UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN:Module 5 – Getting Started with Lesson Design

UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN: GETTING STARTED Purpose:

Consider starting points for lesson design. Decide how to begin designing a lesson. Decide where to begin designing a lesson.

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UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN: TRAINING MODULE #5 This training module is based on the works of Jay

McTighe and Grant Wiggins’ Understanding by Design.

This module was built by AISD to support Understanding by Design concepts in the classroom.

AISD Curriculum documents such as Yearly Itineraries and Curriculum Road Maps are written in the UbD Framework Design.

At the end of the training, you will need to complete an Online Assessment to get credit for completing the module.

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Unit Design

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Where to Start Where Not to Start

UNIT DESIGN

A single process

“Narrow” standard, benchmark indicator, discrete skill (“sonnetts” or “associative property”)

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Click and drag to boxes to the correct column

Performance deficiencies revealed by assessments (making inferences, solving multi-step math problems)

Questions with right or wrong answers.

“Big” State/District Standard (creative writing, regrouping, factoring)

Topics with essential questions (“How does culture shape art?”

Universal theme, theory

Process that uses different and important skills

Inquiry into complex and topical issues

Important, enduring ideas

Favorite learning activity

Vocabulary, Subtraction with borrowing

Definitions

Drill and practice exercises

UNIT DESIGN

Where to Start Where Not to Start

“Big” State/District Standard (creative writing, regrouping, factoring)

“Narrow” standard, benchmark indicator, discrete skill (“sonnets” or “associative property”)

Important, enduring ideas Favorite learning activity

Topics with essential questions (“How does culture shape art?”)

Questions with right or wrong answers.

Performance deficiencies revealed by assessments (making inferences, solving multi-step math problems)

Vocabulary, Subtraction with borrowing

Universal theme, theory Definitions

Process that uses different and important skills

A single process

Inquiry into complex and topical issues

Drill and practice exercises

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Click and drag to boxes to the correct column

UNIT DESIGN

Getting Ready to Design a Unit .

Identify the transfer goals, essential questions and

understandings.

What are your content goals?

Design Decisions

Ideas and Content

Knowledge

Skill Development

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Begin with developing essential questions and

understandings, and then focus on transfer goals.

UNIT DESIGN

Getting Ready to Design a Unit. Design Decisions:

What is the scope of your unit? Start with a unit that involves:

Inquiries Challenges Issues Themes Problems requiring students to make sense of something Concepts that permit in-depth probing and investigation

“The best units do not focus on a fact or a skill; they focus on how to use related facts or skills to achieve understanding.” (Grant & Wiggins pg. 35)

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UNIT DESIGN

Questions to ask yourself when you’re

ready to start.

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UNIT DESIGN

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What about starting with an activity?

Activities should lead up to complex

performances of skills and complex

products.

Often, lessons are narrow

and isolated.

Daily activities don’t embody meaningful

and connected chunks of learning that lead

to an “important intellectual outcome”.

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UNIT DESIGN

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Should I start with a new lesson or

revise an older one?

Check your level of enthusiasm. Are you ready to begin imagining a new lesson?

Sometimes it’s better to start clean and fresh.

Would you rather focus on a some area

of weakness in student performance or a design flaw in an existing lesson plan?

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UNIT DESIGN

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What about the textbook?

The textbook is not the

curriculum.

Don’t take into account learning

style, student interest, and ability levels.

Textbooks are organized by

topic not transfer goals.

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UNIT DESIGN

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So, where should I start?

A thought provoking question.

What questions

can we ask that will promote

inquiry and discussion?

An important “AHA!”What new insights do we want to students to have

when the lesson is completed?

Content

Standards

and Establi

shed Goals.What

are the

transfer

goals for this lesson

?

A real world

transfer goal.

An important activity or lesson.What experiences

should the student have

while studying the lesson?

What thought provoking

activities would raise lesson questions?

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Content Standards. What big ideas and transfer goals are

implied in the state/district standard?

UNIT DESIGN – AISD MODELWhat transfer goals are embedded in the

standard? What should students be able to do on their own to show they

meet the standard?

Test for assessment. What do students

need to know about this in order to do

well on the assessment?

An “AHA”! When the unit is done, what new insight will the student have gained?

A thought provoking

question. What big ideas can be

explored by asking questions?

Key resources/text. Why do you use that resource? Why does the student have to

read that text?

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This is a blank Austin

ISD CRM.

.

Start designing a unit on Stage I – Desired Results.

Start designing a unit on Stage 2 – Evidence

Start designing a unit on Stage 3 – Learning Plan.

What learning experience will

help uncover the big ideas from

Stage 1?

LESSON DESIGN

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LESSON DESIGN

This is the lesson design template for the Austin Independent School District.

Your lesson planning should happen in Stage 3 of the UbD model.

Your lesson design should support your… Stage 1 Desired Results Stage 2 Assessments 16

Move the mouse over the image to see a larger version.

STAGE 1

STAGE 2

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Click the image to return to the previous screen.

HOW DO I GET TO THE CURRICULUM?

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Log in to the AISD Cloud.

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Open Schoolnet

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Click on the “Classrooms” tab

Click on the “Instructional Materials” link

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Select a Subject

Select a Grade

Don’t forget to click the “Search” button. Nothing will happen until

you do this.

Click the drop down menu and

choose Curriculum

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Click on the link

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Click on the “Scope and

Sequence” tab

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Click on the CRM you wish to view

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Don’t forget to use the scroll

bars to view the rest of the document

Here’s your CRM for a particular

Unit

UNIT DESIGN

References:Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units. 2nd. Alexandria: ASCD, 2011. Print.

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