Understanding by Design

Understanding by Design is a major initiative in the SAU 70 schools this year.

Understanding by Design (UbD) is a framework for improving student achievement. Emphasizing the teacher's critical role as a designer of student learning, UbD works within the standards-driven curriculum to help teachers clarify learning goals, devise revealing assessments of student understanding, and craft effective and engaging learning activities.

Developed by nationally recognized educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, and published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), Understanding by Design is based on the following key ideas:

• A primary goal of education should be the development and deepening of student understanding.
• Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are provided with complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess. When applied to complex tasks, these "six facets" provide a conceptual lens through which teachers can better assess student understanding.
• Effective curriculum development reflects a three-stage design process called "backward design."
• Student and school performance gains are achieved through regular reviews of results (achievement data and student work) followed by targeted adjustments to curriculum and instruction. Teachers become most effective when they seek feedback from students and their peers and use that feedback to adjust approaches to design and teaching.
• Teachers, schools, and districts benefit by "working smarter" through the collaborative design, sharing, and peer review of units of study.

Allison Zmuda, an ASCD faculty member, presented a workshop for all SAU 70 faculty members October 14, 2011. Below are some of her presentation materials and a template in Word and Pages format that faculty members can use.

• Allison Zmuda's presentation October 14, 2011 (PowerPoint)
• Examples of Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions
• Samples of SAU 70 Teaching Units using UbD
• Template to use for setting up units (in Word format)
• Template to use for setting up units (in Pages format)

Workshop on Essential Questions (Nov. 2, 2011)

Link to Allison Zmuda's PowerPoint on Essential Questions

 

Page updated 11/3/11