cognitive action, and concept

Analyze multiple sources of evidence

Derive the implied learning

3 C’s

What are the big ideas?

What’s the evidence?

How will we get there?Scaffolding Lessons

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/200513

Filters for Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings

•It has value beyond the classroom•It contributes to world citizenship

•It has real world applications•It may change over time•It raises more questions•It requires “uncoverage”

•It may be arguable, prone to misunderstanding

• It requires “doing”•It is engaging, and intriguing

•It ‘endures’ a lifetime!

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1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences

& instruction

3 Stages of Design, elaborated

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/200515

Stage 1: Identify desired results.Key: Focus on Big ideas

1. What content standards are addressed explicitly by the unit?

2. What essential questions will frame the teaching toward key ideas, and suggest meaningful and provocative inquiry into content?

Enduring Understandings: What specific insights about big ideas do we want students to leave with? ………The Moral of the Story!

What should students know and be able to do?

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/200516

Muir’s Super Social Studies Department:

StandardEssential Question

Enduring Understanding

Scaffolding/LessonsCulminating Task

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/200517

Understandings: examples... Great artists often break with

conventions to better express what they see and feel.

Price is a function of supply and demand. Friendships can be deepened or undone

by hard times History is the story told by the “winners” F = ma (weight is not mass) Math models simplify physical relations –

and even sometimes distort relations – to deepen our understanding of them

The storyteller rarely tells the meaning of the story

U

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The “big idea” of Stage 1:

There is a clear focus in the unit on the big ideas

Implications: Organize content around key concepts Show how the big ideas offer a purpose and

rationale for the student You will need to “unpack” Content standards in

many cases to make the implied big ideas clear

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/200519

Essential QuestionsWhat questions –

are arguable - and important to argue about?

are at the heart of the subject? recur - and should recur - in professional

work, adult life, as well as in classroom inquiry?

raise more questions – provoking and sustaining engaged inquiry?

often raise important conceptual or philosophical issues?

can provide organizing purpose for meaningful & connected learning?

Q

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& instruction

3 Stages of Design: Stage 2

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/200521

Stage 2 – Assessment Evidence

Template fields ask:

What are key complex performance tasks indicative of understanding?

What other evidence will be collected to build the case for understanding, knowledge, and skill?

What rubrics will be used to assess complex performance?

T

OE

R

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The big ideafor Stage 2

The evidence should be credible & helpful. Implications: the assessments should – Be grounded in real-world applications,

supplemented as needed by more traditional school evidence

Provide useful feedback to the learner, be transparent, and minimize secrecy

Be valid, reliable - aligned with the desired results of Stage 1 (and fair)

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/200523

Assessment of Understanding via the 6 facets

i.e. You really understand when you can:

explain, connect, systematize, predict it show its meaning, importance apply or adapt it to novel situations see it as one plausible perspective among

others, question its assumptions see it as its author/speaker saw it avoid and point out common

misconceptions, biases, or simplistic views

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/200524

Scenarios for Authentic TasksBuild assessments anchored

in authentic tasks using GRASPS:

What is the Goal in the scenario? What is the Role? Who is the Audience? What is your Situation (context)? What is the Performance

challenge? By what Standards will work be

judged in the scenario?

SPS

GRA

T

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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

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/200528

Stage 3 – Plan Learning Experiences & Instruction

A focus on engaging and effective learning, “designed in” What learning experiences and

instruction will promote the desired understanding, knowledge and skill of Stage 1?

How will the design ensure that all students are maximally engaged and effective at meeting the goals?

L

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Think of your obligations via W. H. E. R. E. T. O.

“Where are we headed?” (the student’s Q!)

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?

WHE

E

R

L

TO

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Title: Novel-Song-Painting-Film___________________________

Would this work have an Essential Question? What is it???!!

As you know it, what is the Enduring Understanding the author or creator is trying to communicate?

© 2005 LD7 LAUSD 08/2005 1 Muir Middle School ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS and ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS.

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