Session 2January 26, 2010

Windsor Secondary

Designing Instruction for Deep Learning and Diversity

Backward Design Model – 3 Stages

1. Identify desired results

2. Determine acceptable evidence

3. Plan learning experiences and instruction

Designs 2010 Series • January 12 Setting the Stage for Instructional Design that

fosters Deep Learning and Embraces Diversity

• January 26 Backward Design: Goal Setting, Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions

• February 9 Backward Design Stage Two: Assessment For, As, Of Learning

• March 29 Backward Design Stage Three: Teaching for Deep Understanding and Diversity

• April 12 Differentiated Assessment and Instruction Practices

“To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear

understanding of your destination.”

S. Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

1. Understand that effective curriculum design evolves backward from clear goals.

2. Determine Goals (Big Ideas) by ‘unpacking’ PLOs.

3. Develop Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions to guide curriculum design.

Learning Intentions for Today

What is Good Design?

“Teachers are designers. An essential act of our profession is the crafting of curriculum and learning experiences to meet specified purposes.”

“Deliberate and focused instructional design requires us to make an important shift… The shift involves thinking a great deal, first, about the specific learnings sought, and the evidence of such learnings, before thinking about what we, as the teacher, will do or provide in teaching and learning activities.”

“Backward Design”

Success for Every Student: Transforming Curriculum Design

Without a constant focus on teaching that is meant to culminate in meaning and transfer, schooling will likely remain mired in timeless, unexamined habits and rituals, and limited by incoherent practices and structures.

Globalization of Understanding by Design

The Globalization of UbD

…school change becomes chaotic without a curriculum, assessment, and instructional framework derived from the mission and grounded in valid learning principles.

Schooling by Design

Curriculum and instruction must address three academic goals: helping students

1) acquire important information and skills

2) make meaning of that content

3) effectively transfer their learning to new situations both within school and beyond

Learning for Understanding

1. Activity-Oriented Design“Hands-on without “Minds On”

2. Curriculum Coverage“Marching through the textbook”

“Twin Sins” of Curriculum Design

BEFORE UbD

• Look at the middle school Geometry lesson

• Which of the “twin sins” are represented in this lesson?

AFTER UbD

• Discuss the changes evident in the lesson after “Backward Design” has been applied

Geometry: Lesson Make-Over

• Danger of coverage mentality

• Need to prioritize & identify BIG IDEAS

• Clarity of goals essential for success

Gaining Clarity of Goals

Establishing Curricular Priorities

Worth Being Familiar With• Different conditions requiring dietary

restrictions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and stomach ulcers

Important to know and do• Canada’s Food Guide recommendations

• Nutritional information on food labels and how to interpret them

Big Ideas• Balanced diet

Understandings• “You are what you eat.” Your diet affects

your health, appearance, and performance.

Worth being familiar with

Important to know and do

Big Ideas and Enduring

Understandings

Overall Desired Results

• Common design thread among provincial standards, enduring understandings, essential questions, knowledge and skills

• Transferable concept, theme, theory, principle or process

• Connect the discreet facts and skills

• Common design thread among PLOs enduring understandings, essential questions

• Examples: equity, good triumphs over evil, molecular theory, problem solving

BIG IDEAS

You’ve got to go below the surface…

…to really uncover the big ideas!

Prescribed Learning Outcome: • Demonstrate knowledge about the origins

of the universe and about astronomical entities

BIG IDEAS:• Big Bang Theory• Scientific investigation• Creation vs. Evolution

Grade 11 Earth Science

• PLOs (and Achievement Indicators) imply BIG IDEAS

• Look carefully at the nouns, adjectives and verbs

• Pay attention to key ideas in the Organizers (e.g. Identity, Society, and Culture: Canada 1815-1914)

Unpacking the Learning Goals (PLOs)

The Big Ideas – Group Activity

What will the students

remember for:

40 seconds?40 minutes?

40 years?

The 40 years are the BIG IDEAS!

Unit Topic:

BIG IDEA(S):

STAGE 1: Desired ResultsSTAGE 1: Desired ResultsSTAGE 1: Desired Results

Prescribed Learning Outcomes:Prescribed Learning Outcomes:Prescribed Learning Outcomes:

Enduring Understandings: Enduring Understandings: Essential Questions:

Knowledge:Knowledge: Skills:

Backward Design Unit Template

• Based on the big ideas and central to the discipline

• Framed as full sentence statements

• Lasting value beyond the classroom

• Require “uncoverage” in order to be learned

Enduring Understandings

• Science– Scientific theories are used to explain the origin of the

universe.

• English – Writers use a variety of stylistic techniques to engage

and persuade their readers

• Social Studies– Historical interpretation is influenced by one’s

perspective.

Enduring Understandings – Examples

• In your group, or with a partner, develop some Enduring Understandings aligned with the Big Idea and based on the PLOs

• Use the examples of Enduring Understandings in your package to guide your thinking

• Record your Enduring Understandings on the Unit Design Template

Enduring Understandings – Group Activity

• Highlight the Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings

• Have no “right” answer; arguable and important to argue about

• Provoke and sustain student inquiry

• Address conceptual or philosophical foundations of the discipline

• Raise other questions

Essential Questions

• How do we decide which scientific claims to believe?

• Are mathematical ideas inventions or discoveries?

• Does art reflect culture or shape it?

• Who owns what and why?

• How do the structures and functions of government interrelate?

Essential Questions – Examples

IB Unit Questions

• Review the Enduring Understandings you developed based on your set of PLOs

• Develop 2-3 Essential Questions that will provoke and sustain inquiry

• Record your Essential Questions on the Unit Design Template

Essential Questions – Group Activity

• Efficient and effective units with deeper understandings

• Curriculum design that meets the needs of all learners in the class

UBD End Results

Where to Differentiate?Tomlinson & McTighe (2006) Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design. p. 36 Fig 3.3

… is not to cover content, but rather to

help learners become thoughtful about, and productive with, content. It's not to help students get good at school, but rather to prepare them for the world beyond school…

The Mission of High School